Internal And External Captivity By Langston Hughes

  “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a symbolic tale of one woman’s struggle to break free from her mental prison.  Charlotte Perkins Gilman shows the reader how quickly insanity takes hold when a person is taken out of context and completely isolated from the rest of the world.  The narrator is a depressed woman who cannot handle being alone and retreats into her own delusions as opposed to accepting her reality.  This mental prison is a symbol for the actual repression of women’s rights in society and we see the consequences when a woman tries to free herself from this social slavery.

The geographical, physical, and historical settings in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" were more than the primary character could handle. The geography would lead to think she could enjoy the environment, but she chose not to. The physical setting showed us the reader just how grotesque and unbearable it would be to live a room in which the wallpaper to over the narrators mind. Lastly, we looked at how historically women were not allowed to speak their minds about how they felt. Maybe now that John has seen his wife go completely insane for himself he will finally seek extra attention for

The poems “Daybreak in Alabama,” by Langston Hughes, and “Strange Fruit,” by Abel Meeropol, were written during a time period of strict racial inequality. Hughes’ poem is about an African American who is seeing a racial equality forming around him in a positive way for the first time. Abel’s poem has a more negative side about black people being lynched in the South. The poems explore the common theme of racism in the South. In “Daybreak in Alabama” Hughes approaches the theme of racial inequality through hopeful imagery and delighted metaphor whereas in “Strange Fruit” Meeropol approaches the same theme through evil imagery and horrifying metaphor.

In "You and Your Whole Race" by Langston Hughes he chooses to address his poem to an anonymous "you" so they all will think it's directed to them. The way the speaker criticized the people was to make people push for change. Langston starts the poem off by saying, “You and your whole race./ Look down upon the town in which you live/And be ashamed.” (Hughes ln. 1-3). Hughes says “you” in the opening sentence of the poem to indicate that what he’s going to say directed to you and everyone.

‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is centred in the writer’s narration, by setting the narrator to be not entirely reliable and an oppressed woman. The character are showed to be feeling trapped and unhappy with

All throughout history people have been entrapped by issues in their lives and in the lives of people around them. People feel entrapped by their own thoughts, their own issues, or they feel trapped by other people. One way for people to express their thoughts and try to be free from what is trapping them is to write. Writers are able to get and keep the attention of readers because their audience has had the same feeling in their own lives. Imagery is used to describe and explain situations that may not be clear otherwise. This is true for both “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “The Veldt” written by Ray Bradbury. These stories were written in two different time periods, approximately sixty years apart, and are

“Salvation” is a wonderful narrative by Langston Hughes explaining his first time attending church. The story is portrayed in both a book and film version. Both versions do their jobs by explaining how Langston felt when he falsely claimed he was saved by Christ. Each version has different strengths and weaknesses, but the book is dull compared to the film. The film gives a better insight into Langston’s life;therefore, the film version is superior to the book.

In "The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the protagonist symbolizes the effect of the oppression of women in society in the Nineteenth Century. In The Yellow Wallpaper, the author reveals the narrator is torn between hate and love, but emotion is difficult to determine. The effects are produced by the use of complex themes used in the story, which assisted her oppression and reflected on her self-expression.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” is partly autobiographical. Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote it after she fled from her husband with her infant daughter to California. More important than the story’s similarities to Gilman’s own experience is the larger issue of a woman’s right to be creative and autonomous. The story can be seen as advocating a woman’s right to act and speak for herself. She decides to keep a secret journal in order to express her feelings of being trapped physically and emotionally and describes how the oppression of the standards of society and complete isolation can drive a person mad.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story telling about a young woman who is eventually driven mad by the society. The narrator is apparently confused with the norm defining “true” and “good” woman constructed by society dominated by man. “The Awakening” addressed the social, scientific, and cultural landscape of the country and the undergoing of radical changes. Each of these stories addresses the issue of women’s rights and how they were treated in the late 19th century. “The Awakening” explores one woman's desire to find and live fully within her true self. Her devotion to that purpose caused friction between her friends and family, and also conflicts with the dominant values of her time.

In the “Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, there are many of literary techniques that illustrates the theme to express the story. Irony, imagery and symbolism are some literary devices that is presented among the story.  “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story about a woman who has a mental illness but cannot heal due to her husband’s lack of acceptance and how she struggles to express her own thoughts and feelings. The story appears to take place during a time where women were oppressed. Women were treated as if they were under one’s thumb in society during this period which is approximately the 19th century.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” provides an insight into the life of the narrator- a woman suppressed and unable to express herself because of her controlling husband- leading the reader down her fall to insanity, allowing for her inner conflict to be clearly expressed. The first person point of the view the author artfully uses and the symbolism present with the wallpaper cleverly depicts the inner conflict of the narrator, losing her own sanity due to the constraints of her current life. However, while it seems that the narrator in “ The Yellow Wallpaper” succumbed to her own insanity, the endless conflict within herself and her downward spiral to insanity is seen through a different light, as an inevitable path rather than a choice taken as the story develops.

There is a certain ignorance required to see the world and matters in it in terms of “this or that;” either black or white, either wives and mothers or social exiles. In the nineteenth century, most everyone was blinded to any but two possibilities in respect to women 's role in society. In The Awakening and The Yellow Wallpaper, the two main characters are women who have begun to see a spectrum unimaginable to those around them. Unfortunately, because the world remains engrossed in black and white, any additional hues, Edna Pontellier and the narrator of the Yellow Wall paper, become lost - not only to society but also to themselves. Each supporting character in these novels represent a larger part of the effects of this limited

According to Biography, James Mercer Langston Hughes is considered to be an African American poet who is college educated and comes from a middle-class family (Langston Hughes Biography). He attended college in New York City and became influential during the Harlem Renaissance (Langston Hughes Biography). Although Hughes was a talented writer, he faced some challenges early on and it was stated that his “early work was roundly criticized by many black intellectuals for portraying what they thought to be an unattractive view of black life” (Langston Hughes. American Poet). They believed that his work helps the spread the stereotypes of African Americans. “Hughes, more than any other black poet or writer, recorded faithfully the nuances of black life and its frustrations” (Langston Hughes. American Poet). Langston Hughes’s poems “The Negro Mother”, “Let America be America Again” and “The Weary Blues” were influenced by his life during the Harlem Renaissance and the racial inequality experienced in the late 1920s through the 1960s.

The short story “Slave on the Block”, by Langston Hughes undercuts the white couple connections with their young black employees. Langston Hughes deliberately begins the story “Slave on the Block” by conveying to his readers the Carraways’ interest in Negroes. The reader is quickly aware of the Carraways’ enjoyment of Negroes. Michael and Anne Carraway enjoy any artistic portrayal of Negroes. It does not matter if it is a musical, play, poem, or painting; but it does not matter that it fulfills their ideal view of a Negros – too charming, naïve, lovely for words, unspoiled and simplicity. Langston Hughes uses symbolism to reveal the Carraways’ true character.