Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Marge Piercy, Walt Whitman, and Flannery O’ Connor shared very similar idea in form of poem and stories mentioned in the book Compact Literature, edition 8. The common theme they all shared was “women”. All their readings were based on “women” in current society or in the past.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper”. The story was based on women and the lack of right in the society had in the past. “My brother is also a physician, and also of high standing, and he says the same thing.”(376) The writer is trying to describe the prestigious life that men in the society had, and how women were forced to follow their rules.
Marge Piercy wrote “Barbie Doll”. The poem main idea was based on girl child influenced by the idea of other people living in the society, rather than her own. “This girlchild was born as usual and presented dolls that did pee-pee and miniature GE stoves and irons and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy.” (1023) The poet was trying to explain how the small girls were forced to play with the dolls and small stoves, and they were also given red cherry lipsticks to play with. These all items symbolizes that they lived in the society which forced them to think like high
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The author gave a lot of importance to being a “lady” and the idea that represented the upper crust southern people living standards. As mentioned in the reading above, O’Connor also focused on the idea of “women”. “Her collars and cuffs were white organdies trimmed with lace and at her neckline, she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet. In the case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady.” (364) The following quote is more the recent past (1995), which explain that the women are taking care of their image and they want to look good in the society, which was not an idea in the society during the past