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.