Discussion #2- The Yellow Wallpaper

Date Due: Feb 26 by 11:59 PM

Paper Length:  This assignment needs to be somewhere around 650-750 words- the equivalent of at least 2 -3 pages. 

Point Value: This assignment will be worth 50 pts. 

SUMMARY of prompt

1. Answer 3 parts of Part One
2. Part Two: Respond to at least 2 students

PROMPT:

PART ONE

Answer all 3 parts with textual references to support your ideas. Separate your answers as paragraphs like you would an essay- do not use numbers or bullet points in responding to these questions. 

1.  Is John the villain in the story? Why or why not?
2.  Does "The Yellow Wallpaper" have a happy or sad ending? Explain your answer.
3.  Would the narrator still have gone insane if she had been confined to another room – or even another house? Why or why not?

Remember to use quotes and other textual evidence from the story to support your position. Do not tell me what the American Psychiatric Association has to say about this subject. 

Please submit the assignment as either text entry or as a PDF, DOC, or DOCX (Word) format. 

The Pages or Webarchive file versions are not compatible with Canvas.

As I may have mentioned already, you don’t need a Works Cited page unless you’re using material other than the short story. Please use quotes and examples from the story to support what you are arguing in your short write. When quoting from the story, a simple (Gilman, page) is enough for me to know where to find your quote in the text. 

Background to help you answer the prompt.

This is an exercise on taking a position using the text. Do not say "It depends on how you look at it…" or "The American Psychological Association defines insane as…"
The narrator is caught in the conflict between these two worlds; her attempt to suppress her creative spirit in favor of John’s rationality leads to her mental breakdown.

Avoid saying things like "Both are to blame …" /  "It depends on how you see it…" / etc. 

In some ways, Gilman can seem to blame her family and doctors for the narrator’s ultimate insanity. Although they both mean well, their decision to promote the "rest cure" treatment is certainly the catalyst for the narrator’s mental break.

If you’re stuck on how to approach the prompt, or the story itself, I would suggest that you think of how you could argue your understanding of the questions based on one of our four Humanities themes, for example:

• Man’s relationship to self

OR

• Man’s relationship to society

However keep in mind that you shouldn’t approach it with more than one. Read the story again and look for one character as the cause the Narrator’s insanity and, hopefully, that will get you to answer the three parts of the prompt listed at the top.

PART TWO

• Respond to at least 2 students and their perspective. 
• Do you agree or disagree with their reading of "The Yellow Wallpaper"? Why or why not?

Checklist:

• Are you using quotes from the story to support your answers?
• Have you made sure to explain any behavior of the characters in the story within their own time- not referencing any 20th/21st century psychiatric ideas of what is the right way to handle mental health issues? 
• Are you making sure that your paragraphs are not more than 8 sentences?
• Have you responded to at least 2 students?