13-55-8-7

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”**

**__ The Yellow Wallpaper __** The story I am writing about is The Yellow Wallpaper. The theme of this story is that when humans are controlled to long with no decisions of there own to make they go completely insane and possibly become mentally ill from the depression they are feeling. In this story the protagonist is Jane she is also a round character, she is woman who has a husband who is a very wealthy man named John. John is a flat character as well as the antagonist. They rent a very large house but then Jane starts to feel sick but she is in luck because her husband is a doctor but he can’t find out why she is sick. In this story once they cannot find out why Jane is sick she is placed in the nursery which is at the top of the house and is a room with a lot of windows. Once she is placed in the nursery she is not let out. She is a mom but John’s sister comes to take care of the baby because the baby makes Jane nervous. With no companion ship and no baby to love and only to have the windows to stare out at the whole day Jane starts thinking. She starts thinking about the wall paper on the wall and the intrecite designs on the wall but the all of the sudden she sees something move. Over a few days she starts to think that there are faces in the wall, so she eventually tears every piece of the wallpaper off but by this time they are ready to go home. So when John walks to get her from the nursery he sees what she has done and faints in amazement of what she had done and how she is now gone insane. The foil in this story is Jane and Johns sister, jenny, unlike Jane jenny is not locked in a room all day. Another example is that Jenny takes care of a baby and Jane who is the biological mother is not aloud to even see her child. In the end of the story the audience learns that not having power over yourself can make somebody go insane and start acting in ways that are not sane.

//Nice job with your summary. Conventions: why not capitalize Jenny? I think you've done a lovely job of working in each of the literary terms into your essay. What I would like to see more of is supporting those ideas with details from the text. Your summary was good, but I don't see specific instances that back up how Jane is round or a protagonist. **I** can find them -- but I need to you make it really apparent to me that **you** are making those connections.//

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? “Story of Heroism” By: Stephan Crane
 * Crane’s “Mystery of Heroism”**

In the story “Mystery of Heroism” by Stephane Crane. This story takes place on a battle field and it is about a soldier named Fred Collins who is kind of talked into running through a meadow with guns being fired at him he finally reaches the well. He then fills a bucket with water and starts running back but along the way a dying man calls out to him for a drink of water so he stops and gives him a sip of water but by the time he got back to is fellow soldiers all the water had spilled out of the bucket. A good example of imagery in this story is when he is running to get the water and he hears all of his comrads and fellow soldiers in the back round yelling “Go on get out of here.” This minor detail sets the mood because the other soldiers didn’t think he would do it so they could care less if he came back anyways but at the same time they are thirsty as well and very much enjoy the sip of water. The imagery of this story sets the stage for the id, ego, and super-ego. The id in this story is that Fred Collins is a thirsty man so he runs and s gets the bucket from the welll which just happens to be placed in the middle of the battle field. His ego says that he should also take other canteens to fill up why he is at the well but he just grabs the bucket instead. Last but not least on the final streatch when he is running back with the huge bucket of water his super-ego comes into the story as a dying man calls out to him and asks him for a drink of water before he dies. In the story Mystery of Heroism we see many different examples of the mood of the story we also see many different ids, egos, and super-egos as the character Stephan crane goes through a battle field and tries to do something that can either be described as an act of heroism or an act of stupidity.

//Good quick summary in your introduction.// //I'm not seeing an example of imagery. Is it the fact that he is hearing those shouts? I love your organization and the connections that you make between the literary terms (the imagery ... sets the stage for the id, ego, super-ego) Nice closing, too :)//

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? __ April Showers __ In Wharton’s story of “April Showers” one way characters are characterized is by the dialect. An example of dialect in the story is when Dr. Dace says “Who wants to take it? I should like to know.” From this example of dialect we can tell that he is a very proper man and is upper class. Another way they are characterized is through there id, ego, and superego. The protagonists id is that she left her home and her family to go to Boston because she realized that the article that they promised her was not her article. Her ego is that she will make up for not spending time with her family by giving them money when she finally gets published. Finally her superego is that she is supposed to sew on john’s buttons. __ The Invalid Story __ In Twain’s “The Invalid Story” characters are also characterized by there dialect. An example of this dialect is “Yes ‘ndeedy its awful solemn and curius; but we’ve all got to go, one time or another; they aint no getting around it.” In this dialect we can tell many different things such as region. Another way to characterized the characters is there id, ego, and super ego. In this story our protagonist is taking his friend home on a train but the coffin starts to smell really bad so his id tells him sit outside even though it is freezing cold he just wants away from the smell. His ego is telling him to push the coffin around because that’s what they thought the smell was. Finally his super ego tells him to search each box but it is already to late.
 * Wharton’s “April Showers” and Twain’s “The Invalid’s Story”**