HW 24: A Place to Work

Response to chapters 5 and 6 of Virginia Woolf:
Do I have a room of my own?

The answer to this question is yes. In my room I have a choice. Most of Woolf's book is about women not having a choice. In chapter 5 Mary expresses that when she has a room of her own that is when she will succeed. This is what will give her, her big break for becoming a poet. A room of your own is your place of reflection. When I need time to reflect and think and just not talk to anyone. I use the gym as my safe haven. This is where I can do things to benefit my self without having to deal with anything from the outside world. I think that is what Woolf is describing as a room of her own. In the real world there are so many distractions that it is so impossible to just think. Everyone needs time to think. The gym allows me to do that for as long as I want. The gym also allows me to not think. Which is just as important as reflection sometimes you just need to give your mind a rest. The best quote that I can associate with my break from thinking, was Woolf's wandering thoughts. "But, alas, I had done what I had determined not to do; I had slipped unthinkingly into praise of my own sex. " (Woolf pg.85) I could not find a quote that expressed greater association as to what I perceived a room of my own to be. Everyone needs a place where they can simply just hide. "I am talking of the common life which is the real life and not the separate lives which we live as individuals -and have five hundred a year each of us and rooms of our own;if w have the habit of freedom and the courage to write exactly what we think;if we escape a little from the common sitting room and see human beings not always in their relationships to each other but in relation to reality."(Woolf pg.113-114) This quote really made me think. We as human beings both man and women have the right to think whatever we want. Wherever we want as well. I deciphered this quote as taking a break from thinking about the troubles of life, and just think.