Young Goodman Brown - Nathanial Hawthorne

“And Faith, as the wife was aptly named” (Hawthorne 539)

Nathanial Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” contains various religious imagery to convey the theme of good versus evil and reality versus imagination. The character of Goodman Brown has a wife named “Faith”, who is always seen wearing “pink ribbons” (Hawthorne 539). Here, we can infer that Faith was the source of good in Brown’s life; her name alone connects her with religion, light and righteousness while her pink ribbons suggest purity and devoutness to God. However, we also see evil represented as Hawthorne likens a staff to “a great black snake” (Hawthorne 540). The snake is one of Christianity’s most recognizable evil images, as it is generally connected with wickedness and the devil.

Goodman Brown shouts “My Faith is gone!” (Hawthorne 544), a phrase that has a duel meaning. While Faith is the name of his wife, whom he is searching for, it also refers to the fact that Brown feels as though he is losing his religion and giving into his dark side. The concept of good versus evil is an idea that has transcended time and been the struggle of humanity for all of its creation. History has proved that humans have consistently resorted to violence, war and overall sin as opposed to simple goodness and humanity. The character of Goodman Brown is merely the literary expression of the truth of this world and that “Evil is the nature of mankind” (Hawthorne 546).

The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Upon completing Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, I was immediately convinced that the protagonist was afflicted with post partum depression. Lines such as “Yet I cannot be with him, it makes me so nervous” (Gilman 489) and “I never thought of it before, but it is lucky that John kept me here after all; I can stand it so much easier than a baby, you see” (Gilman 492) clearly points to a woman who can not handle the pressures of being a mother. Gilman wrote this story in the latter part of the 1800’s, a time when post partum depression was most likely not a widely recognized problem. As a result of the time, the protagonist was treated like a mentally ill patient and not capable of caring for herself. Her husband John forced her into a room that “was nursery first, and then playroom and gymnasium, I should judge, for the windows are barred for little children” (Gilman 488), thus treating her like a child that could not be trusted alone. Cleary, the isolation eats away at the protagonist’s mental state, making her delusional and insistent that the room’s yellow wallpaper was almost like a living entity that would change shape, size and patterns. However, I believe that the wallpaper is really the protagonist’s child as she personifies the wallpaper by insisting that “she crawls around fast” (Gilman 495) and “takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard (Gilman 495). By the end of the story, it is clear that the protagonist has done something awful to her child and not the wallpaper. John’s fainting was most likely a result of discovering his wife’s shocking actions against his child and realizing that his wife had a serious problem that could not be cured by keeping her shut away in a room.

A Rose for Emily - William Faulkner

William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is a literary example of human cruelty and the effect is can have on certain individuals. Emily was clearly mentally unstable after her father’s death and this instability was only perpetuated by the uncaring people of her town. The character of Emily is seen purchasing “rat poison, the arsenic” (Faulkner 407) while people in her town said nothing but “Poor Emily” (Faulkner 407). It is clear to me that actions such as Emily’s require some inquiry, yet no one thought to ask questions. Instead, the towns’ people rejected Emily; not one person cared enough to investigate her strange behavior but pretended to feel sympathetic for her. Sadly, no one had thought much about Emily during her life except to gossip about her; it was only during her death that people seemed to take notice of a person who had lived her life practically alone. “When Miss. Emily Greirson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly of out curiosity to see the inside of her house” (Faulkner 404). Emily’s funeral was simply an indifferent town coming out to witness the spectacle that her death had turned into. Perhaps Emily’s mental state could have been helped had she received the proper attention following her father’s death. Unfortunately, Emily never fit into her town’s social structure but was instead a burden to it; only through Emily’s death did the town realize the seriousness of her mental state and their inability to recognize it.

We Can Remember it for You Wholesale - Phillip K. Dick

Phillip K. Dick’s “We Can Remember it for You Wholesale” reminds me of the world we are currently living in. Dick uses strange vocabulary such as “conapt” (357) and “vidphone” (356) which is reminiscent of our new technical language such as “Ipod” and “PDA”. These kinds of words have become part of our everyday existence, which is why “We Can Remember it for You Wholesale” is a story that is not so far removed from the tech-savvy, virtual type world we live in today. The world in Dick’s story has “robot drivers” (360) which mirrors the fact that machines and computers are now running many jobs that were previously run by a human being. While the technology we have today is amazing, it is also kind of scary. In the end of “We Can Remember it for You Wholesale”, technology proves to fail the protagonist. Dick was not far off in imagining the reliability of technology, as presently we find ourselves completely inconvenienced if our internet connection does not work or we have a massive power outage. If the reader can take away one very important message from Dick’s story, I believe that it should be not to depend on technology all the time as it can be both remarkable and terrifying. Our virtual society must remember that human beings created computers, cell phones and every other piece of technological equipment and sometimes we should just put away the machines that make life easier and use our good, old fashioned brains.

The Open Boat - Stephen Crane

What I found to be so intriguing about Stephan Crane’s ‘The Open Boat”, was how Crane portrayed the different ways the men dealt with the crisis at hand. Each of the men knew that they would most likely not survive, yet each of them handles this reality differently. The character of the correspondent chooses to spend his final moments smoking a cigar as he observes the state of the other men onboard. By doing so, the correspondent is almost pulling himself out of the horror around him and instead of participating in his demise he becomes an aloof observer. The cook chooses to talk about pie as a coping mechanism for his impending death. Perhaps the cook focuses on pie because cooking had been his life and is something that is familiar and comforting to him, unlike the scenario he faces aboard the boat. “I am going to be drowned – If am going to be drowned – If I am going to be drowned, why, in the same of the seven mad gods who rule the sea, was I allowed to come thus far and contemplate sand and trees?” (Crane 349). This phrase is repeated several times throughout the story, perhaps as a way to rationalize their death through the belief of a higher being. If the mean can somehow believe that it is the will of nature or of God that they must die aboard the ship than perhaps they are comforted. Believing in a higher power is a coping mechanism that an extraordinarily large number of people use; if life and death are out of the men’s hands and into the hands of something more powerful. They men may feel more at peace with their death because it was meant to be. Either way, Crane has explored the vastly different ways people react to death in a story that encompasses humanity’s greatest fear.

The Story of an Hour - Kate Chopin

The character of Mrs. Mallard in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” finds freedom in a moment and loses it just as quickly. Chopin is truly a master of the short story, as she has managed to pack an ironic story full of symbolism in a mere page and a half. Upon hearing the news of her husbands death, Mrs. Mallard felt “there was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully” (Chopin 267). The fear that Mrs. Mallard felt is her realization that she was not upset about her husbands death because it brought her freedom; for the first time in her life, she would be allowed to live and do what she pleased, without having to answer to her husband. Many people may find Mrs. Mallard’s behavior strange and question why she is not more upset over the death of her husband. However, we are not completely certain of the circumstances of Mrs. Mallard’s relationship with her husband. We are told that her face “bespoke repression and even a certain strength” (Chopin 267). Also, the story was written in 1894, a time when most women were not allowed to break out of the wife and mother mold. Through this, we can infer that perhaps Mrs. Mallard was abused by her husband or completely controlled by him. One cannot say that Mrs. Mallard was wrong in feeling what she felt when she thought that her husband had died for she was finally free from the marriage and the man that ruled her life for so long; it is only human to want to yearn for freedom and independence in our lifetime.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Mallard would never get to feel that sense of freedom as Chopin utilizes the power of irony when Mr. Mallard walks through the door and his wife dies “of joy that kills” (Chopin 268). Here, we can liken the character of Mrs. Mallard to Peyton Farquhar in Ambrose Beirce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”. Both characters were struggling against a force greater than themselves – Farquhar against his enemies at the bridge and Mrs. Mallard against her dominating husband. Sadly, it is only in death that both of these characters defeated their opponents and found the freedom they longed for.

Avatar

My second life avatar, HeatherC Heartsdale, is a reasonably true reflection of myself. I chose my name because one of my favorite literary devices is alliteration; I chose to use my real first name, Heather, and my last initial and feel that Heartsdale accompanies my name nicely. In second life, I chose to make my avatar look and dress similar to myself. My avatar’s outfit is simple and comfortable – just a pair of jeans and a hooded sweatshirt, much like what I would wear in real life. I find it intriguing that I can see a virtual version of myself walking around because in real life we do not get the chance to step back and see ourselves. While we are able to see an image of ourselves projected in a mirror or in a picture, it is impossible to remove ourselves from our body and see what we look like to others. Second Life affords us the opportunity to see how we appear to and interact with others through a virtual setting. I feel that any kind of avatar will work in second life, whether it resembles a human, alien or anything in between. An avatar is a representation of yourself and your online appearance is simply another aspect of your personality and a different view of yourself. Through my second life avatar, I hope to share my ideas and opinions with others in an open environment that is different from the type of environment the classroom provides. Many times it is easier to express our ideas online, through virtual vehicles such as blogs and avatars because we can quickly communicate an idea without over editing our initial reactions on a subject. I look forward to using Second Life as an alternative way of looking at literature and hope that it becomes a useful tool in my visualization of the pieces we explore this semester.