The Yellow Wallpaper

This story was written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and is about a husband and wife that rent a mansion for the summer so that the wife can recuperate from a slight hysterical illness. John, the husband, thinks the "rest cure" treatment is the best prescription for her problem. She is confined to bed in a spacious, bright room with yellow wallpaper stripped in two places with a hideous pattern. She absolutely hates it, but John refuses her to change rooms and says that the former nursery is the best room for her to recover in. Weeks later, the wife's illness only worsens with the addition of anxiety and fatigue and has barely enough energy to jot in her secret diary. Luckily, their baby is taken well care of by the nanny and their house keeper, Jennie, is on top of everything. The wife's hate and irritation towards the chaotic yellow wallpaper grows. Over time she discovers a reoccurring pattern of eyes, as well as, a skull figure behind the pattern that only haunts the women until she finally grows a desire to take action to the problem herself.

"A Good Man is Hard to Find"

" A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor is about an average southern family on vacation but things don't go as planned and ends in terror. The grandmother's perspective of events is the main focus of the story. She keeps complaining she would rather go to Tennessee than Florida because that is where the escaped prisoner, The Misfit, is heading. The family stops for lunch at a BBQ place called Red Sammy Butts' and discuss with the owners about the escaped murderer and noting that the world is becoming a more dangerous and unfriendly place. Once the family gets back on the road, the struggling Christian grandmother convinces Bailey Boy, her son, to stop at an old plantation house with "secret panels," only to remember that the home she once knew was in Georgia, not Tennessee. Down the old dirt dirt the family have a violent car accident. Then help arrives, but the hand of this particular evil man only helps the family by shooting them into their believed place of after life.

Cathedral !

I enjoyed this story and can relate to the meaning. Cathedral by Raymond Carver starts out with narrator telling us that his wife's blind friend, that he has not yet met, is coming to visit. The husband is clearly unhappy about the upcoming visit. The narrator has no real experience with the blind and with his uneasiness he encounters an additional problem. His wife and Robert, the blind man, have had a close relationship for the last ten years through tape recordings back and forth by mail. Despite all the husband worries, Robert arrives and the three of them enjoy themselves as they eat dinner. Eventually the wife drifts off to sleep and the two men can finally get to know each other. The story ends with the narrator enduring a life-changing moment while trying to explain to Robert what a cathedral looks like but struggles for the right words. together they draw a cathedral as the husband guides the blind man hands with his eyes closed and create a beautiful image.