The Cage That Binds Us Essay

  “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 stories of the Yellow Wallpaper and Story of an Hour are both stories that have deep meaning, and many hidden symbols. In both stories there is a woman who in some way is oppressed by some outside force and must find a way to overcome this oppression. While in both stories the main charcter goes through a different ordeal, The main theme behind these events are the same and the two experiences can compare to eachother. the events match in both women we oppressed by men and portrayed

Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses her short story “The Yellow Wall-Paper” to show how women undergo oppression by gender roles. Gilman does so by taking the reader through the terrors of one woman’s changes in mental state. The narrator in this story becomes so oppressed by her husband that she actually goes insane. The act of oppression is very obvious within the story “The Yellow Wall-Paper” and shows how it changes one’s life forever.

The narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman discovers that the woman trapped in the yellow wallpaper is really herself and reflects that there are countless other women trapped and oppressed by society just as she is. Through her descent into madness, the narrator is able to finally free herself, but not without losing her sanity in the process.

 In "The Yellow Wallpaper," the woman wants to experience her own life, but, more importantly to her, to have the ability to express herself and be creative. She wants to be able to write and take walks while in "The Story of an Hour" the wife wants to live without her husband. Both of these characters want freedom, but only one gets it. In "The Story of an Hour," the woman believes freedom is hers, but the shock of her losing it again causes her to have a heart attack and die. However, Death is eternal freedom. In "The Yellow Wallpaper," the woman goes crazy for lack of freedom, yet does not die. She goes crazy and experiences her own type of freedom, but her freedom is only temporary, and once she leaves the house she is going to start getting better.

A life as a wife and/or a mother, is usually appreciated and is a happy life as well. A relationship between two people should consist of joy, commitment, responsibility, and most importantly love. For the two main characters in both stories ( “The Story of An Hour”, and “A Sorrowful Woman” ) this was not the case. The stories go against societies view with marriage roles and happiness.

Does solitary confinement cause severe mental issues? Are the mentally ill allowed to be put in solitary confinement? How bad can the mental issues possibly get if you don’t have a mental issue before being put in solitary confinement? All of these are questions some people ask, but really don’t care enough to dig deeper. What if your loved one or even you were to be put in solitary confinement? Wouldn’t you want to know what it was, wouldn’t you want to know what the affects of this punishment are?

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.

Since the early 1800s, the United States has relied on a method of punishment barely known to any other country, solitary confinement (Cole). Despite this method once being thought of as the breakthrough in the prison system, history has proved differently. Solitary confinement was once used in a short period of time to fix a prisoners behavior, but is now used as a long term method that shows to prove absolutely nothing. Spending 22-24 hours a day in a small room containing practically nothing has proved to fix nothing in a person except further insanity. One cannot rid himself of insanity in a room that causes them to go insane. Solitary confinement is a flawed and unnecessary method of punishment that should be prohibited in the prison

It was in a brainstorming situation that I discovered the topic of discussion I wanted to hear a convincing opposition against. I knew that choosing something more controversial would garner a greater opposition, but at the same time, I wanted to avoid topics that seemed almost too commonplace in assignments like this. With that in mind, I decided to hear out the opposition against my view of the inhumanity of solitary confinement. The person with whom I discussed, who will be referred to as Person X for the purposes of this write-up, believed that in certain situations, solitary confinement was a just punishment. We had this discussion waiting for our Microbiology class to begin. Bringing up random topics of discussion is not something unusual within the scope of my character, and so rather than wait for an opportunity that would not present itself, I simply asked Person X for his/her opinion on solitary confinement as a justified punishment for convicted criminals. To give the discussion some direction and so that I could better understand Person X’s point of view I asked some questions. The two most important I found being: “Why do you feel that it’s okay to punish people like that in some cases but not in others?” and “How long is too long?”. I found these questions particularly helpful in understanding Person X’s position because I noticed that he/she didn’t completely agree with either one side. He/she was intent on making a point based on conditionality. Although I

In these two stories, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gillman and The Storm by Kate Chopin we can distinctly see one certain theme; the oppression of women and their desires to have their personal freedom. Both stories were written when independence was not applied to women. Their role in society was merely a wife and mother who had no right to stand on her own or speak as she pleases.

Irony can be defined as a double significance which arises from the contrast in values associated with two different point of view (Leech and Short, Style in fiction; 223). The most usual kind is that which involves a contrast between a point of view stated or implied in some part of the fiction, and the assumed point of view of the author, and hence of the reader. In the Richard Connell’s short story entitled “The Cage Man” it is Horace Nimms, the main character of the story, who is involved in contrast social value; between Horace Nimms point of view and my point of view. What makes this short story unique is that when in another Connell’s short

Liberation is the fourth human experience. “I covered his face in close and tight” (stanza line 123) She smothered her baby. I think that her doing this was an act of liberation. She wanted to free her child from slavery. Only in this instance do I agree with her decision, I’m not saying her choice was the right choice, but I understand why she did it. I feel that she did what she thought was in her child’s best interest. She didn’t want her child to grow up and suffer as she did. This reminded me of an article I read about a woman named Margaret Garner. She was a black slave that was celebrated for killing her daughter so she would no longer endure slavery. I think that both women shared a moment of desperation.

Storytelling helps other people to emotionally connect themselves to the author so that they know they are not the only ones who are experiencing a painful or exciting experience, and are able to share the same emotions. It often helps other people to know what they should do in order to get over it when it comes to a painful experience. Maya Angelou’s I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings explores the life of Maya Angelou and the struggles she has been throughout her childhood to her adulthood. Richard Wagemese’s Indian Horse explores the life of Saul Indian Horse and the struggles he has been through after departing from his family. The power of storytelling can unfold questions which ask the audience of how and why are the events are unfold the

“The Yellow Wallpaper” and “Three Girls” illustrate the societal idea that women shouldn’t be independent or be knowledgeable in their own right. The protagonist of “The Yellow Wallpaper” was a woman who wanted to write, but was prevented from doing so by her husband. He didn’t allow her to do anything or go anywhere as a form of cure for a mental condition. Without the ability to write her thoughts, the protagonist was restricted in her ability to think freely and to express her ideas. Putting her in isolation also prevented her from exchanging knowledge with others and living a life reliant on herself. She was physically and mentally trapped, unable to further herself in society and become her own independent person. She was trapped by walls, but she was also trapped by society. Both prevented her from gaining the knowledge required to rely on herself, keeping her trapped