Obtaining Freedom

Obtaining Freedom

Many great authors have told fictional stories that grab the reader’s attention and take them on a wild adventure. Others, while the plots and characters may still be fictional, tell stories that correlate to the real situations and experiences of the authors. Three short stories that are evidence to this are John Updikes’ “A&P”, Kate Chopins’ “The Story of an Hour”, and Charlotte Perins Gilmans’ “The Yellow Wall-Paper.” While reflecting the era of which they were written in, these three short stories reveal the theme of freedom.

These three stories were written between the late 19th century and mid 20th century. During these times men held the dominant roles in both the household and society. The dominant role in marriage is seen in both “The Story of an Hour” and “The Yellow Wall-Paper.” Both the characters Louise Mallard and the narrator from the “The Yellow Wall-Paper” reflect the subordination of wives and the confinement within the marriage. Kate Chopin shows the oppressiveness that was familiar in most marriages in that Mrs. Mallard only finds freedom in her husband’s death. The wife in Gilmans’ story could not get her husband to change the wall paper after stating how she finds it “repellant and revolting” because “there was nothing worse for a nervous patient then to give way to such fancies” (80). Like real women in the U.S., they had a voice, but it was not heard. Up until 1920 when women were given the right to vote, “the common law doctrine femme convert was prevalent making wives property of their husbands and no legal control over their earnings, children, or belongings” (“Historical Context: �The Yellow Wallpaper’”). Like the characters in Chopins’ and Gilmans’ stories, Updikes’ character Sammy in “A&P” symbolizes the subordination to policy enforced by his male manager. While the three girls in bathing suits are not causing any trouble in the A&P, Lengel the store manager insists on embarrassing the girls and state “that the next time they come in, they must have their shoulders covered because it was policy” (Updike 123). Sammy attempts to be heroic and stand up for them, only to be shut down and not taken seriously. “A&P” is reflective of the 1960’s, the time in which it was written, showing the dominant regulations, values, and beliefs of conservatism. In all three stories, the characters are powerless to the males they belong to. In the end they find freedom through the separation of themselves from these males.

While the stories are similar in the way they reflect the times in which they were written, they are also similar in their plots. In each story the characters go through a significant event to gain freedom. For Mrs. Mallard, it is getting the news that her husband has died that she finally gains freedom. For the narrator in “The Yellow Wall Paper,” she has a baby and goes through post-partum depression ultimately causing her to go insane. In “A&P,” Sammy breaks free of his conservative surroundings by standing up for himself and making a decision to quit working at the store. In the case of Mrs. Mallard and Gilmans’ female character, divorce to gain freedom was not an option because “marriage was quite rare and considered a sacred institution” (“Overview of The Story of an Hour”). In addition to having similar plots of gaining freedom, for all three characters, the experience of freedom is individual and not universal. In other words, only the main characters alone were affected by their freedom. Their actions did not affect other wives and adolescent boys in the ability to gain independence. It would be several more years before there would be a national change in society and women’s equality.

All the characters have similarity in that they gain freedom; however, the type of freedom for each of them is different. Louise Mallards liberty comes in the form of a feeling and gain of knowledge. As she sat in her room “she had a stare in her eyes… not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought” (Chopin 65). In “The Yellow Wall-Paper,” the narrator mentally separates herself from reality gaining freedom through insanity. In the end, she states her freedom by saying, “I’ve got out at last…so you can’t put me back” (Gilman 91). Again, true to the times, these ladies were socially bounded in their marriages and could only gain freedom through a means other than divorce. In “A&P,” the suppression of freedom is symbolic of the ways of society.