In Jamaica Kincaid’s Girl, a mother simultaneously berates her daughter with instructions and teaches her what is expected from her as a woman. Kincaid uses repetitive details frequently throughout the story. For example, the mother tells her daughter “how to hem a dress” and “behave in the presence of men” so that the daughter can avoid “looking” and being “recognize[d]” as the “slut” she is “bent on becoming” (437-8). Her mother’s message of avoiding acting ‘slutty’ exposes modern gender stereotypes. The repetitive details suggest that a girl must dress and behave a certain way to avoid being branded a slut. Although these stereotypes are horrific, they are the harrowing reality women face every day. Kincaid uses repetitive details to critique women’s role in society. These
Likewise, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “Yellow Wallpaper” and Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” employ realistic details to convey social critiques. Thus, realistic details illuminate the true nature of a story and offer social critiques.
Hyper realistic and surreal details demystify the true nature of surprise and mystery in the stories. While “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” utilizes hyper realistic details to convey surprise, “The Fall of the House of Usher” employs surreal details to mystify the reader. For example, Peyton Farquhar discerns “the beating of the dragon flies’ wings” and “the rush of [a fish’s] body parting the water,” while the nameless narrator in “Usher” looks upon the house “with an utter depression of soul which [he] can compare to no earthly sensation” (82,675). Hyper realistic details create a false narrative: one in which Peyton survives, while surreal details establish a mystifying setting. The hyper realistic details guide the reader down the false narrative they fabricate, but once the ending unravels Peyton’s facade of survival, the reader becomes
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, “The Yellow Wall-Paper”, is a first-person narrative written in the style of a journal. It takes place during the nineteenth century and depicts the narrator’s time in a temporary home her husband has taken her to in hopes of providing a place to rest and recover from her “nervous depression”. Throughout the story, the narrator’s “nervous condition” worsens. She begins to obsess over the yellow wallpaper in her room to the point of insanity. She imagines a woman trapped within the patterns of the paper and spends her time watching and trying to free her. Gilman uses various literary elements throughout this piece, such as irony and symbolism, to portray it’s central themes of restrictive social norms
Gilman, Charlotte. "The Yellow Wallpaper." Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Ed. Edgar Roberts and Robert Zweig. New York: Longman, 2011. 419-428.Print.
Gillman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wallpaper." Responding to Literature: Stories, Poems Plays, and Essays. Fourth Edition. Ed. Judith A. Stanford. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2003. 604-616.
Imagining Reality: The Presentation Of The Theme of Illusion VS Reality in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Literature: an Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. X. J. Kennedy. New York: Longman, 1999. 469-481.
Don Robertson and Charlotte Perkins Gilman explore the theme of personal identity throughout their works, from Robertson’s The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread, to Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper. Though both Don Robertson and Charlotte Perkins Gilman both illustrate and explore the theme of personal identity in very different ways, there are also many similar ways it is illustrated and explored by both authors as well. Don Robertson shows this theme of personal identity through Morris Bird’s cautious sense of right and wrong and how he tries to atone for his mistakes throughout the book and wanting to earn self-respect for himself as well as through his journey to see his best friend, Stanley Chaloupka while Gilman shows this through the narrators fight for sanity, illustrating the fight for selfhood by a women in not only an oppressed environment but in an oppressive environment as well.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Booth, Alison and Kelly J. Mays, eds. The Norton Introduction to Literature. 10th ed. New York: Norton, 2010. 354-65. Print.
The symbolism and imagery used in the short stories paints a vivid picture into the author’s train of thought. Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Shirley Jackson were not normal writers. The stories are a form of gothic writing. This paper will be analyzing the point of view, symbolism, and setting in the stories The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and The Lottery by Shirley Jackson.
As the narrator presents a dangerous and startling view into the world of depression, Charlotte Perkins Gilman introduces a completely revitalized way of storytelling using the classic elements of fiction. Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” combines a multitude of story elements that cannot be replicated. Her vast use of adjectives and horrifying descriptions of the wallpaper bring together a story that is both frightening and intensely well told. Using the story’s few characters and remote setting, Charlotte Perkins Gilman presents the wallpaper itself as both a representation of the narrator and the story’s theme, as well as a symbol for her descent into the abyss of insanity.
Parental pressure is often part of a child’s life. The pressure depends on gender, society, and also culture. The really short story “Girl” by Jamaica Kinvaid is a conversation between a mother and daughter. The mother talk most of the time; she gave a long series of warnings and advice to the daughter, who responds only twice. These advises are mostly about how to take care of her dad, or future husband, and also household chores, cooking, manners, social conduct. The voice of the mother seemed commanding and “bitchy” but the mother seems to expect a great deal of her daughter, and she did say what she had to say to let the girl know it.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Making Literature Matter: Anthology for Readers and Writers. Fifth ed. Ed, John Clifford and John Schilb. Boston, Ma: Bedford, 2012. 955-968. Print.
Gilman, Charlotte. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Literature a World of Writing: Stories, Poems, Plays, and Essays. Ed. David Pike, and Ana Acosta. New York: Longman, 2011. 543-51. Print.
Even with the advancement of women in society, their roles and societal expectations have not changed. Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” and Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” are two stories with varied elements set in different periods in history, that show the role society has deemed as belonging to women. "The Story of an Hour" was written in the year 1894, almost a century before Kincaid wrote "Girl". However, despite the large gap in the times of the authors, a common theme emerges and that is the theme of the oppression of women and the role they are expected to assume in society.
The short story, Girl, by Jamaica Kincaid, can very easily be related directly to the author’s own life. Kincaid had a close relationship with her mother until her three younger brothers were born. After the birth of her brothers, three major values of her mother became apparent to Kincaid. In turn, Kincaid used the three values of her mother to write the short story, Girl. Specifically, these values led to three themes being formed throughout the story. It appears in the short story that the mother was simply looking out for her daughter; however, in all reality, the mother is worried about so much more. Kincaid uses the themes of negativity towards female sexuality, social norms and stereotypes, and the significant
Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” shows in society how a woman should be placed and what it means to be a woman. A women doesn’t question her partner, instead she is subservient to him. A woman’s duties include staying at home taking care of the children and cooking; while the man works and brings home the money. A feministic approach to Kincaid’s “Girl” points to the idea of the stereotypes that women can only be what they do in the home, they should only be pure and virtuous, and their main focus should be satisfying their husband.