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Modern American Literature: Rise of Realism

Choose one of the stories to apply feminist criticism to the reading. Identify the protagonist and antagonist and describe their relationship as it relates to the theme. How does the relationship to the foil, if there is one, reflect the theme? Identify whether the protagonist is round or flat, dynamic or static. Support your response with examples from the text.
 * Chopin’s “Story of and Hour” and Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”**

In Charlotte Gilman’s //The Yellow Wallpaper,// the wallpaper represents patriarchy which is keeping Jane from fulfilling her life [**This thought is very good. I do not think I have heard this argument a lot, but I feel like it is something that you could really run with. Expand this thought & maybe work into the feminist themes that arise in the text]**. The wallpaper basically drives her crazy and makes her untrue to herself, which ties along with the theme being, keeping a human from self fulfillment keeps them from being true. In //The Yellow Wallpaper// Jane, the protagonist is being bothered by John who keeps her locked in a room all day while he was at work. John thinks she’s sick and that should be to herself and not work, while on the other hand Jane wants to work and live a life. The protagonist finds herself being nitpicky about the yellow wallpaper in her room which becomes almost like a hobby [**this is a very good idea. Try to explain how it is a hobby & maybe why she is forced to have such an odd hobby]** for her that drives her insane. The antagonists, John and the wallpaper are the reasons for her problems. The yellow wallpaper is Jane’s Foil. It makes her stand out showing many different sides of her. The wallpaper makes her angry, happy, curious and sad. Another foil would be herself, her bipolar illness shows two different sides of her, one a normal and loving, and another a crazy woman trapped inside her own world. [**These are innovative views of how the foil works. But because of there obscurity, it is important that maybe you bring some text from the piece to support your thoughts on the foil]** Jane is a very round character, you see her angry, sad, and happy. An example from the text would be when she has figured out that the wallpaper moves at different times of the day and the woman behind makes the wallpaper shake. She is also an extremely dynamic character, an example from the text would be in the end where she is creeping around her room and tearing down the wallpaper, you¸ [**Be careful about using the term “you” because I, the reader, might not have the same ideas or beliefs on the story.]** find out that she is the woman behind the wallpaper. In conclusion John was keeping Jane from being herself which led her to the wallpaper which made her crazy and untrue to herself.

On a whole, this response papers has a lot of very good ideas & thoughts that makes it clear you have examined the piece of literature. A couple things to think about. 1] Explain yourself: be careful no to throw out statements & big arguments with out a lead-in or a follow up; I saw that you were making a lot of great points, but you just needed to be aware of backing those points up. 2] Use more quotations & names: you reference the text & characters quite a bit which is a really good things. However, you rarely take direct quotes from the text & only mention names once or twice. It is okay to repeat John & Jane on a occasion, otherwise it can get a little bit confusing.

You have some very good thoughts & ideas. Now you just need to pace your writing a little bit & try not to get ahead of yourself.

__Response:__

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In Charlotte Gilman’s // The Yellow Wallpaper, // the wallpaper represents patriarchy which is keeping Jane from fulfilling her life. **How does the wallpaper keep Jane from fulfilling her life? How does it represent patriarchy?** The wallpaper basically drives her crazy and makes her untrue to herself **Is she untrue to herself because she’s crazy, or are there other reasons?**, which ties along with the theme being, keeping a human from self fulfillment keeps them from being true. **GREAT reading of the theme! How is the narrator kept from self-fulfillment? Where does the story show this?** In // The Yellow Wallpaper // Jane, the protagonist **Great, but how is Jane the protagonist?** is being bothered by John who keeps her locked in a room all day while he was at work. John thinks she’s sick and that should be to herself and not work, while on the other hand Jane wants to work and live a life. The protagonist finds herself being nitpicky about the yellow wallpaper in her room which becomes almost like a hobby for her that drives her insane. The antagonists, John and the wallpaper are the reasons for her problems. The yellow wallpaper is Jane’s Foil. It makes her stand out showing many different sides of her. The wallpaper makes her angry, happy, curious and sad. **When is she angry, happy, curious, and sad? What parts of the story show this?** Another foil would be herself, her bipolar illness shows two different sides of her, one a normal and loving, and another a crazy woman trapped inside her own world. **Excellent!** Jane is a very round character, you see her angry, sad, and happy. An example from the text would be when she has figured out that the wallpaper moves at different times of the day and the woman behind makes the wallpaper shake. **You mention that Jane is a round character with many different emotions. How does this portion of the text show that?** She is also an extremely dynamic character **What is a dynamic character?** **How is Jane a dynamic character?**, an example from the text would be in the end where she is creeping around her room and tearing down the wallpaper, you find out that she is the woman behind the wallpaper. **Great example from the text.** In conclusion John was keeping Jane from being herself which led her to the wallpaper which made her crazy and untrue to herself. **Great reading of the story.** ======

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// You seem to have a good grasp on the terms you’ve been practicing in class. You describe Jane as being the protagonist, as well as a dynamic and a round character—excellent! In addition your reading of both John and the wallpaper as the antagonist is intriguing. I want to hear more about that! //======

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// This is a great start to your paper. By expanding on your thoughts and providing examples from the story, you can really strengthen your argument to further convince your reader. You already provide some good examples, but be sure to explain them. //======

Select an example of imagery that creates the mood of the story? How does the mood of the setting reflect the character’s motivations driven by their id, ego, and superego?
 * Crane’s “Mystery of Heroism”**

Maddy ‘The sky was full of fiends who directed all their wild rage at his head.’[4] In Stephen Crane’s ‘Mystery of Heroism” The main character finds himself crawling through a battle to retrieve water for himself due to his prideful Id, creating a suspenseful mood for the story. In the begging of the story Collins, the main character, finds himself longing for a drink of water. His fellow comrades tease him on about it telling him to get up and go to the well himself. So Collins ends up building a lot of pride up in his head and decides to go through the battle field to get himself some water out of pride. He also wants to prove to his comrades that he can do it so that leads him following his Id instincts. Once Collins reaches the well he finds himself freighted and terrified, his pride gone. After he retrieves the water he is stopped by a man lying on the ground begging for water, Collins ignores him and keeps treading through the battle field. Then something enters Collins’ mind, his super ego. He thinks back to the times when he has ignored and not helped people due to his id, and he returns and gives thee man his water. In the end Collins decides right from wrong, drops his pride and helps someone. The mood of this story reflects the characters actions by presenting the feeling of fear, and suspicion as he crosses the battle field. The sound of gunshots, the sight of smoke, lines if grey, the smell of gun smoke and the feeling of pride, fear, and suspicion all happen in this story. ‘ The sky was full of fiends who directed all their wild rage at his head.’[4]

‘The sky was full of fiends who directed all their wild rage at his head.’[4] In Stephen Crane’s ‘Mystery of Heroism” The main character finds himself crawling through a battle to retrieve water for himself due to his prideful Id, creating a suspenseful mood for the story. In the begging of the story Collins, the main character, finds himself longing for a drink of water. His fellow comrades tease him on about it telling him to get up and go to the well himself. So Collins ends up building a lot of pride up in his head and decides to go through the battle field to get himself some water out of pride. He also wants to prove to his comrades that he can do it so that leads him following his Id instincts. [**The notion of pride is interesting here & how it works with the ego of Collins. It would be a good idea to elaborate on what is happening with the idea of how a man/soldier should act within the confines of his specific society].** Once Collins reaches the well he finds himself freighted and terrified, his pride gone. After he retrieves the water he is stopped by a man lying on the ground begging for water, Collins ignores him and keeps treading through the battle field. Then something enters Collins’ mind, his super ego. **[Why do you suppose that this is his super-ego entering his mind? What examples in the text can you bring out or notions that would lead me to believe that this is his super-ego?]** He thinks back to the times when he has ignored and not helped people due to his id, and he returns and gives thee man his water. In the end Collins decides right from wrong, drops his pride and helps someone. The mood of this story reflects the characters actions by presenting the feeling of fear, and suspicion as he crosses the battle field. The sound of gunshots, the sight of smoke, lines if grey, the smell of gun smoke and the feeling of pride, fear, and suspicion all happen in this story. [**This last part can be very powerful, but you tend to move very quickly with the thoughts & doesn’t allow for me to really grasp everything that is going in the story. It might be a good idea to come back to why all of these feelings & emotions are happening along with adding some specific references from the text that show all of these emotions & such].** ‘ The sky was full of fiends who directed all their wild rage at his head.’[4]

How does the author indirectly characterize the protagonist through the use of dialect? What does this tell us about the character? How are they influenced by their id, ego, or superego?
 * Wharton’s “April Showers” and Twain’s “The Invalid’s Story”**

ESSAY In Edith Wharton’s “April Showers” The protagonist’s father is a great example or dialect & psychoanalytic criticism. Dr. Dace (the father) is a high class man, you can tell this by the Dr. in front of his name & the way he talks. An example of his dialect would be, “Don’t walk to fast child, you look tired.” Or, “I suppose you didn’t get home from the ball till morning.” From these examples of his word choice and dialect you can tell that he is well educated & doesn’t use slang when he speaks. Dr. Dace’s psychoanalytic criticism would be his id, when he thinks it’s wrong for Theodora (the protagonist) to be a writer and that she should help around the house and do the chores while he sits in his study/ office. His superego would be when Dr. Dace went to the station to meet up with Theodora to comfort her when she was feeling sad & understand her pain by telling her that he was once a writer himself & got rejected by Home Circle also. In Mark Twain’s “The Invalids Story” The narrator finds himself taking his deceased friend on a train going from Ohio to Wisconsin. While on the train the narrator meets Thompson, the express man. Thompson is a low class man, & by his dialect it’s easily noticed. For example, he uses the word cur’us instead of curious & other slang words like that. In conclusion the dialect and psychoanalytic criticism of a story can tell you a lot about one character, even if they aren’t the protagonist or a round character at all.

In Edith Wharton’s “April Showers” The protagonist’s father is a great example or **[Did you mean ‘of’?]** dialect & psychoanalytic criticism. Dr. Dace (the father) is a high class man, you can tell this by the Dr. in front of his name & the way he talks. **[What exactly do you mean by ‘high-class’ man and how does that play into his social/economic status within the story? This is a good assumption, but as a reader I am curious as to what exactly this means]** An example of his dialect would be, “Don’t walk to fast child, you look tired.” Or, “I suppose you didn’t get home from the ball till morning.” From these examples of his word choice and dialect you can tell that he is well educated & doesn’t use slang when he speaks. Dr. Dace’s psychoanalytic criticism would be his id, when he thinks it’s wrong for Theodora (the protagonist) to be a writer and that she should help around the house and do the chores while he sits in his study/ office. His superego would be when Dr. Dace went to the station to meet up with Theodora to comfort her when she was feeling sad & understand her pain by telling her that he was once a writer himself & got rejected by Home Circle also. **[This could be one of those moments where you would want to slow down your argument and expand on some of the relationships you are talking about and how they play into the rest of the story that is being told.]** In Mark Twain’s “The Invalids Story” The narrator finds himself taking his deceased friend on a train going from Ohio to Wisconsin. While on the train the narrator meets Thompson, the express man. Thompson is a low class man, & by his dialect it’s easily noticed. For example, he uses the word cur’us instead of curious & other slang words like that. **[I would like to know more about how these characters’ relationships play into one another and why is it so important to list the details that you listed above]** In conclusion the dialect and psychoanalytic criticism of a story can tell you a lot about one character, even if they aren’t the protagonist or a round character at all. **You’ve done a good job of pulling examples from the text & using critical thinking tools to make some nice conclusions. I would really like to see how you continue to work on the pacing of your writing. As always, you’re thinking & analysis is on point, but the way that you present it can get me a little confused. Be sure to explain some of your points and expand on some of the thoughts you have. Good work ,Maddy, keep it up.**