English 3332 students:
For our Friday, February 12, blog, please post a comment, during the fifty minutes of our class time, of at least two well-developed paragraphs explaining how Kate Chopin's "Désirée’s Baby" (418-24) and Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wall-Paper" (424-38) illustrate a transition from regionalism to social reform-oriented realism in short fiction written by American women in the late 19th century. Before you write your comment, please click on this link and read this concise and insightful article by Lucinda MacKethan about Southern "Local Color."
For our Monday, February 15, class, here is the Stephen Crane poetry link. Please read it online if you like to stick with that format or print it out if you would prefer.
Have a great weekend,
Prof. K
The short stories “Désirée’s Baby” by Kate Chopin and “The Yellow Wall-Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman represent a decisive turn from the cultural tourism of regionalism to the movements of social reform led predominantly by women. In this new realism, the focal point of the writing is not the uniqueness of an area’s dialect and culture, but rather a greater more national message of change that would be more applicable across lines. In Chopin’s story, the message is one of racial difference and self-hate. She calls attention to this by through the birth of a black child to supposedly white parents. The father becomes hostile and blames his wife, accusing her of having African blood in her family while it is soon revealed that the husband is the one with a black mother. This discussion of racial difference and ambiguity tears a once happy couple apart, resulting in a broken family and a bitter young man. Throughout the story, the characters do not speak in heavy dialect nor do they resort to slang, undermining and claims of regionalism and sealing this work as one of universal realistic fiction.
ReplyDeleteGilman takes another route of a deeper psychological route with her story, “The Yellow Wall-Paper.” Instead of tackling race differences left in the wake of the Civil War and Reconstruction, she dedicates her efforts to the status of women in the society she knows. She skillfully builds the tension of the trapped being behind the walls, and the psyche of a trapped woman under the loving, but controlling thumb of her husband. The story strays from the ideas and values of a region or class and instead forms three equal characters without tired stereotypes of regionalism. However, Gilman could be making statements about mental illness as well. The wallpaper having such an effect on all of the characters, it draws them to it. Especially in the main character who is believed to be hysterical, might have serious illness that goes untreated and ignored by her husband, maid, and acquaintances. These two stories touch upon most of the major movements in the late 19th century being race, sexism, and the mistreatment of the mentally ill and are considerably different in tone and structure than stories of local color.
I really liked that you mentioned slang in your first paragraph. It really shows the difference between regionalism and realism in that the characters don't speak in a certain dialect that helps the reader figure out where they are from. Instead, it's a mystery and the social issues of race are portrayed from a realism stance.
DeleteI wonder if the wife was not suffering from mental illness before the control of her husband? Perhaps the control and confinement her husband subjected her to, literally, "drove her crazy." Her, maybe, mild depression or nervousness could have worsened due to the behavior of her husband? That was the impression I got as the story went on.. she seemed crazier and crazier by the page. Haha.
DeleteIn both “Desiree’s Baby” and “The Yellow Wall-Paper”, both Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s both highlight topics that were not comfortably brought to attention. Both stories create a clear transition from regionalism to social reform-oriented realism in terms of discussing racial discrimination and rights of women during this time period. In Desiree’s Baby”, racial discrimination is held on all accounts when the child of two Caucasian parents comes out black. Infuriated, the husband is quick to blame the wife for not keeping him aware of her past family tree. In conclusion to the story, the husband soon finds out that in fact it is he that has the direct relation to an African American – his own mother. This is the representation of regionalism, to social reform oriented realism because it highlights the problematic stance of racism during this time period.
ReplyDeleteIn “The Yellow Wall-Paper”, Gilman makes tells the story of a woman subconsciously trapped within her marriage by her husband John. During this time period, Gilman is making it known how off-putting it was to be kept in a state of following behind the man with crafts and home cooking. The story reads,“I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus-but John says the worst thing I can do is think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad. So I will let it alone and talk about the house” (429). Here we are able to see how her husband John wants to her turn away from anything she might see out of the ordinary and face her everyday tasks she has obtained as a woman. This is a transition of regionalism to social reform oriented realism because it depicts women’s and foreshadows the women’s rights movement that we see in years to come.
I agree that the two main social reform areas directly addressed by these pieces are that of race and sex. Both of these women took their ability and opportunity to bring attention to the issues they felt important, despite the popularity of dialect/regionalist writing at the time. I especially agree with your ending sentence referring to the foreshadowing of the part women would play in reform movements. Women had already spearheaded the abolition movement and would continue into the field of discrimination of racial minorities and women and even later, the prohibition movement.
Delete
DeleteI also see how these issues in the late nineteenth century are still issues that are around today. The world has changed so much, but also so very little. Mental health is the major issue in this story, but her "doctor" husband cannot comprehend that she is ill. This story was nerve reeking at the end and I was a little mystified. It was saddening to watch a character go through this all alone and snap at the end.
Focusing on two different issues: Kate Chopin and Charlotte Gilman both show transitions from regionalism to social reform-oriented realism. In "Desiree's Baby" and "The Yellow Wall-Paper," two female writers take on controversial topics: race and women's rights.
ReplyDeleteIn "Desiree's Baby," racial injustice is portrayed. When a child who appears to be colored is born to non-colored parents: the mother of the child is accused of having African American blood, when all along it is the father. There is no obvious indicators that this story is specific to a certain region, whereas the topic at hand can be applied everywhere.
In "The Yellow Wall-Paper," a women is controlled by her husband. She is told what to do, when to do it, and she is not taken seriously by her husband. Gilman is calling out the idea that women's problems were written off as "hysteria" at this time. As with "Desiree's Baby," this story is not specifically tied to any certain region or area. Women everywhere experienced such problems as the wife in "The Yellow Wall-Paper."
In an attempt of social-reform, Chopin and Gilman drew attention to controversial topics of their time period. Both stories portrayed the transition from regionalism to social reform-oriented realism. Neither of the topics were specific to one region or another, as they were relevant everywhere.
I totally agree that Gilman was criticizing the ridiculous notion that every emotional and mental difficulty that was faced by a woman was "hysteria" and was to be treated with boredom and isolation.
DeleteI hadn't really considered how applicable these stories are to the entire U.S., and even elsewhere in the world, but you make a great point.
I agree with you. The focus of this change isn't on where the story takes place, instead it is of the reality of the characters and how they are being treated. Desiree is rejected by her husband for being accused of having black good, and in Gilman's story she is marginalized and controlled by her husband for having hysteria. No longer is area and region the center of the story, instead both writers center on realism to represent controversial issues of their time.
DeleteI do like how you highlighted the lack of connection either story has to a specific region, since that is what seems to differentiate them from all the other stories we've read so far. Women across the country were slowly beginning to take notice and action to the mostly inferior roles they played in society up to this point, and even racial injustice, while no doubt more prominent in the South, was still a nationwide issue which any reader could relate to on some level.
Delete"Désirée’s Baby" by Kate Chopin and "The Yellow Wall-Paper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman turns the page from regionalism to realism. These two stories are quite different but they both show the social changes that both women authors were trying to convey. In "Désirée’s Baby" the social issue is race. Instead of focusing on a reagionalist issue, the author focus on a more global issue. The male character, Armand, has issues with the fact that Désirée’s parents are unknown and so he believes she is mixed-blood, which was a major issue back then. It is then discovered that he is actually the one with mixed-blood after Désirée and their baby have already left. Because of his ignorance and hatred toward other races, the family is ripped apart. The story enunciates the social issues of race within a family.
ReplyDeleteIn "The Yellow Wall-Paper" the social issues discussed is mental illness and the way women were treated. This doesn't just affect people in a certain region, this is a global issue and affects people all over the world. The husband takes his wife that has "descended into madness" to this mansion and keeps her in a room to help her rest. Gilman suggests that women were mostly kept at home and not taken to get professional help with illness' like this. The narrator is held in this domestic stereotype of staying at home instead of interacting with people or working. Gilman and Chopin both discuss issues that are global instead of just local issues.
Your statement of Armand's ignorance is a good assertion. I hadn't focused on the ignorance of Armand's actions but I agree that it did cause a lot of his hate and anger. In addition, your observation that these issues are far greater than the communities and regions they take place in is important in the context of social reform.
DeleteI like that you mention how women with mental illnesses were treated and how you didn't generalize it to a certain part of the country. It was sad that she was left to go crazy by herself at home.
DeleteBoth Chopin and Gilman moved away from the hard dialect and overly described settings to focus on the inner struggles of the characters in their short stories. Although, Desiree’s Baby did have a regional flare to the text the main focus was the hardship of this woman’s struggle with her parentage. The story by Gilman put so much depth in the character it made her stand out and produce a memorable story for the reader. As a woman both of these stories showed the hardships of being a female in late nineteenth century. Gilman’s main character in The Yellow Wall-Paper is showing signs of depression, which is most likely post-partum, but her doctor husband pushes it aside and diagnoses her with “hysteria”. In Chopin’s story it is the fault of Desiree that the child looks like a mixed race child. The men in these stories are absolutely infuriating.
ReplyDeleteThese two wonderful female authors represent realism in a beautiful way. They do not focus on the regional dialect instead they focus on sex and inward struggles. In The Yellow Wall-Paper the narrator is dismissed by her husband and eventually goes a little crazy from her depression she states in the beginning, “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression- a slight hysterical tendency- what is one to do?” (426) what could a woman do at this time? In Desiree’s Baby her husband swears that she is the cause of the mixed breeding, “that if the child is not white; it means you are not white.” (422) The transition into realism is well done by focusing on the lives of women and the hardships of being a female.
I like that you focused on the struggles of women in that time period. I myself focused on the harsh reality of the situations among the characters, and that the authors themselves were women, not just the protagonist.
DeleteI also like that you focused on the women of that period. I looked at the texts as texts of oppression. Gender and race oppression as well as the marginalization of the mentally ill, were tragic themes in these texts.
Delete“Désirée’s Baby” by Kate Chopin and “The Yellow Wall-Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman make a pivotal turn for women writers in the shift over to realism. Gilman uses her tale to discuss the reality of insanity and intense physiological problems. The narrator, whom we don't know the name of, is taken to "vacation" home with her husband and is kept in a room. In the room she is limited and grows fond of the yellow wallpaper decorating the room. The significance in the story is not only the physiological problems faced by the narrator, but the limits she has in this time period has a woman. The narrator describes her relationship with her husband John, and they have mutual love for each other, but John treats her very inferior, even moreso because of the narrator's condition. There was a real issue in this time for women because there were still the social constructs of women staying at home, not working, taking care of the children, and not being educated.
ReplyDeleteChopin takes a different approach to realism and discusses the problems of race in her tale. Desiree's husband Armand changes his behavior in the tale, around the time Desiree notices something is wrong with their child. Armand suggest to Desiree that "the child is not white". Armand shows a serious disgust in this, believing Desiree to have black blood in her. In angst, Desiree goes to visit her mother at her mother's request. At the end of the tale, it is revealed that Armand's mother was black. Chopin opens the discussion about race around the era of slavery and the views that whites had about blacks. Armand was seemingly happy with Desiree after the death of his first wife, but after discovering that his child had some features that would suggest that he is black, his demeanor and mood changes. Chopin shows a slice of a deeper side of slavery and how the other race was viewed at this time
Kate Chopin’s “Desiree’s Baby” addresses the issue of social and personal hypocrisy between men and women and blacks and whites. Nevertheless, she achieves social reform-oriented realism by tactfully masking the pressing issue at hand with intriguing story-telling. This tale contains a “pivotal dramatic moment,” (13) (a common theme in realism!), which occurs when Armand realizes that he is the son of an African-American: “I thank the good God for having so arranged our lives that our dear Armand will never know that his mother, who adores him, belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery” (424). At that moment, Armand is revealed to be the very thing he most despises, thus criticizing society’s prejudice against African-Americans.
ReplyDeleteOne of realisms most indistinguishable characteristics is that the characters have the ability to exercise free will at some point, “despite adverse or countervailing pressures” (13). In "The Yellow Wall-Paper," the heroin, though she loses her mind, exercises her free will by tearing down the wallpaper and creeping around the room, despite the wishes or expectations of her husband and sister-in-law. Gilman's story also critiques the treatment of women as weak and daft, calling for equal treatment for women that is unhindered by stereotyping.
Another point Chopin may be making is that social theories like prejudice seem all well and good to us until they apply to us. Armand was willing to throw his wife and son out on the street because the child was of mixed race. He does not, however, commit suicide or otherwise degrade himself upon discovering his ancestry. Rather, like many mistreated minorities he resorts to hiding his lineage and publicly distancing himself from the stigma of having father a mulatto child. And that's not to say there was a stigma against having children with blacks, merely against having a child intended to a full-fledged member of your family (and thus an heir) who turned out to not be white. Conveniently, of course, he could blame his wife, and who would question the judgment of a wealthy white gentleman from a good family? The hypocrisy of people who mistreat others for something when they themselves have the attribute used as a criteria for discrimination, that is what Chopin is exposing.
DeleteIn Kate Chopin's "Desiree's Baby," there is a significant change from regionalism to social reform-oriented realism. One thing that I noticed from the short story is Chopin's lack of dialect. Dialect is a huge indicator of where the setting takes place. Instead, by submitting the use of dialect, Chopin is carry social reform realism. The realism is seen by the self-hate portrayed by Desiree's husband. No longer is the focal point about the culture, instead we come across a story where discrimination and self-hate is the issue despite regional areas being the center of the issue. Her husband blames Desiree for their baby reflecting black attributes, but he eventually learns that his mother was black. What i also noticed in both stories is that women are being marginalized, thus also creating this new movement of social reform realism. Both of these stories are illustrating women subjective cases regardless of region.
ReplyDeleteIn Charlotte Perkin Gilman's short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper" she is forced to stay in the Attic in a room with horrifying yellow paper. In this time period, doctors were diagnosing women with hysteria for simply "acting up" or demonstrating strange behavior. Just like Desiree, she is being marginalized by men in a man's society. Therefore, this also shows a huge barrier from regionalism to realism. In this story, I believe Perkins is demonstrating realism to portray the injustice of how women were being treated for being diagnosed with hysteria or other mental issues. The ending of the story is left for our imagination, is she crazy or not? However, both stories center on realism by demonstrating the mistreatment of different races, women, and the mentally ill.
I also believe that Perkins was demonstrating realism to portray how women were being mistreated as a whole gender! "The Yellow Wallpaper" is just a better example because the protagonist happens to be "looney."
DeleteIn “Desiree’s Baby,” Chopin begins with regionalism by establishing Madame Valmonde, Desiree, and Armand as Upper class and as slave or servant owners when Desiree comments Arman “hasn’t punished one of them… Even Negrillon” (421). In addition to the contrast of names, the French sophistication compared to “Negrillon,” there is a sense of this society and the separation of classes. It is apparent there is a stigma surrounding mixed-blooded children. When Desiree asks Armand to tell her what the matter is, he reacts violently and states “that the child is not white; it means that you are not white” (422). He is personally affronted to be associated with such a person of partial color, and doesn’t love her anymore, which causes Desiree to ceremoniously walk into the water and kill herself. The tragedy and transformation into social reformism and realism is the reality that it was not Desiree, whose background is unknown, who had the mixed blood, but Armand. When Desiree is gone, Armand finds a letter from his mother revealing that is she who “belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery” (424). Chopin reveals that these two people reacted in such a childish and extreme way. Though most of Desiree’s pain comes from Armand’s disgust, she too was distraught at the thought of possessing mixed blood. Armand, who denied his own wife and caused her death, is actually the cause of the mixed baby. The death of Desiree seems extreme and unfortunate until it is revealed that she was not the “perpetrator.” Then the death becomes pointless and truly upsetting. The sympathy the reader is supposed to gain from these events is meant to foster an acceptance of colored and mixed people.
ReplyDelete“The Yellow Wall-Paper” also begins by establishing class and social status. Though they are “ordinary,” John is a “physician of high standing” (426). They are staying at a colonial mansion for the summer in order to help the writer of the diary recover. Gilman hints that the patronizing control of John, the husband prevents the narrator from recovering, and that his lack of understanding on how to treat her makes it worse. The narrator’s descent into “madness” and observations of the wall-paper are a reflection of her own internal battle between being a subservient wife and being her own person.
Both Gilman and Chopin end with a strong social statement, though they are different in appearance, they both deal with the rights and treatment of all human beings, using the imagery of a woman. Chopin speaks of the need to accept colored people and those of mixed blood in the context of an avoidable tragedy and the treatment of women. However, Gilman advocates the women’s rights more directly in the context of an ailing wife.
Because of the social reform movement made predominately by women, sentimental regionalism shifted to realism. This shift lies in the tensions created by racial binaries, and cultural oppression. “Desiree’s Baby”, a short story written by Kate Chopin, examines these binaries and racial oppression, as well as studies the marginal existence of the “tragic mulatto” (419). This story’s use of irony challenges the realities of racial oppression and mixed-race individuals, and focuses on the heroine’s tragedy. The reader experiences the confusion, false-validation, and the ultimate heart-breaking fate of Desiree, a young mother of a mixed-race baby. The victim of circumstance appears to be the mother and child, yet when it is discovered that the father, who sends his wife away with such hatred, turns out to be the individual with mixed background, the story finishes abruptly with the injustice never being reconciled. This is expresses a strong idea of realism, in that this problematic idea is seldom reconciled.
ReplyDeleteIn “The Yellow Wallpaper,” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the female character faces social injustice due to her state of weakening mental health. Her message that female mental health issues need to not only be addressed seriously, but they also need legitimate diagnoses. The gender roles of the time which limited the female character’s agency, was ever present in the text. Gilman asks, “But what is one to do?” (426), many times; impressing on the fact that the character is not only oppressed, but like racial oppression, she finds herself locked into that oppression. This lack of agency, diagnosis, and isolation contribute to her downward spiral of madness.
The texts express the social reforms that were beginning to take hold in the late 19th century, and show true differences between the nostalgia of "Local Color," and the movement of realism by breaking away from characterizations of the region to the grit of reality and the issues that rise from the oppression of race and gender, and the challenges that the mentally ill faced at the time.
ReplyDeleteIn “Desiree’s Baby” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” we see the shift from regionalism to rationalism in two ways.
First, in both we see a sentimentalized depiction of the regions portrayed. In “Desiree’s Baby” we see the ideas of “old money” and the landed gentry in the description of the Aubigny family as “one of the oldest and proudest in Louisiana.” In “The Yellow Wallpaper” the description of the “colonial mansion” that makes the protagonist recall “English places that you read about, for there are hedges and walls and gates that lock.” Also, the romantic way Aubigny cares nothing about Desiree’s origins because he loves her and that he fell in love at first sight speak to the sentimental nature of regionalist writing.
Second, though both stories are set in these picturesque locations rich in tradition and romanticism, both writers quickly change the tone to one of realism in that they deal with ugly topics like racism and neuroticism. In “Desiree’s Baby” we see the grim reality that a self-respecting white man would disown his child simply because the child was not white, as well as the reality that women could be blamed for problems and the matter would not necessarily be investigated. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” we see first that the opinion of a doctor (if he was a white male) was like gospel. There was no disputing his diagonosis or prescription, especially if you were a woman and especially if you were the doctor’s wife. We also see the doctor displaying hierarchical bias in that he feels that writing (not a traditional female occupation), which differed from feminine norms, was undoubtedly causing or exacerbating his wife’s nervous problems. What Gilman suggests through the story is that the protagonist’s neurosis is caused and worsened by her confinement, both her psychological confinement in the traditional role as subservient wife and also her physical confinement in the nursery. The deliberate ambiguity of whether the protagonist is a living person or a ghost trapped in the walls or perhaps both may suggest the anxiety produced by the post-bellum ambiguity of the role of the contemporary woman who was able to participate in the public sphere to an extent but also confined by traditional gender role expectations
From two completely different backgrounds, Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman create stories that transition from regionalism to realism. From racial issues to women’s rights, these authors bring to light divisive topics, which have an even greater impact because they were written about women, by women.
ReplyDeleteRealism is the movement that depicted the plot and characters as they were in their ordinary, everyday lives. Desiree’s Baby is a story of a romantic couple torn apart by the fact that Armand’s wife may be part black. The story is realistic and doesn't end merrily but lets the reader understand the consequences about judging the black race. Both the reader and the character understand what it was like to be outcast as was the whole African American race of that time. This story moves towards realism because of the lack of dialect, and away from regionalism because of the directness of the plot.
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman was also a great example of literary realism. She makes the protagonist a woman, which was prominently reserved for a man. She showed how even though the narrator was not recovering from her depression; her husband continued to keep her “locked up” because it was his opinion of what was best for her. Her treatment was to be considered normal and unquestionable, which is why this story is realistic.
In the transition from regionalism to realism, the stories of the time seem to show a shift in focus from the setting of the story to the topics being presented. Stories like "A New England Nun" or "The Goophered Grapevine" seem more to be stories set in a region that happen to describe the events they do, whereas in "Desiree's Baby" and "The Yellow Wall-paper", the focus in entirely on the subjects they bring up, which in their respective cases are racial tension and women's roles in society.
ReplyDeleteChopin's "Desiree's Baby" and Gilman's "The Yellow Wall-Paper" illustrate a transition from regionalism to realism because both women write about what is real. They wrote about the reality of life and how it is not always so simple. In “Desiree’s Baby,” the family has to deal with the social stigma that came with having a partially black child. “The Yellow-Wallpaper” instead tackles the home-life of a couple and mental illness with a woman suffering from “hysteria.”
ReplyDeleteThrough their writings on the dark realities that were mental illness and racial tensions, the writers illustrated the transition into realism. Their writings were a call to action for those who read them. The harsh realities of their time were brought to attention via their realistic portrayal of life.
I agree with you on how both stories draw attention to real-life issues. Through these issues the writers were able to transition from regionalism to realism.
DeleteIn Kate Chopin’s “Desiree’s Baby,” there is a noticeable change from regionalism to realism. The most noticeable variation is the lack of distinct dialect. With a distinct dialect a reader can recognize the region in which the setting takes place. The real issue in the story is that of realism, more so of a women always being first to blame and that of racial prejudice.
ReplyDelete“The Yellow Paper,” tells a story of inequality between the sexes. The topic can be applied to any region and no distinct dialect provides for the setting to be applied to one region over the next. Both authors focus on important messages at the time. They exhibit the transition from regionalism to social reform-oriented realism by neither topic being tied to a region but rather over important topics that were of controversy across the country.