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.

Ragged Dick

Religion plays a different role between little boys and little girls. Ellen was constantly being encouraged to rely on God, believe in God, do His will. It was expected of her, just as it is expected for the little girls in 19th century literature to accept God and religion and do no harm or sin.

However, the role of religion with little boys is quite different. Ragged Dick didn’t even know what a bible really was, only that there was a “Bible house” with “a big pile of ‘em” (303). He was not expected to rely on God or believe in God or do His will. Instead he is to be independent and rely on himself in order to be successful in life.

Why is this so different? I mean, when I was young my brother and I were both taught about church, Jesus, God and His love and that we should try our best not to sin? However, I have noticed in recent years that I am expected to be at church with my mom but my brother has a choice as to whether or not he wants to go. Why are the girls taught and demanded to attend church and the boys essentially have the choice? I have always wondered this.

It does not surprise me that Dick did not rely on God or that he did not know what a Bible was, it wasn’t expected in this sort of literature and time period.

A Whisper in the Dark

Before insanity was brought into the picture, the text was more of a crazy, upside down love affair with many hidden messages and trickery. Now it is completely opposite in that we are slowing watching (reading) as Sybil slips deeper and deeper into a psychotic state. She is slowly going mad and not only do we know it as readers but she does as well. We as readers can “see” her thoughts as she feels as though her “health was going, [her] mind growing confused and weak; [her] thoughts wandered vaguely, memory began to fail, and idiocy or madness seemed [her] inevitable fate…” (pg 241).

Originally, because Sybil was manipulative and “coquettish” (pg 219), I believed her to be a brat who thought she could get away from everything and that if bad things happened to her, then she deserved it; “you get what you ask for.” However, as I was reading into Sybil’s mind, I kept thinking about my Psychiatric and Mental Health nursing class and my perception of her changed from a negative one to that of empathy for a young girl forced into a situation where she was slowly going mad. She tried to fight it at first by trying to escape over “a high wall [that] enclosed [the garden] on every side” (pg 239). She got caught again and her “spirit was crushed, [her] strength gone, [and her] freedom lost” (pg 239). Sybil’s “hope died” (pg 242) as she went through this struggle to maintain her sanity.

As for the mother/daughter relationship, it was not what I expected. They were connected in a way that was, what I believe, the truest and strongest bond between a mother and her daughter. Sybil thought her mother to be dead when in fact she was only one floor away from her in the same building. Her mother died trying to save her by leaving her messages in the dog’s collar and whispering “Find it! For God’s sake find it before it is too late!...The dog—a lock of hair—there is yet time” (pg 243). Even thought they never really met or created the kind of relationship expected by this time period, the unspoken bond of love between them was very evident.

The Hidden Hand

We have talked about the innocence of children and how that innocence can be related to God and His son when He said, “let the little children come to me”. This struck out to me in the text on page 179 when Old Hurricane first found out that the “newsboy, [his] saucy little prince of patches” was in fact actually Capitola who dressed as a boy in order to succeed in finding work to earn money for food. Old Hurricane, under his violent and stubborn exterior actually feels for her when she looked at him and her expression “appealed to the rugged heart of the old man.” We are taught that children are the innocence of life and are to be protected at all costs. Well, Old Hurricane definitely puts his protection in action when he defends Capitola saying that the Recorder that a young girl dressed any way should be treated “with the delicacy due to womanhood…and the tenderness owed to childhood…for she is but a bit of a poor, friendless, motherless, fatherless child, lost and wandering in your great Babylon!” Old Hurricane’s defense is somewhat of showing him as a Savior. He, like Jesus, is not only defending Capitola from her persecutors because she is but an innocent girl, but also claiming her as his own, which is like when Jesus said, “let the little children come to me.” Old Hurricane becomes the protection and shelter that Capitola has been waiting for and deserves. He did not judge her, but invited her to all he had, just as God tells us in the Bible; and Old Hurricane, like God, is the Hidden Hand that helps those innocents in need.

Lamplighter

Depictions of girls. That is some concept that actually seemed to stump me. I guess I never really thought about it before. Throughout Gerty’s life in the story, Lamplighter, I felt mostly sympathy for her. She had it so rough, it was depressing that the people said she “look[ed] like a witch!” (p 81). Then True took notice of her and she became “the apple of [his] eye” (p110). Amy Pholer asked “This show is about girls being themselves, what advice would you give?” (or at least something along those lines). The girl on the video answers “Don’t think about what you have to do for people to like you, you want people to like you for who you are”. If Gerty had been asked this she may have answered differently or even oppositely given what she has been through. She has hidden herself for so long that it is all she knows. Even with True, she still seems to hide herself. Once exposed to God and religion she still is somewhat negative and resistant because she doesn’t think that the other girls should be treated fairly since she never was. It’s a constant battle within herself that she may or may not know about. This is happening with contemporary girls today also, especially since today’s society seems to value looks even more. Girls today feel as though they need to prove themselves in order to be liked and accepted. I don’t agree with it, nor would I think most people, but just as it happened in the past, it is happening now as well.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Yes, there is a lot of things about this text that go against the didactic purposes of children's literature. However, IF we look at Tom, as discussed in class, as a representation of Jesus Christ, then the hidden message is somewhat clear. Tom was the one that everyone seemed to go to for help, like Jesus Christ who said “let the little children come to me.” Tom did not discourage or encourage them in their own disobedience but instead, like Jesus Christ, he accepted them and gave them what they needed. Tom never went through the abuse from his masters. This could be seen as: he was never disobedient or disrespectful so therefore he was never punished. Tom’s obedience is seen when he is talking with his master and that ever since he “jist eight years old when ole Missis put [his master] into [his] arms, and [his master] wasn't a year old.” And the Misses said “Tom, that's to be your young Mas'r; take good care on him” (p 112). Tom’s then asks his master if he “ever broke word to [him], or gone contrary to [him], 'specially since [Tom] was a Christian?” (p 112). The message here would be that if children/people are obedient to their masters (elders, etc.) then they will not be punished. Therefore there is a didactic purpose that can be drawn from this story. Since Stowe wrote to upper class women (as mentioned in class), and since women were the main caregivers of the children, reading this could also be seen as a concept for the mothers to teach their children; the concept of obedience. This is somewhat of a far fetched idea, but I liked it and thought it to be very plausible.