Reviewing the 's summaries and themes pages, you can get a
deeper understanding of each story.
In "The Yellow
Wallpaper," themes are "the role of women" and "mental
illness."
In this story the narrator's life is controlled
by her husband and [male] doctor. Neither man allows that the narrator, being a woman,
could possibly know what is best for her. Jenny, her sister-in-law, is there to provide
support and care for the narrator, but only as it meets with the approval of the
narrator's husband, Jenny's brother.
Both men also believe
that they know what is best for the narrator who is suffering from post-partum
depression (which is a documented form of mental illness) after the birth of her child.
At the doctor's advice, and her husband's insistence, the narrator is closed off from
the world, including her baby. She is allowed no interaction or distractions outside of
the house; even as she exhibits signs of someone in terrible psychological trouble, her
husband does not take her seriously. This controlled environment feeds her mental
illness until she is overcome by it, finding herself trapped "behind" the yellow
wallpaper in her bedroom.
In "Everyday Use," the themes are
"heritage,""materialism," and "community vs. isolation." The two sisters in the story
are very different.
In terms of "heritage," Dee is a part
of the world at large, influenced by many new experiences and people, as she has moved
away from home--to the point that she has disconnected herself from her family's roots.
Maggie, on the other hand, has stayed close to home and in touch with the family of
which she is a part, past and present.
"Materialism" is
seen with Dee. Dee has decided that she wants family heirlooms because she
says they will make a statement about where she comes from, but
it's more because they will look good; they won't keep Dee connected to her roots. For
Dee, it's all about "having."
Dee has lost her connection
to the people who have created the life she now enjoys. In her move to join life in the
big city, while there are more people, she is more isolated. She has relinquished the
name she was given at birth for "Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo." Her belief is that she
cannot "wear" a name given to her by the people who "oppress her." This change further
isolates her from family and her past. (This incident also shows that she is
materialistic in that she wants heirlooms, but not in order to connect with her past; in
her mind, the past has given her nothing she wants.) Maggie, on
the other hand, is still connected to her roots. When her sister comes home, Dee wants
family quilts that have been passed down through generations or made by her mother to
make a statement about who she is, but "who she is" now has no connection to her
past.
Maggie shows that her connection to the quilts is
based on her link to the past, but she is willing to let them go to Dee because even
though the quilts would bring her closer to her family's heritage, she is still
connected without the need of material things. Having a relationship with the lives of
the people who have come before her is immensely important to
Maggie.
[The only similarity I see between the two stories
is that in each story there is a woman who needs a connection to the world she lives in
(the narrator and Maggie), and that isolation drives each woman who does not have--or is
not allowed to have--it, to unhappiness and a place of loss (the narrator and
Dee).]
No comments:
Post a Comment