Respone 7/11

The Yellow Wall-Paper

I really enjoyed this story and found it to be rather interesting. One part that really pulled me was:

“John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him. Of course it is only nervousness. It does weigh on me so not to do my duty in any way! 
I meant to be such a help to John, such a real rest and comfort, and here I am a comparative burden already! Nobody would believe what an effort it is to do what little I am able,—to dress and entertain, and order things.”

I think this passage illustrates a role women have played throughout history. The narrator feels that to be a good provider she must "dress and entertain and order things" without complaint. She is suffering from a mental illness that, in my opinion, is caused by seclusion that her John has brought upon her. In the end of the story, I think the act of her pulling off the wall-paper is more that just a tantrum, I took that to be a symbol of rebellion. She is rebelling against her role in the relationship and John's control.

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Ain't I A Woman?

In this speech, Sojourner Truth makes some excellent points about the treatment of African American women.
One part that caught my attention was:

“That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman?”

I think that Truth makes a good point. White upper class women of this time were seen as delicate and frail. Yet black women were expected to do backbreaking work that most upper class white men didn't even attempt. There were different standards of what a woman should be according to her race.
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Lady Lazarus

It took me reading this work a few times to get a grip on what was happening. I found it to be quite eerie and just plain creepy. While I wasn't a huge fan of this work, one part struck me in particular:

“And I a smiling woman. I am only thirty. And like the cat I have nine times to die.”

When I read this part, I imagined this woman, smiling smuggly as her aggressors. I think she knows what is happening and really doesn't show fear. If I were in her position, I am sure I would be having a fit, kicking and screaming, yet she really remains and unaffected by what is going on.
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When I Was Growing Up

I think Wong writes about something that many teenage girls struggle with: the desire to be something else.
This is obviously illustrated throughout the work, but I related with this passage:

“When I was growing up, I read magazines and saw movies, blonde movie stars, white skin, sensuous lips and to be elevated, to become a woman, a desirable woman, I began to wear imaginary pale skin.”

The narrator is longing to fit in the with the mainstream look, the mainstream culture. No teenage girl wants to be viewed as different, and Wong writes about the struggle to fit in. The part of this above passage that bothered me was : "to become a woman, a desireable woman." The narrator thinks that in order to viewed as womanly she must look like the blond movie stars. I can guarantee this thought is not one perpetuated by women. No woman would dewomanize herself because of the way she looks. Wong is struggling to find herself beautiful because of mainstream stereotypes placed on women by men. This still happens today. Pick up a Glamour magazine and you will only seen the mainstream stereotype of what is considered "beautiful." While the perfect woman stereotype has changed since this work was written, it still exists in America today.
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The Thirty Eighth Year

Reading this work made me so sad for this woman. She fills unfulfilled and ordinary.
I was really drawn to the end of this work:

“I had expected more than this. I had not expected to be an ordinary woman.”

The woman filld as if she has not lived her life to fullest in pursuing her dreams. I think this can be compared to the lives of many thirty-eight year old women today. They find that they have centered their lives around others, only to surrender their goals and aspiriations. When the author says, "I had expected more than this," I think she is refering to the life she had dreamt for herself as a younger woman. She is having a realization as she examines her life and realizing it is not at all the way she had expected.