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Sarah Hayes EB In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” The narrator has been suffering from a sickness that her husband will not acknowledge. As a solution to what he calls her nervous problems, they move to an old huge house in the countryside. Jane is frustrated that her husband does not believe that she is sick, and struggles within her secret writings to say what she is feeling. Humans cannot function healthily when society takes away their voice. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, our narrator Jane serves as the protagonist. Jane is shown with a voice that changes dramatically throughout the narration of the story. John’s sister Jenny serves as the foil in this story. She shows a dramatic difference between female roles in this time. Jenny listens to her brother and does housework for them because it is the female role of the time. Jane’s relationship to her husband John, the antagonist, is certainly not beneficial to her health, but also not uncommon for the time period. John often refers to her with subtly belittling names such as little girl. His solutions to her implied post partum depression continually fails, and he responds by denying that she is even sick. He believes she needs to stay in, avoid social contact, and not even lift a pencil to write. With lack of a healthy outlet for her voice Jane’s mental health continually deteriorates. Jane is both a round and dynamic character in this short story. She is shown before her sickness escalates, writing almost normally. This is compared to the end of the story where she has snapped. She has torn off all of the wallpaper and is crawling around the room, over John who has fainted because of her current state.

//Ideas: Nice summary! I feel you had a great start with your examples of round and dynamic character, but then got cut off. Great work with your foil example. Word Choice: You do a lovely job with word choice that makes this enjoyable to read :) Organization:While you have a lovely introduction and a body paragraph that describes some great details, a conclusion would have really made this a solid piece of writng. Conventions: Commas go inside the quotations//

Stephen Crane’s “Mystery of Heroism,” tells a story about Fred Collins, a soldier in battle during the revolutionary war. The opening paragraph shows a scene of active battle. The injured and dead lay amid the grass and blood. It is not surprising for the reader to find it strange to hear Mr. Collins’ express his intentions to walk across this deathtrap for a drink of water that is not in necessity, merely a small want that has crossed his mind. During Collins’ potentially fatal stroll to the well that stands amid open fire, he internally battles with himself over his motivations and values. “The dark uniforms of the men were so coated with dust from the incessant wrestling of the two armies that the regiment almost seemed a part of the clay bank which shielded them from the shells.” This opening sentence sets the scene for the entire story. An urgent yet numb feeling hangs in the air as the soldiers watch the battle unfold. This is the unlikely point of the event where Collins’ id begins to dominate. Perhaps in shock from what he has seen, Fred Collins follows his impulse to walk to the well. “He could feel his dulled mind groping after the form and colour of this incident.” The energy and motivation that Collins had collected quickly drains as he reaches the well. It is as if he has woken up from a slumber, only to find himself in the middle of an active battle. "Rifle bullets called forth by the insistent skirmishers camefrom the far-off bank of foliage. They mingled with the shells and the pieces of shells until the air was torn in all directions by hootings, yells, howls." Collin's ego slips into the picture as he soon realizes what he has gotten himself into. He discards the idea of filling up his comrades' canteens and reaches for an easier to fill bucket. ...

//beautiful description -- oh my, the whole introduction is gorgeous. I would love to see this finished. You've done an amazing job illustrating id, ego, and superego using specific descriptions from the text. You've done a lovely job with mood, too. Keep up this writing :)//

Edith Wharton’s “April Showers” is narrated by seventeen year old Theodora. Theodora was raised in a wealthy family in the late 1800’s. She has been spending all her freetime writing a novel, //April Showers.// Her greatest dreams are to have her story published, and be able to redeem herself to her family as she has been falling behind in her housework. Evidence of the family’s wealth is evident in their speech, “No matter, dear. I suppose Johnny’s buttons kept you. “ The reader knows from their proper speech that there is education in this family’s background. Once Theodora’s manuscript was drawn to a close, and the ribbon tied it together, she mailed it into //The Home Circle,// a literature publishing company. Soon after Theodora received a letter from the company saying her story would be published in the summer edition. Theodora was so consumed by her anxiousness, that her super ego seeped through. She began neglecting family duties, her chores, and anything other than daydreaming about her book to be. In spite of her negligance, her ego assured her that when this was all over and she was wealthy, she would give all her resources to help her family. Theodora found that there had been a mistake. Her id rose up into her actions as she hopped a train to Boston to have a talk with the publishing company. She heartbreakingly collects her manuscript and returns home to her surprisingly empathetic father.

“The Invalid Story” tells the tale of a man who’s old friend had passed on, leaving his wish to have his body returned to his family by way of our narrator. His ego knows that it is his moral duty, so he consents to a journey with a cadaver. As his trip begins, he is introduced to Thompson, the quirky car loader. As the stench in the cabin continues to grow, their conversation blossoms, looking for a solution to the foul smell. Thompson has spent enough time traveling the rails that it is not evident where he comes from, in fact his strange way of speaking reflects the quirks of many places he has seen. "We're all right, now! I reckon we've got the Commodore this time. I judge I've got the stuff here that'll take the tuck out of him."

//Your writing continues to be beautifully descriptive. Your interpretation of id, ego, superego seems less clear than it did in the "Mystery of Heroism." Not seeing clear evidence in "The Invalid's Story" of psychoanalytic crit. Your examples of dialect seem well founded, just need to be extrapolated more.//