Assault or Love

In “No Name Woman” by Maxine Hong Kingston, she illustrates the struggles present while being raised in a traditional Chinese family. The narrator is an American-Chinese woman who has a family that still resides in China. She is told a story about her aunt to whom her father does not speak about. This story illustrated a struggle that not only is present in traditional Chinese villages but in modern societies across the globe.  She is taken advantage of by a man and is left to bare his child alone and shamed. By being raped and becoming pregnant while not married has shamed the family to the point where she is not even considered part of it let alone a person. Men maintained a tremendous amount of power and exploited women with no remorse. Being brought up to obey men, her aunt “ always did as she was told”, even if it meant to shame her honor (Kingston 6). This topic is evident in the present day with adultery, rape, and sexual abuse. This not only still shames them in their family, but in society as well. As the narrator talks of the tragedy that happened to her aunt, she could not stop mentioning how disgraced her father was. I think the showed how tight knit the Chinese families were and how they truly believed in traditions and purity. They were in charge of continuing the family name and maintaining the same traditions that were passed onto them.

Rape is as present now as it was in China where the aunt’s story takes place. Men overpower women and sexually assault them for satisfaction and dominating power. Threats such as “if you tell your family, I’ll beat you. I’ll kill you” are still a psychological deterrent from turning in ones attacker (7). Although this is not the woman’s fault, she has become a victim and ultimately an outcast who has been forced against her will to perform acts. When a child is conceived through these acts it becomes and even greater problem due to its involuntary nature. There are also cases where people develop adulterous relationships and happen who conceive a child. This poses another threat to the family and to society and it is a terrible act. This act changes from rape to plain old cheating but masking the byproduct, a child, of the relationship is the hardest part. Conception requires two people and if one is not present the questions begin to arise. Threats, bribes, and love can deter people from reveling someone’s identity but the woman is usually the one who takes the brunt of the humiliation.

I believe though after finishing the short story, that the narrators aunt truly loved the person who she was having sex with. When she says, “ She kept the man’s name to herself throughout her labor and dying”, it shows that either shame or affection were present (11). Had she wanted to tarnish his name, she would have come out and said it. She was hiding it to hide the true identity of her lover. The intro raid was the only thing that contradicted my thought, but maybe the feeling was not mutual. The man who is responsible for the baby is trying to cover himself by instilling fear. Any form of sexual assault has an oppressor and oppressed, the narrator’s aunt was the oppressed.  

Art Exhibit

“What a million filaments.

The peanut-crunching crowd Shoves in to see

Them unwrap me hand and foot--

The big strip tease.

Gentlemen, ladies

These are my hands My knees.

I may be skin and bone, Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman.”

This was a couple of stanzas that really stuck out to me in Sylvia Plath's poem “Lady Lazarus.” For starters, what does this particular part mean to you? The way I perceived it is that she is obviously being viewed at as if she was a specimen under a microscope. She felt that everyone was there to judge her, and label her as the “girl who tried to kill herself.” I also feel like with this she feels as if no one genuinely cares. Everyone is just interested in being within the loop, and is interested in knowing everything that is going on rather than actually caring about her health and wellness. I feel like that is another aspect as to why she doesn't want to live. For most of her life she has been neglected, and we learned about that in her poem “Daddy.” It is assumed that no one seemed to really care before, so why would people begin to care now?  

Discovering the Truth through Nature

In literature, nature has always stood as a symbol for truth. As the characters of American literature have travelled deeper into nature, so the truth has been deeply revealed. In The Yellow Wallpaper, author Charlotte Perkins Gillman uses nature to reveal a truth about the narrator’s deteriorating relationship with her husband as well as symbolize the reality of her nervous condition. Nature gives us the opportunity to discover hidden context and underlying theme.

Through her barred windows, the narrator “can see the garden, those mysterious deepshaded arbors, the riotous old fashioned flowers, and bushes and gnarly trees” (Gillman, 2). This vivid description leads to an interpretation of an ugly truth, that through being confined to the nursery, the narrator is experiencing a disturbing reality. Even more, the way in which she describes the nature surrounding the secluded mansion is internally troubling and perhaps a reflection of her own life; Gillman certainly declares the house as mysterious, the narrators spirit as riotous, and the relationship between her and John as gnarly, or challenging.

         Describing the home in further detail, the narrator says, “I don’t like our room a bit. I wanted one downstairs that opened on the piazza and had roses all over the window, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings! But John would not hear of it” (Gillman, 1). Again, the narrator uses nature as a reference to the truth; however, in this instance, the symbol of nature is much more significant that the simplicity of honesty. In terms of honesty, this particular description does play an important role in the course of the story; because John forbade his wife from living in the room downstairs with the roses directly out the window, we can be sure that Gillman is implying that he is denying the truth itself, the truth being the actual disposition of her condition. Furthermore, roses have long stood as a symbol of love and womanhood. Therefore, not only does John deny the narrators condition, he also denies where his relationship to her stands and the role that she carries as a wife and woman.

            Nature symbolizes truth and from truth we gain honesty, in situations and relationships. Certainly the case in all examples of literature, this concept is definitely apparent in The Yellow Wallpaper. As our protagonist is driven to a state of insanity, she reveals truth through nature to her readers and although by reading her diary we gain instant access to her direct thoughts, it is through nature that we uncover the hidden context.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper, Boston, MA: Small & Maynard, 1899. Print.