The Yellow Wallpaper

     The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story written by Charlotte Gilman. The story takes place in a colonial mansion rented by a couple for the summer. The wife or protagonist suffers from what the husband calls temporary nervous depression or a slight hysterical tendency. The husband is a main and static character. He is a physician who is convinced of keeping her wife away and making rest to cure her.

      The mood appears to be ironic and cynical at times. The protagonist accepts to spend her summer at the mansion, but she is convinced that more time with friends and society would help more rather than being isolated. She accepts everything her husband dictates but when she is alone she does things her way.

     The protagonist uses a first person point of view to narrate the story. She writes journal entries when her husband or her sister-in-law are not watching her. She believes that there is something weird and supernatural about the house and tries to say it to her husband, but he only laughs and dismisses her ideas. She feels controlled by her husband but powerless when she tries to change her situation. The protagonist is certain that more work instead of rest or more socialization instead of isolation could cure her, but fears her husband’s reaction. Incapable of doing anything physical she starts obsessing with the wallpaper in her bedroom. As her mental condition starts deteriorating, she focuses on liberating the woman she sees trapped in the wallpaper. At the denouement of the story, the protagonist locks herself in the room, rips the wallpaper from the walls and when the husband finally opens the door he finds her crawling and he faints at the sight.

I believe that The Yellow Wallpaper is a very interesting short story. I think it is a feminist argument that wants to prove the therapy methods for mentally ill persons of later centuries as useless. At the same time it shows female subjugation and the sometimes internal struggle to challenge it. This work demonstrates how the main character had to defy the approach of an entire society and specially to find a way to do what she believed was right while dealing with an inflexible and unsentimental husband. At the end I believe that she compared her sanity to the wallpaper and just wanted to get rid of the façade, of all those tags imposed by society and just be herself, a wall.

I Stand Here Ironing

     Tillie Olsen in her short story, I Stand Here Ironing, conveys the thoughts and memories of a mother and her relationship with her child during the Great Depression. The story is narrated by the mother in a first person point of view. The mother stands ironing while someone calls her and tries to arrange a meeting so they can discuss her daughter’s future. The mother then starts to remember how her actions and behavior shaped her oldest daughter. The story seems to take place during the 1950’s since her daughter was a child of her age, a child of depression. The story mainly describes the early years of the protagonist, Emily. She was born to a young and distracted mother and a father that left her when she was barely eight months old.

    The mood in this short story appears somber and melancholic. The mother, who serves as the narrator, while recalling her daughter’s infancy, thinks of all the ways she failed as a mother and how different she would have made her choices if she only knew more or was more experienced. I think that the prevailing conflict in this story is a man vs. circumstances conflict. There is an external context which influenced the story greatly. The mother had to work hard in times in which the country’s economy declined and then during the Second World War, very difficult and challenging times for a single mother raising a child.

 

     I liked this story but at the same time I felt a little sad and empathetic towards the characters. The mother was trying to do what she then believed was the best for her daughter. It must have been really hard on both of them to live under those circumstances and the worst is that space or distance that was created between them and know can’t be filled. Nobody might say anything about those feelings of guilt or regret but I believe that both of them feel the tension of the past events and not even time can heal something like that.  

Everyday Use

     Everyday Use is a short story written by Alice Walker. The introduction of the story’s plot is where the author presents the characters of the mother or the narrator, the protagonist which I believe is Maggie. The story has a first person point of view in which we see and feel everything through the mother’s perspective. The protagonist, Maggie, is presented as a thin, shy, young woman. Maggie is a humble and reserved girl that lives with her mother. The story takes place in the yard of the family house. There while the mother and Maggie are waiting for Dee (the older sister), the mother recalls her memories of the two girls and identifies the great differences that exist between them. Maggie has always been timid and introverted, she is not considered to be bright or quick and she lives up to the expectations of others. Dee on the other hand has always been that assertive and extroverted woman many are impressed with. Dee has education, good looks and confidence. Their mother believes that Maggie admires and envies Dee and at the same time she thinks that Dee hates Maggie.

     Dee visits her mother with the intention of acquiring some of the articles that belonged to her ancestors, this turns to be ironic because Dee only became interested in those objects after she went to school and discovered how valuable they are, while Maggie, although uneducated, has always been aware of the great importance of those articles. The mother then decides to stand up for Maggie who won’t do so for herself and put a stop to Dee who always has obtained what she wants. The theme in this story is to be yourself and be proud of who you are. Don’t always go with what is more popular, follow you own beliefs. 

    I liked Everyday Use, I believe it’s kind of amusing and many could easily relate to it. The situation that occurs in this story happens in many families, especially in families of a native background where the predominant society only sees them as something good for a museum exhibition. I believe there should be more interest in culture and heritage, they are a part of who we are and we should be proud.