I really liked today’s podcast about close-reading and how it related to the last podcast about storytelling in popular culture. All throughout high school I was told to closely read my reading assignments but my teachers failed to explain what they actually meant. This podcast put all of that into perspective. Now I understand the importance of close-reading and how it takes all of the little factors of whatever you are reading or watching to understand the overall narrative and messages. Understanding close-reading more clearly helped me understand The Yellow Wallpaper. While I have read it before, this time I was better able to understand the underlying themes that were written between the lines. While at first it simply seems like a woman discussing her life, marriage and illness, it quickly becomes clear the real theme of the story is how women used to be oppressed and treated in society. The author is continuously told what is best for her from her trusted doctor, aka her husband. I think a very important theme that I understood from the reading is the discussion of mental health. I only understood the theme of mental health further after listening to the podcast and how Gilman struggled with postpartum depression. This reading clearly exemplifies how mental health used to be thought about and how it was “treated” by doctors. These messages which used to be the reality of America have continued to influence how mental health is thought about by society. Something that I have learned in my psychology classes is that today the biggest barrier for people wanting to seek help with mental health issues is stigma. The continued relevance that the narrative of The Yellow Wallpaper still has today explains why this story and its messages matters.
Critical Thinking
I was pretty lucky to have a string of good English teachers that forced me to closely read a bunch of literature in class. You’d be surprised about how many old stories still have such relevance today. For instance, the Great Gatsby over a quick glance would be about lost love, but it mostly centered around the American Dream and the social classes of America. The distinction between old money and new money was extremely prevalent throughout the story, but the respect and stigma that was attached to the two were more so. How you achieve your money today is still extremely prevalent, expect moreso opposite of the story’s recollection. There is a heavier stigma against inherited money, over earned or new money these days.
I completely agree with your comment about close reading in high school. I really missed the point in many cases and thought to myself maybe there simply isn’t a deeper meaning to the color of the car in some old novel that I didn’t really understand or to the rhyme scheme in a famous poem written hundreds of years ago. But that’s where higher education comes in as I feel that as I have taken more courses, I know recognize the importance of asking deeper questions and looking at the context and more rather than simply just the words written.
I think its really interesting how close reading can create such a link between the reader and the author. When we read closely we are almost getting a direct message from the author, and this creates a really personal and intimate scene of story telling. I think when we read closely we are also much more likely to understand the moral or lesson that the author was trying to get across.
I agree with your comment, and I think a close reading of the Yellow Wallpaper reveals a theme of the ignorance surrounding mental health issues, particularly as it pertains to women. I think this also works to highlight the issues of women being ignored and overall treated unfairly in the medical world and is apparent largely in the realm of mental heath issues.
I completely agree with the notion that teachers told us to close-read but never actually explained what it is that they wanted done. This was my first time reading the Yellow Wallpaper and having the benefit of close-reading experience definitely helped. I am interested to see how my thoughts on the intricacies of the story change once I close-read it again.