For class today, I asked each of you to read through your classmates’ Reading Response Blogs on “The Yellow Wallpaper,” to choose your favorite post and to bring in an excerpt from that post along with a rationale for choosing it (why did you find it interesting, compelling, likeable, provocative, etc.?). That rationale could refer to content or style.
We didn’t get to discuss those excerpts in class today, so instead, please share them here, by copying in the excerpt and then typing your rationale.
We also discussed the importance of citing today, and giving credit to other sources and putting yourself in dialogue with them: so make sure to cite your source (in this case, your classmates’ post), mentioning them by name and also linking to their post in your response.
Comments should be made no later than Friday night (9/15). I’m looking forward to seeing what you chose!
The blog I chose was from Steven Jean. There are few reasons why I chose his blog, for example he gave the main character a name Jane Doe. This name is used as placeholder name for a person whose true identity is unknown (Wikipedia). I had to search for this name online because I couldn’t understand the reason why at first. I am glad a name was given to her because I disliked calling her the protagonist or the narrator throughout my blog. Another reason is that he tries to make a point through Jane’s words or from her perspective. From the third paragraph when discussing about John and his sister. He cites to let the reader know that he was using the Jane’s point of view to prove a point, (Main character’s words not mine).
The link to his blog is https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/belli-f2017-eng2001/madness-or-an-act-of-finding-ones-self/.
While reading through Samuel’s blog post, I noticed he brought up a great twist that I hadn’t noticed before when he mentions the figure behind the yellow wallpaper was possibly just the narrator’s shadow!
“If we look at the part ‘creeping as fast as a cloud shadow’, this could mean that the creeping woman is a shadow. To the ending where the wife says ‘I suppose I shall have to get back behind the pattern when it comes night, and that is hard!’..” This means that the creeping woman and the wife is refereed as one individual.” (Paragraph 3)
As i reread the story a second time, I started to see way more evidence suggesting that this woman in the wall who the narrator seems to be so curious, frightened and yet so fond of was indeed her shadow! Symbolically, her freeing this woman was her breaking free from her literal prison (bars on windows) and evolving from the hushed and confined state her husband had her in.
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The blog that I choose was by Crsoto which brought up a point which I never mentioned in my blog in that the things that the narrator could do was always restricted which lead to her state by the end of the story. The loss of a way to express herself led to the eventual expression through her in the outside world. After reading through Crsoto’s blog I thought of the paper as a way of “letting loose” but with that taken away the narrator now has to use a different way of letting loose which is her going insane by the end of the story
I like how Stevens Jean used his blog to give us a chance to view the story in the way as the narrator is trying to break free from all those who tries to dominate her life, Like her husband. I also enjoyed how he view the woman behind the yellow wallpaper as the narrator herself, being caged in. Here is a excerpt that I like the most “let’s call this being the “shadow.” As the story goes on, Jane starts to become more and more entranced with the shadow. The way it desperately shakes the bars at night, the way it escapes its cage to go outside, the way it hides from others as they come into or out of the house. The shadow (in my honest opinion) seems to be Jane herself personified. A personification that only she can see in this ugly, disturbing and downright limiting yellow wallpaper and outside her window. As the the shadow shakes the cage, it represents Jane’s willingness to break away from her controlling captors. “
https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/belli-f2017-eng2001/madness-or-an-act-of-finding-ones-self/ this it the link to Stevens Jean blog
I choose Sharie Libreros’s blog. I like the way she was able to describe the protagonists experience and the stress she feels in house. I specifically liked this paragraph: The description of the setting touches upon almost each of the five senses, having us envision the breath taking home the woman now stays, yet for the protagonist, despite the beautiful scenery of the house, she can feel the eerie atmosphere emitting from the house which she cannot explain. With each passing day, the pressure and stress she feels within this house only grows as she feels this presence within the home and sees the figures plastered against the dreaded wall all to the point she slowly looses her sanity.
I find Terry’s views on The Yellow Wallaper story to be a very limited or constricted one. Terry’s blog is an interesting one, which is why I had to read it at least three time just so I could understand his views, opinions and judgements better.
I disagreed with most of his statements mainly because they have been assumed by him. Two of such statement are, “In the first page, paragraph six, the narrator said “John is practical in the extreme. He has no patience with faith, an intense horror of superstition.” Through this sentence we can actually see that the woman’s husband was actually full of male chauvinism, he thought everything he did to his wife was correct, but he did not know it was too much for his wife.” ” Too much depressions coming across her mind, and finally got her freedom, unfortunately she was already insane at this period, and all these was because of her husband, always be practical in extreme and treat his wife in the correct way he thought, finally lead to the madness of the woman” ( Terry ).
The story is told in the first person, the narrator, which in this case is the wife, is only telling the story from a limited point of view. The reader doesn’t know what the husband is thinking, the reason why he’s treating his wife this way and what he’s intentions are towards his wife. If all of this information is missing, how can the reader say the husband is full of male chauvinism. The definition of male chauvinism is the belief that men are superior in terms of ability, intelligence, etc. At no point in the story has the husband proven to be full of male chauvinism. According to what the wife said, he doesn’t believe men are superior in ability or intelligence, he believes he’s more intelligent than his wife, and that he’s more able, however that is not male chauvinism.
At the end of Terry’s blog, he says the wife finally got her freedom, but she was already insane all because of her husband. That is a false statement, the wife had mental issues even before her and her husband moved into the house, in fact, her mental issues is the reason they moved in that house in the first place. ” He said we came here solely on my account, that I was to have perfect rest and all the air I could get” ( Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper, P2, C1). This quote is the support to my last claim.
One blog that stood out to me was Timothy blog. In his blog he incorporated a theory in here that most probably over looked. While reading his blog it made me really think about the story and made it more interesting. He suggested that maybe John had something to do with the wallpaper, he quotes, ““he says i must use self-control and not let any silly fancies run away with me”. This to me suggests he has something to do with the paper due to him trying to give his wife a new motive such as being a better wife and mother rather than focusing on the paper, which he secretly could be trying to solve as well. ” Even though his theory can be argumentative, it was nice to see things from someone else eyes and it made me rethink the story.
Here’s the link to Timothy post. https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/belli-f2017-eng2001/hurry-before-it-is-too-late/
“The Yellow Wallpaper portrays mental illness in the most purest form possible” (Kainat Ali, Paragraph 1). It caught my attention how she went more into detail as in the narrator’s mind state. It wasn’t about john or the house, but the wall paper and how the narrator reacts to it and how her feelings and perception throughout the story changes. Her reading response spoke to me because it caught my attention, the way she talks about this illness, it is like if she took my thoughts and put them into paper LOL. It made me think about that as we were reading and re reading the story, each and everyone of us where in the narrator’s head, we knew her thoughts and her feelings. Ali talks about how no one else considers her feelings or really cares much about what she thinks. They just think it is some sort of nervous depression.
I chose Sebastian Garzon’s blog. I agree with many of the points he made. I also felt as if the timeline and plot didn’t really captivate me and I wasn’t so interested although I did enjoy the authors great use of depictive words to describe scenes. “You feel disgusted of the wallpaper and how irritating it is” ( Sebastian Garzon, Paragraph 3). I agree, an example of this would be, “The color is repellent, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight. (Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Page 2 Paragraph 8). Descriptive words used really let you picture what the author is talking about, as well as sets the mood for the scene.
I really liked how Stevens Jean’s post was about everyone in the story. Not only did he describe each person and how they are but went into detail as well about who each person is. He also spoke on about how each person relates back to the narrator of the story, how they reacted towards her. I would say, some of our views were very similar. It’s nice to see that I wasn’t the only one thinking she viewed herself as the woman behind the wallpaper.
My pick would have to be Sharielibreos. The main thing that got me was the very last paragraph. Sharieliberos did something that suddenly side swiped me when reading it. She gave the main character’s condition a name, a label. I mean, sure, anyone perceive her condition to be anything but she had enough resolve in her analysis of the character to go out of her way and give it a name. Names mean a great many things when it comes to understanding something we either do not know nor understand. And, by giving it a name, i can understand her her understanding on the character’s mental condition is. Now, this is not to say that i 100% agree with her but, i do acknowledge and respect her for what she did.
The excerpt: “But much like many other patients who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia soon begins to question the world around her, question the people around her, doubting their love for her as well as doubting her trust for her husband and believes that there could be a chance he wants her trapped”
Scrolling down, something caught my eyes. Once again the title “Madness? or an Act of Freeing Oneself” by Steven Jean stood out to me. I agree because she was both crazy and she was freed from her husband. She no longer needs to listen to the physician’s prescription. What I also like about what Steve wrote was towards the end of his blog he said, “When Jane ultimately decided to break the shadow out of it’s cage by ripping out the wallpaper. As Jane, rips the paper, the shadow helps by shaking the cage. This represents Jane finally going out of her way to do what she so desperately wants to do. To be free” (Jean). The analysis made me rethink about the narrator’s point of view and think that the girl in the wallpaper could be the narrator. She felt trapped and ripped apart the wallpaper. Thus freeing her from husband.
Yup….It’s Steven Jean’s blog that takes my fancy…..
The “woman in the wallpaper” is the forth character in the short story, and that adds a certain symmetry to the text–two loonies and two sane characters– brother and sister vs wife and her alter ego, two characters inside the room and two characters outside of the room; one character on either side of the wallpaper and two observers, like two witnesses to a game of wallpaper tennis.
The protoganist is trying to “break free of… imposed restraints”. Who amongst us would not want to do that?…..not so crazy!…..right?
I totally agree that “The Yellow Wallpaper represents the propagonist’s life”. It’s like a screen that “Jane Doe” projects her inner self upon.( Jane Doe sounds better that “the protoganist”–whoever came up with that word anyway!, it sounds like a party to a legal action!…. the petitioner, the plaintiff and the protagonist!–I found 300 synonyms for “protagonist” and most of them sound better that “protagonist” …eor=end of rant)
Jane Doe is certainly”a caged woman”, she “shakes the bars” on her life, in her mind, and like The shadow, wants to break free. By ripping oFF the wallpaper, “Jane Doe” is literally breaking free, only we do not know how that will work out.
Thank you Stephen, you added a new dimension to my understanding of the “The Yellow Wallpaper”.
For my excerpt, I picked Samuel’s post. He brought in a logical explanation that I didn’t expect. It was an interesting perspective that I really liked because it brought in a new element. I realized how much the narrator thought what was happening was abnormal, when it could actually be explained as something as simple as the time of day.
Samuel’s post: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/belli-f2017-eng2001/the-creeping-shadows/
I am not sure this post will still be accepted or not, I will still write it since I am not able to finish it by Friday due to my working schedule . The blog that I chose was from Samuel. I found that his blog was very interesting by bringing up new opinion which about the real identity of the creeping woman that hidden behind the yellow wallpaper. In his opinion, it is actually the shadow of the wife.
“The creeping woman is hiding behind the pattern, and this time the wife was trying hide behind the pattern. This mean the creeping woman is actually the shadow of the wife and is reinforced by action she taken to help the creeping woman “I pulled and she shook, I shook and she pulled” this describe the shadow as reflection of her actions.” (Samuel, Paragraph 4)
I really thought the creeping woman was the wife herself within her own imagination, but unfortunately it seemed weak through out the whole story. And then I saw Samuel brought up this opinion and everything did make senses now. She couldn’t get out from her current situation, and she put all her pursuits for freedom into her shadow created under light and started to work on escaping the yellow wallpaper which works as an obstacle In front of freedom.
Thanks all for your thoughtful comments. Stevens’ post was chosen as the “Omelas” “People’s Choice Post”!