Affecting Change

Writers tend to use their works to affect change in their society. Whether it is to bring about a shift in thinking, or a shift in actions, authors share their views through their writing.

In Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, the author uses setting to create a strong feminist tone. As we talked about in class, the room in which the character is trapped in creates a parameter set by her husband. This represents the constrictions men placed on women during this time. The woman behind the wallpaper could possibly be a symbol for a woman being trapped behind the restrictions placed on her. At the end of the story, when the narrator rips away the wallpaper to release the woman stuck behind, Perkins Gilman is making a very clear statement. The reader can immediately tell that this action taking place relates to a woman breaking out of her containment. The story as a whole, but especially the ending, makes a strong feminist declaration by Perkins Gilman.

We also can see that other authors use their writing as a way to get their opinions and views out. An example of this from excerpts we have already read would be EDEN Southworth’s The Hidden Hand. In The Hidden Hand, Southworth has her main character, Capitola, dress as a boy in order to survive on her own in the city. Capitola blatantly states Southworth’s opinion on gender discrimination when she says, “…I, because I was a girl, was not allowed to carry a gentleman’s parcel or black his boots, or shovel the snow off of a shopkeeper’s pavement, or put in coal, or do anything that I could do just as well as they.” By writing such things, the author shows that she disagrees with the amount of inequality of genders and expects change from her readers.