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Literary techniques
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Ho-Ling Helen Chan
Dr. Natalie Neill
EN1201 A
26 June 2015
Constructive and Destructive Use of a Hyperbolic Imagination: A Comparison of The Yellow Wallpaper And The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Inherently, imagination is neither constructive or destructive; rather it is the individual’s use of their hyperbolic, an exaggerated or overstated effect (Neill), imagination that determines the effect of their imagination. Jane (“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte P. Gilman in 1892) and Walter (“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” by James Thurber in 1939) shows how their hyperbolic imagination can have a constructive (where imagination allows an escape from everyday responsibilities and worries) or a destructive (where imagination causes the character
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When Jane initially describes the wallpaper, she uses more periods as she is not using her hyperbolic imagination; merely, she is stating a fact. Through her entries, Jane notes that the wallpaper, “... is dull enough to confuse the eye [...] and [...] destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions.” (Gilman). In addition, when Jane attempts to describe the colour of the wallpaper, she sticks to the facts. Jane states that the colour of the wallpaper“ ...is [...] strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight. It is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others” (Gilman). As Jane is fully imprisoned due to her hyperbolic imagination, she begins to use exclamation marks more frequently to describe the wallpaper. At her worst, Jane claims the wallpaper’s “...front pattern DOES move—and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it! [...] They get through,[...] and makes their eyes white !” (Gilman). Through social isolation, Gilman transforms Jane’s imaginative freedom into a literal prison. Because of her husband, Jane is socially isolated. Jane desires to visit her cousins; she pleads with her husband to invite “...Cousin Henry and Julia down for a long visit“ (Gilman). As Jane’s hyperbolic imagination figuratively constricts her freedom, she does not mind being isolated; Jane fails to mentions her desire to visit her cousins again …show more content…
Gilman uses alliteration (Neill defines alliteration as the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words), and personification, attribution of human characteristics to non-human entities (Neill), to describe the wallpaper. Jane uses alliteration to describe the wallpaper. Jane states the, “ paint and paper look as if a boys' school had used it [...] the paper in great patches all around the head of my bed.. .” (Gilman, emphasis mine). Gilman uses the letter “p” to emphasize Jane’s imaginative attention to the quality of the wallpaper’s paint and the amount of wallpaper present. In addition, Jane dislikes the colour; she claims the wallpaper is, “a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by [...] slow-turning sunlight [...] in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others. ” (Gilman, emphasis mine). Gilman uses the letter “s” to emphasize the state of the wallpaper. Finally, Jane personifies the wallpaper. As Jane analyzes the wallpaper, she notes that the wallpaper, “... sticketh closer than a brother—they must have had perseverance as well as hatred” (Gilman). Only humans can feel perseverance, hatred and have siblings; wallpapers do not feel or have blood-ties. In addition, Jane imagines that the “pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you […] and waddling fungus growths just shriek with
It is certainly true that the characters of ‘The Great Gatsby’, ‘Ethan Frome’, and ‘Howl and Other Poems’ turn to illusions in order to escape from the harsh realities of their lives. Becoming increasingly impuissant at coping in the process. The question is whether it is the act of turning to illusions for comfort, that is ultimately responsible for their inability to cope and ultimate downfalls; or if the characters themselves bear ultimate responsibility and are merely hiding behind their immersion in fantasy in attempt to remove any culpability for their actions, of lack thereof, from themselves.
All through the story the yellow wallpaper acts as an antagonist causing her to become very annoyed and disturbed. There is nothing to do in the secluded room but stare at the wallpaper. The narrator tells of the haphazard pattern having no organization or symmetrical plot. Her constant examination of and reflection o...
Many times people tend to allow their thoughts to have an overtake in which it clouds what is actually happening. Some can revoke their right state of mind and make their own make-believe world with these thoughts. Authors, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Edgar Allan Poe both demonstrate this perception in their short stories, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and “The Yellow Wallpaper.” In The Tell-Tale Heart, the narrator murders the old man he lives with because he is disturbed by the man’s eyes. Similarly, in The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator is dealing with depression, and feels that she is being watched by the wallpaper and starts to study it and decoding the meaning.
Jane’s new home seems to make her feel very uncomfortable from the beginning of “The Yellow Wallpaper” when she states “that there is something queer about it.” She says that John tells her the vacation home will be a good place for her, but even seems unsure of that proclamation herself (Gilman 956). Jane begins to describe her environment and speaks of how she is unsure of exactly what the room was used for before her arrival. She speaks of bars on the windows and strange rings on the wall. More significantly she speaks of the “repellant” and “revolting” wallpaper on the wall that seems to disturb Jane a deal more than any of the other odd décor in the room. She also speaks of how the children must have really hated it and that is why is has been peeled off in places (Gilman 957). The wallpaper continues to bother Jane throughout “The Yellow Wallpaper”, but Jane also begins to dislike her husband.
Milan Kundera contends, “A novel that does not discover a hitherto unknown segment of existence is immoral” (3). In this it is seen that the primary utility of the novel lies in its ability to explore an array of possible existences. For these possible existences to tell us something of our actual existence, they need to be populated by living beings that are both as whole, and as flawed, as those in the real world. To achieve this the author must become the object he writes of. J.M. Coetzee states, “there is no limit to the extent to which we can think ourselves into the being of another. There are no bounds to the sympathetic imagination” (35). Through this sympathetic faculty, a writer is able to give flesh, authenticity and a genuine perspective to the imagined. It is only in this manner that the goal of creating living beings may be realized. Anything short of this becomes an exercise in image and in Kundera’s words, produces an immoral novel (3).
(1) In Thurber's short story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," the importance of living in the moment and focusing on reality is conveyed through the life of Walter Mitty. The main character of this story, Walter Mitty, is a man who daydreams. He daydreams so often that he misses out on important information and makes avoidable mistakes. Both the short story by Thurber and the movie adaptation of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" illustrate the significance of focusing on reality and the consequences of daydreaming.
Gilman writes, “This paper looks to me as if it KNEW what a vicious influence it had!” Instead of just being a simply disagreeable object, the wallpaper starts to become a threat. Not only has it started to personify Jane’s mind, it is a danger in her mind. This personification of the wallpaper/misfit continues as Jane spends time with it.
The short story titled, “The Yellow Wallpaper” is given its name for no other reason than the disturbing yellow wallpaper that the narrator comes to hate so much; it also plays as a significant symbol in the story. The wallpaper itself can represent many various ideas and circumstances, and among them, the sense of feeling trapped, the impulse of creativity gone awry, and what was supposed to be a simple distraction transfigures into an unhealthy obsession. By examining the continuous references to the yellow wallpaper itself, one can begin to notice how their frequency develops the plot throughout the course of the story. As well as giving the reader an understanding as to why the wallpaper is a more adequate and appropriate symbol to represent the lady’s confinement and the deterioration of her mental and emotional health. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the color of the wallpaper symbolizes the internal and external conflicts of the narrator that reflect the expectations and treatment of the narrator, as well as represent the sense of being controlled in addition to the feeling of being trapped.
“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” is a uniquely structured short story that does not incorporate a climax, yet exhibits the use of a resolution. Throughout the story, Walter Mitty has numerous daydream-fantasies, and they can all be contrasted to his mundane experiences in his dull life, such as when Walter waits outside of a drugstore for his wife and fantasizes into a world where he dies being known as “the Undefeated”.(37) The main underlying conflict is that Walter is sickened by his dull lifestyle and mentally escapes to fantasize into a world beyond life’s parameters, and his imagination is not hindered by any aspects of reality. This is displayed through his fantasies, especially the two where he is powering/controlling a Navy hydroplane,
Overall, imagination can result in a positive way and a negative way. Imaginations allow us to become a whole new person. Just like how Tim O’Brien used imagination to create a whole new himself. It gave him the power to do anything he want to do such as looking at dead bodies and being able to actually kill someone. O’Brien shows us the power of imagination and storytelling through his novel, “The Things They Carried.”
Imagery in literature brings a story to life for the reader. It draws the reader in and surrounds them with the environment of the narrative. The use of imagery will make the reader fully understand the circumstances under which the characters of a story live. In "The Yellow Wallpaper", by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator of the story often describes the wallpaper, each time giving more details. The vivid descriptions allow the reader into the psyche of the narrator, which illustrates her ever-deepening mental illness. The imagery presented in the wallpaper through the narrator's words show her descent into insanity coupled with her desire for independence.
The creation of a stressful psychological state of mind is prevalent in the story “The Yellow Wall-Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, as well as, Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”, Ophelia’s struggles in William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, and the self-inflicted sickness seen in William Blake’s “Mad Song”. All the characters, in these stories and poems, are subjected to external forces that plant the seed of irrationality into their minds; thus, creating an adverse intellectual reaction, that from an outsider’s point of view, could be misconstrued as being in an altered state due to the introduction of a drug, prescribed or otherwise, furthering the percep...
“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” expresses the theme that satisfaction is harder for those who are not normal. With all of Walter Mitty’s daydreams in between everything that he does, it shows that his actual life is lacking something that he desires.
In the short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, the author James Thurber, uses foreshadowing and contrast to tell the story. The story includes a middle aged man that is repeatedly told he is becoming older. He is thought to be a fool by everyone and is controlled by his wife. This unpleasant existence he holds, triggers daydreams that he experiences periodically and causes him to zone out.
Upon moving in to her home she is captivated, enthralled with the luscious garden, stunning greenhouse and well crafted colonial estate. This was a place she fantasized about, qualifying it as a home in which she seemed comfortable and free. These thoughts don’t last for long, however, when she is prescribed bed rest. She begins to think that the wallpaper, or someone in the wallpaper is watching her making her feel crazy. She finally abandons her positivity towards what now can be considered her husband’s home, and only labels negative features of the home. For example, the narrator rants about the wallpaper being, “the strangest yellow…wallpaper! It makes me think of… foul, bad yellow things” (Gilman). One can only imagine the mental torture that the narrator is experiencing, staring at the lifeless, repulsive yellow hue of ripping