Yellow Wallpaper

The "Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman was one of a kind. The story consisted of essay entries written by a lady with a strange illness. Her Husband John, who was a physician, seemed to be a controlling person. She described him as someone who told her she that she wasn't capable of doing other than sitting around at home. It almost seemed that he was the type of person who knew something was wrong with his wife, but denied it, and also denied taking steps to help her get better. The lady spent a lot of her time at home, which her husband believed was the best place for her to rest in. With all that time on her hands the lady kept writing to ease her pain. More than once she mentions how she is confined to her house and how much she wishes to leave it and do somthing fun for a change. I think the message this essay is trying to convey is for people with any illness or disorder to not give up on their life,that there are other ways to manage life with such a problem. The lady stays in a room with old yellow wallpaper covering the walls.
She is really annoyed by it but soon after she becomes fascinated with the unique patterns and day by day she starts to believe that there is a woman trapped behind it and that she was the reason for making the patterns change the way they did.The lady also believed that the woman could see her and even watched her outside of her window. It was really really weird to find out that the "wallpaper woman" was actually the same sick woman we were introduced to in the beginning of the story. I honestly didn't think of that, at all.
That was interesting, but yet again very odd. For her the wallpaper was both a way to waste time and do somthing and also a huge annoyance. Even after reading it I really don't understand the symbols in this journal, anyone have a clue? Overall though, this made me think outside the box.

Interesting Ads....

This was a nice change, rather than read articles we saw Ads! They all caught my attention, each one in it's own unique way. The Ad that really caught my attention was the Dove commercial. The girl went from looking slightly "unattractive" and insecure to a striking Billboard Model. It amazed me to see how far people went to perfect the outside appearance to what is accepted and thought of as beauty. Why couldn't the girl be put on the billboard in her original form? I understand her putting on makeup and I don't think there is anything wrong with that but they exaggerated it. The makeup obviously wasn't enough so they had to turn to picture workshops to play around with her features. After viewing it I was reassured that our society cared a great deal about the outter appearance of women, but I was relieved to know that Dove also saw something wrong with it.
The Obsession commercial was so typical. They put a little picture of the perfume at the end of a 5 minute seduction session between man and woman. At first I didn't know what they were trying to sell because there was nothing there to set it apart from any other Ad. It wasn't a very strong Ad but overall it was okay because I liked the perfume :)
The Playstation vs. Wii commercial was ridiculous but true. I know absolutely nothing about these games but I know one thing, this commercial was a little biased. I felt like it aided the Wii girl more than the Playstation one because she was more attractive ( not to mention barely clothed). The Playstation lady was actually stating strong, solid facts while the airheaded Wii girl was merely there for the show. Once again, the more attractive = the better. What if i was really interetested in the products and I wanted to know which was better, this Ad would be of no help.
The Cinnamon Toast Crunch commercial was cute...(even though I had to squint a little to see it because it was so old). This is what I call old fashioned! I like how it has sweet and simple.Nothing vulgar or sexual, just a little girl talking to cute cartoon chefs about how wonderful the cereal is! I think this is the type of commerical that I miss seeing on TV because now commercials are far too loud and obnoxious.

Valuable Speeches...

Booker T. Washington's speech, "Cast Down Your Bucket Where You Are" was probably the most interesting article out of the three because I agree with both his thoughts and actions. He wanted both races to come together and work out their differences to get along in society. At first I thought it was weird that he was speaking in such a calm and polite tone because his people had been so degraded and mistreated. This showed me how wise his outlook on life was. He didn't want to get revenge on the white people, rather he wanted to create equality between them. He seemed interesting so I did a quick search on him and was surprised to learn that he went to Franklin High highschool, not to learn but to carry books for James Burroughs's daughters. (http://www.nps.gov/archive/bowa/btwbio.html). If I was turned down an education, and forced to carry other students book then I think my whole "peace process" with the white race would be the exact opposite of Booker T. Washingtons. I'm not saying that is the right way to do it, but I don't think I have the patience that he has to talk things out.
Elizabeth Stanton's "The Solitude of Self" was also interesting. It didn't shock me to find out that women were also degraded and treated differently than men. It was nice to know that things were being done and that a few people were taking steps to change things for the better. The speech itself was long and descriptive so that kinda put me to sleep.. I skipped around here and there to get the idea of what she was saying. Overall it made me realize that womens rights have progressed a lot since back then.
Mr. Abraham Lincoln's "The Gettysburg Address" speech wasn't about anything specefic it just mentioned that all people need to unite and notice how much was sacrificed for the countrys freedom during the Civil War. I felt that this speech wasn't addressing a certain group of people or a certain race, it was addressed to the people of the country....My favorite speech had to be Booker T. Washington's but all three had great depth.