Daily Archives: February 7, 2014

Reading and responding to Charlotte Perkins Gilman

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Consider any of the following questions in your post. If you have a question for further discussion or for clarification, include it in your post. Use the blogging guidelines to help structure your post. Be sure to choose the category Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

(We didn’t discuss the concept of the unreliable narrator in class, but it’s one we want to consider with these stories. If anyone encounters or drafts a good definition of it, share it in the comments here.)

Choose three quotations from ā€œThe Yellow Wall-Paperā€ that convince you that the protagonist is an unreliable narrator and explain why for each.

 

Choose three quotations from ā€œThe Yellow Wall-Paperā€ that present the married coupleā€™s relationship, and explain what you understand about John as a character, and about the protagonist as a narrator for the way she depicts John.

 

We might use the wordsĀ utopia andĀ dystopia to describe the two short stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman that we read. What do those words mean? Which story is utopian and which is dystopian? Why?

 

How do the different settings come into play in these two short stories by Gilman? In what ways might we read the settings as similar but the inhabitants of those worlds as different?

 

Is Malda a reliable narrator in ā€œThe Cottagetteā€? why or why not? Incorporate 2-3 quotations into your answer to support your argument.

 

There once was : Subliminal Messages

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When I first read “There once was”, I didn’t understand what the author Margaret Atwood what trying to explain. I first initially thought the story what about society and how individuals complain for everything. I come to this conclusion because the author Margaret questions everything and finds a fault in everything . After reading the story over and over I come to an understanding that Atwood is critically analyzing the classic children’s story Cinderella.

She points out many subliminal messages that children or even adults may not look closely at. For instance she brought up the issue of weight and appearances. In the real story Cinderella beauty played a big part, the author give off the idea of being beautiful is the only way to meet Prince Charming. Atwood on the other hand questions that idea when she says “there was once a girl who was a little overweight and whose front teeth stuck out.”

Atwood points out the idea of good and bad in the story. Cinderella’s stepmother was considered a bad person. She questions what if it was her stepfather would he be considered a bad person? This criticism stuck out the most too me because as a women we are always given a negative image, whether it double standards or just trying to be as good as the guys. I agree with all of Margaret’s criticisms. Some may believe she is taking the innocents out of a classic tale but her ideas are defiantly something to think about .