Letters To The Author
Strong Women
Dear Author: Within the novel Vanity Fair, we see that Rebecca Sharp’s character is seen as strong in society. This is strange compared to society back during their time because women were supposed to follow the husbands and keep quiet. However, this is not the case in today’s society. In an article in the recent-released April issue of Vanity Fair magazine, creators rated the top 17 strongest women in the world. Such women included, Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama. This is a connection to Becky’s character because she portrays strong women in society. |
Societal Views
Dear Author: Societal views are very evident within Vanity Fair. Rebecca always wanted to reach that level of upper society, while Amelia Sedley hit rock bottom by losing all she had. An article in the December 2007 edition of the Vanity Fair magazine talked about how much parents pay to put their children in private school. This connection between the novel and the magazine comes when Rebecca does whatever she can to be at the top of society. These parents were willing to pay as much as they had to have their children in the best education possible. |
Influences
Dear Author: The idea of the Vanity Fair magazine has been influenced by the novel itself, hence the name of the titles. In the article, Vanity Fair: The Early Years: 1914-1936, the ideas of the magazine are released to the readers of how it all came together. The creator said. “Your magazine should cover things people talk about...parties, the arts, sports, theatre, humor, and so forth” (Collins). This is an exact parallel to the society of the novel. The upper society talk about what is going on in the world both good and bad. This whole idea of the connections and the article of the magazine are relatable to life itself. Today, we find and read interesting topics to know what is going on in our world. Ads
Dear Author: Many ads in the magazine Vanity Fair are for very expensive items. The magazine is designed to be for only upper class or rich people. The magazine does not and would never display ads for stores such as Walmart, Target, or any store that could be considered “cheap.’ This relates to the novel Vanity Fair because only rich and high-class people are displayed in the book. The ads in the magazine are usually of products that are not necessary to everyday life such as purses, diamond watches, jewelry etc. They are just extra accessories that only rich people can afford to buy. These expensive products would be the types of things Rebecca Sharp would buy. She would steal money from other people by tricking them and then go buy useless items for herself. Entitlement Dear Author: One quote particularly stood out to me in the December 2013 edition of Vanity Fair. It was "Self-centeredness can breed a sense of entitlement" (Gross 114). This relates DIRECTLY to the book Vanity Fair because everyone who is full of themselves does feel like they deserve more than they have. They can never get enough, although they feel like it should be theirs already. It's such a ridiculous concept.... Odd Women Dear Author: When looking through the featured covers over the past 100 years, one stood out to me in particular. It was under the Jazz Age section and was a photo of a woman with a sheer lace veil over her eyes, with her dark eyes peering through. It struck me as a beautiful photograph right away. It showed her strength and determination through the photograph. In that issue was an article entitled “Are Odd Women Really Odd? Or Is It Merely That We Are Odd For Thinking Them So?” The article is about women who did not fit into society’s mold of a poised and proper woman. Characteristics such as “Obedience, self-sacrifice, beauty, fidelity, tenderness, and affection (Strunsky),” were used to describe a normal woman. Reading on, the article gave a blunt statement on what the true role of a woman was depicted to be at the time, the statement read as such, “Her function was to breed children and to amuse men (Strunsky).” I think that the model on the cover was meant to depict the “odd woman.” This view of an odd woman links back to Becky’s character in Vanity Fair. She is independent and knows that to get somewhere in the world, she has to work for it. She may not always do it in the most moral way, but she is strong enough to know she has to do it. |
Women Beauty
Dear Author: The models on the cover of Vanity Fair are always very rich a famous women. Not to mention that they are also beautiful and skinny. The creators of Vanity Fair would not allow a poor or unattractive person to ever represent their magazine. This might ruin their reputation of being “fancy.” The connection between the models in the magazine and the women in the novel Vanity Fair is that women in the novel are judged mainly on outward appearance. Beauty and fashion were everything to the rich people in this time period. Women were made to be beautiful, so that they would be competition to other women in the marriage market. The magazine seems to worship these women on the covers, even though a lot of the time the beauty you see is only fake. While in the novel Vanity Fair Thackeray mocks high class society and points out all of its' flaws. Today many people still judge others by their outward appearance. Wealth
Dear Author: I think it is really interesting how in the magazine, people are praised for what extravagances they spend their money on, whereas in the of society, they would be considered wasteful. The December 2013 edition of Vanity Fair describes how Eugenio Lopez collects obscure, expensive art for no reason whatsoever, other than that it entertains him to do this. This is what the characters of the book Vanity Fair try to do. They strive to have so much money they can waste it on things they do not even want Success Dear Author: I find it extremely interesting that in today's society, especially that aspect exemplified by Vanity Fair the magazine, success is defined by one's talent. Back when the book was written, it was all about family connections and money. While those are still influential today, talent and personality are what get movie stars, performers, along with politicians and others to the top. I'm glad society has adopted these new aspects of success. Fashion Dear Author: In the magazine, we see models that are dressed in clothing that we may often times find unusual. The reason we see it like this is because in our societal class, which I might consider to be middle, we do not dress like this. It is a more couture look that we may not always understand. But, in the higher class, the clothing is very beautiful. In Thackeray’s novel, Vanity Fair, fashion is often a symbol of the amount of wealth that a person had. For example, Jos Sedley dresses in clothing that fits too tight and made in bright obnoxious fabrics. Although this would seem weird to those around him who cannot afford to have their clothes made too tight because they need to last for a long time and have their clothes made from the cheapest fabric available. Fashion has always been interpreted differently by different classes and I assume that it always will be. |