The Yellow Wallpaper

Within the "Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator transitions from a state of subordination to a state of authority; finding an escape from her husband and society's dominance through utter insanity.  Throughout the story, the narrator is treated as if she were a child and is placed in a nursery to emphasize her lack of authority within society, having as little power as an infant when it comes to her relationships and her status. John, the narrator's husband, never listens to her concerns and brushes off the severity of her case, postpartum depression, because he has "more serious cases" to tend to. When the narrator wishes to discuss important matters with John, he often speaks with the most condescending tone calling her his "blessed little goose" (1686 Gilman) and he even carries her to her room and reads to her until she falls asleep one night following a disagreement.  It is not until the narrator fully loses herself (her dependable and accepting nature that all women are "supposed" to possess) that she is able to experience a sense of freedom that she lacked in her marriage.  Earlier in the story the narrator mentions how inappropriate it is for a woman to creep in the open causing her to creep in private: "It must be very embarrassing to be caught creeping by daylight...I always lock the door when I creep by daylight" (1693 Gilman). The narrator is bound to society's rules and expectations so she hides whatever society deems unpleasant because she does not want to bring to light what the rest of the world does not wish to see. At the end however, the narrator is freed from her subordinate role through her lunacy and overcomes her husband when he finds her creeping by daylight: "Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time!" (1695 Gilman).  John no longer has power over the narrator; she, on the other hand, brings to light the dire situation of her case and no longer allows him to prevent her from doing what she, not society as a whole, deems fit.

                Gilman attacks the "rest cure" within the "Yellow Wallpaper" because she believed that this treatment represented the inferiority of women during this time period. She wrote this cautionary tale not only to combat the "rest cure" but also to warn against the inevitable outcome if society did not change its view.  Gilman warns that women will eventually break free from their lesser positions in one of two ways, whether it be through society's change of heart or through madness.

Response to "Thanksgiving" by Celia Thaxter, in The Atlantic Monthly

I kind of liked Thaxter's "Thanksgiving" poem It just reminded me of "A Night Before Christmas," except there was a lot of description about nature: roses, irises, trees, and birds. She was giving thanks for all of the beautiful aspects of nature and personified the different natural wonders of the earth. It highlighted how amazing the annual cycling of the seasons are as it travels between death and rebirth year after year.  I do think it is strange when an author talks to inanimate objects and wishes for a response. I would rather admire in silence and accept that the roses do not have thoughts. I do appreciate Nature though. I think that it is often taken advantage of. As we grow older, its easy to forget and take for granted the miracles of nature. When I was a kid, I was mesmerized by nature and wanted to know all there was to know about it. As I have aged, I have also lost sight of the gloriousness of just everyday processes that flowers and trees and insects perform. Anyway, I choose this poem because it was published on my birthday, November 14, 1871. "Thanksgiving was originally published from The Atlantic Monthly, but was republished in this article from The Milwaukee. I was looking more for an actual Thanksgiving holiday story, but I have been having a very difficult time finding one, which is frustrating. However, I did like reading a poem that gave thanks to nature for everything that it does that we have the ability to sit back and enjoy.  We need to step back and "smell the roses" if you will. Another plus for the poem is it used the word gonfalons, which means a banner or pennant.

Kate Chopin's "Desiree's Baby!"

I was a little nervous about reading this short work because I was not a fan of, "The Awakening" at all in high school. It may have been that we read the novel at too young an age to really grasp the meaning and scandal, but I'm pretty sure that I got lost in the descriptions and never really put together the main plot. It was several years ago, but I distintly remember I did not like it. I was pleasantly surprised that I actually did enjoy "Desiree's Baby" a lot. It reminded me of the mini series North and South. I loved that series, but a woman within it, very light skinned, finds out that her mother was colored (she was adopted at a young age and no one knew of her past). She was married to a very cruel husband who would have killed her if he found out the truth. When her husband passed away and she was planning to marry her true love, who knew the truth and loved her anyway, she hesitated because she didn't want to place shame upon the name of her fiance. I think it is so strange that just the knowledge of "being cursed with the brand of slavery" even if one does not look like it, can make a husband fall out of love with his wife and child. Armand blames Desiree for ruining his family name, but she had no idea of her life before she was adopted. She was lucky enough in that time period to have light enough skin to pass as a white woman. The idea of slavery and thinking of a particular race so poorly, that you would send away your wife and son sickens me. And Arman is such a hypocrite. He too is of the colored race, as they called it, and just because he wanted to maintain his farce and save his reputation, he forces out the person he said he loved. Ohhhh,,,I think it just clicked for me. It wasn't Desiree that was colored but Armand was, so he blamed Desiree in order to save himself and his own reputation. What a jerk!

Edgar Allan Poe!!!!!!!

I love Edgar Allan Poe!  I really enjoy reading his works and delving into the darkness and well thought deceits of murderous beings.  I think it is interesting that the narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart,” is so adamant on defending his sanity.  By so vigorously denying that he is mad, he further proves to the reader that he is not in his right mind.  He explains that he actually liked the “Old Man” he so carefully planned to kill. The narrator is obviously crazy; I think the question is when exactly did he become mad?  Before he killed the Old Man, due to guilt and his conscience forcing him to take responsibility for the murder of the Old Man, or was it way before he actually killed him?  I think he was mad all along; why feel the need to prove that you are not crazy, if you are not crazy.  I think the narrator’s definition of madness is a little different from that of the readers.  Killing another human being is never okay, but it becomes a lot more understandable when someone, in a fit of rage, kills someone.  No deceitful planning, no murderous intentions, but rather an action that was not intended and only performed when a person saw red and lost control.  I think that it takes a crazy person to plan the murder of someone that they care about because of something as trivial as an eye.  The narrator was so careful, he did not act rashly, he could have easily talked himself out of performing the murderous deed, but he didn’t.  He was so taken aback by an “Evil Eye,” that he had to take the Old Man’s life into his own hands. This need is obviously driven by a chemical imbalance of the brain; that is not a normal response to seeing something that makes you feel uncomfortable.  I think that it’s interesting that the narrator’s “highly acute senses” drove him to murder the Old Man, and also drove him to confess.  Which makes me wonder where exactly is the narrator telling this story.  Is he in jail or an insane asylum?  I think he is probably being treated at an asylum because he is so persistent on convincing us that he is not mad. 

The writing style for “The Cask of Amontillado” is very similar to that of “The Tell-Tale Heart.” The narrator wants to get revenge on his “friend” and he deceitfully lures Fortunato, the victim, to his own grave.  The plan was well thought out and required a lot of preparation, much in the same way the murder of the Old Man was not impulsive.  I wonder what Fortunato did that wronged the narrator so.  Poe does a good job at providing hints to the motives of the narrator, such as the description of the family crest, with the motto: “Nemo me impune lacessit,” meaning, nobody attacks me with impunity.  The narrator is often a fan of revenge, but obviously takes it way too far.  The two-faced character of the narrators in both “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Cask of Amontillado” creeps me out every time.  It makes me wonder what it is people are really thinking.

Response to Young Goodman Brown

I really enjoyed Nathanial Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown,” which surprised me since I was not a huge fan of The Scarlet Letter.  I think Hawthorne does a good job at highlighting the high and fairly impossible expectations of the Puritans. Everyone sins, everyone makes mistakes; it is unreasonable to assume that people are perfect and never sin.  Most people have a desire, at some point in their lives, to break the rules a little bit, to not be practical for once, and to do something that is completely irrational.  Some people act on these desires; others do not.  Hawthorne illustrates an interesting scenario to expose the hypocrisy of Puritan society. Everyone that Goodman Brown believed would scorn the Devil, was at the meeting place deep in the woods.  The deacon, the “saintly minister,” his wife, ironically named Faith, every person that he believed was “good” and “sinless” in his society, did not live up to his expectations or to their “day-time” façade.  Every single person struggles with sin.  I guarantee that at some point in a person’s lifetime, they will succumb to peer-pressure, or give in and do the wrong thing.  The Puritan’s “pious” lifestyle is unreasonable and frankly is a farce. No one is that perfect, as Goodman Brown finds out.  It makes me wonder how well I really know the people around me.  The people whose lives from the outside may look and seem perfect,   may really just be putting on a show for the world.  I think it is extremely interesting that Goodman Brown is so appalled by the other people at the Devil’s meeting place, but fails to address the fact that he is in the fault just as much as the others. Faith tried to make him stay home, he refused. There were multiple opportunities that he could have gone home, he didn’t.  It seems even more hypocritical that Goodman Brown can return to the Puritan society and scorn and judge his neighbors, without accepting the fact that he too was tempted and succumbed to the Devil. Maybe, at the last second he tried to save his wife from the Devil and  turned away from the evil one, but he walked himself to the meeting…no one dragged him. I think that this is a huge criticism of the harsh judgments and actions associated with the Puritans.  They are quick to blame others for their sins (once other’s imperfections are exposed) but refuse to look at their own.  Maybe the reason the Puritans were so set on blaming other people and exposing their “unchristian ways”, was so that they could hide their own sins and imperfections. Now I’m rambling, but I still find the Puritan lifestyle fascinating.  

Thoughts on Thoreau

I really really liked Thoreau's style. I thoroughly enjoyed reading all that he had to say. I liked how he would take the normal, everyday occurrences of life and revert them in order to open our minds to the viewpoint of the world of an “awakened person.” Thoreau definitely has a point. We are all so caught up in getting through life as fast as possible, either looking to the future or regretting the past, at a certain point we fail to live it. I have been struggling a lot with this lately in my own life. I am a Biology and English major on the Pre-Med track, and I have very little time to really think about life in general. I am so caught up with getting through the next week, month, semester, that I don’t ever slow down to enjoy my college experience. If I am not studying I am either eating or sleeping. Just going through the motions, I haven’t taken the time to stop and “smell the roses” as it were. It’s interesting how Thoreau talks about the freeness of children and that they are the ones truly living. They get lost in their own curiosity and want to discover nature and the world by going out and exploring it. I miss that. I love that Thoreau speaks through irony. He takes a common statement and flips it around in a way that I was too lazy, distracted, or “asleep” to discover on my own: “I went to the wood because I wished to live deliberately” (892). In general, if someone goes to the wood, I would immediately think he/she wished to live in a life of solitude and relaxation. Thoreau takes a general belief and totally rearranges it, so I don’t know what to think anymore. He argues that by living far enough away from the hustle and bustle of village life, a person has the freedom to live a true life awakened. Someone surrounded by nature can learn to be one with nature with a little help from imagination. Imagination is the key to living; it is the factor that distinguishes children from adults. Requirements, expectations, obligations, strip a person of their ability to live. I love the fact that Thoreau doesn’t quote the bible, but rather alludes to Greek myths as well as Hinduism to make his points. By doing this, he is able to stand out from other authors and really focus not on the morality behind religion but rather on the different philosophies that help to explain the mysteries of life. Thoreau got me thinking. Hopefully one of these days I’ll eventually wake up.

Emerson's "Self Reliance"

This essay definitely shows the shift in ideals  from the Enlightenment to Romanticism. Emerson addresses the natural faults of human nature that are still prevalent today: the need to feel accepted, appreciated, and ultimately, to fit into the mold of society.  I can guarantee that every single teenager going through those awkward years, at one point or another, just wanted to be a part of the "cool crowd." When I switched schools in 6th grade, that is all that I wanted. You can't be an individual in middle school. No one has the luxury to be in "the midst of the crowd [and keep] with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude." In middle school, conformity is a survival tactic. Of course, as Emerson mentions, this was not the case as a child. The ideal perspective is that of the young, who are not blinded by the desires and expectations that society forces upon us, but rather expresses thoughts and actions without hesitation.  Children are not constrained by the fears of adults.  The thought of humiliation or judgment often prevents people from expressing themselves truthfully.  Emerson advises that we be true to ourselves, that we forget about the rules and regulations of society and bide by what we determine is correct. He warns his readers not to live in the past, or look to the future, but rather to live in the present.  Oftentimes, we are so caught up in past regrets and future hopes, we miss out on life itself.  Emerson also mentions that nothing is more real than perception.  It's funny, I was literally talking about this with my roommate last night.  She told me that it is not one's intent that matters, but instead how another person perceived that particular action.  What is portrayed to the world makes up reality, not necessarily your good intentions.  I like Emerson's message. All you need to do is look to yourself. There is nothing more true than the original you that must not be swayed by the judgments and opinions of others.  Unfortunately, this is definitely easier said than done.  There is a fine line between being an individual and being an outcast.  People need to find a way to be able to express themselves truthfully without pushing others away.