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The Person and the Discrimination The two short stories Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Barn Burning by William Faulkner were written in the nineteenth century. That was the time when hew ideas of feminism and liberty clashed with old traditions of discrimination and oppression. In these stories the authors show how the social fights reflected on plain people, the follower of opposite ideas: the oppressors and their victims. The story Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a story about a woman in the chauvinistic surrounding.
The woman in the story is sick and surrounded by the loving and caring family, all the members of which do their best to give her comfort and prevent from any troubles. The picture looks perfect from the first sight, but as the story unfolds, the reader notices the alarming signs. The care and attention that surround the woman seem too extreme and suffocating, too contradicting with the intentions. The abundant care contrasts with statements that the woman was not sick at all. You see he does not believe I am sick! (Gilman). This contrast serves as the first sign of dissonance.
The husband Johns and the brothers attitude towards the woman symbolizes the reality of nineteenth century when women could not make decisions for themselves, even if those decisions concerned their health. John and the womans brother are introduces and as physicians, which is also an intended choice. The physician knows better that the patient and for the patient obedience is the only right behavior. The same behavior was demanded from the women. Men knew better and women had no say in any matters. The tenderness and care, expressed by John towards his wife serves as the sweet covering to the bitter pill.
When the woman wanted to act according to her will, move from the room upstairs, write in her journal and sleep whenever she wanted, she was tenderly but very strictly persuaded to follow her husbands directions. And she was left to stay at the room she disliked, drink the medications she hated and hide her writings from her husband. The tenderness of the man towards his wife is a catch, which disguises his arbitrariness and insistence. Then he took me in his arms and called me a blessed little goose, and said he would go down cellar, if I wished, and have it whitewashed into the bargain.
But he is right enough about the beds and windows and things. (Gilman). The woman can not see discrimination behind the care and tenderness, but she feels that something is amiss and directs all of her irritation on the yellow wallpaper. The story Barn Burning by William Faulkner shows completely different type of discrimination and different type of victim. This story shows the suppression and discrimination in the American society after the Civil War. In this story the object of discrimination is not a woman, not even traditional victim such as African American, but it is a white man. The main character of the story is not a nice man.
The author tells the story from the point of view of a small boy, the son of Abner Snopes. The man is portrayed as a rude person, who can easily hit his child and badly treats all his family. His father struck him with the flat of his hand on the side of the head, hard but without heat, exactly as he had struck the two mules (Faulkner). The man is also rude to negroes: "Get out of my way, nigger, " his father said (Faulkner). To make the picture whole the author also mentioned that when Abner was young, he was stealing horses during the Civil War and he did not care from which side to steal.
The author portrayed an unpleasant representative of the society who possessed the worst features, including the habit of discrimination of the weaker. But this man is also discriminated and he can not stand such treatment. Both Charlotte Perkins Gilman and William Faulkner portrayed the characters, who were the true children of their societies. The woman in The Yellow Wallpaper did not consider her treatment as oppression; she considered it absolutely normal and natural. The same was with Abner from Barn Burning.
He viewed discrimination as something perfectly natural; he did not put any feeling in it. But he himself was the white man, and here lies the difference between Abner and the woman. The woman does not consider herself as the part of the whole; she always refers to herself and them, but not us. She understands that she is different from all other members of the society and even Johns sister is not her comrade, because she is Johns family.
That is why her approach to the explosion is gradual. She does not even understand the reason of her anger, just feels suspicious. That is why her anger is directed on Yellow Wallpaper. Yellow Wallpaper is the symbol of disagreement between the woman and her husband, the worst her lost argument. And in her subconscious she fights with her husband when she frights with the Yellow Wallpaper. And the end of the story is the womans fall into madness, because in her subconscious she won.
She gained freedom; she enjoyed it and did not want to return into suppressing reality. "I've got out at last, " said I, "in spite of you and Jane. And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!" (Gilman). These words are the essence of her freedom, her rebellion, but at the same time the proof of her madness, because she could not fight the reality. Abner in Barn Burning is fully conscious of his oppression and this oppression is the reason of his anger and his hatred. He is not a woman, hi is not a negro, he is a white man in the world of white men, but hi is discriminated. Abner is infuriated by being equal to the ones whom he discriminated himself and he consciously fights it.
His fire risings are nothing else but rebels against the injustice. The end of the stories and the ends of the characters are similar in both stories. The woman gone crazy, Abner was shot when he tried to shot another barn. But the woman in the Yellow Wallpaper was the winner in this situation, because she broke her ties, even if only in her consciousness. Her husband John fainted when he saw his mad wife and this unmanly gesture symbolized his weakness, the loss of his rights.
Abner in Barn Burning died as the looser, because he chose the wrong way of proving his rights. He chose unlawful methods in the unlawful society and that made him not better than this society. He did not protect the Christian or moral values, but only himself; he was egoist among egoist and could not fight the stronger and the rich by their weapon. These two stories emphasize that not one is protected from discrimination and injustice. Discrimination is a social phenomenon which exists in every community. The authors say that before fighting the society the person should fight with himself, and only after winning the war with his inner prejudices he can win the war with the outside reality.
Bibliography 1. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. Short Stories. 1997 2. Faulkner William, Collected Stories. 1995
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