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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...