The Yellow Wallpaper

In Perkins Gilman's creepy short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, many issues are addressed through the behavior of the main character. The story is about a young woman who has just given birth and is experiencing post partum stress disorder. Her husband being a doctor, has demanded that she stay locked up in this peculiar room with yellow wallpaper to get well. The actions that prevail this decision can be interpreted in many different ways. First, the wall bothers the narrator, then she starts to notice odd patterns, and near the end the wall comes alive to her. The author could be using the strange behavior to point out the mistreatment of women during this time, as we've seen in other nineteenth century texts. For instance, on page 363 the narrator says, " I always lock the door when I creep by daylight. I can't do it at night, for I know John would suspect something at once." She can't even walk around the room when John is there without him judging her. The fact that she is locked away in this room 24/7 is definitely the reason for her delirium. If her husband would allow her to be around people or get back in the swing of things by living her life, maybe she wouldn't go so crazy.

Adventures of Tom Sawyer

I was pleased about this week’s reading, Adventures of Tom Sawyer, because it's about a young boy. One thing I have noticed throughout the texts this semester, when comparing boys and girls, is that boys are much more exciting! Instead of reading three pages about picking out bibles we actually have some climax to the stories. It may be a little unfair that boys are portrayed as such fun, carefree, independent characters whereas girls are boring, modest, and rely too much on the adults around them. However, in the nineteenth century I think these stories suited each gender's role in society. Stories about boys like Tom seem to have made bigger history than stories about girls. We have all heard of Tom Sawyer, and even without reading it we can picture him as a wild child whose clever tricks get him through life as someone everyone knows and can't help love or aspire to be like. We see later depictions of characters like Tom in stories and films like Dennis the Menace. One example in Adventures of Tom Sawyer of Tom's rambunctious nature comes from page 317 when he almost gets away with skipping school to go swimming by sewing a dry collar onto his shirt, but he uses the wrong thread and Sid rats him out. Tom states, "She'd never noticed if it hadn't been for Sid. Confound it!" then goes on to say "But I bet you I'll lam Sid for that. I'll learn him!" Tom truly does act like a little menace, but since he's a young boy it’s expected so the audience loves him for it.

The Yares of the Black Mountains

What stood out to me the most in Rebecca Harding Davis's The Yares of the Black Mountains were the references to nature and religion. As I will discuss tomorrow in my lead respondent, I discovered a strong parallelism between the mention of the environment and the mention of God. Between pages 254-256 lots of imagery is used to describe the scenery of the beautiful Southern Appalachian Mountains. The widow, who is from New York is not used to such beauty and clarity in the environment. She begins comparing her relationship to nature to her relationship with God. On page 255 Davis writes, "She did not know the name of  plant or tree or bird, but she felt the friendliness and welcome of the hills, just as she used to comforted and lifted nearer to God by distant church music, although she could not hear a word of the hymn." Here I can see the unknown of nature compared to the unknown of religion. The widow doesn't know much about the environment because she has not seen much of it but she is moved by what she feels. Similar to how she feels about God, she mentions that even though she couldn't hear the words of the hymns she was still moved by it. It's obvious that she finds hope and comfort in nature, also that she views it as powerful, which is why she is bringing her only son, all she has left, to the mountains to be cured from his illness.

There are many more significant references throughout the story, but you will have to stay tuned until tomorrow to hear the rest!!!

Ragged Dick

The representations of young girls in nineteenth century literature are the complete opposite of young boys.  As we’ve seen in our previous readings this semester, young girls tend to inherit the same qualities as their mothers. Usually this entails being neat, proper, polite, innocent, religious, and all things deemed appropriate. In Horatio Alger’s, Ragged Dick, we see a young boy as the main character for the first time. Dick is a fourteen year old boy living on the streets of New York as A “Boot Black” AKA a vagabond. Although he lives a lifestyle that was very much frowned upon by people of that time period, Dick finds a way to win over the hearts of everyone he meets. Alger even considers Dick a hero at some points in the story. As he states on page 258, "He was above doing anything mean or dishonorable. He would not steal cheat, or cheat, or impose upon younger boys, but was frank and straight-forward, manly and self reliant." Here, Alger is glorifying all of Ragged Dick's valuable qualities. The fact that this representation of a homeless boy who is irresponsible can be seen as a hero is proof that standards for men were not as high as they were for women in the nineteenth century. Young boys did not have as many obligations as young girls did when it came to reputations and expectations. I'm sure the boy's opinion about this time period, looking back, would be much different than the girls. For instance, on of the female characters we read about would probably remember this time as a time of discipline, instruction, and working towards eventually getting married and becoming a housewife. Ragged Dick would probably look back and think, "Oh I was such a young independent boy, I learned so much from the streets, ahhh the good old days."

The Whisperer in the Dark

In the beginning, “A Whisper in the Dark” seems to follow basically the same premise of the other texts we’ve read in class; we are introduced to a young girl facing some sort of family struggle. As the story goes on, however, it takes some ugly, twisted turns. Each of the characters: Sybil, Guy, and the creepy uncle, all seem to have some sort of personal issues. As we discussed in class, Sybil and her uncle have a strange relationship, as do Sybil and Guy, this and the ordeal with the money scandal makes things even more difficult. To top this complicated situation, Sybil’s uncle has her put away in a mental asylum for refusing to marry him. As stated by Sybil in the text when she realizes what her uncle has done, “for my uncle’s inexplicable movements filled me with alarm.” (Page 239.) From this point on, the story has a very dark feel to it. We see Sybil being tortured and forced into insanity from the harsh treatment she receives at the mental institution. We also see another turning point while she is detained. A woman who lives above Sybil in the institution tries reaching out to help her. Repeatedly in the night Sybil is haunted by the woman’s voice who is trying to save her and whispers “Find it! For God’s sake before it is too late!” (Page 241.) The woman even loses her life trying to save Sybil. She finally realizes what all the whispering was about when she finds the lock of hair around the dog’s neck containing the warning which reads in the last line, “I implore you to leave this house before it is too late.” (page 244.) Ultimately Sybil is saved because she obeys the note and flees at the right moment. Sybil has always had a yearning for her dead mother, and has never found a replacement to fill that void in her life, until this woman costs everything to save her. I think this was the real “coming of age” moment In Sybil’s life, realizing someone cared for her and that she was offered a second chance in life. It does seem sort of odd to picture a mental patient as a motherly figure, but I think to Sybil it is actually her mother using the woman to save her. This is definitely not our typical mother daughter relationship of the nineteenth century, but I’m sure Louisa May Alcott gained a lot of respect for portraying a more challenging idea of this type of relationship.

Capitola: Star of the Story

The Hidden Hand by E.D.E.N. Southworth is so far my favorite reading from this semester. If I was a reader living in the nineteenth century, I could definitely see myself reading this book. I fell in love with the characters and found most of them very intriguing, especially Capitola. I love the fact that she is not so needy like Ellen, and not so bitter like Gerty. As we discussed in class, Cap seems to have a bit of both personalities with her own witty mischievousness mixed in as well. Even her features give way to her sort of innocent “mischief,” as Old Hurricane notes, “mischievous dark grey eyes,” and “red, putting lips completed the character of a countenance full of fun, frolic, spirit, and courage.” I love the author’s choice of words here. They completely describe Capitola to a T. Another one of my favorite lines in the excerpt was on page 193 just after Herbert has left, Capitola remarks, "Uncle, do you know you never once asked Herbert the name of the widow you are going to befriend, and that he never told you?" She continues on after Old Hurricane suggests they write to him and ask, when she says, "No, Uncle; just for the fun of the thing, wait until he comes back, and see how long it will be and how much he will talk of them without mentioning their names!" I admire that she has such a sense of humor and wit to her after all that she has been through. Uneducated, poor, and recently come from living off the streets Cap's personality seems to out shine her. This, along with her rugged past that Old Hurricane has heard of, is probably what drew him to her so quickly. It's hard to not fall in love with Capitola, and I look forward to eventually finishing the book!

Gerty v. Anna

Adolescent girls always have and always will struggle with their own internal conflicts, I’m pretty sure it’s encoded in our DNA. However, when comparing a girl from the nineteenth century with a girl from today’s society those conflicts can be quite different, primarily due to the time difference. The nineteenth century was before the rise of Women’s rights and before women were even remotely considered comparable to a man.


Girls from the nineteenth century, were raised with the expectations of being the most proper, Christian, lady-like, chef, maid, and wife as possible. As the line in The Lamplighter, describing Mrs. Sullivan’s take on cleanliness states, “She really pitied those whose home was such a mass of confusion; felt sure that they could not be happy; and inwardly determined, as soon as Gerty got well, to exert herself in the cause of cleanliness and order.” (pg. 107) Now days, as seen in the video, young girls are encouraged to embrace individuality and independence. Also, I feel like since parents have lightened up on their daughters over the years, girls have lightened up on themselves. What I mean is how Anna, the girl in the video, proudly shares advice to other young girls, “Don’t really think about what you have to do for people to like you or to have more friends.” This is completely opposite to what girls in Gerty’s era were taught to think. Reputation, appearance, class; were all things that “real” ladies valued most. The reason Gerty was such an outcast during her time was due to the fact that she lacked every single one of those qualities since there was no mother to teach her how to conform to the demanding society.

If Gerty were the guest on Amy Pholer’s TV show, she definitely would not suggest to not care about what others think, but like Anna in the video, I could see her giving the same advice as “try your best, and try harder.” Although they would be obviously talking about different subjects, the motivation to work towards something is prevalent in both Gerty and Anna’s lives.