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The Midwife's Parentice Analysis

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Historical Fiction Novel Analysis The novel The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman is about a 13 year old girl called Brat who has not found her place in society until she meets Jane the Midwife. Brat undergoes several identity changes when she changes her name from Brat to Beetle then eventually to Alyce. This novel is set in a small village in England during the 14th century. Brat was accustomed to the lifestyle of sleeping in dung heaps and traveling on foot from village to village begging for her next meal. While begging she encounters the Jane the Midwife. She is surprised to get the response, “Those who don’t work don’t eat” (Cushman 4). To this Brat responds, “I will work, Mistress. I am stronger and smarter than I seem” (4). This is how Brat became Alyce the apprentice to Jane the Midwife. Karen Cushman’s The Midwife’s Apprentice accurately portrays the relationship between a midwife and her apprentice and the technology and methods used by a midwife in medieval England. Often, midwives did not treat their apprentices with respect. Midwifery was a craft involved in the guild system. Within guilds there are superior positions and inferior positions. In this case, the midwife Jane holds a superior position over her apprentice Alyce. Towards the beginning of the novel Cushman writes, “Beetle waited outside while …show more content…

Both the relation between a superior midwife and her inferior apprentice and the use of humors and herbs in medical practice were accurate in Cushman’s novel. Midwives treated their apprentices with no respect because the apprentices were there just to learn, not to make a profit. The technology used by Jane the Midwife was confirmed by several sources; both primary and secondary sources. It appears that before writing her novel, Cushman did her research to provide readers with the most accurate information about 14th century

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