Women's Roles in Silko's Yellow Woman and Chopin's The Story of an Hour
"Yellow Woman" describes a short episode from the life of a young woman. She leaves her home just for a few days and follows her beloved, whom she doesn't know well.
However, afterwards she decides to come back home, to her family: husband, baby and relatives. This story may look superficial, but is contains deeper meaning, and truths about roles of women, traditional patriarchal society, and attitudes toward feminism.
"Yellow Woman" shows the role of a woman in a traditional, average family; narrator is a married young female raising a baby and living together with parents and grandparents. We may assume that she doesn't work, and women in her family traditionally do not work. They are rather supposed to raise children and deal with housework; men are the ones who are responsible for financial matters, and "important" things. What is more the role of a woman in this family is rather under appreciated and minor, not even visible. After the narrator leaves her home she says: "There are enough of them to handle things. My mother and grandmother will raise the baby as they raised me. Al will find someone else"(Silko, 191). Another example of a patriarchal society may be found in a scene when a rancher captures her beloved - Silva. No one pays attention to her, or to what will happen to her; men only are allowed to deal with important issues such as crime, and responsibility. In this story male's and female's worlds are strongly separated.
In the second essay "The Story of an Hour" female's situation looks very similar. Lousie, starts considering her marriage as a burden, and she feels free when she gets to know about her husband's death. It is difficult to understand her reaction, since the story doesn't say about problems in her marriage. Readers may think that she feels overwhelmed with her everyday life of (stay-at-home) wife, dependence upon Brently, his decisions, and maybe dominance. She is probably disappointed with a reality, and she is subconsciously looking for a chance to break free form the male's world.
Women in both essays experiences some conflicts related to their roles in a society.
Narrator of a first story initially decides to leave her family and neglects her family obligations, but then she comes back, the feeling of responsibility is stronger. Lousie's inside conflict is not so visible, but more subtle; initially she hesitates how to determine her own feelings.
“Yellow Woman” written by Leslie Marmon Silko is a short story based on a Native American Legend story. In this Legend story, a woman has been taken away from her family for a period of time. The Yellow Woman are taken by a Ka’tisna spirit which is better known as a mountain spirit. Throughout the story, the reader learns that the narrator is in an overarching battle with her personal identity as a Pueblo Indian Woman. On top of the narrator's battle with understanding her personal identity she is in a constant battle with trying to understand what events are happening in real life as well as what events are remnants of this legend story told by her grandfather. In sum, the struggle that the narrator has is the common theme occurring throughout.
The novel is set in a cultural background wherein women had every reasonable freedom to talk about their marriage and children, but could not carry on what they found it to be good and reasonable because they were restraint by social constructs. Women were bound to their husbands and children and religiously they were conditioned to lots of dos and don'ts. However, a critical look reveals that women were construed to be mere objects of amusement, possessions cared for and displayed. They were expected to be subordinated to their husbands and children (Wyatt, 1995).
Introduction: The concept of the change and longevity of the fairy tale (or myth) is well illustrated in the story “Yellow Woman” by Leslie Silko. Not only is the story a modern explanation of a traditional Native American myth, but the style that Silko uses to tell it evokes and adapts the oral communication style that those old myths were passed down with. The story is also very self-consciously aware of its place as a modern revision of a myth, and makes many internal references to this aspect of itself. “Yellow Woman” becomes, in effect, the modern version of a Native American myth or legend, and therefore is a perfect example of the way in which old tales are made new.
Yellow Woman and the story of an hour by Kate Choplin have some feminist themes in common. Silko and Mrs. Mallard exhibited Characteristics that conflicted with their natural roles in life. They seemed to be confined by their marriage. With prospects of not being married again, they exhibited feelings of freedom and exhilaration instead of unhappiness.
As a result, women were stuck at home, usually alone, until their husbands got home. In the story, Jane is at home staring at the wallpaper in her room. The wallpaper’s color is described by Jane as being “repellent, almost revolting” (3) and the pattern is “torturing” and “like a bad dream” (10). The description of the wallpaper represents Jane’s and all women’s thoughts about the ideologies and rules upheld by men prior to the First World War. It is made evident that this wallpaper represents the screen made up of men’s ideologies at the time caging in women. Jane is subconsciously repelled by this screen and represents her discovering continuously figuring out what she wants. Metaphorically, Jane is trapped in that room by a culture established by men. Furthermore, Jane compares the wallpaper’s pattern to bars putting further emphasis on her feelings of being trapped and helpless. Later in the narrative, she catches Jennie staring at the wallpaper’s pattern and then decides to study the pattern and determine what it means herself. Her study of the pattern is representative of her trying to analyze the situation in which she’s in. By studying the pattern, she progressively discovers herself, especially when she sees the woman behind the
“The Yellow Wallpaper” was written around the time period when women’s main role, “was as wife and mother, keeper of the household, guardian of the moral purity of all who lived therein” (Hartman). Women were told what to do by their husbands and their thoughts were not so important in the 1800s. Women were sort of in an “imprisonment” controlled by all men. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Jane, the main character, is a woman suffering from postpartum. Jane’s husband is a Physician who thinks there is nothing wrong with her and because of the time period Jane could not get through to her husband that there really was something wrong with her. “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage” (Gilman). John was putting a mental strain on Jane by isolating her and thinking that there is nothing wrong with her. Although feminism fit almost perfectly for Gilman’s story, it does not complete the modern day criticism of, “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Today, women have a bigger role in life as a whole. Women have high paid jobs, work on farms, have their husbands’ cook for the family, and lead other men. The women who have never known about the way women were once treated in the past may not view Gilman’s novella in a feminist way. If the...
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman can be perceived in a few different ways. Greg Johnson wrote an article describing his own perception of what he believed the short story meant. In doing so, it can be noticed that his writing aligns well with what can be perceived from Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story. The narrator Jane, experiences many things throughout Gilman’s story, which Johnson describes thoroughly. It is because of these descriptive points that allow Johnsons article to be a convincing argument. The main ideas that Johnson depicts that are supported and I agree with from the story include Janes developing imaginative insight, her husband and sister-in-law’s belief on domestic control, and her gained power through unconsciousness.
...d so much in addition to risked their lives to make a change to segregation. “What began with such hope and promise soon gave way to deep suspicion and despair, as Americans reeled from one crisis to another” (Ayers, Gould, Oshinsky, Soderlund, p. 793). African American fought hard to put an end to segregation and discrimination. As people and events lost and won, the civil rights act movement made history. “The African American communities of Montgomery helped awaken America to the long-standing injustice of racial segregation, and new leaders emerged with innovative strategies to carry on the fight” (Ayers, Gould, Oshinsky, Soderlund, p. 759). Martin Luther King Jr. had voiced and protested in an expressive manner and made a change. The Voting Rights Act helped end Jim Crow. Without these people and events America may have still been a racial segregated country.
"The Yellow Wallpaper" tells the story of a woman living in the nineteenth century who suffers from postpartum depression. The true meaning implicit in Charlotte's story goes beyond a simple psychological speculation. The story consists of a series of cleverly constructed short paragraphs, in which the author illustrates, through the unnamed protagonist's experiences, the possible outcome of women's acceptance of men's supposed intellectual superiority. The rigid social norms of the nineteenth century, characterized by oppression and discrimination against women, are supposedly among the causes of the protagonist's depression. However, it is her husband's tyrannical attitude what ultimately worsened her emotional problems to the point of insanity.
The ideas expressed by Gilman are femininity, socialization, individuality and freedom in the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Gilman uses these ideas to help readers understand what women lost during the 1900’s. She also let her readers understand how her character Jane escaped the wrath of her husband. She uses her own mind over the matter. She expresses these ideas in the form of the character Jane. Gilman uses an assortment of ways to convey how women and men of the 1900’s have rules pertaining to their marriages. Women are the homemakers while the husbands are the breadwinners. Men treated women as objects, as a result not giving them their own sound mind.
Prior to the early twentieth century men dictated women’s role in society. Charlotte Gilman uses her novella “The Yellow Wallpaper” (1892) as a symbolic reflection of oppression of women in a paternalistic society. Her novella challenges the idea of women being depicted as weak and fragile.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins-Gilman explores the oppression of women in the nineteenth century and the constant limitation of their freedom, which many times led to their confinement. The short story illustrates male superiority and the restriction of a woman’s choice regarding her own life. The author’s diction created a horrific and creepy tone to illustrate the supernatural elements that serve as metaphors to disguise the true meaning of the story. Through the use of imagery, the reader can see that the narrator is living within a social class, so even though the author is trying to create a universal voice for all women that have been similar situations, it is not possible. This is not possible because there are many
the nineteen hundreds. “The Yellow Wall-Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is no different in the way that the females are treated in society within this time period. The narrator is treated as less then equal. Through out the story the narrator is belittled and reduced as a woman. With such belittlement within the story of women, the discussion of gender mistreatment is brought forth within the novel.
Many women in modern society make life altering decisions on a daily basis. Women today have prestigious and powerful careers unlike in earlier eras. It is more common for women to be full time employees than homemakers. In 1879, when Henrik Ibsen wrote A Doll's House, there was great controversy over the out come of the play. Nora’s walking out on her husband and children was appalling to many audiences centuries ago. Divorce was unspoken, and a very uncommon occurrence. As years go by, society’s opinions on family situations change. No longer do women have a “housewife” reputation to live by and there are all types of family situations. After many years of emotional neglect, and overwhelming control, Nora finds herself leaving her family. Today, it could be said that Nora’s decision is very rational and well overdue.
Ian Barbour introduced four models to establish the relationship between religion and science in his book, “Religion In An Age of Science”. This included the Conflict, Separation, Dialogue, and Integration models. The dialogue model in particular describes the methodological parallels that exist between the two paradigms. In this model, both science and religion are areas with significant knowledge of the unive...