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Comparing Sonny's Blues And The Yellow Wallpaper

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Perhaps there comes times when you feel trapped inside your insanity and can not seem to escape from trying to please your mental stability. “Sonny’s Blues” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” both have characters that are so similar but yet so different at the same time. Looking at their backgrounds you can see some of the distinctions, for example, one is written by a white woman in the 19th century, the other by an African-American man in the 20th century, one deals with a depressed writer, the other with an emotionally fragile musician. The stories' connections, however, are greater than their differences. In each story, the protagonist struggles to fit into the “common” world. Both Sonny and the wife in “The Yellow Wallpaper” face deep emotional …show more content…

Each character faces control, one as a woman in the 19th century and the other as a black man in the early 20th century. In addition, each has a close family member who tries to control their creative expression. They are living in a society where everything they do is either controlled or observed. Neither Sonny or the women feel the liberty to express their talent or works of art due to the constant control of their lives. Both stories share the common fact that they have complicated relationships with one of their family members. Sonny and the brother share a loving but hurtful relationship and the lady from the yellow wallpaper has a distinct and controlling relationship with her husband. In both cases they shut each other out in order to avoid contact with them. In “Sonny’s Blues”, although the brother love each other they have a hard time understanding each other and have the tendency to hurt each other. The story clearly …show more content…

Because of this harsh treatment she becomes and awfully unhappy and unfulfilled person. As she experienced post-partum depression, which in today’s society would be something easily treated with medication back then it was misunderstood and was simply prescribed "rest" as a way of getting better. Her husband being a doctor is expected to know best and the wife having no better option agrees to comply with her husband’s suggestions. Just as her rest period is about to begin the husband decides to rent a "colonial mansion" in order for her to have a “faster” recovery and just as the wife starts asking questions about the house, he simply laughs at her. She is, obviously used to not being treated with respect and dignity. As it is stated in the text, "he does not believe that (she is) sick," and she recognizes that and can play a role in why her recovery is taking so long. He has even assured her friends and relatives "that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression-a slight hysterical tendency," so the wife is left without comfort or real compassion. When they walk into the house in the countryside, the wife sees a room in which she believes is her best fit, where she can have a view of roses, but the husband is determined to put her in the old nursery, with bars on the window as he believes it is a better suit for her.

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