She proceeds to explain the contributing factors of the narrator succumbing to her “disease” of hysteria which was isolation from social interaction and the restriction of her own thoughts. She points out that the narrator is confined to a simple square room with nothing to offer in terms of mental health therapy. The narrator’s lack of the ability to interact with anything or anyone leads to infatuation with the wallpaper, which turns out to be “the
The poem “Where There’s a Wall” by Joy Kogawa uses various imagery and symbolism to further enhance the effectiveness of the poem and its message. Like most other poems, “Where There’s a Wall” contains several layers of meaning, which is why it requires the reader to dig through the little details and examples in order to see the big picture. One segment of the poem makes reference to peaceful methods to approach the obstacle of a wall standing in one’s way. It states, "Where there's a wall/ there's a way/ around, over, or through/ there's a gate/ maybe a ladder/ a door."
This observation also serves as the narrator recognizing the paper’s, or boundary’s, relevance to herself; she sees a “woman”--a reflection of herself--trapped behind the paper, confined by that thin line that separates herself from total insanity. Her behavior becomes obsessive: she keeps a constant vigil of the wallpaper at night, and claims that the woman behind the wallpaper “is all the time trying to climb through” (348). And the narrator aids her escape--as soon as she is given the opportunity: “I shook and she pulled, and before morning we had peeled off yards of that paper” (349). The destruction of the wallpaper is symbolic of her fully delving into the world of insanity. From this point
It's yellow color symbolizes the way the narrator feels about her situation. "Unclean", "dull", "sickly" is how she may have felt deep down about her relationship with her husband and the life she lived under him. The wallpaper itself becomes a symbol for her. She uses it as a coping method and projects her feelings onto it and the woman she sees in it. The windows symbolize how she is trapped in this marriage and she can only view the beautiful outside through the many windows, reminding her of what she cannot have.
In “The Trouble with Poetry”, and “Introduction to Poetry” Billy Collins focuses on the issue of forced inspiration, and the lack of appreciation readers, and aspiring poets have for the feel of poetry. In “Introduction to Poetry”, Collins mentions that some poetry enthusiasts try too hard to find the meaning of a poem; to try and decipher it like some ancient hieroglyphics, that they forget that poetry is not an essay and does not necessarily have to have a distinct message. In stanza’s seven and eight, the speaker states that poetry should be felt, and that what one poem means to a group of people could have a completely different effect on another group. In stanza eight “Feel the walls” is the speaker’s ways of saying that one should feel a poem and let the poem speak to them, instead of searching for what they believe to be its true meaning.
Secondly, throughout the story, the narrator describes seeing an evolving woman trapped inside of the wall. Although readers can assume that this woman is merely a product of the narrator’s mind, the woman can also be seen as a symbol of the narrator and her feelings of being trapped. Eventually, the woman in the wall aids the narrator in her escape. In conclusion, many elements of the narrator’s increasing madness throughout The Yellow Wallpaper contributed to her freedom from the confines of the room, the confines of society, and the confines of her
As this progresses, the woman starts to go mad from ignorance and starts to believe there is someone behind the Wallpaper. In her room, the narrator starts to obsess over the Wallpaper. The Wallpaper symbolizes women starting to realize how unfair they were treated and how responded to this. As the women’s illness keeps getting subdued by her husband, she starts to go mad and the wallpaper demonstrates this. In the third entry of her diary she says, “Of
Not following the instructions given to her by her doctor and being confined in this area has caused some sort of mental build up. The wallpaper driving her crazy, suffering a mental illness, and having such an isolated lifestyle in a house isolated from the main villages has put thoughts into her head that she believes, like being the woman in the wall. That was the effect; the cause of all of this is simply because she wanted something to do after having her whole life changed for a few months, so she went to the
The Insanity of “The Black Cat” Edgar Allan Poe left the ending of most of his stories enigmatic and therefore, open to controversial interpretations. Many debate whether the endings are the result of insanity or of haunting. It is evident that “The Black Cat” ending is caused by insanity, based on multiple re-occurrences that happen to the narrator. Many situations from the story support this claim.
Martin states that the narrator’s confinement in the upstairs bedroom fortifies her mental illness developing into “a frightening hallucinatory world constructed around the pattern of the yellow paper on the wall.” This shift in her identity happens as the shift in her disposition towards the wallpaper changes. The wallpaper is a visible metaphor that eventually becomes her identity. In the beginning of her stay in the bedroom she says the wallpaper is “committing artistic sin” (Par34) and can push anyone to “suddenly commit suicide” (Par35) These comments show her despise towards the wallpaper and the separation she originally has from it.
It 's here where she discovers the yellow wallpaper that leads to her mental demise. What is the symbolic meaning of the yellow wallpaper and how do her interactions with the wallpaper represent the change in her feelings towards her husband and society. The yellow wallpaper symbolizes women 's suffrage and the struggles women went through, and her interactions with the wallpaper represent the problems woman had with their husbands and society. The main symbolism present in the story is how the yellow wallpaper represents woman suffrage and the problems they endured during the 19th century.
Ann Petry pens a stimulating expositional read in her 1946 novel, The Street. Running with the over-arching anticipated universal theme of vulnerability, Petry establishes Lutie Johnson’s relationship with the urban setting quite succinctly. Through her use of well-placed literary conventions, Ann Petry delivers a piece that will withstand the test of time. Petry establishes the wind as a symbol of an attacker to foreshadow Lutie Johnson’s violent future. From the very first paragraph, the wind is written ripping through the street, doubling over the pedestrians against its force.
The vast majority of people wouldn’t give the wallpaper much thought, however the narrator becomes obsessed with it. To the narrator, the wallpaper is alive and becomes the focus of all her time. Her overwhelming lure to the wallpaper becomes obvious when she first provides a very vivid description stating “It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide – plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions” (217-218). As she begins to lose her grip on reality, the narrator beings to see faces and eventually a woman within the wallpaper. At first, her description of seeing faces in the wallpaper seems like it could be her mind making since of the varying patterns or just part of her imagination.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book The Glass Castle. I found the book deeply moving as well as meaningful and gives insight to a lifestyle that is usually overlooked in society. The main take away from this book I found is a family such as the Walls, who are just getting by are usually overlooked. They were not constantly living on the streets and moved around multiple times, thus alluding attention that would have affected their life.
Roger Waters represents the lyrics “all in all you’re just another brick in the wall” as education being a pain, and a worthless amount of time. Personally, the wall is as a self-isolating barrier we build through our lives. The bricks are people, or events, which turns us inward, away from others and reality (Marcelo). Pink Floyd describes education as adding another brink to the wall. As can be seen, the individuality within the students are taken away from the teachers and the school system as told through Pink
