Life Is Very Much More Exciting Now Than It Used to Be

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story The Yellow Wallpaper was required reading for my freshman literature course. I haven't read it since then, but I remember vividly my love for this story. It was twisted and bizarre and wonderful. Like The Color Purple, the first person perspective of a journal is vital in order to understand the changing mental condition of the narrator. The dramatic irony of the story is spectacularly played out. While the narrator attributes the "strange rings and things" on the walls, the barred windows, and the fixed down furniture in her room to her belief that it was previously used as a nursery, the reader slowly comes to realize that in actuality it was most likely used to restrain an insane person. How ironic that the room would come to serve the same purpose that it did in the past! The evolving pattern and smudges of the yellow wallpaper reflect the slow decline of the narrator into insanity, as she sees a trapped woman trying to escape it's repeating and menacing pattern. The changing of the woman's activity directly reflects the increased nervousness of the narrator's own psyche. Despite the tragic ending, the reader is somewhat satisfied in seeing the shock of her husband/doctor, who must admit that his methods of treatment and neglect failed miserably. This story is an excellent study of the human mental condition, and I highly recommend it. An A in my book!

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"To swallow and follow, whether old doctrine or new propaganda, is a weakness still dominating." (Charlotte Perkins Gilman)

Those Had Been Wonderful Times and They Never Returned

In the postings of my mini-reviews of books I have previously read, I notice that I am tending to focus on those which I like. I figured I should break up all this praise with reviews of some works of which I am not as fond. The first is The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka.

There are a few other Kafka books on this list of 1001 that I have yet to read, and I am more than willing to give this author a second chance. However, there was little in The Metamorphosis that interested me. Anyone that knows me well can attest to my deep fear of insects, and to think of waking up as a giant cockroach is repulsive to me. The story doesn’t get much better from there either. After his transformation, Gregor is shunned by his family and left to die. Fortunately for Gregor, that happens rather quickly, and his family moves on seemingly unaffected. I very well admit that there could be some hidden symbolism and social commentary, but I wouldn’t go looking for it myself. As much as it pains me to dislike a work of literature, I give it a D.

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"A book should serve as the axe for the frozen sea within us." (Franz Kafka)