On the Contrary

Essays by Men and Women

Edited by Martha Rainbolt & Janet Fleetwood

Subjects: Comparative Education
Paperback : 9780873957205, 340 pages, June 1984
Hardcover : 9780873957366, 340 pages, June 1984
Out of print (Hardcover)

Alternative formats available from:

View Table of Contents

Request Desk or Examination Copy
Request a Media Review Copy

Table of contents

Part One: FRIENDS AND LOVERS

1. CONCEPTS OF MASCULINITY
1. Alan Alda, "What Every Woman Should Know about Men"
2. Esther Vilar, "What Is Man?"

 

Suggestions For Discussion
Suggestions For Writing

 

2. CONCEPTS OF FEMININITY
1. Dorothy Sayers, "The Human-Not-Quite-Human"
2. Ring Lardner, "Some Like Them Cold"

 

Suggestions For Discussion
Suggestions For Writing

 

3. LOVE
1. Eldridge Cleaver, "Prelude to Love - Three Letters
2. Lillian Hellman, "Dashiell Hammett

 

Suggestions For Discussion
Suggestions For Writing

 

4. FRIENDSHIP
1. C. S. Lewis, "Friendship"
2. Susan Lee, "Friendship, Feminism, and Betrayal"

 

Suggestions For Discussion
Suggestions For Writing

 

5. PERSONALITY CLASHES
1. Dorothy Parker, "Good Souls"
2. Samuel Johnson, "The Good Sort of Woman"

 

Suggestions For Discussion
Suggestions For Writing

 

Part Two: YOUTH AND MATURITY

6. THE STAGES OF LIFE
1. Aristotle, "Young Men and Elderly Men"
2. Simone de Beauvoir, "Introduction" from The Coming of Age

 

Suggestions For Discussion
Suggestions For Writing

 

7. GROWING UP
1. Nora Ephron, "A Few Words about Breasts"
2. E. B. White, "Afternoon of an American Boy"

 

Suggestions For Discussion
Suggestions For Writing

 

8. RAISING CHILDREN
1. Tillie Olsen, "I Stand Here Ironing"
2. Robert Paul Smith, "Let Your Kids Alone"

 

Suggestions For Discussion
Suggestions For Writing

 

9. GROWING OLDER
1. Susan Sontag, "The Double Standard of Aging"
2. Milton Mayer, "Commencement Address: What You Will Be"

 

Suggestions For Discussion
Suggestions For Writing

 

Part Three: KNOWLEDGE AND EDUCATION

10. ATTITUDES TOWARD FORMAL EDUCATION
1. H. L. Mencken, "Education"
2. Lissa Rotundo, "One-Year-Old Scholars"

 

Suggestions For Discussion
Suggestions For Writing

 

11. MOTIVATION AND RELUCTANCE
1. Winston Churchill, "School Days"
2. Jean Kerr, "The Poet and the Peasants"

 

Suggestions For Discussion
Suggestions For Writing

 

12. THE COLLEGE ATMOSPHERE
1. Mary McCarthy, The Vassar Girl"
2. William Zinsser, "College Pressures"

 

Suggestions For Discussion
Suggestions For Writing

 

13. ULTIMATE GOALS
1. William G. Perry, Jr, "Examsmanship and the Liberal Arts: A Study in Educational Epistemology"
2. Adrienne Rich, "Taking Women Students Seriously"

 

Suggestions For Discussion
Suggestions For Writing

 

Part Four: FREEDOM AND INDIVIDUALITY

14. SOCIETY AND THE INDIVIDUAL
1. John Stuart Mill, "Of Individuality, As One of the Elements of Well-Being"
2. Ilse Aichinger, "The Bound Man"

 

Suggestions For Discussion
Suggestions For Writing

 

15. MINORITY RIGHTS
1. Martin Luther King, Jr. , "Letter from Birmingham Jail"
2. Maya Angelou, "Mama and the Dentist"

 

Suggestions For Discussion
Suggestions For Writing

 

16. PRESCRIBED ROLES
1. Brigid Brophy, "Women: Invisible Cages"
2. D. Keith Mano, "Cruel Lib"

 

Suggestions For Discussion
Suggestions For Writing

 

17. SELF-ASSERTION
1. Manuel J. Smith, "Assertive Rights"
2. Margaret Halsey, "What's Wrong with 'Me, Me, Me'"

 

Suggestions For Discussion
Suggestions For Writing

 

Part Five: SUCCESS AND FAILURE

18. AMBITION: A SKEPTICAL VIEW
1. From Ecclesiastes, King James Version and The Living Bible translation, Chapters 1-3
2. Suzanne Britt Jordan, "That Lean and Hungry Look"

 

Suggestions For Discussion
Suggestions For Writing

 

19. AMBITION: AN AFFIRMATIVE VIEW
1. Muriel Jams and Dorothy Jongeward, "Winners and Losers"
2. Joseph Epstein, "The Virtues of Ambition: Some Kind Words for Money, Fame, and Power"

 

Suggestions For Discussion
Suggestions For Writing

 

20. WEALTH AND ACQUISITION
1. Andrew Carnegie, "The Gospel of Wealth"
2. Anne Morrow Lindbergh, "Channelled Whelk"

 

Suggestions For Discussion
Suggestions For Writing

 

21. FAME AND RECOGNITION
1. Daniel J. Boorstin, "From Hero to Celebrity"
2. Diana Trilling, "The Death of Marilyn Monroe"

 

Suggestions For Discussion
Suggestions For Writing

 

22. SELF-FULFILLMENT
1. Ellen Goodman, "Such Empty Options"
2. John Ciardi, "Is Everybody Happy?"

 

Suggestions For Discussion
Suggestions For Writing

 

23. BARRIERS TO SUCCESS
1. Loren Eiseley, "Obituary of a Bone Hunter"
2. Virginia Woolf, "Professions for Women"

 

Suggestions For Discussion
Suggestions For Writing

 

Appendix: ESSAYS ON THE WRITING PROCESS

1. Joan Didion, "On Keeping a Notebook"
2. Ursula LeGuin, "Fifteen Vultures, the Strop, and the Old Lady"
3. Jacques Barzun, "A Writer's Discipline"
4. Gail Godwin, "The Watcher at the Gates"
5. Richard Mitchell, "The Worm in the Brain"
6. Walker Gibson, "Hearing Voices: Tough Talk, Sweet Talk, Stuffy Talk"

Notes on Contributors

Description

On The Contrary contains a balance of writings by men and women. The essays are presented in pairs, a man and a woman writing on each topic. This balanced juxtaposition allows students to discuss, think, and write about changing roles and relationships without being forced into either a feminist or traditionalist party line. The essays in each section reverberate suggestively with each other and this effect is reinforced by the discussion questions, writing topics, and introductory material.

An additional table of contents arranges the essays according to rhetorical rubrics.

Reviews

"Rather than focusing on chimerical 'modes', the selections—as pairs—provide two often startlingly related perspectives. It would be fun to help students bounce Ecclesiastes off Suzanne Britt Jordan, or Goodman off Ciardi, or Steinem off Mano. And the 'bouncing' would not be only conceptual, but rhetorical and stylistic as well. Most everything shows up: the rolling power of the King James, Newsweekese, Morrow Lindbergh's extended metaphor, Mencken's wicked bite. A field day for us who love purpose, audience, and persona. " — Stephen M. North