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The Midwife

            The Midwife's Apprentice is written by Karen Cushman. The setting takes place in the past nearly five hundred years ago from now. It is also a fiction book.
             Alyce formerly known as Beetle or Dung Beetle has found a home in a village with a Midwife who feeds her only morsels of what hard work she does. But before that the tale of how she was found must be told.
             Beetle found herself snug as a bug in a dung heap. She slept for warmth, completely dismissing the horrid smell of it. Then a sharp question asked "You girl. Are you alive or dead?" she promptly opened her eyes and was taken in after tell the woman she could do hard work and not eat much. So that's how she ended up as where she is.
             Well the midwife didn't really treat her as an apprentice for she spoke unkindly and forbid that Alyce would ever see what she was helping women do. But Alyce did! And how horrible it was, the Midwife would scream, curse and slap the poor women until they could take no more and push out the baby.
             Once the midwife was not there and Alyce had to help the woman with the baby. She told the husband to brew whatever was needed to help her. Then she began talking to her softly and soothing her till the baby came out into the world when it was almost certain that it would not make it. When the midwife got there she was thoroughly mad. The husband of the wife said Alyce was more kind and efficient and that the midwife was no good.
             In the end she fled to a small inn near the village where she saved another baby. She returned feeling she was up the challenge of the mean midwife. So she returned to the cottage saying she could care for babies and nurse and be a good midwife apprentice. The midwife asked if that was it and she said yes so the midwife didn't want her. But then she knocked again and said she was a hard worker and would learn fast remembering why the midwife took her in.
            


Essays Related to The Midwife

1. The Midwife's Apprentice

The Midwife's Apprentice Alyce was no one but "Dung Beetle" to the world, a homeless young girl in medieval England. Then, a midwife named Jane Sharp found her sleeping in the cold and called the young girl to be her apprentice. Soon, Alyce learned more about the life of a midwife, in time able to deliver a baby by herself. ... Most of any medieval midwife's knowledge of delivering a child centered upon herbs. ... Another important part of being a midwife during that time was the belief in superstitions. ...

  • Word Count: 489
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

2. A midwife's tale

Analysis of The Midwife's Tale Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's book The Midwife's Tale was based the writings of Martha Ballard, a midwife in the late 1700s through the early 1800s who started a dairy of her daily journey's ranging from January 1, 1785 thru May 8, 1812. ... Midwifes in this day in time were constantly competing with doctors over the municipal purposes of their services. ... Midwifes were called in 24/7 to deliver babies and help cure minor illnesses for the people who could not afford doctors. ... Historian's could look back and see Martha's journe...

  • Word Count: 1410
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3. Middle Ages

Not all novels are light entertainment and this is known to be quite obvious from the text The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman. ... Jane The Midwife in the novel shows this when she says, " Up, beetle, and to the cottage for cowslip, mugwort and pepper. ... Many morals and messages are mentioned in the book The Midwifes Apprentice. ... Alyce from the text The Midwifes Apprentice shows this trait when she asks for her job back as the apprentice for the midwife. Alyce tells her that she knows excellent things now but the midwife says is that all you know and sends her away but Alyce c...

  • Word Count: 784
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

4. bonds of womanhood

However, when one examines other sources, such as "A Midwife's Tale", it seems as if Cott is missing an important part of the puzzle regarding gender history and women's issues. ... The film "A Midwife's Tale" also addresses the gender issues of the period from 1790 to 1840. This film is shot documentary style and is based on the diary of a midwife living in the 1780's. This movie is an adaptation of the book A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812, by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. ... "A Midwife's Tale" is an appropriate answer t...

  • Word Count: 500
  • Approx Pages: 2

5. Review of A Midwife's Tale

In Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's book, A Midwife's Tale, the author analyzes the diary of Martha Ballard, a woman who lived through this evolving time period. ... In Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's book, A Midwife's Tale, she explores the life of Martha Ballard and studies the thoughts of a person living through this era. ...

  • Word Count: 932
  • Approx Pages: 4
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6. Some clouds have a golden lining

The elderly midwife snarled at the terrified student nurse, it's a double breech, get your knees on that bed and throw yourself across her chest and hold her down for God sake! ... You have a son the midwife, I thought, proclaimed as the nurse peeled herself off my saturated body. ... Stabbed at the nightmarish images, eye blurred and reluctant to open, tried hard now to focus on the midwife holding something too close to my face. ... Repeated the elderly midwife. ... Announcing only the wise words of the midwife regarding the storks nip birthmark. ...

  • Word Count: 1307
  • Approx Pages: 5
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7. Eugene Smith

The photo essays on Country Doctor, Nurse Midwife and Albert Schweitzer portrays the willingness of healers to help others when they"re patients are at their weakest. ... In 1951, he captured a story of a strong, black woman working as a midwife in the rural south in a poor community. That story was titled, Nurse Midwife and by shooting this story, he sought to "make a very strong point about racism, by simply showing a remarkable woman doing a remarkable job in an impossible situation" and he managed to capture her feelings and emotions that caused his viewers to react. ...

  • Word Count: 647
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

8. Socrates and Wisdom

Socrates believed a truly wise person would engage in these mere five steps (self-examination, becoming a gadfly, a midwife, leading a virtuous life, and indulging in a passion for ALL knowledge) and then and only then would one lead a truly good and healthy life. ... Me, Teela Brown, represents a lot of things in one, like many, but if I can change the mind, or open a mind better yet, for a once closed one, and be there throughout the process then that gadfly and midwife step is off to a good start. ...

  • Word Count: 397
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

9. The Role of Relationships in The Book of Negroes

She teaches Aminata some English, how to work around the plantation, how to act around white men and secrets about being a midwife. ... She uses Georgias teachings later in the novel to start her own midwife business that serves her well. ... The Lindos treat her well: they teach her how to write, get her a midwife business and help her manage money. ...

  • Word Count: 859
  • Approx Pages: 3
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