End Of The Story As Mama example essay topic

Both of the short stories "Everyday Use", by Alice Walker, and "The Yellow Wallpaper", by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, are written in first person point of view. This point of view gives the reader a lot of detail and description of the events or problems in the story. It also lets us know what the characters are thinking and doing throughout the story. The first person point of view in "Everyday Use" really helps the reader to comprehend the predicaments that the eldest daughter creates.

It also shows Mama and Maggie's lack of oral skills but still shows their competence to survive on what they have. Mama's descriptions in the beginning are full of detail and respect for her children and the items that have an "everyday use". As Mama starts to give details about the house and Dee and Maggie and their financial status', a picture starts to form. As Mama described herself she seemed strong and almost invincible.

"I was always better at a man's job" (91) she said. But later, as Dee came in the house and started taking Maggie and Mama's things she seemed weak and subservient to Dee. Mama was as powerless as Maggie, watching her things go right out of the door. Those made Wangero seem not only strong but also stronger than Mama and that is why Maggie was so afraid of her.

There was a great amount of respect lost for Mama as she built herself up only to let Wangero "walk" all over her. Near the end of the story as Mama finally decided to tell Wangero "no", my respect for her returned. It takes a lot to say "no" to some people and you could tell that Mama had had enough. The first person point of view helped show Mama's struggle to stand up to Wangero. Wangero left Maggie cowering in the corner, and then Mama came like a super hero and "saved" the day.

Mama kept her promise to Maggie and told Wangero that she would have to do without the quilts. The point of view also helped illustrate how proud Maggie felt after the ordeal and how happily they spent the rest of the night without Wangero. The first person point of view in the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" truly helps the reader to follow the narrator's ongoing battle with her untitled ailment. As the story begins it is hard to tell that she is ill at all but as it unfolds it becomes more apparent in every entry. As she starts to make her judgments about her surroundings they all seem lucid.

On the other hand, at the start of the story when she says "I would say a haunted house" (27), talking about the mansion she will be living in for the next three months, it does make her seem a bit peculiar to say the least. Now when she begins mentioning the wallpaper in her room it does make her seem mentally unstable. She states that the wallpaper is "revolting" and "a smoldering unclean yellow" which shows that she is not thinking clearly and is becoming a bit obsessive with the thought of the paper. As the story goes on she starts to enjoy the wallpaper's company and states that "it dwells in my mind so" (31).

Then near its end the narrator is consumed with the thought that there is a woman behind the pattern in the wallpaper showing that her mental state is worsening and is very apparent in her writings. She says things like, "I think that woman gets out in the daytime" and "I'll tell you why-privately-I've seen her" (35). Her illness has obviously gotten the best of her and she can no longer suppress her ailment. The first person point of view helps show the narrator's struggle to expose the wallpaper's "mysteries". She really is obsessed with the paper and it gets's the best of her in the end. Of the two narrators I find that the unnamed woman in "The Yellow Wallpaper" is more compelling because of her predicament.

You feel sorry for her because her husband and her brother, both doctors, are completely ignorant of her disease and do nothing to help her but confine her to the house. She's struggling to stay sane and be a mother but no one knows this except the reader and it leaves you feeling somewhat helpless. Either way you know that she needs treatment and she is not going to get better just sitting in her room and sleeping all day. She talks as if she is talking to no one else but the reader and leaves nothing out. Every detail of the room that we cannot see is mentioned so that we can feel her pain and thoughts. It is as if we are reporters, questioning her about the room and her problems and she wants us to feel for her and hate her oppressors.