The Yellow Wallpaper by Perkins Gilman

The Yellow Wallpaper seems to be set around the 1870's and in the US because the Fourth of July is celebrated. The protagonist is the narrator, who is not identified at the start but later said to be Jane. She tells the story in a first person point of view. She is the wife of John, the antagonist, a physician who does not believe she is sick. Jane seems to develop as the story goes on by the way she starts to look at the wallpaper and how she has many views or thoughts about it that end up making her go crazy. At first she hates it and wants to get rid of it then is intrigued by it and wants to uncover what is underneath. Jane is suffering from postpartum depression and to get her healthy, John rents a mansion for the summer to let her rest. Jane does not like this because she thinks she is getting worse. She is her own confidant in how everything she does and thinks she keeps to herself and writes it down as a form a therapy. The conflict is internal and man vs. herself because not only does she have to deal with all the thoughts and theories she has about the wallpaper by herself, but also worries about the fact that she is very sick. The climax comes to play when Jane goes on a rampage and tears down the wallpaper to let the women she sees out. Jane becoming the women proofs that she has some sort of psychological problem concluding that she is crazy. The theme of the story is that things are never what they seem.




This story was a little bit disturbing. The way it was told as if she was writing it all down in her journal gave a chance to see what she was going through and her thoughts of all that was happening to her. Living in this day and age is better than back then because now depression can be treated effectively and without having to be secluded in a mansion and not being able to do anything. The way that the story slowly flowed and unraveled Jane’s final outcome was a chance to, in a way, understand how one goes crazy. While reading the story, never did the thought of Jane being crazy came up. It is truly like seeing through an insane persons eyes because they do not think they are crazy, they think all they do is right and logical. Not until the end when Jane says “I wonder if they all come out of that wall-paper as I did?” her true sickness is revealed, she was slowly going crazy and the yellow wallpaper drove her to insanity. It was sad reading how she knew something was not right and she could not tell anyone because they never believed her. She kept everything to herself so John would not see that his actions to supposedly help her were really useless. It is weird how since the beginning she knew something was not right about the yellow wallpaper and it turned out to be right.

I Stand Here Ironing by Tillie Olsen

I Stand Here Ironing is set in the 1930's during the great depression. The narrator is a single mother who talks about how she had to raise her daughter. It is said in a stream of consciousness point of view and in a sad, regretful tone. The protagonist seems to be Emily, the daughter who the story is about. She is a developing character that is somewhat of a loner and ends up interested in acting. The narrator, the mother, sees herself as the antagonist who regrets not being there for her daughter as she was growing up and hates herself for it. As the story unfolds, the hardship the narrator faces is what makes Emily's childhood horrible. All the moving, being away from her mother and the bad living conditions as she grew seems to make Emily isolated and socially undeveloped. The mother is a static character. Though in many times she wants to change, she does not, which is what she regrets. Because the mother does not pay much attention to the protagonist as she should have, Emily resents her younger sister Susan, who seems to be everything she is not and puts off her school work because she has to care for her other siblings. Emily, at 19, is finally a little happier because she has found acting even though it is just a way to escape her reality. She finally gets the attention she has always wanted. The denouement is that Emily will never reach her full potential because she has settled for the first form of admiration she has received and the narrator still does nothing to change her ways, even if she wants to. The theme is guilt and regret as the whole story is said as a mother’s regretful life and guilt for that life.




This story is very sad in that there is no way in changing how the narrator raised her daughter. As she recalls all the hardships she endured and how it affected her eldest daughter the most, it made her regret everything and made her feel guilty. Emily is moved from place to place either because of her sickness, or because her mother cannot care for her. She practically raised herself. It was sad when the mother mentions that whenever Emily had a nightmare she could not go see her and she would yell to her that everything was going to be okay. She was not even comforted which made her not like human affection as she got older. It really makes people realize that even though things are hard sometimes, it is important to love those around and to pay attention to them. This is what the narrator regrets, not being there to love and comfort her child when she needed it the most. The outcome of this is that Emily resents her younger sister, Susan, for having and being everything she wanted. This makes Emily believe that studying makes no difference, she felt unimportant and she thinks this as how her life will always be.

Everyday Use by Alice Walker

Everyday Use by Alice Walker is a story that wants the reader to understand how you can take for granted where you came from. The mood of the story is bitter sweet in that they are all happy to see Dee, but also nervous as to what she will think of the same type of living she frowned upon before. The protagonist in the story is Mama, and she tells the story in the first person as it is happening. The antagonist is Dee, who seems to have suffered through man vs. society conflict when she was younger. Dee makes up stories about her family and wants better things than what she has, she is ashamed of her family. Maggie is Mama’s confidant, who she tells everything to and knows she is loyal and trustworthy. When Dee comes to visit one day, Mama is surprised to see that she is all of a sudden interested in their way of living which is ironic because this was the reason she had left for the city in the first place. Now, all the things that Dee thought were old, useless and gross are part of her history that needs to be showcased, preferably in her new home. Hakim-a-barber, Dee’s significant other, is a static character who is intrigued by the family’s way of living. The climax of the story is when Dee, who is used to never hearing the word “no”, wants a quilt that Mama and Big Dee made. Maggie, who is never considered and use to not getting anything ever, was promised the quilt and when Dee asked for it, she hides in her room to cry because she knows that Dee was going to take it. When Maggie tells Dee she can have the quilt, Mama becomes a developing character because she puts her foot down and says no to Dee, which surprised both Maggie and Dee. The outcome makes Dee come to terms that things have changed and things aren’t going to be as they were.




Dee was annoying. Everything told about her made her seem self absorbed, vain, and hypocritical. Poor Maggie was the one who suffered the most and Dee was the one who complained. One thing is to know what you want and do everything possible to get it and another to make up stories and to boss people around to get it. When Dee gets the opportunity to go to Atlanta with help from the church she does not even thank them. When she returns, Maggie is scared to see her and Mama wonders of what she will think of them. Dee comes back all changed and now loves her heritage and where she came from. She is such a hypocrite, and she just wanders in thinking it was going to be like before and she would be able to get what she wants just by asking for it. Maggie is so used to not getting anything that when the quilt was brought up she did not want to give it away but assumed she might as well give to Dee, she was going to take it anyway. This is when Mama puts her foot down and tells Dee no. Mama should have not let her take the other things she wanted either, she did not deserve them.