Character Analysis Of William Gay's 'The Paperhanger'

Everyone laughs as Drew gets made fun of by the class clown. But this time it was too far. It was always too far. Everyone was laughing about the class clown calling him mean and derogatory stereotypes about how he acted and dressed. They thought he was gay. He was, but that didn't make the comments any less hurtful. He resisted the urge to stand up and defend himself because if he did and said he wasn’t gay he’d be lying to himself. However, if he said he was then that would only make their joke funnier and set him as an outsider. This scenario portrays the same idea that of the vignette “Those Who Don’t”: the battle against stereotypes however continually staying true to yourself. In The House On Mango Street written by Sandra Cisneros, the way she compares and contrasts the virtues and ideas that of Esperanza adds a sense of dignity for understanding both sides of the argument. Some aspects worthy of contemplation in this vignette consist of the author’s perspective, aggravation, and mentalization.

This yellow wallpaper is described by the narrator as grotesque and irritating, which mirrors her own self image and confusion on what she is feeling. As this narrator begins to study the patterns, Gilman first personifies the wallpaper through dark and gruesome actions the character is seeing within it, revealing the fragile mental state of this woman. The narrator sees what is characterized as “...lame uncertain curves…[that] suddenly commit suicide — plunge off at outrageous angles, destroying themselves in unheard of contradictions,” (Gilman 648). Later as the narrator becomes more consumed within the wallpaper that confines her, she starts to see human features “...where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at [her] upside down,” (Gilman 649). This counterpart of herself does not show the delicate and ethereal woman she is expected to be; it shows an opposite and somewhat appalling image of what she is beginning to come to terms with.

Were you ever nervous and bothered about changing the life you've lived the most? Freddie in the Shade, written by Pam Munoz Ryan, is about a young boy named Freddie who struggles with realizing the beauty of change and moving forward in life. Having a hard time with moving on, Freddie is left disagreeable but soon begins to let go of the past and becomes acceptable to new things coming his way. Freddie is an interesting character because he likes to have power over his own life but he tries to hold himself down to feel empathy for those he truly cares for. There are several events and examples throughout the story Freddie in the Shade, that express Freddie as a strong, caring, and kindhearted character.

Amy Tan’s short story, Fish Cheeks, outlines the general idea of self-acceptance. As the narrator, fourteen year old Tan declares her love for her minister’s son, Robert, who unlike herself, is “as white as Mary in the manger” (Tan 1). This crush is anything but healthy, primarily because Tan is reluctant to reveal her true self to him. This hesitance she portrays is strikingly recognizable in the teenagers of today’s world. Amy Tan 's story, "Fish Cheeks," is significant to the adolescents of today 's society through the overall structure, quality, and applicability of the piece as the struggle to accept oneself as an individual is still as present as it ever was.

A perception of oneself can change the outlook the person has of the world around them. Flannery O’Connor and Charlotte Perkins Gilman use perception in a way that it changes the conclusion of the story. O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is a gothic story written in 1953 about a grandmother and her family who take a trip and end up in a car crash. O’Connor uses different elements of literature such as setting and point of view to illustrate the story’s characters while keeping the story interesting. Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” written just over sixty years earlier in 1892 is about an unnamed narrator who is sick and is told by her husband John, a very practical man, that she is not suppose to write, socialize, or work. Gilman uses imagery to express the character’s inner thoughts. While their stories use various elements of writing and imagery, Flannery O’Connor and Charlotte Perkins Gilman both use their gothic stories to illustrate how a character’s personal thoughts can change the outcome of the story.

Yet Edna and Gilman’s protagonist are women who receive their imperfections through their surroundings; the carnality and madness are the results of their oppression. Until the happenings of The Awakening, Edna has been married to Mr. Pontellier for a long time. She goes through her awakening after a vacation in the Grand Isle, but before, she has been a subordinate wife without any doubts in accordance to her role. Just as Mrs. Pontellier begins the story as an average, sensible woman, the main character of “The Yellow Wall-paper” begins as a mentally secure person. Gilman’s heroine depicts the “garden-- large and shady, full of box-bordered paths” (4), the “pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings” (5), and even “those sprawling flamboyant patterns” (5) of the wallpaper in an ultimately sensible manner, what serves as an indicator of her capability of thinking and speaking from a rational standpoint. What is more, she is sent away to the mansion not in a view of the fact that she has mental issues but because her husband believes that she has depression. She admits that she is of the opinion that if she “had less opposition and more society and stimulus,” she would get well sooner (4).

It is often said that the people one surrounds themselves with can reflect things about themselves, such as their beliefs and ideals. One’s friends and acquaintances can reveal subconscious attractions to people that fulfill their ideals or agree with the things they say, but these relationships can also help one discover their personal philosophies by reinforcing opposing views. Indeed, in J.D. Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the way Holden reacts to and interacts with secondary characters reveal his established philosophies and the values he holds most dear to him.

This first scene in the story is significant because it shows social inequality among the Pakistani family and the paperhanger. The text states, “She had been quarreling with the paperhanger. Her four-year old daughter, Zeineb, was standing directly behind the paperhanger where he knelt smoothing air bubbles out with a wide plastic trowel…The paperhanger, still on his knees, turned. He smiled up at her. He had blue eyes (155).” Cedric Gael Bryant believes, “The height differential between an

Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a woman who writes about personal experience, and in her short, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” we learn exactly who our author is based on the language and communication that appears throughout the story. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a captivating tale, largely because the language and communication between characters translates to a feeling of near madness for the reader. The man, the dominant character in the story, has much to say about his wife’s mental condition and practically refuses to permit her feelings. Gilman explains how this story wasn’t made to drive people insane, but rather to save people from insanity. She realizes she has the power to create a powerful effect within literature and that is the thing that

In Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden, had many opportunities to learn life lessons but every time his faulty thinking caused him to focus on the problem and not the solution. Whenever Holden looks at situations he negatively overgeneralizes them with a bad attitude rather than learning from it.

I chose to read Boy 21 because when I read the summary of the book, the summary said it was about this varsity basketball player, Finley who played the can to escape the town he lives in and the temptations around him. I believe this is one of the many good reasons for sports. I feel like many good athletes today do this to escape their problems. Judging the book by its cover it looks like it will be very related to a lot of kids. And it seems like it will be fun book to read.

The narrators in the following two short stories, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper and John Updike’s A&P, share several traits in common, which divulge their narrative perspectives to be overly subjective and as such, not showing the real image of events that are taking place. While Gilman’s protagonist is a woman slowly descending into madness, Updike’s young man possesses a provincial outlook on life, and the statements and thoughts of neither can be taken at face value. Quite the contrary, the readers should be very wary of the narrators’ presentation of events, as they are marred by a highly personal and subjective perspective.

What others see about our life is not always truth. Looking from the outside things can seem so put together, as you dive in a little deeper you find things are not aways as they appear. Especially when it comes to the power of the mind. We are all hiding something within the walls of our own lives and minds. 1“The depression malady of the protagonist-narrator deepens as the story progresses and she appears to be totally crazy in the end; but the interior monologue and the sense of relief and freedom experienced by her suggest the triumph of the questing individual. The obstructing man he’s vanquished on the floor and she walks over him, as it were!” The woman in the story of “The Yellow Wallpaper” is seen as a wife to a successful man, a

Since the conception of The Yellow Wallpaper individuals and social groups have gone to great lengths to give this piece of literature meaning to affirm their own ideology or world view. Each with their own reasons literature critics have dissected every word of this story. Reading between the lines to such an insurmountable extent that the core material has been made into a distorted theoretical version of itself. The endless supply of interpretation and application has not ceased to ground this work of fiction in reality. It has no value as a work fiction or a hypothetical situation and may as well be a historical account.

"Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of