Have you ever had a bad or horrible experience in the restroom? Have you ever felt uncomfortable and just ignored it? Well, if you have, you are not alone. Deartra D. Madkins-Boone’s “Strange Encounters of the Restroom Kinds" talks about a girl named Cheryl, who keeps hearing noises from her stomach, and feels quite uncomfortable. Despite hearing all the noises her stomach keeps making, she keeps ignoring all this just to go get some tacos. As her day continues, later on, she is forced to go to the restroom. She describes her awkward and embarrassing experience of what happened while she was using the restroom. In “Strange Encounters of the Restroom Kinds", Deartra Boone shows the main character Cheryl struggling through her day and the issues …show more content…
she encounters in the restroom. The story starts off with Cheryl remembering that it is Taco Tuesday at a local place called Taco Hut.
She gets really excited because the tacos are on a lower price every Tuesday, for only 99cents. Despite the fact that Taco Hut is 30 minutes away, she does not hold and grudge and plans to drive there anyways. As she was walking to the parking lot, her stomach gurgled and thinks to herself, “Should I go to the restroom before I get on the road?”(Boone, 82). Instead of going, she took this lightly and thought she was only feeling this way because she was hungry. So she starts driving and arrives at her destination. After she ordered her tacos, Cheryl went to the restroom to wash her hands. Her stomach started to act all weird again and the author narrates that her stomach was saying, “You need to empty me before you put more food in me” (Boone, 86). These two statements prove the point that as Cheryl is going about her day, her mind keeps warning her about how she should use the restroom. She keeps feeling that she should go, but struggles to go and just shrugs it off. This is not really a difficult situation right now because she thinks she is just hungry, but later on it will get worse. Cheryl will feel the need to go to the restroom as her day continues, and we will see this further …show more content…
on. Throughout the story, Boone talks about how difficult and rough Cheryl’s day is going because of the fact that she thinks herself into thinking she does not need to go to the restroom immediately. Cheryl starts hearing more noises from her stomach, and later on her stomach starts to ache. However, she refuses to go but later on regrets her horrible decision. After a while when Cheryl is at unease and the author says, “She knew she was in trouble. Her belly was hurting, too. She should have listened to her body and gone to the restroom before…” (Boone, 86). In this quote, it shows that Cheryl later realizes that the best thing she should have done was to simply use the restroom. This quote proves the thesis because the thesis states that Cheryl is experiencing a tough time since she refused not to go to the restroom. Cheryl basically regrets not going and she knows for sure that something worse can happen. This is why she wished she had been done with the whole restroom situation earlier. Since Cheryl did not use the restroom when it was needed, she is now suffering a stomach ache and feels the need to go. She could have just used the restroom before leaving the house instead of delaying the condition, and making it even worse. Boone showed the readers how Cheryl was struggling while living her daily lifestyle just because she did not go to the restroom. Next, let us talk about what actually goes on when she is finally forced to use the restroom later on. After all the growling and cramping from her stomach, Cheryl decided to go to the restroom in a nearby building.
She expresses what she was going through when she was in the stall and how awkward it was when she was trying to use the restroom silently. The author is mentioning how difficult it is for Cheryl to use the restroom when two ladies are there. She is saying this quote while Cheryl is in the stall, on the toilet, about to use the restroom. Cheryl had to try to control what was going to happen; it was either going to be loud or “stanky” (Boone, 87). This quote relates back to the thesis because it shows how difficult the restroom experience for Cheryl was, which is what was mentioned in the thesis. This quote helps support the thesis because the thesis claims that Cheryl had a bad experience while using the restroom; this is exactly what happens. She has a difficult not making any noise while being on the commode, and she tries her best to remain silent, but she describes the loud noises that come. She feels embarrassed because two ladies in the neighboring stalls heard it, and later on they start laughing about her when they left the restroom. This idea shows how Cheryl had a terrible time in the stall because she kept putting off the need to use the restroom. She had a very awkward encounter because she cannot remain quiet whilst using the restroom. If Cheryl had used it in the beginning, she would not be going through such an unpleasant
situation. In “Strange Encounters of the Restroom Kind”, Boone illustrates to the readers how Cheryl is having a hard time throughout the day because she keeps ignoring the need to go use the restroom. Cheryl goes out to get tacos and as she continues with her day, she feels her stomach growl and grumble, but she stays avoiding the need to go. She is later forced to use the restroom in a nearby building and shares her experience of how she uses the restroom with people present. When she does go to the restroom, she feels very awkward because two ladies are there and she tries to use the restroom very quietly. But later, she hears them outside the restroom laughing and talking about her. I think this subject is important to talk about because many people think going to the restroom can wait or it is unnecessary. However, holding your urge to go can result in worse conditions, or a situation like what happened with Cheryl. This story helps show how important it is to just do the necessary actions, even if it is as simple as using the restroom.
Sedaris learns that this lady worked at Target and proceeded to ask her if “a lot of people defecate in your store?” to which she replied “How did you know.” (Sedaris) Sedaris learns that people would go to her Target and crouch down in the round clothing racks and proceed to defecate. Sedaris also learns that in Pier One some people will just lean against the wall, lower their pants and defecate right there on the floor. A stock boy from Kroger told Sedaris that it happened all the time; typically a 4 year old would ask to go to the bathroom, their mother would point to a dark corner, and then pretend like nothing happened. Sedaris also mentions a librarian who had made a large cardboard castle that she had built and painted by hand to place in the children’s section of the library. After two days of the castle being up, “what did she find lying just inside the drawbridge? A turd, that's what.” (Sedaris) The library defecation was left by a teenager who confessed after defecating in the elevator also. Sedaris comments on a Vegas security guard that would have to kick people out after they defecated in their pants because of not wanting to leave their slot machine. There was a lady who defecated inside the center of a toilet paper role, a college student that defecated in the dorm washing machine, a customer defecating in a urinal, and also someone who defecated in an ashtray at a
This was from the mind of young Grealy, the girl who had a depressed and angry mother, the mother that taught her that it was never okay to show weakness or cry (Grealy 30). Young Grealy believed that the way she earned acceptance during her first visit to the ER could carry over into her home life. I think that this moment encompassed all that Grealy was feeling at this time. The feeling that she was responsible for her mother’s unhappiness and depression, the feeling that if she showed she was not afraid, no one else in her family would be either, and the feeling that if she was not brave, her family would be unhappy forever. This was important because she felt that she had discovered a way to make her family whole again.
By analyzing this quote, it shows that Mrs. Johnson’s character is nothing but messy and she is very sarcastic. The presence of her character foreshadows that something mysterious is bound to happen that will involve her, or that she will stir up some type of drama. I know someone that happens to be like this, which helped me to formulate my analysis.
In the middle of the novel, Melinda is not only staying quite, but is also cutting class. She does this as a deflection from those around her who want her to speak what’s on her mind so they can help. Though, as before mentioned, the raping in Melinda’s mind, is viewed as her fault. Signaling to her believing that she does not deserve help and that she can solve the problem on her own. Greatly, this revelation is best seen when Melinda cuts class, while still being in school. This set-up is done in the form of a “old janitors closet that smells like sour sponges” (25). The janitors closet is a way for Melinda to express the “beast in [her] gut” which harbors her “[guilt, mistakes, and anger]” (51). Another way to show that Melinda thinks she does not deserve help and can solve her problem on her own is when she completely just does not go to school. She does not go to school as even her closet cannot help her, as the vein of her problem is at her school. Resulting in her question to herself: “why go to school?” as alone time somewhere else should clean out her mind
The Interaction Order of Public Bathrooms, written by Spencer E. Cahill, is an article that does a fairly well job at analyzing interpersonal relationships and individual practices in restrooms. Cahill used ideologies of Emile Durkheim, Erving Goffman, Margaret Atwood, Horace Miner, and Lyn Lofland to help construct his perspective on the individual’s expectations of bathroom etiquette through our experiences with others and how we internalize these behaviors.
To initiate on the theme of control I will proceed to speak about the narrators husband, who has complete control over her. Her husband John has told her time and time again that she is sick; this can be viewed as control for she cannot tell him otherwise for he is a physician and he knows better, as does the narrator’s brother who is also a physician. At the beginning of the story she can be viewed as an obedient child taking orders from a professor, and whatever these male doctors say is true. The narrator goes on to say, “personally, I disagree with their ideas” (557), that goes without saying that she is not very accepting of their diagnosis yet has no option to overturn her “treatment” the bed rest and isolation. Another example of her husband’s control would be the choice in room in which she must stay in. Her opinion is about the room she stays in is of no value. She is forced to stay in a room she feels uneasy about, but John has trapped her in this particular room, where the windows have bars and the bed is bolted to the floor, and of course the dreadful wall paper, “I never worse paper in my life.” (558) she says. Although she wishes to switch rooms and be in one of the downstairs rooms one that, “opened on the piazza and had roses all over the window. ...” (558). However, she knows that, “John would not hear of it.”(558) to change the rooms.
The narrator makes comments and observations that demonstrate her will to overcome the oppression of the male dominant society. The conflict between her views and those of the society can be seen in the way she interacts physically, mentally, and emotionally with the three most prominent aspects of her life: her husband, John, the yellow wallpaper in her room, and her illness, "temporary nervous depression. " In the end, her illness becomes a method of coping with the injustices forced upon her as a woman. As the reader delves into the narrative, a progression can be seen from the normality the narrator displays early in the passage, to the insanity she demonstrates near the conclusion.
The author uses imagery in the poem to make the experience of this one woman stand out vividly. The first lines of the poem say "she saw diapers steaming on the line / a doll slumped behind the door." The phrase "steaming on the line" is especially strong, making me able to feel the balmy heat of the day and the bright warm sunshine on my skin. Also, the diapers and doll may serve as symbols in this poem for all the cares that the woman carries in looking after her children. Right now she wants to put all that behind her, and doesn't want any reminders of it. She wants to escape into a place where there are no demands.
Although, for her, she has nothing more to focus on she trusts her imagination to pass the time. Over time she becomes more and more obsessed with the yellow wallpaper, which leaves her in shock. “The wallpaper becomes a projection screen of the narrator growing fright.” (Berman, p.47) This means that the narrator goes to herself on the wall. The isolated woman in the yellow paper is her own reflection. Something that the narrator still does not realize, she only feels the need to release the woman trapped in the wall. She refers to her room as a prison continuously. As she begins to feel isolated she projects her feelings on the yellow wallpaper, but the idea that the room is her prison goes from figurative to reality as insulation deepens her need to escape in some way. “Every time the narrator speaks, she is interrupted and contradicted until she begins to interrupt and contradict herself.” (Berman, p.55) She has her own plan for recovery. But unfortunately, her husband does not listen. For him, the only
In the beginning, the narrator talks about her surroundings, and why she is in her current situation. Her state of mind is clear, as she describes what is going on prior to her being set in this room. As the narrator writes about her husband she alludes to the fact that she suffers from an illness that her husband, who happens to be a well known physician, does no...
The daughter alludes to an idea that her mother was also judged harshly and made to feel ashamed. By the daughters ability to see through her mothers flaws and recognize that she was as wounded as the child was, there is sense of freedom for both when the daughter find her true self. Line such as “your nightmare of weakness,” and I learned from you to define myself through your denials,” present the idea that the mother was never able to defeat those that held her captive or she denied her chance to break free. The daughter moments of personal epiphany is a victory with the mother because it breaks a chain of self-loathing or hatred. There is pride and love for the women they truly were and is to be celebrated for mother and daughter.
The woman is restricted from living the way she wants to. She has to no option just like the woman stuck in wallpaper has to option to get out. The paper also represents the she has been given. For example, the woman did not want to be in the room. She also did not like the paper. The paper was an inconvenience for her because she hates the color and design. Unfortunately, he has no other option but to look at it or be by it. This is just like her life. She has to do things she does not want to and cannot do things she wants to. These are things that are unfortunate but she does not do anything to stop the situations she does not
..." (Wallace 75). From Brief Interviews With Hideous Men, Wallace talks about the events that go on in a men's restroom. "The soft plopping sounds. The little involuntary grunts. The special sigh of an older man at the urinal, the way he establishes himself there and sets his feet and aims and then lets out a timeless sigh you know he's not aware of" (Wallace 86). All of these excerpts are vastly random and are in no way connected.
The narrator admits she “disagrees with their ideas” (129), She believes that “congenial work, with excitement and change” (129) would help her feel better. In the story, she starts to admits that sometimes, she thinks that if she had “more society and stimulus…” and abruptly digresses and stops herself from finishing her sentence as if john knew what she is writing, she suddenly agrees that John often tells her the worst thing she can do is be thinking in her condition; this, is just another illustration of how even in her mind she is scared to break John’s rules by expressing her opinions. Barbara A. Suess in her article, the writings on the wall, remarks how in the story, it is evident the “unhealthy relationship between woman and medical language” (80). It is clear how there was not enough comprehension nor advancement on women’s health as it is
The issue of gender neutral bathrooms and transgender bathrooms is a hot topic right now in North America. Some people are strongly for it and others are going to great lengths to stop it. The majority of public bathrooms in Canada and The United States of America are gender segregated. Public bathrooms are one of the last places to still be separated by gender. Men and women work with each other, sit next to each other in restaurants, use public pools together, and much more. A bathroom with a locked stall, or single occupancy washrooms with a lock, should not be much different. When the idea was raised by the LGBTQIA*+ community to have transgender bathrooms or gender neutral bathrooms, North America was divided. There were those with no