Just For the Record...

To start my blog for this week, I would like to investigate further on a point mentioned by Sophie, myself, and a few others that the narrator in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” most likely suffers from post-partum depression. After a visit to the Mayo-Clinic website, it is more than evident that she suffers from depression which then leads to her insanity. She changes both her sleeping and eating patterns, cries for little or no reason, loses her energy and motivation for activities, and retreats from her friends and family- all common and recognizable symptoms of post-partum depression.

In this sense, the husband may be at fault to a lesser extent than we decided during our discussion- at the top of page 425 he diagnoses his wife’s “condition” as “nervous depression.” It is only through his application of the age’s treatment for the illness that he is errant. By following the “rest cure” and forcing his wife to stay in the room with yellow wallpaper and removing her one outlet for creativity, writing, is grossly inappropriate for a woman in her condition and inevitably causes her insanity.

The rest of my blog I will dedicate to the numerous short stories that I have read over the last week.

In The Best American Short Stories 2007, I read “Toga Party” by John Barth and “Wait” by Roy Kesey. The first of these stories, “Toga Party,” is a tale about an old couple who is invited to a housewarming party. After the couple gains entry to the party, the story turns graphic- not only because of the author’s descriptions of promiscuous activities undertaken by an older generation, but also because all of the main characters systematically commit suicide. Although funny at first, the story’s depressing finale took the flavor out of the humorous dialogue. When reflecting on the story “Wait,” I realize that it also had its ridiculous moments, which left me to wonder whether the story was based on an unusual and real circumstance or if the author simply got carried away. I will not reveal too much for I genuinely liked the story, but I will give a small taste of what I am describing- at one point the protagonist was nearly struck by a small meteor while in an airport. The narration style, however, makes the events of the story seem much less unlikely than they actually are.

In the 2006 edition of The Best American Short Stories, I read two stories in which the protagonists find different ways of dealing with the town bully. In “Refresh, Refresh” by Benjamin Percy, two boys, whose fathers are stationed oversees, practice fighting one another in order to toughen up to face another boy. They eventually take revenge during a hunting trip by stealing the antagonist’s guns and scaring him while he is asleep in his tent. However, soon the bully is no longer the antagonist, for he learns that his father has been killed on duty, and the boys begin to pity him. They then turn against the town’s recruitment officer, but eventually enlist themselves. In Nathan Englander’s “How We Avenged the Blums,” a group of young Jewish boys attempt to team up against a local anti-Semite who has taken to attacking one family in particular, the Blums. After training for months with an Israeli veteran, the confrontation escalates to a small scale war. They end up enlisting the help of a larger boy to attack the anti-Semite and the story ends with the kids standing over their fallen enemy. All of these were entertaining stories and definitely worth a read.

Congratulations, You Found Me

In Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” the grandmother and the Misfit meet under what seems to be a random and terrifying circumstance. However, it is through their conversation that they help one another through a spiritual struggle and each makes their own individual peace with God.

At the start of the story, the grandmother shows herself to be both vain and childish. When confronted with the family vacation to Florida, she immediately tries to get her way through whatever means necessary- such as her threat of encountering the Misfit and her desire to broaden her grandchildrens' horizons by taking them to east Tennessee. However, when given the option to stay behind, she declines for the sole reason, as June Star explains, that she would be “[a]fraid she’d miss something.” As the trip continues, she feeds off of her past as a means to keep herself at the center of attention- such as her story of being “courted” by a young gentleman, her conversation with Red Sam about “better times,” and her fabricated tale of a “secret panel.” Her childish ways culminate in her strong physical embarrassment about her faltering memory, which cause the sudden and fateful accident. The grandmother’s childish attitude is set in balance by another flaw, her arrogance and vanity over her status as a lady. This vanity is made apparent by her ridiculous apparel for the car ride to make sure that anyone “would know at once that she was a lady” along with her reminiscing over the days of plantations now “Gone With the Wind.” She also makes the mistake of confusing the quality of one’s soul with social class- when meeting the Misfit, she pleads that he must be a good man since he has no “common blood.”

The Misfit, on the other hand, is a man who has lost all faith; because of which he is driven to do evil. However, the Misfit does show that he was at least once a “good man” through his civility to his doomed captives: he does not speak of killing the family in order to stop them from being nervous, and he apologizes for his lack of a shirt in the presence of ladies. He is a man who has seen and experienced horrible things- a woman being flogged, a lynching, war, and even being buried alive- and through these experiences lost his way and blames God for throwing “everything off balance.” Not being to remember the crime of killing his own father, he has become twisted and angry inside and has committed his other crimes just so that he can record and remember them in its stead. It is the pain of not even knowing the entirety of his life that causes him to question God’s existence. He even states that if he were there to see Jesus’s miracles for himself, he may be different.

Through their fated meeting, the two characters are able to take steps toward cleansing one another of their sins. Through her family’s death, the grandmother is able to see the results of her actions- not only her lie about the secret panel, but also her being so excited upon recognizing the Misfit as to blurt out his name- and in the desperation of trying to save her own life, improves herself. While seeing those she loved being led into the forest to die, the grandmother begins to pray, and instead of cursing her antagonist, she attempts to save his soul by asking him to turn back to God. Her killer himself states that she “would of been a good woman” if she had been faced with death earlier. The Misfit, moved by the grandmothers efforts, begins to break down and realize the error of his ways just before lashing out in terror and killing the grandmother. It is after ending her life that he is transformed, instead of loving to cause pain and death to others, he shows remorse and remarks to killing as “no real pleasure.” Although she was unable to save her own life, through improving herself the grandmother was able to save not only her soul, but that of another. (698)

Donny's Advocate

Although I found all of the stories we read this week interesting in their own right, I found myself entirely fascinated by the character Donny in Anne Tyler’s story “Teenage Wasteland.” This fascination was (I will admit) somewhat biased due to the description of Donny in the opening paragraph of the story (Donny’s “very blonde hair” styled in “a little cowlick” reminds me of one of the several hairstyles I sported as a child) along with his quiet teenage angst made me instantly sympathetic towards the character. In fact, on my first read through, I was ready and somewhat eager to put all of the blame for Donny’s mistakes on the other characters in the story: the rarely present father, the hesitating but restrictive Daisy, the oppressive school, and finally (or especially) Cal, the manipulative mentor.

Indeed, during our class’s discussion, parts of the blame were discussed in detail and assigned to all of these characters, and at first, Donny’s role was not even mentioned. It was at this point where I began to re-read the story during our discussion and take special note of all of Donny’s actions and dialogue. At this time someone (I apologize to this person because I cannot remember who it was) brought up Daisy’s outburst of “Doesn’t Donny ever get blamed?” and induced my revelation- that Donny has much more power in the story than it appears and is, in truth, just as manipulative as Cal.

Following this realization, the details of the story began to simply add up. The first sign of this that I noticed is Donny’s change of appearance, usually shaggy and casual, to being “unusually sober and subdued” when going to meet the psychologist and even going to the extent of combing his hair. In this instance, Donny takes control of his situation and avoids punishment by using the psychologist’s diagnosis of low “self-worth” to his own advantage. Donny also plays his situation with Cal in a similar way by using the fact that he has a tutor as a “crutch” while at school in order to avoid all responsibility. Cal is actually not the one who leads Donny astray; he only joins in as a second voice to outnumber the reasoning of his mother. Free from his parents and even above them with Cal’s support, Donny begins to take risks and attempts to push the limits of his school. Even when he is expelled for having alcohol in his locker, Donny does not realize the consequences of his actions. Donny denies the accusations against him and attempts to clear his name with a transparent and childish lie. Then this fails he simply opts to attend a different school. It is only when his parents finally refuse to bend to his will and send him to a public school does Donny begin to realize what he has done.

However, instead of taking responsibility, Donny acts “exhausted and defeated” and lashes out with one final, selfish act: running away. Rather than facing his responsibilities, Donny chooses to flee and leaves behind him an echo of pain and doubt, as shown through Daisy’s actions. Through this act Donny also ensures that a similar cycle occur with his younger sister, who although was once an eager member of the family, became neglected during her parents ordeal with her brother.

On a completely separate note, this week I also read the following short stories: “War Buddies” by Joan Silber, “The Company of Men” by Jan Ellison, and “Gringos” by Ariel Dorfman. I would highly recommend “Gringos” to others.