Just as the yellow wallpaper symbolizes gender inequality, escaping from the this cage of discrimination and oppression on women springs the rising of feminism. At the end of another story, the narrator is able to grasp an understanding of Sonny’s values and struggles, along with a salvation of his own. For all this time a seemingly rebellious and depressive figure of Sonny is illustrated, a soul of freedom and his values are conveyed in the music. Contrastingly, despite of a stable life of being a middle-class high school teacher, the narrator is trapped in Harlem both physically and mentally. Unlike Sonny, escaping from the neighbourhood of “boiling sea” that’s filled with people of rage and depression rarely seems an idea that occurs to the narrator ’s mind.
2. Insanity One of the most important symbols of insanity in Sylvia Plath’s novel is the bell jar. Given the fact that this is also the title of the book, it is surprising to find that the bell jar only recurs at the beginning of chapter fifteen when Esther, after being ‘rescued’ from the city hospital, reflects on how indifferent she is to where exactly she is at the moment.
The heavy bedstead, which was nailed to the ground, was another feature that represents the room as a jail cell. Therefore, the room that she is prisoned shows how the madness benefited her to gain control and achieve a way to escape her confinement. In conclusion, the diverse literature 's do share a common theme that shows women fighting to overcome societal expectations due to the female gender not valued as thinkers capable of being their equals and mental illness can be caused by society’s stereotypical
How is the idea of femininity explored in The Yellow Wallpaper and Of Mice and Men? Throughout Charlotte Perkins Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper and John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men the idea of femininity is mainly explored through two characters that don’t fit the expected roles of the time. These characters provide us with an understanding of how women were labelled through symbolism in both texts. The futility of the women’s dreams and that they only served a purpose as wives, is shown between dialogue, narration and symbolism.
Telling of her world, she brings the reader through a twisting world where all social issues within the ward stem from forced confinement. In the memoir, the idea of stigmas is confronted but altered to show the reader that the girls want to feel no shame towards their “mental illness.” This idea of being shameless is only possible because the girls believe that there is nothing wrong with them, or if there is, it is solely caused by the ‘annoying’ nurses who control them and their minds. Seeing that the girls feel no shame, this protests the stigma that comes along with having a mental illness. These specific people in the world are usually seen as incapable of doing what so called ‘normal’ people can do.
Shubkaran Kaur 100129968 Professor Crystal Hurdle English 103-02 March 18, 2018 Why Might the ‘The Bell Jar’ be Dubbed as Black/Dark Comedy? ‘The Bell Jar’ is a classic novel by Sylvia Plath which revolves around the character Esther Greenwood who falls into spiral of craziness and loses control of herself while she is in the pursuit of establishing her career. Her depression in the novel and struggle to explore herself not only makes the novel effortlessly interesting, intense and gloomy but also hilarious the same time.
Masculine and Feminine Roles in Steinbeck’s “Chrysanthemums” In the story “The Chrysanthemums”, by John Steinbeck, Elisa Allen lives an unsatisfactory life as she desires more than what is bestowed upon her. The reader learns Elisa’s husband is culpable for not seeing the beauty of his wife, leaving an open door for the antagonist, a traveler, to prey upon Elisa’s. Steinbeck uses Masculine and Feminine roles of the early 20th century, Internal Conflict, and an antagonist, to show Elisa’s struggle for Identity. Steinbeck illustrates Masculine and feminine roles of the 20th century in the “Chrysanthemums” to show Elisa’s struggle with identity.
Literature is often credited with the ability to enhance one’s understanding of history by providing a view of a former conflict. In doing so, the reader is able to gain both an emotional and logistical understanding of a historically significant event. Additionally, literature provides context that can help the reader develop a deeper understanding of the political climate of a time period. Within the text of The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead’s, the use of literary elements such as imagery, metaphor, and paradox amplifies the reader’s understanding of early 19th century slavery and its role in the South of the United States of America. Throughout the novel, Whitehead utilizes a girl named Cora to navigate the political and personal consequences of escaping slavery, the Underground Railroad, and her transition from the title of fugitive to freed. Cora’s ability to convey descriptions of events both tragic and hope-filled such as the dehumanization of slaves or the truth of freedom, while utilizing literary elements, create an emotional understanding of the 1800’s of the United States.
There is a distinguished balance in the relationship of women and men and it is visible in coexisting and procreating beyond themselves. In making decisions that are influenced by mistakes sometimes, one person gets the short end of the stick. In Hills Like White Elephants, the feminine role is displayed by a woman named Jig, whose feelings and thoughts get pushed aside to cater to the main male character’s wants and needs. In this case the “operation,” that cannot even be called by it’s true name or else the objective to persuade would not be met and ruin their lives. Masculine and feminine attributes have been visible in literature from the beginning of language, with the response of love and forcing one’s self to put aside: “me” for “you.”
In 1986, after the feminist movement began to lose steam, Barbara Lazear Ascher published “The Box Man” to nurture the idea that all women can act for themselves. The beliefs that everyone had a soul mate and that solitude meant loneliness pervaded the women society in America. Instead, Ascher presents herself as a woman who can choose who she will be and who can find happiness without guidance. By weaving the concept that women can choose who they will be into the vivid, heroic imagery of the Box Man, she blooms the idea that women who over-fantasize and over-romanticize life are missing true happiness. Although Ascher identifies herself as one of these women, she boldly molds her view's validity in others’ minds.
Esther attempts to correlate the story with her relationship with Buddy Willard. She imagines each fig to be a possible path through which her
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath is a semi-autobiographical novel in which Plath relays her own experiences through protagonist Esther Greenwood by highlighting the struggles she faced in navigating societal expectations, depression, and her own desires. Having spent time in college and later in multiple mental health institutions, Plath tells her story through Esther in a way that blends fiction and reality. Through Esther, we see Plath’s own interpretations of her triumphs, failures, values, and the slow but seemingly inevitable diminishment of her mental health. The story starts with Esther Greenwood in New York City, where she is spending a month working at a magazine because she won a scholarship to a special summer program for female writers.
In the novel, The Bell Jar, the protagonist Esther Greenwood, struggles to reach her own personal goals in a male-dominant society. The main character, Esther was expected to marry a man to become a housewife that will clean the house, support him, and nurture him. Esther has always nurtured her goals of her own and has never wanted to simply help a husband. In the novel, The Bell Jar, Mrs. Willard educates his son Buddy the way society views femininity and the roles of women. As Mrs. Willard explains to Buddy, “What a man is is an arrow into the future, and what a woman is the place the arrow shoots off from” (Plath 67).
What we see in the movie is not what we see in real life. So does Hollywood really represent every ethnicity and stereotypes that the majority of the viewers agrees with? Stereotype creates more harm than good because they can influence so many minds. Even though we might find it funny and laugh that their strong accents or their strange culture, traditions, many Americans believe that Asians have an easy face because they get the best jobs and cars, but even this is a stereotype because not all Asians are having the best jobs or cars. Some Asian have the same struggles that many other races, face living in America being whitewashed in Hollywood.
This novel is also autobiographical. Throughout history, women have been locked in a struggle to free themselves from the borderline that separates and differentiate themselves from men. In many circles, it is agreed that the battleground for this struggle and fight exists in literature. In a
