How Culture Influences the Psychological Traits of People - Analysis in Literature - Assignment Example

College Question The three stories have different points of view and each point of view brings out a lot about the psychological portrait of women. With the first person of view, we get to see how the women themselves feel about different things in their lives and the society in general. In the first story the yellow wallpaper, told at first person point of view, the woman fully shows how significant various aspects are relevant to her. For example, she describes the house in a very romantic manner something that may have been left behind had someone told the story on her behalf.

In her sick bed, the woman is sad due to the manner in which her husband is neglecting most of the things including her. From the way she is saying it she is sad at every little thing that her husband considers simple. With this she totally brings out the psychological portrait of women as being very judgmental on things that men consider petty. In the second story; Desiree’s child, there is a different point of view. Even though the story is sad and touching, the story hardly brings out any psychological portrait of women.

The things that are considered to touch Desiree’s psychological portrait and therefore women at large are things that would affect all people both male and female. For example, when Desiree has to move from her home just to protect her child, the portrait of love is evident in her. It shows the extent that women can go just to protect any child even if the child is not hers. From all the three stories, it is evident that the first person point of view clearly brings more about the psychological portrait of a woman as compared to the third person point of view.

Question 2 American realism is an idea about the art, literature and music of the American people during the early 20th century. During this particular period of time, Americans were starting to adopt a new culture and different people were trying to show off their talents. Desiree’s daughter is one story that can clearly bring out the realism movement of America. The story has instances where a group of white people are beginning to appreciate black people and this can be seen as a start to ending slavery.

With this, the story clearly shows that it was written during the American realism period. Even though there are lots of people who do not want to see her child, Desiree is very proud of her. In the earlier years, people would consider this an abomination and Desiree herself would have thrown the baby away. It is also evident that there is interracial mixing of people though they do this secretly. For example, Armand is also black and has a black origin. Even though he does not know this, this would have been almost impossible during the period before realism.

It therefore shows that the story was taken during the realism period. Question 3 Social class is very important in shaping the storyline of the yellow wallpaper. In this story, the narrator is from the top class of the society, this can be seen from the way she describes her home. The home is large and extensive; she even wonders how they got such a house. Her husband is also a doctor and this too clearly points out the social class that the narrator is from. The social class of the narrator has lots of effects in shaping the story.

First of all, most of the problems that the writer expresses in the story are not financial. In fact the writer does not complain of any financial problem that she is experiencing. It is however clear that her main problems are emotional. First of all, she is lonely and her husband is barely there for her. Her children are also far away and she rarely sees them. Her sickness is also troubling her but there is little she can do considering the efforts her husband has put in place. The story clearly shows that even the rich people have something t hat they lack.

Discussion question Pick a story and use it to analyze how culture influences the psychological traits of people. Work cited Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wall-Paper” (508) http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/wallpaper.html   Henry James, “Daisy Miller: A Study” (319); http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/JamDais.html Kate Chopin, “Desiree’s Baby” (439); http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/DesiBaby.shtml