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Mary E. Wilkins Freeman's tales for and about children arose out of cultural constrictions formulated by a strict adherance and obediance to the Puritan values embedded in New England history. At the time she wrote these stories, New England was experiencing a population decline fuelled by massive changes in industry and farming, and the effects of war. With young, industrious men pouring out of r... More

Mary E. Wilkins Freeman's tales for and about children arose out of cultural constrictions formulated by a strict adherance and obediance to the Puritan values embedded in New England history. At the time she wrote these stories, New England was experiencing a population decline fuelled by massive changes in industry and farming, and the effects of war. With young, industrious men pouring out of rural New England, Freeman concentrated on the women and the weak men who were left behind. Role models for boys were hard to find and respectable males for girls were few. Consquently, the lines dividing the gender roles got blurred in Freeman's world and she set out to redraw the lines by redefining the roles of men and women for children. This text not only discusses the impact of such cultural and historical forces on gender in her writing, but it also catagorizes both collected and uncollected tales by grouping together the products of Freeman's gender instruction.

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