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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”**

__ Yellow Wallpaper __ In the story __The Yellow Wallpaper__ stereotypes from society limit people on what they are able to do, especially females. Feminist criticism is used a lot; John the husband is somewhat caring, a doctor, and controls almost every aspect of his wife Jane’s life. It is a form of a patriarchy; Jane’s mood reflects how she is treated. The protagonist in the story is Jane, she is suffering from depression, is gullible at first. The antagonist is society and John in my mind. The relationship between the two is that they are husband and wife, and society connects everything because without society women wouldn’t be judged and treated like they can’t do anything besides cook and clean. The foil in the story I believe is the society it supports every reason for what is done and how Jane is treated. The foil supports the theme because woman wouldn’t be stereotyped in such way if society didn’t bring it down on them. The protagonist in the story round because you see many different sides from her. At first she is hopeful, somewhat down, and optimistic but towards the end she sees through her husband’s lies. Jane is also very dynamic character she is like a whole different character from the beginning of the story towards the end. She goes from being weak and uncertain to a powerful, driven person. My final thoughts on __Yellow Wallpaper__ are the characters in the story really helped support the theme that “Stereotypes limit woman are what they are able to do.” John really did a good job at making it seem like females are less than men by babying his wife and making her believe that she couldn’t do anything by herself. Jane allowed herself to be stereotyped in the beginning of the story but she evolved into a dynamic character.

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? __ Mystery of Heroism __ The story “Mystery of Heroism,” was written by Stephen Crane. It takes place in the Civil War where there are two sides fighting. On one side there is a man named Fred Collins who is in a way, joking around/pressured to get water because of his thirst factor. Collins is the protagonist, a dynamic character, and a round character. He’s a protagonist because he is the character that the story is focused on. Over the course of the story he starts out being sort of invincible thinking that he will just be able to do whatever he wants then later on he becomes scared. You see many different sides of him; in the beginning he was fearless then when he was out in the middle of the battlefield he became very worried. He is trying to prove everyone wrong so he decides to risk his life and go out into the middle of the battlefield to get water. He gets it then hurries back to his members. You don’t need to do something that life threatening just because you were told you couldn’t. The imagery and mood that was created the most in my head was when Collins collected decided to risk his life for getting water. The scent was an “odour as from a conflagration,” the sight of “the officers head sank down, and one elbow crooked. His foot in its brass-bound stirrup still stretched over the body of his horse, and the other leg was under the steed.” There was the sound of gun fire and explosions happening everywhere, and the feel of “trying to hold a bucket steadily, but his shaking hands caused the water to splash all over the face of the dying man, then he jerked it away and ran on.” After Collins filled up the bucket and started on his run home midway though he looked down and saw an injured office laying on the ground. Collins “Id” was telling him to run past the wounded man and get to safety without dying. His superego told him to go back and help the man by giving him water (do the right thing). Finally his ego told him to help the man and help his self. The purpose of this writing is to inform you that doing the right thing is not always the smart thing to do.
 * Crane’s “Mystery of Heroism”**

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? In the story “April Showers,” the author, Edith Wharton tells about a young woman’s story about how she wants to write and get her writing published. But, she also has to balance out her writing and her family life. The author describes the character in the story by his word choice and dialect. In the story you get a sense that the girl is very intelligent, classy, and is a part of the upper class. When she says, “father oh, father!” The way she speaks supports that, she uses Father instead of dad and many other things. The girl’s “Id” wants her just to write all she can and try to get her work published, her “Superego” is telling her to do the right thing and take care of her family, and lastly her “Ego” balances the two by using the money she earns if she gets her work published to help provide for the family. “The Invalid’s Story” was a very interesting, yet sometimes comical story that I enjoyed. The narrator uses many interesting words that help define who he is and where he came from. The dialect he uses, such as, “Suppos’n we buckle down to it and give the colonel a bit of a shove towards t’other end of the car.” That is an exactly example of how he spoke throughout the story. The narrator has a friend of his body that he was taking to the friend’s family in Wisconsin. While on the train a foul odor started to invade him and the express man. They tried everything to get rid of the smell from moving it to burning items. They were completely oblivious to the cheese sitting on top of the coffin. The narrators “Id” was telling him to get rid of the scent meaning get rid of the body. His “superego” was telling him to be loyal and stay with his friend. His “ego” to stick with the body and figure out a way to get rid of the scent.
 * Wharton’s “April Showers” and Twain’s “The Invalid’s Story”**