The Borden Murders by Sarah Miller is about an unsolved case in set in Fall River during 1892. It is a literary non-fiction book, the case in the book is a real story that actually happened in 1892. Andrew Borden and his wife, Abby Borden, got murdered violently by an axe. Lizzie Borden, the daughter of Andrew Borden and step daughter of Abby Borden, was accused for the murder. One reason Lizzie Borden was suspected was because she wasn’t acting womanly, the expectations of being a woman became a big central idea that showed up throughout the book. This book showed how this case affect Lizzie’s life forever, and also exposed many details about this mysterious case.
The first central idea in the book is sexism. My group and I found many evidence related to expectations set based on gender during the 1890s. Lizzie Borden, a strong and frank woman, was considered suspicious because she didn’t cry after she saw her father’s death. I made a notebook page that showed many times throughout the book where sexism played a big affect on Lizzie Borden.
Apart from sexism, there are actually several other big ideas that showed up in the book, and these big ideas all connect to each. Racism in Fall River was mainly against the Portuguese. Someone could be segregated and discriminated because of both their sex and gender. People were also making ignorant judgements when they could not find any direct evidence that prove Lizzie guilty, nor innocent. This notebook page I made on January 14 shows how big ideas that showed up in the book connects to each other, also the results they caused at the time.
After I finished the book on January 20, I looked at the cause and affects in the story that lead to the ending. Lizzie Borden was indeed, not judged as guilty, but the aftermath stayed with her for the rest of her life. The Borden case messed her life up, especially because she was the main suspect. The big idea, sexism, is one of the big effects that caused Lizzie being suspected, which then caused her life to become chaotic. A cause cause an effect, and the effect cause another effect. This notebook page shows how events relate to each other.
At last, on January 24, I began to look at the minor ideas in “The Borden Murders”: racism and classism. After taking a closer look at the informational sections in the book, we can see a lot of information about the time period and setting. The class Lizzie Borden was in was the highest class, it meant she might receive less persecution because she was rich. Lizzie also did not have any persecution related to her race. However, even though Lizzie Borden was both white and rich, both giving her power in the society, the amount of judgements she received was still tremendous.
I think “The Borden Murders” is a very engaging book. I recommend others who likes detective and history related books to read this. There are many other versions of the same case, but this book provided a lot information that are not biased and based on facts. Reading this book also helps readers to learn more about the 1890s in the United States, such as their class, clothing, expectations and law.
