Reading Response to "The Yellow Wallpaper"

In The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman the reader is introduced to the narrator who has a “nervous depression”. As a result, her husband, who is a doctor, takes control of her life. He tells her what she can do and when she can do it. He monitors her closely with the help of her sister. Throughout the short story it is obvious that the narrator feels trapped by her husband, which is why I believe the most important passage in this short story is when the narrator states:

I really have discovered something at last Through watching so much at night, when it changes so, I have finally found The front pattern does move--and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it! Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over. Then in the very bright spots she keeps still, and in the very shady spots she just takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard. And she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb through that pattern--it strangles so; I think that is why it has so many heads. They get through, and then the pattern strangles them off and turns them upside down, and makes their eyes white! If those heads were covered or taken off it would not be half so bad (The Yellow Wallpaper).

Obviously there is not a real woman trapped behind the wallpaper. It can be inferred that the trapped woman behind the wallpaper is a manifestation of the author’s imagination. This manifestation depicts what the author truly feels. She feels trapped and oppressed by her husband. The narrator is unable to do anything without his permission. The woman trapped behind the yellow wallpaper struggles to get out but she cannot. Likewise, the narrator tries to convince her husband to take her from the house and he refuses to take her away.

It later states that the woman in the wallpaper “… crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over. Then in the very bright spots she keeps still, and in the very shady spots she just takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard,”(The Yellow Paper). In this sentence the bright and dark symbolizes control and freedom. The bright spot represents morning or daytime in which the narrator’s husband take full control of her. He sets her routines, and keeps a close watch on her. But at night, in the dark, the narrator is not under complete control of her husband. In the dark she is able to take control and her imagination can roam freely without her husband telling her to stop with her fantasies. At the end of the passage it’s stated that some women get through the pattern but then the pattern strangles them off and return them to their confinement. This depicts that the narrator cannot ever attain complete freedom. This also foreshadowed what was going to happen at the end of the story.

At the end of the short story the narrator rips apart the wallpaper in an attempt to free the woman. In essence she has freed herself mentally. But just like how the wallpaper straggled the women that got through its pattern, the narrator will no doubt become physically imprisoned once her husband regains consciousness. She will never truly get complete freedom.

Reading Response to "The Story of an Hour"

In the short Story The Story of an Hour I believe the most important passage is the following “Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will--as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been. When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under the breath: "free, free, free!" The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body”-(The Story of an Hour).

This passage is the most important because it embodies one of the most important theme of this story, the oppressiveness nature of marriage on a woman and the fact that the real tragedy of this story is the fact that her husband is alive and she died. In the short story the author goes into describing the setting of the story. It becomes apparent to the reader that it is spring. Spring is known as the time of renewal of lives. Just as a bear wakes up in the spring, after months of hibernation, Louise Mallard woke up from the horrid life she was living and got joy back into her life.

The first two sentences show of this passage shows that Louise Mallard understands that the death of her husband will be seen as a tragic event. So when she feels her happiness creeping up inside of her, she tries to fight it back. But her happiness will not be detained. The next two sentences show her truly finally accepting the joy that she has been trying to hold back. The statement “free, free, free!” shows that in her marriage she was oppressed. She was not able to live out her life the way she wanted to. When she screamed “free, free, free” she is finally accepting the autonomy that her husband’s death will bring.

The last couple of sentences of the passage depicted the renewal of life in Louise’s body. Ones eyes are said to be the window to ones soul. Louise Mallard’s eyes became “keen and bright,”(The Story of an Hour) which showed that she was becoming happy again. It later states that “ Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body,”(The Story of Hour). This showed that life was flowing through her body again and she is truly now at peace.

By the end of this short story it is reveled that her husband is not dead, and she dies from a heart attack. Her death was the true tragedy. After realizing joy, happiness and autonomy she dies unable to exercise the rights that had been withheld from her.

Family as an Institution of power

A family in America can be defined as an institution of power, because of its influence it has on those in it. When you are in a family you have your dad who can be defined as you head of house hold. He controls everything that occurs in the family. Mother is the nurturer who takes care of all the emotional needs. Together the mom and dad groom their kids to carry the family name, which can be defined as a brand, the right way.

Signs

In the introduction to Barbara Ehrenreich's Bright-Sided the sign that is depicted is positive thinking. One of its concrete forms is a smile. We as Americans are so obsessed with being happy and having positive thinking that we go to extreme lengths to get it. For example, taking drugs just to get rid of any bad feelings; “Americans account for two-thirds of the global market for antidepressants, which happen also to be the most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States,” (Barbara Ehrenreich’s). Manufacturers have recognized Americans obsession with always having positive thinking, which they have, began to capitalize on it. In 2006 a book titled The Secret became a best seller due to its teaching that positive thinking can manifest itself in economic and social growth. However, the Bright-Sided introduction aims to warm Americans that too much positive thinking can be bad.

Positive thinking can become like a cloak that prevents one from seeing or preparing for downfalls. Ehrenreich’s gives numerous examples of the government over looking warning signs in an attempt to promote positive thinking. By doing so, the government can be blamed for the lost of thousands of people lives and jobs. These examples included, the dams breaking in New Orleans during hurricane Katrina, financial meltdown in 2007, and even the failure in the Iraq War. I believe that what this sign, positive thinking, says about American mass culture, is that we are a culture that does not like to be sad. We love our optimistic and positive nature, and believe its one of the reason we strive as a country. But if we as Americans do not relinquish some of our obsession with positive thinking the consequences could become even more deadly.

In “Two Cheers of Materialism”, by James Twitchell, the sign that is being depicted is materialism. The physical forms of materialism are objects that people buy. People don’t just buy these objects; they also put meanings and attach memories to them. Suddenly the one small physical object starts to mean much more. Twitchell states that “…human beings love things. In fact, to a considerable degree we live for things. In all cultures we buy things, steal things, exchange things, and horde things…Often these objects have no observable use,” (Twitchell). Twitchell points out that the American culture is based upon materialism. Twitchell states that if you ask young American teens to define democracy they will define it as the “freedom to buy anything you want.” Which is not at all wrong.

“Recall as well that freedom to shop was another way to describe the right to be served in a restaurant that provided one focus for the early civil rights movement. Go back further. It was the right to consume freely which sparked the fires of separation of this country from England. The freedom to buy what you want (even if you can't pay for it) is what most foreigners immediately spot as what they like about our culture, even though in the next breath they will understandably criticize it.”

The criticism that materialism faces is that it can cause excessive waste. People buy thing that they have no use for. People then become categorized as hoarders or shopaholics. Which can lead to financial problems, and depression. In conclusion, materialism is part of the American culture that will never be removed. It is both good and bad. The world is developing consumerists culture, and America is leading the way. We cannot get away from the materialism but we as Americans can each put an end to the waste it causes.

Love/Gin

Love like Gin can cause one to become self-destructive. Carl abused Terri under the belief that he was showing her he loved and ended up killing himself. When you drink too much you cause your body harm. Also as you drink Gin you become drunk and confused and cannot tell what’s going on. Likewise, when you are in love and have been with a person for a long time it becomes hard for you to be to see what is truly going on. You become so intoxicated with this feeling of love, that you overlook what’s right in front of you and is unable to see the truth in people’s actions.

Culture Ideology-Carver

“When are you getting married?” This is a question that many people face once they reach a certain age. It is almost as if society believes that without marriage one will inevitably become an old lady with a dozen cats or a grumpy old man that scares children for fun. So to avoid this people get married. It’s a cultural ideology that marriage is needed to fill a void or feeling off emptiness in an individual life or sustain a long lasting companionship. Without the structure of marriage one is life feeling empty, depressed and lonely. Raymond Carver explores this belief in his short stories The Beginners and Why Don't you Dance.

In The Beginners Terri described her life with her first husband. Its stated that “Terri said the man she lived with before she lived with Herb loved her so much he tried to kill her...’He dragged me around the living room by my ankles, all the while saying, ‘I love you, don’t you see? I love you, you bitch,” (The Beginners). After such a horrific experience it is surprising that that Terri would once again marry. I believe that Terri convinced herself that Carl loved her in their marriage so that she would have the courage to marry again and fill that void that leaving Carl caused.

As human beings we need companionship and it is strongly believed that marriage offers a stable companionship. Terri may not want the physical pain that her marriage to Carl gave her, but she needed to fulfill that emotional satisfaction that a marriage gave her. Unfortunately Carl had no one to fill the void that his divorce to Terri caused. He began to resent Terri for moving on with Herb. He became what society would define as “the grumpy scary old man.” Eventually the lost of the structure that marriage gave him led him to taking his own life. Terri was not the only one who had a bad first marriage; her husband Herb had a bad first marriage.

At the end of his last marriage Herb was very depressed. He had even contemplated suicide. Herb described his first wife as “A rotten bitch”. He stated that “Sometimes when I get drunk, like I am now, I think I’d like to go up there dressed like a beekeeper...and release a hive of bees in the house.” Luckily he never acts on these thoughts. One can rationalize that he did not act on these thoughts because he had Terri. Unlike Carl, Herb had someone to turn to after his first marriage ended. He was able to marry and regain that stability that society believes a marriage offers. He was able to avoid becoming hat “rotten old man”. Furthermore, Herb told a story about an old couple that almost died after a drunk driver crashed his car into their camper.

While in the hospital the old man became very depressed because he could not physically be around his wife. “He missed her something fierce. He just longed for her company, that old man did…He was out of his casts and bandages now, but he was still extremely lonely.” (The Beginner). This old man was in a marriage for over twenty years. And he had only been apart from his wife twice. In the hospital he did not have his wife next to him. Marriage offers companionship and without his wife around, the old man missed that companionship and was left feeling alone and depressed.

Herb states “excuse me for saying this—but if something happened to one of us tomorrow, I think the other one, the other partner, would mourn for a while, you know, but then the surviving party would go out and love again, have someone else soon enough and all this, all of this love…it would just be memory,” (The Beginners). Herbs description is exactly what society expects. After the death of a partner, the wife or husband is expected to grieve for a short amount of time then later find a new partner. If one does not remarry society will look upon this individual as one who cannot move on from the past. It is encouraged for people who have lost a loved one to move on and find another love companion. In Why Don't you Dance by Raymond Carver we can see the images of a man moving on after the loss of a wife.

The old man in this story has put all his furniture on the lawn and he has arranged it to look as if they are still inside his house. When a young couple that stopped began to sample the belongings it becomes apparent that the man is desperate to move on. The fact that he is selling the most intimate things that was in his marriage, namely his bed, depicts his desperation to move on. In his last act of remembrance, the old man drinks and dances with the girl. I believe that in that moment he was reliving a sacred moment of his past. While dancing with the girl the old man says “’I hope you like your bed’…the girl closed and then opened her eyes. She pushed her face into the man's shoulder. She pulled the man closer. ’You must be desperate or something,’ she said” (Why Don't you Dance). The desperation that she speaks of his is desperation to let go of the past and find someone to fill the void that has been left due to the loss of his wife.

I strongly believe that the cultural ideology that Raymond Carver tried to depict in The Beginners and Why Don't you Dance is the idea that society believes marriage is something that is needed to have a lasting companionship and to fill a void or feeling of emptiness. As a society the majority of us see marriage as a sign that we are truly living life to the fullest and are at a point of satisfaction in our respective lives. The conclusions that I believe Carver comes to is that we all need companionship so there is nothing wrong with letting go of the past and moving on to the future, and we all need companionship because sometimes it is the only thing that keeps us from being too self destructive. Marriage offers this companionship but as sure as we are that the sun will rise in the morning and set at night, we can be sure that a marriage will come to an end, either by divorce, or death and when that happens it is fine to grieve then move on.

Transgressions

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is a very riveting short story. One of the main themes of this story is the effect of following traditions blindly. Traditions are usually passed down through ones family, culture, church are any other dominant institution. In The Lottery, traditions are passed down through this culture the founders of the village created in which they believe “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon". It is a practice that leads the horrific sacrifice of one of the villagers. Throughout the story there are many signs of transgressions, which the villagers choose to disregard.

“The black box grew shabbier each year: by now it was no longer completely black but splintered badly along one side to show the original wood color, and in some places faded or stained,” (The Lottery). The black box is a symbol of how old the tradition of the lottery was. Its descriptions showed that the tradition was getting. The way in which the black box was slowly but surly falling apart, is the way in which this tradition may one day fall apart. The villagers refusal to replace the box can be interpreted as them being afraid to alter this tradition. Whether or not the villagers were aware; they did transgress from the original practice of the lottery.

For instance, instead of using chips of wood they used slips of paper. “Mr. Summers had been successful in having slips of paper substituted for the chips of wood that had been used for generations,” (The Lottery). This change is a metaphor for the village outgrowing the tradition of the lottery. With the help of Mr. Summers they decided to use slips of paper, which shows that if one person stood up and spoke out, more changes could come to this horrific ritual. Other signs of transgression shown in the story is the fact that some villages had stopped doing the lottery,

It was stated in the story that a village in the north no longer practiced the lottery. The fact that the north village had decided to forgo this tradition was a sign that the lottery is actually not necessary. It is possible to survive without this sacrifice. But the villagers are resistant to this change, especially Old man Warner. Old man Warner called the people in the north village a “Pack of crazy fools...listening to the young folks, nothing good enough for them,” (The Lottery). His comment depicts that he, like most of the villagers, are resistant to change. If anyone decides to stray away from this tradition they will be ridiculed. Old man Warner’s comment about the “young folks” shows that change is more likely to come from the younger generation than the old, because the old generation knows no other way. Despite that changes that the villagers have made and the change happening around them, the villagers refuse to stop the lottery.

Their refusal to let the tradition go shows the dangerous effects of following traditions blindly. In The Lottery the passage that most affected me was when Tesse Hutchinson’s family turned against her. It’s stated that, “Bill Hutchinson went over to his wife and forced the slip of paper out of her hand. It had a black spot on it… Bill Hutchinson held it up, and there was a stir in the crowd.” Bill Hutchinson was Tesse’s husband and he did not try to protect her. This scared me because family is suppose to protect each other, yet in this case the family so easily turned on one of their own. This passage depicted that sometimes people follow traditions so blindly that they willingly turn against the ones they love.

Tesse Hutchinson is not at all innocent. After all the years that Tesse lived in the village it can be assumed that she partook in the ritual of the lottery before.

She never questioned the tradition until her family picked the unlucky slip of paper. This shows that when it comes to heinous traditions, people do not openly question it until it affects them directly. It’s a warning to all that if people do not have the courage to stand up and fight for what is right and voice their opinion the consequences could be deadly.