I really enjoyed today’s podcast regarding the Yellow Wallpaper because I did read it last semester yet this time there was more information on the author and what she stood for/ how she came to write the story. For example, I thought it was absolutely crazy how they put her on bed rest and then said that she could not read, write, or even feed herself. Reading her background story reminded me of the book/ tv series The Handmaid’s Tale that I recently read for my English class. The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian future where substantial amounts of women become infertile, so they have to designate “handmaids” to go to households and carry the husband and wife’s baby for them. These women have to wear big red cloaks all the time and bonnets where their faces are always hidden. They are supposed to be protected by the evil eyes of men and are seen as objects of great fertility and virtue. In training, they look down on women who are promiscuous or even women in the past who used to wear bathing suits. For some reason this story reminded me of the Handmaid’s Tale because it kind of has similar connotations.

For example, the novel paints the future of the nation in a way that is brutal to read and where women are stripped of basically everything. However, reading the story behind the Yellow Wallpaper, it seems pretty similar. This made me kind of scared of our past and how even now in the present we can read a story like the Handmaids Tale or the Yellow Wallpaper and be afraid if that will be our future, yet it was our past. I wonder if we will ever learn from our mistakes as a nation and not make this still be a thing that is written about, but that is too hard to tell.