Examples Of A Synthesis Paper

Natalie Tapia

Mrs. Fotis-Smith

Period 5

1 June 2023

Final Exam - Synthesis Paper Feminism is a concept that has been around for quite a long time. Although most women’s suffrage movements have only gained traction in the past century, the concept of equal rights for women has been something women have fought for for much longer than that. For example, traditional marriage roles are a large aspect of a woman’s life, and most women find that these expectations and stereotypes weigh on them and make them miserable in marriage. The theme of oppressive marriages is present in many early writings by women, including short stories such as The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin and The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The Story of an Hour

This story was written in 1899, and while it takes a much darker approach to the themes, it is still a story depicting a woman with similar issues as the previous story. The Yellow Wallpaper is written as a series of diary entries by a mentally ill woman most likely suffering from severe postpartum depression. In the first entry, the narrator reveals that her and her husband have moved into a “colonial mansion” for the summer, and while she is excited to be in such an extravagant home, her husband won’t allow her to leave the nursery. Her husband, John, is a physician, and he insists that the only treatment suitable for the narrator’s condition is rest and isolation. Over the course of the story, the narrator becomes more and more obsessed with the ugly wallpaper spread around the walls of the nursery. On the last day of their stay, John walks in on the narrator crawling around the room, and she declares “I’ve got out at last’...’in spite of you and Jane. And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!”. John faints, and the narrator continues to crawl around the room over his body. This story was tricky to figure out, nevertheless, upon further inspection it becomes clear that the wallpaper was a symbol of the guilt that plagued the narrator, or Jane, for not being able to fit the role of a traditional housewife. Her final line implies that she has

The most glaring difference is the husbands within the story. In The Story of an Hour, Brently Mallard is discussed very briefly, however the descriptions of him depict him as a loving husband who treated his wife as well as he could. John, the husband from The Yellow Wallpaper, is depicted very differently. He is a physician who uses his title to belittle and control his wife. He isolates her from the outside world completely and forbids any form of self expression. Throughout the entries, there are many that end abruptly with the narrator writing about John entering the room, “There comes John, and I must put this away – he hates to have me write a word,”. He also keeps his wife locked up in a nursery, which is also symbolic of how her problems are being belittled by him and she is being treated as a child rather than an adult woman. Regardless of the husband’s treatment, these two women are still just as miserable as can be. If anything, the differences between the story make the similarities even