Agency

Agency describes the act of presenting oneself according to social, political, government, or familial norms, whether the individual is acting within or against them. These cultural scripts and the individual's response to them collectively inform one's identity. An individual's sense of agency is complex in that no one is an agent of a singular pre-existing idea because many aspects of our lives and actions are dictated by cultural scripts whether we are aware of them or not. Rather, to draw from ideas presented by Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson in Reading Autobiography, our identities are "intersectional," meaning that our concept of self is not an additive collection of roles, it is a fabric woven of roles all effecting one another, including the roles that we assume and those that are put upon us by society.

Anne Bradstreet offers several examples of acting as an agent within and against the cultural scripts present within her life, primarily as a Puritan, a woman, a mother, and a wife. Her "Meditations Divine and Moral" is a set of rules in the form of advice addressed to her son for him to live by in order to be a good son and furthermore, a good Puritan man. In this sense she is also prodding her son to act as an agent of her morals. It is important to realize that this grouping of advice was never meant to be published. The fact that she wrote it means that she is acting as an agent of what is expected of a parent to teach a child, however, it also means that she is acting outside of the confines of the Puritan cultural script which looks down upon women who suggest in any way, whether it be textual or oral, that they have the authority to speak in such a way. 

Personal Take:

     My paternal grandmother has always been an advocate for equality in all forms, and taught me the importance of taking a stand for myself and for those who can not stand up for themselves in the name of fairness. Her focus on equality and empowerment came from a lifetime of acting against cultural scripts that discouraged women put forth by society, but within the standards put forth by her own empowered mother. Thus, according to Smith and Watson, my grandmother is one who gained agency by changing the terms of her representation. She grew up in a wealthy family as the oldest daughter of seven, and was a top ranked competitive sailor in the days where sailing was strictly a men's sport. Her accomplishments echoed that of her mother's, which included being one of the first female pilots behind Amelia Earhart, and one of the first female journalists under the pseudonym, Bobbi Burns in order to hide her gender so that she could actually get published. Furthermore, my grandmother had my father out of wedlock and raised him on her own for the first seven years of his life. It is obvious to me now as I watch her at seventy-nine still running her own business, swimming laps every morning, staying up to date on current events and technology, as well as continuing to read a new book every couple of days, that by acting against the societal norms for decades upon decades, her empowerment led to a sense of independence. I could not be more grateful to have such a strong woman to look up to nor could I be more proud to stay that I am an agent of her teachings, evident by my academic and athletic accomplishments, sense of independence and most importantly, my desire to empower others. 

- Mary Alice Miller