Slavery's Poisonous Grasp

in continuation to my previous post:

"Slavery is terrible for men, but it is far more terrible for women.”
Again. I am just sickened by the violence that Mr. flint puts Linda through. When she finds out that she is once again pregnant with another baby from him, there was a sudden ache in my chest. Perhaps it was the fear of what would happen net, how the master would react, or the fact that I felt that she was really trapped. I have never reacted to such a book this way, especially in this class. That void that I felt at that moment only grew larger when I continued reading, when Dr. Flint takes the scissors and cuts off her stands of hair, the only part of herself where she has pride, where she takes the time to make it look nice. It is through this act of snipping what she holds more precious to all that the violence is brought to a whole other level for me personally. As she says, having mothered two of his children has robbed her of her purity, her happiness, and the little respect she had prior. Again, through this birth of yet another child, she is robbed from getting away from the master and his family. What’s even more disgusting is that he dares to blame her for this, again, it seemed somewhat common at these time for men to blame women as being temptresses, but it is clear in this situation that Linda is the one who is a survivor of constant rape, sexual assault, and emotions, as well as physical distress. The next part of this passage weighed me down completely when she finds out that she has just given birth to a girl. Her immediate reaction is to regret that this baby didn’t turn out being a boy, he would have options, perhaps even become a freeman. Yet all hope is lost after the birth. She knows that her daughter will most likely face the same abuse and lack of respect that she has had to face all of her life.
This moment really was difficult for me, it’s one of the rare times that I have felt so angry and saddened, and felt that Linda was trapped with Mr. flint, and was stripped from her respect, her femininity, her identity, and ultimately, her freedom—

oppressed

I just want to start off by saying how much the events in the book have horrified me. I don't think that any one of us can say that we aren't horrified and sympathetic, but that's all expected. Slavery was a horrible thing and we expect any slave narrative to be full of incidents that provoke our sympathy and our anger. I found something unexpected in the book as well. When she sympathizes with the mistress who has been tormenting her I am thrown. I know that she has been tormented and psychologically tortured, and if I was her I would be mad. I was mad for her, angry at the mistress and Dr. Flint. Yet, she doesn't blame her, at least she doesn't blame her completely. She blames the institution of slavery. She blames the oppressor – oppressed dichotomy for the way that they acted. She even provides examples of situations that would have turned out differently had that dichotomy not been in place. Sh focuses not solely on the problem that slavery creates for the oppressed slaves but also for the oppressors, the damage that it does to their characters, to their families. I didn't expect to find that in the narrative.

The concern that she has for her tormentors, the family of her tyrant, and the observation that the institution of slavery has done them harm as well are all elements of Friere. Friere's pedagogy outlines the same principles, that an oppressor – oppressed situation is harmful for both parties, and he goes further by suggesting that only the oppressed can truly escape. The oppressed can escape, and in order for the oppressors to be saved they must acknowledge the humanity of the oppressed and then help them out of their oppression. There are a few slaveholders that meet this definition, but only in death. Just like their slaves they only exit the slave-holding system when they die, and manumit their slaves.

feeling like walt whitman

Part of what makes me such a huge fan of Walt Whitman is the personal revelations he went through when he moved from New York City to New Orleans for a three month editorial position and the way that his time in the southern city effected his politics and poetry.

In the beginning of his career, Whitman was opposed to abolitionism and abolitionsts as he believe the movement did more harm and created more commotion than good. Whitman believed that abolitionists had slowed the progression of the anti-slavery movement by being too politically extreme and disrupting the democratic process. That being said, Whitman also disapproved of the Southern state and their inability to put the interests of the nation above their own. After his short time in New Orleans, living in the culture, amongst the slaves, he returned to New York City with an entirely new perspective. In his unpublished word, The Eighteenth Presidency, Whitman wrote to the men of the South “either you abolish slavery of I abolish you”. After his time in New Orleans, he was entirely disgusted and moved to action by the idea of people being traded as if they were lifeless commodities.

This is how I felt when I read chapters three and four of Harriet Jacob's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. It's safe to say that every American has learned something about slavery throughout their many year's in the national educational system. We learn about the civil war, abolitionists, the cruelty of slavery, and sometimes even slavery as it exists in modern day with human trafficking, forced labor, abduction, and prostitution. That being said, narratives have the ability to pull emotions out of readers that history textbooks simply cannot.

When it comes to slavery, it’s safe to say that I am well educated, but upon reading Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, I was struck like Whitman during his time in New Orleans by the ways in which the story’s white characters so easily dismissed the notion of life and humanism in their slaves. One passage that particularly moved me was the passage in chapter three where Linda discusses the dispensability of elder slaves.

“Slaveholders have a method, peculiar to their institution, of getting rid of old slaves, whose lives have been worn out in their service. I knew an old woman, who for seventy years faithfully served her master. She has become almost helpless, from hard labor and disease. Her owners moved to Alabama, and the old black woman was left to be sold to any body who would give twenty dollars for her” (17).

Though I had most certainly read about elder slaves and their role in the slave economy, I had never read about it in a way that highlighted the blatant disregard of life and emotion in the slave owners. I found myself angry, as if I wanted to write an Eighteenth Presidency of my own and years after American slavery ended. This feeling persisted through the entire reading.

I Love Linda!

I’ve never read this book before, and the writing style is entirely different than anything we’ve read this semester; but I love this book and the main character. The subject matter at times is uncomfortable to read and imagine, but the book is so compelling I have to continue on. I always find books about the incredible crimes humanity has perpetrated throughout history of utmost most importance and incredibly fascinating, especially when it comes to slavery. The plight of the main character was so devastating, but entirely unrelatable as a women living in the 21st century; but I felt such an attachment to her. Linda’s intelligence and blatant insubordination were the traits I loved most about. Linda was so incredibly brave and that is often a characteristic not written about in tales of slavery non-fiction or otherwise. Although there were slaves who were bold enough to runway or even slaves that finally snapped and lashed out, at times violently towards their masters; we do not hear of slaves that used their wit, intelligence, and mastery of language to stand up to their masters. Linda, often unwilling to think of the consequences is unapologetically honest to her slimy, tyrannical master Dr Flint, who is probably one of the creepiest guys ever. However, we learn through Linda’s stories that hers is not special, many plenty of slave girls just like her forced on by their masters, birthing slave children that played alongside their white brothers and sisters.

When Linda uses her cleverness to spurn Dr Flint’s advances and takes on a different “lover”, I found that situation incredibly sad and disturbing. Linda notes that her affection for Mr. Sands only stems from his flattery and kind interest in her. It is obvious that their relationship is solely based on both parties using the other. Linda uses her relationship with Mr. Sands as retaliation to her master as well as gaining a small sense of freedom in controlling her body and fate. Mr. Sands uses Linda for obvious reasons, sexual satisfaction. However, given Linda’s state of enslavement and lack of options this relationship was possibly a means of gaining freedom from her villainous master.

First Read, First passage

This is a somewhat sudden shift from what we’ve been reading earlier on in the semester, and somewhat was a difficult transition for me for the first ten or so pages. The other books and essays had many common themes of community living, experimental living situations in isolated areas, and witness the expected gender roles for both men and women during 19th Century in the United States. During the same time that “Little Women,” “Wide Wide World,” “The Yellow Wallpaper,” “Blithdale Romance” and the Transcendentalists’ essays were being written, an inhuman treatment on individuals being brought here from Africa and South America to the U.S. to become slaves quickly became an epidemic. What I find most surprising is that the most recent books prior to “Incidents of a slave girl” hardly ever mention the Civil war, or minimal reference to the slaves. I became even more aware this when the passage that said that slavery was tough on everyone, not just the slaves and the families that were being separated and shipped off to different regions of the United States. It was interesting because the narrator, Harriet, mentioned that it was especially difficult for the slave owners and their families. That having the responsibility of owning the plantation and taking care of the slaves drained the owners. That he (meaning most of the men owners) had to be more mean than what they actually wanted to be- perhaps out of fear of not being respected and the fear of being overthrown, that the children didn’t understand why their closest friends while growing up became more as a piece of property that they own, and the wives…the wives had to deal with the husbands cheating on them, fathering numerous babies with the young slave girls and accept this. It may be how honest it was written, but this is a very different aspect of looking at the issue.
I wasn’t sure exactly why the wives, especially the doctor’s wife didn’t do more to help prevent the rape and “affair” from developing. Other than being afraid of the husband’s reaction. The wife had a difficult time accepting it, and throughout the months, her jealousy for the slave girl began to grow stronger, I thought she would do or say something about it. Instead, she left her husband cheat on her, and let a man rape a young girl. It simply didn’t seem in her character to let this happen and was outraged about not anyone doing anything to make it stop.

Surprising Positivity

Before reading this book and just knowing the title, I was expecting a gruesome account of the daily lives of slaves. I had never read a slave's account of their life and from what I have learned about slavery in school and watching documentaries, the extreme cases have been highlighted and the harsh treatment the slaves received has always stuck out in my mind. But at the beginning of this novel, this is not the case, especially with her grandmother. Her grandma's slave owner loved her and the two seemed to be very close. She was promised freedom, and her children were sold to slavery, but within her mistress' family so they were all kept close together. To me this was surprising that the owners would be so considerate.

After her mistress passed and the doctor decided to sell her, it became even more surprising to me when her grandmother was to be sold but since all the people in the neighborhood knew she was a good person and had a good relationship with her owner, that nobody wanted to buy her because they felt sympathetic. Then when she was bought by her mistress' sister, it showed the respect that the slave owners actually did have for their loyal slaves.

It also was shocking to me that the main character was so optimistic after the death of both of her parents. When she was taking care of her brother, who was pessimistic about everything and depressed about their situation, she was still optimistic. She took after her grandmother and believed that everything happened because God wants it to even though her brother did not completely buy into it.

I find this to be a really interesting topic and really enjoyed a different perspective on the matter of slavery. I do not think it to be a positive thing or think this is the most enjoyable topic to read about, but the fact that some owners were kind was something that I had not been introduced to before reading this book.

HATE THE WAY IT MADE ME FEEL!!!

I hate books about slavery. They make me hurt like physically react to them. I have never been able to understand how people could and can sleep knowing that this was going on. Even now as I type these words I am physically ill. This book destroyed my weekend; it turned me to the restroom all Sunday afternoon. The story made me weep and after throwing up my lunch. I was able to come to terms with the idea that I had too look at it as a work of fiction that it wasn’t real. But even then I went through several boxes of tissues. One of the things that makes this story so powerful is the writing. The rhythm of the prose makes an aurora that envelops you. Makes you feel the pain and anguish that the saves have to deal with on a daily bases. It hurt to listen to the hope that once was there and then to understand how they have little to no chance to change their situations.  After finishing the reading I went to bed. I don’t know what made it happen it might have been the lack of sleep or the whole being sick thing but I dreamt that I myself was a slave. That I was stuck in a situation where I wouldn’t be able to save myself from the horrible environment that I read of. The place that ruined lives, killed sprits and darkened American history.

One of the things we have learned as the semester has been going on is that the stories we have read give us a look into the worlds of the time. We learned about the oppression of society on the lives of our characters as well as the writers. We learn that they struggled with depression emotions pain and sorrow. We also learn that life no matter how hard has hope…. We at least we did, this book broke the idea of hope for me. It made me realize how hard and depressing times were and rather then making me want to love or feel or understand it made me want to jump off a building. I just didn’t understand why people didn’t start a change, make a move for difference do something to fix this horrible situation. Its like the time of Hitler…. People just turned a blind eye. And I don’t know how anyone could do that.

I hated this book because not only did it ruin my weekend but it also crushed my feeling that man isn’t inherently evil…. And well slavery just proves that to be false.

Something Akin to Freedom

The passage in which Jacobs explains why she chooses Mr. Sand to be her lover is one of the saddest things I’ve ever read:

“He was an educated and eloquent gentleman; too eloquent, alas, for the poor slave girl who trusted him. Of course I saw whither all this was tending; but to be an object of interest to a man…who is not her master, is agreeable to the pride and feelings of a slave…it seems less degrading to give one’s self, than to submit to compulsion. There is something akin to freedom in having a lover who has no control over you, except that which he gains by kindness and attachment” (47).

The way Jacobs negotiated her sexual autonomy was so sad and compelling. It’s hard to imagine having to be that cunning, especially because all her planning does not ensure her personal happiness, just allows her to choose the lesser of two evils. If she’d submitted to Dr. Flint, she would have been raped: coercion is the same as force. By choosing to sleep with Mr. Sand, she saves herself from Flint, who presumably won’t want her once someone else has had sex with her. But her relationship with Mr. Sand is problematic too. Because of their races, there’s a huge power difference: like Flint, Mr. Sand indicates sexual interest in her, and he probably has the authority to get what he wants without being nice. Jacobs picks him precisely because he has enough respect for her to refrain from force. But Jacobs also notes that he is “too eloquent…for the poor slave girl who trusted him,” implying that he took advantage of her to some degree. This is easy to believe: he knew what her situation with Flint was. Jacobs may be saying that he suggested sleeping with him was a way to save herself from Flint. In this way, he’s sort of coercing her too: he is presenting himself as a savior from her master, but sexual favors are the only way to obtain salvation. Jacobs also very clearly takes advantage of his interest in her, however. She consciously uses it to get Flint off her back. Her relationship with Sand feels kind of like a business deal: Sand gets a lover, Jacobs gets a little bit of freedom (though she loses her reputation and a big chunk of her self respect).

In the passage, this line hit me the hardest: “There is something akin to freedom in having a lover who has no control over you.” The idea that both freedom over your own life and having a sexual partner who doesn’t have complete power over you are luxuries, almost pipe dreams, is heartbreaking. It shows just how powerless Jacobs was. These are things most people take for granted and believe they deserve. Jacobs knows she deserve these things, but she also knows that deserving something and having the world recognize your right to it if you are a slave are two very different things.

Even the Kinder Masters

The incidents are so vividly portrayed in the book and the lives that the slaves endure are so devastating that we are angered by the situation. The slaves are helpless to their masters’ will, as their masters have complete control over their lives. Regardless of whether slave masters were cruel or kinder, the slaves had no power to exercise their own will. Linda dealt with two types of these white men. Dr. Flint is cruel and does not regard his slaves as humans. His inhumane treatment of the slaves makes him seem like a monster. On the other hand, Mr. Sands is a bit kinder, at least compared to Dr. Flint. In describing her encounter with Mr. Sands, Linda writes that “It chanced that a white unmarried gentleman had obtained some knowledge of the circumstances in which I was placed. He knew my grandmother, and often spoke to me in the street. He became interested for me, and asked questions about my master, which I answered in part. He expressed a great deal of sympathy, and a wish to aid me. He constantly sought opportunities to see me, and wrote to me frequently” (47). To Linda, such kind treatment must have seemed much more favorable than the treatment and advances she received from Dr. Flint. However, the relatively kinder nature of Mr. Sands is still not justification for his affair with Linda. He was still taking advantage of her. Even if Linda had agreed to an affair with him, he must have acknowledged that it was a forced decision on her part. Linda states that “He was an educated and eloquent gentleman; too eloquent, alas, for the poor slave girl who trusted in him. Of course I saw whither all this was tending. I knew the impassable gulf between us; but to be an object of interest to a man who is not married, and who is not her master, is agreeable to the pride and feelings of a slave, if her miserable situation has left her any pride or sentiment. It seems less degrading to give one’s self, than to submit to compulsion” (47). “Less degrading” is the phrase she used to describe the affair. This is not a form of consent. Had Mr. Sands been truly moral, he should have found a different way to help her rather than compromise her virtue. To me, Linda’s relationship with Mr. Sands showed how even the kindest slave masters were trapped in the mindset that slaves were not human beings. They may have treated slaves in a kindly manner, but did not place them on the same level as themselves. Mr. Sands was kinder to Linda, but even to him Linda more of an object than a human.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

I have read Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl before; we had to write a paper on it in my Women in American History class. It is interesting to think about the novel from a transcendental viewpoint. I was trying to decide whether or not it was meant to be transcendentalist. As we learned in the video today, Whitman was inspired to speak out against slavery, although he was not originally against it. This reminded me of this line from the American Transcendentalists book, which I think I also quoted in my nature journal: “The increased sense of impending crisis over slavery was also crucial in pushing Transcendentalists who had hitherto been standoffish about organized social activism, notably Emerson and Thoreau, into the public arena” (Buell xvii). So maybe, even if the book was not explicitly transcendentalist, it spoke to the movement, and to the people within that movement.

Religion is important to the slaves, as it was important to the Transcendentalists. Jacobs mentions religion when talking about a young slave who died after giving birth. The wife of the master, who knew that the baby was her husband’s, scoffs at the idea that either the girl or the baby will go to Heaven. But the girl still believes, and Jacobs writes the following: “Seven children called her [the mistress] mother. The poor black woman had but the one child, whose eyes she saw closing in death, while she thanked God for taking her away from the great bitterness of life” (15-16). This seems to be a very different type of relationship with religion than the Transcendentalists had. It is based in a grief that the Transcendentalists, being white and privileged, never felt. And when Benjamin is in jail, he says in part that “When man is hunted like a wild beast, he forgets there is a God […]” (22).

I think, though, that both Jacobs and the Transcendentalists describe a personal relationship with God. Jacobs talks about how her grandmother thought that God had put them in their situation for a reason, so “[…] we ought to pray for contentment” (18). God was personally responsible to them. And the Transcendentalists argued for that personal relationship, as we learned.

Linda's trials of girlhood

The beginning chapters of Jacobs’ novel really caught my attention. She begins the book immediately with tragic narratives and experiences of the narrator, Linda.

I was especially moved by chapter V, "The Trials of Girlhood." Linda’s experiences are heart wrenching. She is trapped in a house, powerless against her master’s aggressive sexual advances. She literally had nowhere to turn; she was not safe in her home and could not retreat to her grandmother’s home.

“But he was my master. I was compelled to live under the same roof with him where I saw a man forty years my senior daily violating the most sacred commandments of nature. He told me I was his property; that I must be subject to his will in all things. My soul revolted against the mean tyranny. But where could I turn for protection?” (Chapter V).

I felt angered by Linda’s situation. Her grandmother and her relatives held her to such high standards of keeping her “virtue” and not succumbing to vile acts, like other slave girls had done. What power did Linda have to stop her master from raping her? The answer is none, yet her grandmother expected her to be able to fight off a man who was older and stronger than her, not to mention had the law wholly on his side.

“No matter whether the slave girl be as black as ebony or as fair as her mistress. In either case, there is no shadow of law to protect her from insult, from violence, or even from death; all these are inflicted by fiends who bear the shape of men” (Chapter V).

In the later chapter where Linda gets pregnant with Mr. Sands child, her grandmother disowns her and completely banishes her from her house. I thought this was absolutely ridiculous. I didn’t understand how her grandmother could be so uncaring when Linda truly needed her. Linda was forced into a corner and was desperate to save herself from being raped by her master; having sex with Mr. Sands, someone who was actually caring, seemed to be the lesser of two evils. Her grandmother should not have expected Linda to be exempt from this fate: no slave girl could wholly escape it. I found this double standard to be foolish; instead of shaming Linda into being afraid of being honest about Dr. Flint’s sexual advances, her grandmother should have prepared her for them and how to handle them.

On a side note, this is exactly how I feel about sexual education in schools. It is better to be open about the facts and realistic about what is going on, rather than preaching about virtues and hiding the consequences of sex from students. If they can be knowledgeable, they can be safe. However, if all they’ve ever been taught is abstinence, they’ll have no idea how to handle sexual situations that they WILL get into before marriage.

Going back to Jacobs’ book and Linda’s situation – if her grandmother had prepared her better for her master’s sexual aggression, Linda might not have been so desperate as to have sex with Mr. Sands. She might have been able to seek some sort of protection from her grandmother or a better way to handle with situation.

yellow wallpaper and a glass celling.... make for an amazing room

I honestly was so confused by this book... and i guess that is a good thing it means that i am not going insane like the main character right. For if this one messed up book. We have the main character going insane and not your basic, dramatic, controlling insane we are talk bat-flipping crazy. She sees things move and feels things that aren't there. Now I can understand where some critics would say she is a feminist representation of how being stuck in a house is bad or women aren't meant not to be allowed to have freedom and do what they want. I just see this book creating issues for women. I mean we are already looked at for witchcraft and we "curse" men and aren't smart enough to have property or vote but now we are saying we also tend to go insane and destroy the things our caring and attentive men are nice enough to provide....What does that say about the women of today. We couldn't be controlled, but we think we can have it all? My issues with this book doesn't stop there, I am all for her writing keeping a journal and being freaked out. I am for her being exhausted and tired, I understand the pressure and the tensions she is feeling. I mean it is an insane idea that women, have to walk around for nine months with a huge little monster in its belly that gets too big to come out and then it just pushes its way out of you. this concept of then going to not physically attached and having someone take care of it for you is insane. How does one just hand over something that was a piece of you. Its like handing over your leg... sure you will find a way to walk again and you'll function but are you ever the same? This story didn't give me hope or made me want to be a women it made me fear my sex even more

The relationship the narrator has with her husband is fascinating. Her husband, John is incredibly controlling and treats his wife like one would treat a child. She constantly mentions that John loves her dearly, hates to see her sick, and is doing his best to get her well. But from my perspective it seems as if John has locked up his crazy wife with the vain hope that possibly she will improve. He forbids her to write in her journals stating that this will only worsen her condition, but how could he logically expect her depression and hysteria to improve locked in a room with nothing to do but stare at the wallpaper. Her relationship with her husband also gives a great deal of insight to the medical profession at the time. It seems as if John did not know what to do with her and could not foresee the effects of placing her in a room for weeks with no stimulus, no interaction with others, and no creative outlet. This really shows the amount of power a husband had over his wife during the 19th century, the narrator has no say in whether or not she wants to be locked up in this room or if she feels well enough to be let out.

The narrator’s mental condition grows increasingly more unstable as she stays locked up in the room with the yellow wallpaper; it was so interesting to see her rapidly grow more and more mad. It made me wonder how mentally unstable she was before John locked her up in the room. In the beginning of the story she mentions that John doesn’t think she is sick and how her condition is not serious; given the unreliability of the narrator I have no idea whether or not this is true. Her invented relationship with the creeping woman in the wallpaper was the most interesting part of the story for me. She was so incredibly desperate to set this woman free from the wallpaper, I wondered if this woman was somehow a projection of herself locked in the room and how she wished to be set free.

Control and Freedom

Wow. Where to begin with the craziness? The first thing that I noticed upon reading “The Yellow Wallpaper”is the total and utter lack of control. The narrator can't control any aspect of her life, from whether or not to go see her cousins to the yellow wallpaper in her room or the furniture. She cannot even tame the pattern of the wallpaper, and it is this elusive pattern, this uncontrollable life, that first starts to plunge her into madness. She becomes less and less lucid as the story goes on, and she notices the woman “beneath the pattern” who is behind bars. To me her seeing this caged woman is almost like the narrator recognizing that in the uncontrollable life that she leads, underneath all of the decisions that are made for her, there is still one thing that she can control – herself.
She can control her own self, insofar as she can allow herself to posses or lose sanity. She does have control over the wallpaper in that she can strip it off in the same way that she does have control over her consciousness in that she can strip herself of it. The room seems like it has been used for this purpose before, with the bolted down bed, the “exercise rings,” the worn line around the room (which I'm not sure is there at the beginning), and the already somewhat torn wallpaper. I think that maybe she comes in and out of sanity, and it is the wallpaper that frees her each time, letting her conscious escape from the oppression of her (well-meaning?) doctor husband by leaving the realm of this world entirely.
This concept of leaving the real world in order to be free from oppression isn't exactly new, and we often see it in slave narratives, although there it mainly involves dieing, or going to be free with God in heaven. I think this sort of comes to mind on a second reading when the yellow wallpaper sprouts the deatheads of women.

Don't think, don't work, don't write, don't feel.

So much to talk about! Never before in this class have I been so inspired to write a reading response.

Turns out postpartum can be a bitch, especially when your husband's dominance over you drives you to a point of suicide. So much to talk about!

I want to talk about this notion of fathering. John treats his wife like a child. He commands her to sleep, to eat, to not think, not to talk, not to write, not to work, not to feel. Appropriately enough, he put’s his wife up in a nursery for three months.

Then there’s this notion of thresholds (so relevant to my own life right now, I can not even emphasize it enough). At the beginning of their three month vacation, the nameless main character see’s her husband’s constant need to control her as his own method of expressing how much he loves and cares for her well being. Then, over the course of the three months the story takes place within, the main character transitions perceptions until she finally recognizes her husbands constant need to control her as wallpaper pasted against a wall, trapping her and barring her in. By the end of the story, her threshold is so exceeded that she cannot help but end her own life. She is now the women behind the bars that she identified in the wallpaper—“‘I’ve got out at last,’ said I, ‘in spite of you and Jane. And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!’”(15). Not wanting to be with her husband at that house turned into not wanting to be with him at all or ever after.

Also, as I mentioned before, I believe our main character to be a subject of postpartum depression. She mentions having a young baby several times within the story, but never with particular enthusiasm or passion—the closest we get is when she writes “Why, I wouldn’t have a child of mine, an impressionable little thing, live in such a room for worlds” (8). Eventually, readers would come to understand this plea—she would never want a child of hers to live in this ‘room,’ i.e. exist in her state of isolation and depression.

Nailed bed frames, barred windows, and gated stairways are no coincidence. In fact, with in the very first three pages of the story the plot is laid out for readers. When speaking of the wallpaper, the main character writes "and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide" (3).

I have proceeded through this post acknowledging the ending of this story as a suicide. I believe this to be true, however I would understand if others did not. I concluded that the story ended with suicide as the main character had a rope, spoke about finding some form of furniture to stand on, and constantly spoke of the figures in the wall being strangled by the pattern which “turns them upside down, and makes their eyes white” (12).

All and all, I am so extremely excited to discuss this reading in class and cannot wait to hear the opinions of my peers!

One of the elements of “The Yellow Wallpaper” that interested me most was the narrator’s relationship with the creeping woman, especially at the end. The scene in which she tries to free the creeping woman is so compelling. The narrator is very isolated and trapped. She isn’t allowed to have company, her husband is almost never home, and when she tries to say what she feels and wants, she is dismissed. The way she is simultaneously ignored and monitored, abandoned and imprisoned, is extremely claustrophobic. She’s just as trapped as the woman in the wallpaper. When they were tearing the paper down, I really hoped that maybe it would mean the narrator was going to get to escape, too.

The narrator’s last line of dialogue was extremely interesting: “I’ve got out at last…in spite of you and Jane.” When I first read that, I skimmed over the name “Jane” as “Jennie.” When I went back to it, I realized that “Jane” is probably the narrator’s name. When she says that she’s escaped in “in spite of…Jane” she means that she’s free in spite of herself. Jane and the creeping woman have both a sympathetic and antagonistic relationship. The creeping woman terrifies Jane even though Jane also pities her. I think this means the idea of freedom terrifies her, because she’s been taught to be submissive and respect the way things are organized. The rules of her world upset and trap her. If the creeping woman represents the part of Jane that wants to be free, then front pattern on the paper represents the rules of society. The pattern is disgusting, incomprehensible, exhausting, and claustrophobic, just like the world Jane lives in. The creeping woman is the opposite of all this. She is constantly upsetting things, making herself seen, trying as hard as she can to escape. This scares Jane, because she’s been taught that it is her that is wrong, not society, that she feels the way she does because she is sick.

Scared Jane’s last piece of resistance comes when she hides the rope in the bedroom and tries to tie the creeping woman up after she frees her: she wants to let her out, but she doesn’t want to let her have free reign. The creeping woman triumphs when she takes Jane over. It’s extremely sad that the narrator has a total psychotic break at the end of the story, but in a way it’s also a happy ending, because she escapes the confines of her life. By going totally insane and becoming the creeping woman, she steps out of her own life and into another. She finally has power. She locks Jennie out, she makes John faint, she banishes her scared self, and there’s no one left to trap her.

We're all mad here.

The Yellow Wallpaper is honestly one of my favorite short stories. Gilman beautifully paints a gruesome picture of an oppressed woman’s violent decent into madness; what more could you want in a short story?

I love how the story is told from a first person point of view; the protagonist is so unreliable (as she is going mad) that it keeps you guessing what is real and what is not. Cerebral stories and films of this kind are so entrancing; they make you question the very fabric of your own reality. For example, the movie Donnie Darko is incredibly mind-bending. You can watch it over and over again, but find something new and intriguing every time. The famous book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is equally fascinating. Alice was thought to be descending into madness in many interpretations because of the nonsensical depictions of Wonderland.

After reading the story, I was playing around with some ideas about what was actually real and what wasn’t. She describes the room with that lurid yellow wallpaper as queer; “It is a big, airy room, the whole floor nearly, with windows that look all ways, and air and sunshine galore. It was nursery first and then playroom and gymnasium, I should judge; for the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls." Although the story takes place decades ago, this sounds odd for a child’s nursery. The room is clearly beaten up and in a squalid state, with violent scratches at the walls. This made me start to wonder if the protagonist was even sane at this early point in the story. It’s possible that the entire story is simply a fevered dream or memory of the protagonist, and she is actually in a mental institution (or a ‘rest cure’ hospital) the entire time.

Even beyond interpretations, this was a wonderful story to read. It as was captivating and entrancing as the yellow wallpaper; I felt myself getting sucked into the topsy turvy world of the protagonist. Her obsession with the wallpaper (smelling it, clawing it, creeping alongside it) was so artfully described. Although I felt bad that the protagonist was so oppressed by her husband and by society in general, I wanted her to continue down her path of insanity. I wanted to see what her breaking point was, how long she could be subdued and trapped in the room, before she lost her already weak grip on reality.

“‘I’ve got out at last,’ said I, ‘In spite of you and Jane. And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!’ Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time!”

The last lines of the story end it perfectly. She reaches that breaking point and escapes her entrapment through one of the only ways women could in that time period: unbridled madness and delusion. It is ironic that she can only find freedom once she essentially traps herself in her own head.

The Yellow Wallpaper

I guess the biggest question I had after reading this story is this: Was the main character crazy or not? I think she definitely has symptoms of mental illness, and does not act as a mentally healthy person would, but there are two things that are making me question whether or not she is completely crazy. One is when she says the following: “There is a very funny mark on this wall, low down, near the mopboard. A streak that runs round the room. It goes behind every piece of furniture, except the bed, a long, straight, even smooch, as if it had been rubbed over and over” (11). And then later, she says, “But here I can creep smoothly on the floor, and my shoulder just fits in that long smooch around the wall, so I cannot lose my way” (15). It’s just bizarre that the mark should be level with her crawling on the floor; what’s it there for? Could it be there because somebody else made it for the same reason, made it because they were creeping around the room and didn’t want to get lost? That lends credibility to her theory that the wallpaper was really driving people crazy. Except she thought that it was driving Jennie and John crazy, but they weren’t the ones crawling around the room.

The second thing that made me question whether or not she was crazy: She mentions that people tried to take down the paper before: “The wallpaper, as I said before, is torn off in spots, and it sticketh closer than a brother – they must have had perseverance as well as hatred” (5). It’s almost like she’s not the first one who has found herself entranced by this paper, who has found that she has to take it down, to creep around the room. Even though I really think the story is about her going crazy – there’s obvious symbolism in the woman trapped behind bars in the paper, her feeling trapped in her life – these two things make me question whether or not this hasn’t happened before, and if it has, how that can be reconciled with the “feminist perspective” mentioned on the back of the book.

I’m reminded of books like The Awakening. Even though I haven’t read that in awhile, it was written during the same period and featured a woman who was also unhappy in her life. She eventually committed suicide. I think that book was also feminist.

The artists' yellow wallpaper and Hysteria

The Yellow Wallpaper is a beautifully crafted piece of prose. Unlike many of the other nineteenth century literature that we’ve been exposed to in the class, The yellow wallpaper is the strong prose piece. Although the actual length of the piece is short, especially in comparison to the other works we’ve looked at, it is by far the strongest. The tone of the piece is very thrilling and at times haunting, and the character of Anne is possibly the most compelling woman character we’ve examined. The Gothic narration follows writer Anne, a woman who has moved into a house that her husband- John, a physician- has rented during the summer. As the story begins to unravel the audience becomes well aware that something about Anne is off as she beings to obsess with the yellowing wallpaper in her writing room. Through the wallpaper pattern, Anne sees a woman being smothered, “The front pattern does move--and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it!
 Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over.
 Then in the very bright spots she keeps still, and in the very shady spots she just takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard” and her want to get out mirrors that of Anne who feels trapped in her marriage, the house, and only desires of being liberated form the traditional 19th century social roles. Although it is never expressed directly of her condition, it is safe to assume that Anne is suffering from hysteria, suffering mainly from depression and not being able to write and be as independent as she truly wants. One passage that was very compelling was the opening scene when john and Anne’s brother, both physicians- forbid Anne to write, as they see this passion for art and writing is the trigger to her hysteria. This theme of women not being able to express themselves through their art seems to be a common there- thinking back to Little Women and their lack of pursuing their artistic dreams (all except for Jo of course.) It’s interesting to see how creative people, especially women were perceived in the 19th century, and how passionate women were quickly labeled as being sick because of their passion and zest. Was this a common thing happening in only western cultures? When and where did this concept root from? How well was this accepted among fellow artists? (mainly men…)

Going back to Meghan's post,about whether or not Anne is insane- i honestly don't feel that Anne was crazy. I felt that she was depressed and felt isolated, especially after her husband essentially forbids her to write, or control how much writing she does, and this smothers her even more because it was through her writing that she was able to escape from her oppressed life. Her breakdowns seemed to be triggered more with this oppression rather than just her being insane.

Timelessness

The last chapter of the novel is where I really noticed Louisa May Alcott’s tendency to gloss over current events and some aspects of American culture at the time. In class we discussed how this novel seems to take place outside any particular time, and perhaps part of the timelessness of this novel is due to the fact that it does not dwell on subject matter outside of the lives of the little women. In a class discussion we mentioned that Alcott never states that the war Mr. March is fighting in, and the March’s never discuss their stances on slavery and civil rights but we are led to believe that they are anti-slavery.

I really begin thinking about her decision to omit current events and certain important aspects of American culture at the time in the last chapter of the novel. Alcott writes, “…and a merry little quadroon, who could not be taken in elsewhere, but who was welcome to the “Bhaer-garten,” though some people predicted that his admission would ruin the school.” (512) A quadroon is someone who is a quarter black and three-quarters white. American society at the time operated under the “one-drop rule”, meaning if you had a drop of black blood in your ancestry you were considered black, regardless if you looked black or not. We all know that Civil War was happening at the time and that black people were certainly not considered equal under the law; but why did Alcott choose to gloss over cultural details. It’s as if the March’s live in an odd bubble, they are well integrated into society, all well-read and intelligent, but at the same time seem removed from their society.

Jo and Amy are arguably the most worldly of the four sisters, in distinctly different ways. Jo is a witty young women, a writer working to support her family and live for her own satisfaction; and Amy is well bred, well traveled, politely mannered, and somewhat of a socialite. However, both Jo and Amy seem to be a bit naïve about certain things, for Jo its love and her surrounding world, in one chapter she seeks inspiration outside of her own head, and searches through newspapers and books looking to the larger world of which she knows little about. Amy is charming, flirty, multi-lingual and witty but seems to know little about anything else. While the lack of outside opinions and knowledge doesn’t harm the characters or novel at all; I wonder why Alcott chose to do this. Perhaps by barely mentioning slavery and the Civil War, she wanted to reduce any controversy that could surround her views and sell her book; or maybe she felt like her story was strong enough to withstand having a set cultural place in time.

Laurie and Amy?

What most readers may find unacceptable or wished had been different in Little Women, I was able to take pretty well. I didn’t mind Jo’s refusal of Laurie’s proposal. Her marriage to the professor seemed arbitrary, but I wasn’t outraged that she wasn’t with Laurie. Beth’s death was heart breaking but it was possible to move on. However, one thing that I could not understand was the connection Alcott created between Laurie and Amy.

It was strange to me that Laurie’s love for Jo easily turned to brotherly love as he began to love Amy. Laurie and Jo’s relationship was drawn out throughout the novel. The romantic relationship between Laurie and Amy only developed for a few chapters. However, it wasn’t the time frame that made me think the relationship shouldn’t have been dealt with. It was actually believable that people can become close in a short amount of time. What bothered me was that Laurie had chosen one of the other March girls, one of Jo’s sisters. I couldn’t get it out of my head that he was merely compensating for his loss of Jo as a partner. As much as he must have loved Jo, he loves the March family as well which made me think that on some level, his proposal to Jo also reflected his hope to become a member of the March family. I guess that’s what bothered me about Laurie’s marriage to Amy, aside from the fact that he married the sister of someone he used to love.

Alcott’s main reason for not marrying Jo and Laurie was that she didn’t want Jo to conform to the conventional female roles. However, as a result, the outcomes that it led to—Jo and the professor, Laurie and Amy—seemed unnatural to me. Was Amy the only choice left for Laurie because Meg was taken and Beth was ill? Why couldn’t he have been married to an entirely different character?

Amy and Laurie’s relationship seems just as forced and rushed as Jo and Professor Bhaer’s is and I wish Alcott had chosen a different route for them.

Jo's Natural Craving For Affection

I was simply stirred at the end of “Little Women,” especially after having read “All Alone.” Prior to this chapter the characters go through many difficulties such as Beth struggling for her health, a lonely and lack of lust marriage in Meg’s case, and Jo’s constant struggle of becoming really independent. It is in this chapter that I felt most compassionate toward Jo, because she in a way becomes unveiled. It is clear from the beginning of “Little Women” that Jo is different from her sisters, she aspires to create, and more importantly to be an independent and strong person. She has often rejected her feminine mannerisms and couldn’t relate to her sisters.
Although one can argue that she is the most fleshed out, well-developed character in the novel, it is within this particular chapter that her character becomes more dynamic. I would say that this might be the case (for me at least) because it was one of the rare times where the reader sees Jo in a different manner. She is opening up to her audience, making her self completely vulnerable. It is her ponderings of feeling lonely and actually admitting that she is sad from being alone that made her character experience a “break through” moment.
As I mentioned earlier, it felt as if at this moment she unveiled and showed the audience and herself another dimension of her personality, one that was sincere, filled with melancholy, and extremely realistic. Especially when she openly mourns for the recent death of her closest family member and friend, Beth. (As well as realizing that she was in love with Laurie, and mourning the loss of him to a certain degree) At that moment on I was able to view Jo a bit different, she became more human in my eyes and I was able to appreciate her more than the moments before leading up to the “All Alone” chapter. There was one passage in particular that stayed with me until the end of the book, found on page 410 (last page from the chapter)“A restless spirit possessed her, and the old feeling came again, not bitter as it once was, but sorrowfully patient wonder why one sister should have all she asked, the other noting…the natural craving for affection was strong…” because it truly echoed how Jo was feeling, even though she wanted to be content for her sister, she still felt lonely. Something that she would rarely admit to herself, let alone anyone else.

Poor Beth

I hate to devote a whole blog post to something as morbid as the death of our favorite little paragon of goodness, but I think that it'll be interesting to see how each sister deals with the impending death and then what Beth probably symbolizes for them, or what they inherit from her, because if there is any symbolic sort of unreal character, it is Beth.
Jo is the most closely associated with Beth, both physically and emotionally. She has the hardest time letting Beth go, and initially tries to deny that she's dieing (a perfectly rational response). I think that Beth sort of represents Jo's inner child, her unwillingness to grow up. Jo has mastered her temper, and has bloomed into a sort of more mild version of herself, but at this point she is still in possession of quite a Peter Pan complex when it comes to taking on responsibility or eventually getting married. Jo inherits Beth's responsibilities in a literal way (in that she takes care of the parents now) and she sort of does Beth's growing up for her, in the process growing up for herself, taking on what would have been Beth's adult role.
Meg is coming into her own as a parent as Beth is dieing, and I think that she inherits Beth's innate lovingness and motherliness as a kind of augmentation to her own budding parenting skills. It is mentioned in the book that the children visit Auntie Beth every day, and I can't help but imagine that the girl who so carefully cared for her dolls just as carefully lavished love on her niece and nephew. There is no doubt that this effected both the mother and the children, and perhaps Beth's young death also gave Meg a sense of the fragile gift that she has in her kids.
Amy inherits Beth's true selflessness. This selflessness is what allows her to become the full picture of the graceful and responsible woman her mother always wished she would be. It is after Beth's death that Amy turns her mind to real charitable thinking. Also it is Beth's death, and her wasting illness, that brings Laurie to Amy in Europe when he might have otherwise been too proud to see her. This is probably why they name their daughter Beth, and why they cherish her so despite her infirmity.
And of course to Beth her death is merely the next step in her life, the passage to the celestial city well at hand. Although Beth's death is a tragic event, there wasn't really anywhere for her character to grow to. Beth was the perfect picture of goodness and feminine grace even as a small girl and so she didn't need to become a woman.
I don't know if I like the fact that the book ends pretty neatly. I don't know if Marmee's birthday party was really required for the end of the book, and it wraps things up so much that I can't speculate like I would really like to.