The Yellow Wallpaper

Gilman seems to be trying to point out the differences in how gender plays a role in regards to intellect. We already know that men in the time period are seen almost as a higher status, the breadwinner, the intelligent decision-maker of the household. Women on the other hand are seen as a lower status, a housewife who is in charge of the cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children; a.k.a. ignorant when it comes to making decisions regarding almost anything.

Gilman portrays John as an unlikable character who treats his wife like “little girl” (p 360) instead of his wife. In a way, John could be compared to the wallpaper holding the woman away like he holds his wife pretty much captive in the house because she is “sick”. Since she did not follow the norms of being a mother (post-partum depression), she is not only seen as a woman in a lower status but now she is seen as ignorant because she is not able to take care of their child because “it makes [her] so nervous” (p 357). When the woman in the wallpaper/the wife is finally freed, this could be seen as Gilman’s writing to affect a change in a way that forces those in society reading this text to see how women are thought of as ignorant or not as intellectual as men. The change of course would be that she is encouraging that women pick themselves up and do something about it.

In Alcott’s A Whisper in the Dark, Sybil and her mother are held captive (like the wife and woman in the wallpaper) by men (like John) for no other reason than the convenience of not having to deal with the women because the men are the intellects and know how to handle things and don’t need the women around. Alcott’s message could be taken the same way as Gilman’s. Women are being encouraged to speak up for themselves and not let women be labeled as ignorant beings who should follow their husband’s, brother’s, guardian’s, etc, command without giving thought to it first.

Boyhood

I think there was a valid point made in class regarding Tom Sawyer vs Ragged Dick. I had said from the beginning that I did not like Ragged Dick and thought he was a brat because he was boastful and rude (or at least I thought) toward Johnny when he said, for example, about his new clothes that he got from Frank. He told Johnny that he “lent [his] clothes to a young feller as was goin’ to a party, and didn’t have non fit to wear, and do [he] put on [his] second best for a change” (p285).

Tom Sawyer I liked just because I think he is an adorable little boy and that he is smart. I think I like him a lot more mostly because I knew him (the story) from earlier years. Tom’s whole stunt with the fence whitewashing, I totally loved it! When I first read this in previous years I thought it was genius! I did this with my brother and the dishes…until of course he got old enough to figure it out. Tom just learned that “in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is necessary to make the thing difficult to attain” (p330-331).
Now, of course I am sure there are some that see what I am writing and think its crazy that I can like one boy that pulls jokes on his friends and call it genius and not like the other who is just playing a joke on his friend. I think though a point was made in class that Dick is the way he is because he was raised in the city and he has to do things in order to survive. While I commend him for that, I don’t like the way he handles him self, like when he scared the apple lady with the taxes issue. Tom however, is a country boy and does not have to earn his living or live on the streets, he plays jokes because he is just a kid playing jokes. All little boys play jokes on each other. I just happen to like the way that Tom handles himself better than I like the way Dick handled himself.