



  

Conformity comes in many forms, throughout the course of time women have been made to conform to social structures that demean, exploit, and undermine women’s contribution to society and Mankind as a whole. I believe that “Barbie Doll’ and “The Yellow Wallpaper” speak about mans idea of assisting women but ultimately forcing them to conform to prisons meant to help or “cure” them. I’m going to point out the similarities between the texts and how they speak to past and present pressures women face in society breaking both minds, body, and spirit. That even though one is a poem and the other is a short story I believe both still drive home the point that women have been trick into believing that society defines beauty or mental stability and in reality they don’t. Through this close read of each text I hope that reader gains a bird’s eye of both text and apply it accordingly to the world around them.

 

 What’s interesting about the “The Yellow Wallpaper’’ is the fact that in the beginning of the story the narrator states “John is a physician, and perhaps - (I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind -) perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster. You see he does not believe I am sick!” Stetson.C (2016) Then even bringing her brother into the equation in the very next paragraphs that follow,” If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression -a slight hysterical tendency -what is one to do? My brother is also a physician, and also of high standing, and he says the same thing. “(Stetson.C 2016)  With those two lines in mind the narrators has already established that she feels as if there is something going on with her only to be dismissed not only by her husband but her brother also. Even though he states that she has “temporary nervous depression.” He neglects to treat those symptoms and tells her to rest and prescribe her pills that will do more harm than good.

  

 When I put the two texts in conversation with one another I notice that both seem to be affected in drastic ways by an outer influence that tells them something that skews their perspective of themselves. Those outer opinions moving them to extreme changes that leads them to change who they are in order to feel complete. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” her husband isolates to a room which to do nothing. She isn’t allowed to write, or interact with people but sit confined to a room where she begins to create people, those people specifically being women, women who are trying to escape from the wallpaper. In “ Barbie Doll’ however the narrator is given the typical gender specific things felt appropriate for young women ” This girlchild was born as usual and presented dolls that did pee-pee and miniature GE stoves and irons and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy. Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said: You have a great big nose and fat legs.” (Piercy.M 2016) This event taking a toll on her in the next stanza, she begins to apologize for who she is feeding into lies handed to her. Even in her doing all of that she still wasn’t accepted by those around her. “She was healthy, tested intelligent, possessed strong arms and back, abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity. She went to and fro apologizing. Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs.’’ (Piercy.M 2016)  In both text isolated events effected them in one case it’s her husband and brother and in another it’s her classmate. Attacking something that can’t be touched or removed but still affected ones image of themselves, and self identity in relation to others.

   I thought that I might actually find a difference in these texts in context of searching outside oneself for something within. In both cases they did what they felt others thought was right for their life instead of what they felt completed the last piece to a puzzle they had already solved once. Even in their endings they seem to find a piece of mind. It seems that through conforming they found something in the madness but not self respect. What they found is an ego that has conformed to insanity. In “Barbie Doll” she found beauty and in “The Yellow Wallpaper” she found freedom from the wall. They both however where looking for acceptance from those around them but I noticed that we never got to hear from the narrator in “Barbie Doll” you only hear from those around her. I think the author used this as a way to say that she doesn’t have a voice and in the “ The Yellow Wallpaper’’ the narrator speaks for herself explaining her emotions and her thoughts towards those around her and things surrounding. Those were differences that notice within the two texts.

  In concluding, both endings were cryptic” The Yellow Wallpaper” ending with her locking herself in the room and her husband coming in and fainting. Then “ Barbie Doll” ending with her getting cosmetic surgery cutting off her “ Big Nose’ and “Fat Legs”. I think that these two compositions share motifs of struggle with ones identity, gender roles, and self hate. That ask the question ‘what does it mean to be a women? Who makes the rules on what a women is? They point out the problems that women face in society. Uplifting and belittling at the same time which contradictory.


