The reading and blog post for this class was definitely a throwback to high school English (my most recent formal English class). For as long as I can remember teachers have been telling me to do close-reading. To be honest, I never really knew what they meant. Reading for the deeper meaning and looking for connections and themes just seemed natural. Turns out it happened to be close-reading. There is no one right answer when something is closely read. Our experiences and innate knowledge shape what we see when reading something. I as a white, Jewish, male will likely see things differently than an Asian, Christian, female would see it. There are so many variables, race, gender, sexual orientation, class, educational attainment, etc. that the number of different interpretations of a close-read are near limitless. Because of all these variables, I think that close-reading is most useful when done in a group setting. Different viewpoints and ideas will be out in the open potentially enlightening the group to new thought processes and ideologies. Close-reading allows us to delve deeper into what an author has created to search for meaning, whether intentional or not.

Close-reading in my mind is a little bit misleading as a term. It can apply to films, tv shows, music, art, and other non-literature works of art. All of those genres benefit from close-reading. In the modern screen centric world visual centric story telling and information conveyance is the norm. Understanding the deeper meaning behind a news story or a popular movie (Dr. Bezio’s Black Panther example fitting perfectly) enables a deeper understanding of the world around. Most importantly it allows for better learning by creating a more vivid shared experience. Close-reading allows us to parse through false-information and form our own opinions. Close-reading is any form is doing a deeper analysis to find new and different meanings in any work of art. That is why is can be and is applied to such a wide variety of works of art despite its implied usage in literature. I guess doing a close-reading of “close-reading” is necessary to really understand what it is all about.

I read “The Yellow Wallpaper” in a class in my junior year of high school, so it was interesting to read again three years later, and I enjoyed getting to close read it again and see how my perspective has changed and what stands out to me now. One part of “The Yellow Wallpaper” that I found really interesting was the following quote as Gilman talks about the bedroom in the story: “If we had not used it, that blessed child would have! What a fortunate escape! Why, I wouldn’t have a child of mine, an impressionable little thing, live in such a room for worlds” (652). After learning about Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s postpartum, this context provides a powerful insight into her experience. In this quote, the woman shows that she cares for her child, as she would not have wanted the child to experience the wallpaper the way she is, however, at the same time, is very detached in how she speaks about her child. The context becomes important to close reading Gilman’s work.

This passage is a prime example of Dr. Bezio’s discussion of close reading, in particular Step 4 and looking at context.  Much of the story has a universal context related to themes of first wave feminism and the treatment of women, specifically white women, in the early eighteenth century, and this piece is no exception. This quote provides some insight into the experience of postpartum depression, especially when it goes undiagnosed or even considered real. However, it also a very specific context related to Gilman’s personal experience. Knowing this context allows for a deeper understanding of the story and the role of external information in how close reading requires the reader to put together an array of signs, symbols, and words to create a narrative that requires complex thinking and interpretation. Context demonstrates how this element of postpartum depression is both applicable to a more universal experience of white women and mothers in the early 18t century, and to the unique and particular experience of Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

I thought the reading was not only an interesting story but a strongly symbolic message. Clearly the author intended for there to be many underlying themes about the oppression of women and oppressive gender stereotypes as well as stigmas around mental health. The beginning of the reading reminded me a lot of my 101 class when we talked about the ‘silent problem’ in the 50s and 60s when many housewives of middle class families were having mental breakdowns similar to the one depicted in the reading. They were the result of oppressive gender roles that did not allow educated women to do anything but tend to house chores and babies. This lack of fulfillment lead to insomnia, anxiety, and depression like the kind the main character here suffers from. I think my point is made obvious when she mentions how she never would have wanted a baby but that is not something she could ever say out loud. Equally telling is the fact that everyone surrounding her finds it disturbing that she writes and therefore she finds the need to hide it.

I read the “Yellow Wallpaper” at some point in high school, but the first time I read it I honestly didn’t know what was going on. Reading it again definitely helped me understand it better and read between the lines to see the symbolism in the story. Also, after listening to the author’s background in the podcast, as well as the historical time period, I think it helped the meaning of the story make more sense. Women ran the household and did what men asked them to do. I think a woman trapped in the room could be symbolizing women trapped in the household or trapped in an unhealthy marriage with the burdens of taking care of the children and the house and not getting any support. Her husband barely paying attention to her or never truly checking in on her health, could symbolize a husband working full time and never being home to help with the family or house or even wanting to help when he is home. We still see these struggles within domestic roles in the household today. I also appreciate how she used her own struggles with mental health and her “rest” order from the doctor to influence her writing “The Yellow Wallpaper”. It is sad that it’s based on a true story, but I am glad that her story was able to make a difference and have doctors not prescribe the “rest” cure again.

The Yellow Wallpaper was a really interesting reading. I have read it before, but reading it again made me recognize things I didn’t before. For instance, I thought it was interesting that my interpretation switched (from the beginning to the end) from the narrator being in a nice summer house to her being locked up by her husband and scared. In the beginning she described her beautiful house that she was staying at with her husband, and then by the end was seeing things on the wallpaper. It seemed as though she was trapped, and possibly against her own will.

I also thought podcast #11 was really interesting because I have never thought of entertainment as more than just entertainment. The close reading part as well as the fact that every story has a lesson, made me thing of The Yellow Wallpaper. I wondered what the lesson in this story could be. While thinking about it, I thought this story could just be fictional and a form of entertainment, but after hearing the podcast, I realized there had to be more. I came to the conclusion that it’s possible the story was about a woman who was struggling with a mental disorder and her husband didn’t know what to do with her. By locking her in a room, she only got worse instead of better. This brought me to the conclusion that the lesson could be that without some freedom and outdoors time, anyone would go mentally insane – and possibly even start to see things on the wall.

In all honesty, I had to read the Yellow Wallpaper a few times to truly understand the meaning and how it related to our class. I was extremely confused by the wallpaper and the ways in which the main character was interacting with it. However, after reading over my notes and recalling conversations from previous classes, I determined the wallpaper to represent the oppressive nature of marriage and domesticity for women. In many ways, the house the woman was staying at can symbolize society as a whole for women. Windows are barred, and the main character is not allowed to access certain parts of the house when her husband says so. In many ways, that is exactly how it feels like to be a woman in society, especially ours. Yes, technically we are a part of this society, and so in a sense this “house” is as much ours as it is anyone else’s. However, women cannot go out late at night alone without risk of violence. Women cannot enter certain academic spaces without a myriad of backlash. Women are punished when they do not conform to the ideal set out by the patriarchy. I believe Gilman tried to personify this construct through the house. More specifically, the wallpaper represented the way the main character felt in her marriage. No matter where she would go, the smell and color would follow her, not allowing her to focus on her life, or heal from the illnesses she was suffering. No matter where women go, we are followed by the patriarchy and all its oppression in one way or another. Before anything else, we are women. For POC women, we are black/brown women. No matter where we go in our patriarchal society,  the label of female walks in before we do.

I think it’s important to recognize the cultural context of the stories we read before trying to analyze them. The main character was living during a time of great female oppression, and I believe that, along with her mental illness, aided in my own interpretation of the story. Our culture influences the literary works we produce, and in a sense I do not believe that Gilman would have written this if the oppression she was feeling was not as intense as it was.

While listening to the podcast, one of the things I was reminded of was my high school English and literature classes. I haven’t really taken a formal literature class since, so this is my most recent comparison. I always enjoyed going over books and readings, but I think we’ve all had those teachers that seem to stretch just a little too far to find “the author’s message.” I don’t deny that there is almost always some form of intentional symbolism or message, but sometimes you have to wonder what the author actually intended, versus what the audience chooses to pick out. I used to get kind of frustrated with this because you hardly ever know the exact message and individual symbols that the author is trying to showcase unless they explain it later, but now I think I have a different perspective. Even if an author or creator puts out a piece of content and people pull their own takes from it, I don’t think that it does any harm and can even be beneficial. Now, if this extra underlying message takes away from the author’s intended take, maybe the audience should hold back. Then again, is it the fault of the audience if they don’t understand a message, or is it the fault of the creator? I feel like some creators make their work inherently difficult to understand, or at least target a very specific audience. I think one of the things that makes a writer or producer or creator great is when they can create conversation about their work, but still have a defined vision that can be supported and proven through what they said, without any plot holes. At the end of the day, if someone can create something that’s captivating and includes a lesson, I don’t think you can go wrong.

At first when reading “Yellow Wallpaper”, I was a bit confused to say the least especially with how it related to the class. But after reading it closer and reading up about it I further understood the larger meaning of Yellow Wallpaper being the societal oppression of women in the US. Relating it back to our past class, I thought about the power that popular culture can have, regardless of what form it is in, in addressing important issues whether that is systemic racism or female oppression. Stories like “Yellow Wallpaper” begin conversations between people about the male control over women and the need for female empowerment. Realizing the deeper lesson that goes along with the wife’s deteriorating mental health requires close reading.

With any story, it is essential to use close reading to understand the greater meaning of the work regardless of whether it is hidden or not. As we continue on with our education, each year has only seemed to further stress the importance of looking deeper at things and asking why and how along with understanding different perspectives and the context. In order to truly understand these stories or other elements of popular culture and fully examine/talk about them it requires a greater grasp of the lessons/content. But this brings up a greater issue in our current society, as not everyone is willing to look deeper into these stories and discuss the potential issues that it brings up like female oppression which still exists today. But more information can be spread/addressed by continuing to have these conversations in both formal and informal settings.

The idea of story telling is very interesting as we as people essentially use fiction to teach ourselves lesson’s that we are not observant enough to learn during our usual life. Humans for some reason need to listen to, read, or observe an interaction to take the morals from them and struggle to see it in their own life. The idea of symbols in storytelling have a very interesting connection to communication. Every single one of the words we use is a symbol for something else. These are all symbols that we have assigned meaning to and use to string together stories, plays, and in a way lessons that we are to learn from. This podcast really reminded me of a communications class I’ve taken where we discuss how symbols come to have their meaning. It is through our own perception that words and other symbols get their meaning. And eventually, stories and satire give words even more meaning than they have on their own in the language they are established in. I found it interesting how Shakespeare “forces” us to slow down with certain things like alliteration. The way that lessons can be shoved into our faces repeatedly and the way that we are made to take notice of them is very interesting. Yet somehow, we still seem to miss the point or the moral of the story. I think as readers or viewers we do not always take notice of what is being placed in front of us for us to observe or absorb. The lessons that can apply both inside and outside of context can be taken and applied to many different places in our lives. I think it depends on our own perception of these lessons if we actually make use of the lessons and apply them in other parts of our lives.

This weeks podcast and reading introduced an interesting consideration concerning women’s place in society. I read the Yellow Wallpaper my Junior year of high school; however, looking at it through a sense of domesticity provides a new perspective. As stated in the podcast, there is no such thing as just entertainment–all entertainment conveys a lesson, no matter how small or seemingly irrelevant. The Yellow Wallpaper, however, has an obvious lesson concerning women being trapped in the empty role of domesticity. In the 19th century, women were expected to act as domestic angels, whose main goal was to preserve the home and care for their children. Even as middle and lower class entered the workforce, women were still expected to care for the domestic sphere in their home, adding a layer of uncompensated invisible labor.

In her narrative, The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, writes the story of a woman who feels trapped in the confines of her husbands grasps and her expected role as a domestic wife, while also battling “nervous depression”. As part of her treatment, she is forbidden from intellectual working of any kind, even writing–essentially, she must lie in bed all day. To fight her boredom, the woman secretly writes in her journal to rely her thoughts and keep her from experiencing a depressive episode. However, her life of boredom and basically imprisonment cause her to hallucinate a trapped woman behind the yellow wallpaper in her room. The trapped woman symbolizes herself and Gilman’s “fictional” character is a depiction of herself. Women’s roles in life being so tunneled into being wives and mothers created a feeling of frustration that can cause women to experience insanity, understandingly so. Such gender roles continue today and have been exasperated by the pandemic, as women perform the vast majority of domestic work in all homes. The narrative of women as ‘expected’ to perform the domestic work creates a cycle of implicit biases of sexism. Gender roles, which have been dramatically challenged in the past years, are still drilled into our society and our expectations of women; therefore, years of implicit bias reckoning must occur to tear down the pervasive misogyny.