13-54-8-4

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 the suspenseful story of “__The Yellow Wallpaper__.” The protagonist is Jane because she is the main character and in the story it tells how she crazy she went when she let society’s morals take over who she really wants to be as a person. The antagonist is society’s expectations for women because that is what made her go insane in the first place. The fact that men have the right to have their own mind and men are suppose to make all the decisions and women don’t have the right or freedom to have a mind of their own. The foil characters are Jane and her husband John. Jane is depressed and sad in the story because she feels like she can’t be herself and because of the way society was back then she isn’t allowed to have a free mind and she isn’t allowed to make decisions for herself. John on the other hand because of society is allowed to do those things and that affects the relationship between him and his wife because Jane wants make decisions that her husband is making for her.

You've done a lovely job explaining the sexism of the time by applying feminist criticism, and I also see you have a great grasp on antagonist/protagonist! I'd like to see a little more in your explanation of "foil" because it means more than just "opposite characters" -- which is all I'm getting right now. I feel that you might know it, but I just need to be sure you've got it down :) Also, I'm missing round, flat, dynamic, static examples. You've done a great job with this paragraph format, and I'd like to see you extend it into at least three paragraphs to make a clear introduction and conclusion.

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? Throughout the story Crane’s “Mystery of Heroism” Fred felt fear. He was also suspenseful anxious and paranoid because he was afraid that he was going to be killed while going to get water for his fellow soldiers. He felt paranoid and suspenseful because he didn’t know if he was going to make it to that other side alive or not. I would also say he was somewhat satisfied because not only did he make it to the other side alive he also was able to give the dying man water to. The mood reflects Fred’s motivation because he wanted to save or at least help the man that was on the battle field dying by giving him a drink of water. Even though he was in a hurry to get the water to the other side to his fellow teammates he also still wants to do the right thing at the same time by helping the dying man that Fred’s ego. His superego was that he helped the dying man by giving him water even though he knew that it was going to be a big risk for his life and he knew that he probably wouldn’t make it back to the soldiers alive he still wanted to the right thing regardless.
 * Crane’s “Mystery of Heroism”**

//I see some great descriptions of how the protagonist might feel throughout this story, but mood describes the feelings of the reader as he/she is reading. I don't see that you've mastered that literary term yet. I love how you tied mood to motivation though. I see good examples of ego and superego but not id. This is a good start! Just needs some developing to make it more solid.//

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 Twains “The Invalid Story” he used lots of dialect to tell about the characters. “We got to stay out here cap. We got to do it. They aint no other way. The governor wants us to travel alone and he’s fixed so he can out vote us” this is an example of dialect that shows us about the character Thompson and how he is and doesn’t have a good vocabulary. This dialect also shows that he has a sense of humor and a sense of sarcasm.
 * Wharton’s “April Showers” and Twain’s “The Invalid’s Story”**

In Twains “The Invalid Story” he used lots of dialect to tell about the characters. “We got to stay out here cap. We got to do it. They aint no other way. The governor wants us to travel alone and he’s fixed so he can out vote us” this is an example of dialect that shows us about the character Thompson and how he is and doesn’t have a good vocabulary. This dialect also shows that he has a sense of humor and a sense of sarcasm.

//NIce analysis with dialect ... it seems pretty repetetive in the second paragarph though. (Like you just changed the quote in that paragraph.) I'm also missing your application of psychoanalytic crit (id, ego, superego) Conventions: Apostrophe s -- to show possession (Twain's "The Invalid's Story") **When you start a quote, it is important to use a dialogue tag, like this: Twain writes, "We got to stay out here, cap" (page number).**//