For the last blog post, i'd like to discuss some of the short stories we have read this semester. I feel that some of my favorite stories are "The Yellow Wallpaper," "Mrs. Spring Fragrance," and "The Foundations of the Earth." I feel that each of these stories really summed up some of the themes of this class.
In "Wallpaper," we discussed the issues of a woman's isolation and mental health. Jane's husband, a doctor, does not feel she is really sick and his negligence actually causes her mental break. Jane states that her husband does "not believe i am sick!." This story is important to me because i feel that it criticizes not just her husband, but the society in which she lives in that does not understand her as a woman.
In "Spring Fragrance," we saw a healthy relationship between a husband and wife, something which is rarer than i would have guessed when discussing gender roles. Although the couple has their difficulties, i rooted for this couple, especially in the passage when Mr. asks Mrs. to continue talking of her matchmaking: "It is not important to me now,' returned Mr. Spring Fragrance, 'I prefer to hear again about...'" (514). I loved this couple and was glad to see the man-bashing discarded for this story.
In "Foundations," we talked about one woman's struggle with the news of her grandson's homosexuality. I loved this story and thought that it was touching and did not feature her complete acceptance of the news she is given, but rather details her journey to acceptance. This is a more realistic, deeper story, and is one that is extremely relevant for anyone trying to tell his/her family about him/herself.
I feel that many of the stories we've read this semester are extremely similar and give the same man-bashing message i was worried about when taking this class. However, i do feel that the three stories i've picked out are some of the stories which are different and have deeper themes about gender and sex. I enjoyed these stories greatly and am glad i was exposed to them.
I agree with you, Kyla. I think that these three stories are good examples of "non-man-bashing" stories.
ReplyDeleteI feel that you're right about "The Yellow Wallpaper" as well. The story doesn't just criticize John, it criticizes the society. I'm actually writing part of my paper on how John represents the society in which the story is set.
"Spring Fragrance" was definitely one of my favorites. It is nice to see a healthy relationship once in awhile.
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of the stories we read didn't "man-bash". The Sun Also Rises and Pride and Prejudice portrayed pretty much everyone as sucking to various degrees, that one about the trucker who wanted to build a log cabin portrayed the man in a pretty sympathetic light, A Temporary Matter is debatable, but I think puts more of the fault on Shoba. Yeah, there's been a lot of criticism of men and the patriarchy, probably more than criticisms of women in this semester, but I think overall it was pretty balanced.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, I think Yellow Wallpaper goes beyond simply criticizing society for not understanding women. It criticizes people for ignoring the mental health problems of others, something that still happens today. It was only twenty years ago that people started realizing that high-functioning autism existed and needed to be respected as a legitimate mental disorder, and even then society as a whole didn't understand or make adjustments very quickly. And even today it seems that a lot of people don't understand depression and think the person affected needs to just "get over it."
I'd also object to the idea that we read a lot of "man-bashing" texts. I think that really oversimplifies that texts (even texts like _Trifles_!).
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