Myth

In the movie “The Village” the myth upon which town is organized is that there are monsters in the forest that are called “Those we do not speak of.” The villagers believe that these monsters are meat eaters and the color red attracts them, while the color yellow repels them. A sign that the monsters have entered the village is a red slash across every door they try to enter. The function of this myth is to control the villagers. The villagers will not enter the forest surrounding their town because there is a ”Treaty” that says if the villagers stay on their territory, “those we do not speak of” will stay on theirs. As a result, the villagers can never leave the village.

This myth was created with the sole purpose of preventing the villagers from entering the forest and ever leaving the village. It can be assumed that the creators of the myth believed that they were protecting the people of the village from the harms of the outside world.

Like in the movie “The Village” many real cultural myths are created by people who thought it would better society. For instance, one myths that has gotten national recognition is “The secret”. This myth states that, if you have positive thinking, positive things will happen to you. Many people now live their lives by this myth in the hopes that they will get rich and all their dreams will come true.

What makes a myth works is fear of the consequences. Fear is an emotion that can control people. For those who believe in the myth, the consequence of not following the myth scares them. In the movie the consequence of not following the “treaty” was death. In the real world the assumed consequence of not believing in the myth of the secret is a life filled with misery. This fear makes large amount of people follow the myth

R.D Laing/The Yellow Wallpaper

R.D Laing has an impeccable insight on the world of schizophrenia, after suffering from it during periods of his adult life. This primary knowledge of the mind of a schizophrenic and the mind without this illness makes his insight very valuable and unique. “He also had gained, from his own experience, a sense of the kind of situations in family, school, etc., that could drive a person crazy,” (R. D. Laing; Summary of Important Concepts) In the short story The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The main character, is driven to insanity due to the expectations stemming from her gender, and the powerful institution of marriage.

As a married woman there were expectations placed upon her. For example, she was not to be career oriented but simply accept her role as a wife and mother. This entailed entertaining guests, taking care of the house, her husband, her child and most importantly never question or go against her husband’s order. This institution of marriage placed sole control of her, in her husband’s hand. These expectations may not have coincided with the narrator’s true identity. Thus began her struggle between her true self and the self she created in order to please society.

Laing believed that when an individual is faced with making the decision of living his or her life through an identity given to him or her by a parental figure, or living his or her life through his or her own identity, this individual can go crazy;

This is analogous to being inside a tunnel which represents what are normally considered "sane" thoughts, actions, and feelings, finding that moving in either direction leads to painful experiences (giving up self, or giving up the other), and in response breaking through the ceiling of the tunnel into what is considered insanity,” (R. D. Laing; Summary of Important Concepts).

The individual finds no true peace in either of the alternatives; as a result the individual is locked in a constant struggle to pick an identity. The physical result is what society will call insanity. In the case of the main character of The Yellow Wallpaper she called it nervousness. It was obvious that she wanted nothing more than to please her husband and do her duty that the institution of marriage expected of her. She states;

“It does weigh on me so not to do my duty in any way! I meant to be such a help to John, such a real rest and comfort, and here I am a comparative burden already! Nobody would believe what an effort it is to do what little I am able,--to dress and entertain, and order things. It is fortunate Mary is so good with the baby. Such a dear baby! And yet I cannot be with him, it makes me so nervous,”(The Yellow Wallpaper).

The narrator’s true self felt trapped. As a result she created a manifestation of her feelings in what she called the woman in the yellow wallpaper. The yellow wallpaper is significant because it has such a feminine look to it. From this it can be inferred that the yellow wallpaper symbolizes femininity. The institution of marriage traps her solely because she is a woman. In Laing writing about mapping he states that;

“A person "maps" some accepted social definition of reality onto his or her experience and then acts as if that map reflects his or her experience. Or else feels terribly oppressed and unseen, if the personal experience is very different from the "mapped" pseudo-experience,”(R. D. Laing; Summary of Important Concepts).

Powerful institutions of power maps out what is considered accepted behavior. It can be argued that while the narrator’s husband is controlling he is behaving the way that he is mapped to behave as a husband. In his reality he is supposed to be controlling because his wife is inferior and not able to make decisions without his help. The narrator herself is unable to completely accept societies mapping. Which leads to her feeling trapped and oppressed and eventually leads to her insanity.

Laing states in The situation has to be discovered that “We can never assume that the people in the situation know what the situation is. There is no a priori reason to believe or disbelieve a story anyone tells us. Different people usually have different stories about a situation,” (R. D. Laing; Summary of Important Concepts).

This was depicted in by Charlotte Perkins Gilman short story. The narrator did not truly believe anything was wrong with her. When she started to see a woman trapped in the wallpaper, she did not mentally understand the extent of her illness. By the end of the short story she “freed” the woman in the wallpaper thus falling completely to insanity. The narrator states,“I've got out at last," said I, "in spite of you and Jane. And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!" (The Yellow Wallpaper) The narrator is Jane. This quote depicts the insanity that the institution of marriage pushed the narrator to. She could not accept the identity that society wanted her to take and by accepting her true identity she would be hurting those she cares for. Her divided self eventually caused her to go crazy.

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.