The Yellow Wallpaper 'And Where Is My Mind?'

In How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster, Foster states that “old text and new [are] always going on at one level or another” (23). For this reason, stories seem to connect, a phenomenon called intertextuality. According to Foster, each “text is speaking with other text” (23). In other words, stories can sometimes be similar and interact with one another, which adds a deeper layer and multiple meanings to the comparing works. At times, it can be done unintentionally or not. Components of intertextuality can be found between two texts by recognizing similar elements. In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the song “Where Is My Mind?” by Pixies, both text have main characters going through a psychotic

Though both texts are written in different time periods, noticeable intertextuality archetypes such as situational, geographical, and seasonal elements are evident in both text.
“The Yellow Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “Where is my Mind?” by Pixies both discuss the subject of the mind. Both text are about unnamed narrators who question where their sanity is. Gilman’s story is about an unnamed woman who goes on a vacation during the summer with her husband, John, who is a physician. After the birth of her child, John diagnoses the narrator with a “temporary nervous depression” (673). Due to this, she is required to take a lot of rest and is “forbidden to ‘work’” (673) until she is well again. Though her husband believes this is the best possible treatment, the narrator thinks otherwise. Despite this, she does not state her opposition to the treatment to John because John is “so wise, and because he loves [her] so” (679). As the weeks progress in the story, the