Angel Lovemore ENG-254 6/9/2026 Final Paper
I chose two stories and one poem. The two stories are “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “Everyday use” by Alice Walker. The poem is “I Sing the Body Electric” by Walt Whitman. These writings are my favorite because there are ideas that are applicable and relatable to my personal life. All three writings are realistic which makes them relatable to my personal life. Also, all three writings are metaphysical as much as they are realistic, though in different ways. Whitman’s concept of an embodied soul is the best example of both realism and metaphysics. An embodied soul is the supernatural-naturalism that is also exemplified as the woman who lives in the walls in “The Yellow Wallpaper” or the mundane yet culturally-sacred artifacts in “Everyday use”. My personal belief is that nature is divine and everyday life is sacred, which is why these writings are my favorite.
Walt Whitman’s background and poem “I Sing the Body Electric” is relatable to me. Whitman’s background as a hospital volunteer likely inspired his poem “I Sing the Body Electric”, and I relate to his background because I work in healthcare as a nursing assistant. Whitman and I likely did similar jobs as assistants. Whitman’s aforementioned poem speaks of divinity of the human body. Specifically, when Whiteman said, “The man’s body is sacred and the woman’s body is sacred, No matter who it is, it is sacred,” he is explicitly stating that the human body is divine. This appeals to my sympathies toward religious naturalism. Religious naturalism is worshipping or having reverence for nature and the natural world. Likewise, Whitman expresses reverence for nature when he says, “the universe is a procession with measured and perfect motion.” This phrase seems to idealize the motion of the universe, which is a very religious naturalistic attitude. After having read his poem, I gained appreciation for embodied art like dance, sports, and expressive movement. I relate to Whitman’s reverence for the human body, both philosophically and pragmatically (e.g., working in healthcare).
There are many interesting connections and patterns in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”. One conflict is between progress and tradition. Progress and tradition are represented as sisters, Dee and Maggie; Dee represents progress, and Maggie represents tradition. An example of Dee representing progress is when she says, “I know it might sound awkward at first” when referring to her change of name. To note, the word “everyday” in the title introduces the notion of time. As it relates to time, Dee and Maggie are the newest generation for Mrs. Johnson’s family, who will lead on her (and her ancestors’) legacy. There’s a strange, mysterious connection between the progression of time and knowledge. Dee progressed through college and gained knowledge from formal education, while Maggie progressed through a traditional homelife and gained knowledge specific to her culture. Maggie’s knowledge is an informal education. Also, Maggie has scars and markings from a traumatic housefire, and these markings represent the information accrued from her progression through time. Equally mysteriously, there’s a connection between the progression of time and loss of knowledge (as opposed to gain of knowledge). For example, Mama has a hard time remembering the origin of the name “Dee” when she says, “that’s about as far back as I can trace it.” In this example, the context is that Dee and Mama argue about the origin of the name “Dee”, and neither of them seems to know the true origin, but Dee is certain that it’s a slave name. Because of her certainty, Dee insists on being called Wangero. Additionally, there’s a juxtaposition between cultural production and cultural preservation. Dee is focused on preservation, and Maggie is focused on production. Mrs. Johnson realizes unconsciously that production of culture is more important than to preservation, and only Maggie is capable of producing cultural artifacts. Another facet that i relate to is the class divide between Dee and Maggie, where one is literate, educated, and presumably wealthier. I relate to the poor background of Maggie and her mother. To conclude, I enjoy ruminating on the interesting concepts in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” because I think about my own legacy, education, and managing forgetfulness (including forgetting ancestral wisdom) and learning over time.
I relate to Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” because of its exploration of confusion and knowledge as well as environmental and spatial influences. In the story, many people are confused. The physician is confused as he does not truly know how to solve his wife’s problems even with the best education at the time. The wife is confused as she questions her own sanity and the sanity of others. This is evident when the wife says, “ Other characters are confused as the wife explains things that seem odd or unusual, like a woman appearing in the walls. As for environmental and spatial influences, I relate to the boiling-frog effect of the yellow wallpaper. In both scenarios, the initial condition is moderately tolerable, but then over time, it gets increasingly worse – but without explicit or intelligible explanation – until it results in catastrophe, like a dead frog or a mental breakdown. I relate to this spatial element because I live in the city, and I think the city is like a room of yellow wallpaper, or a boiling pot. All scenarios are a space where one is not consciously cognizant of how their environment is influencing their health. For example, the city contains many cars, which produce invisible gas that contains the chemical benzene which is a carcinogen (i.e., cancer-causing). Also, people, like myself, need to breathe to survive. Similarly, much of the city is owned by owners of private property, which means there’s spatial domination. Spatial domination is hostile to life as life occupies space. I exist in spacetime, and so I need to occupy space. Similarly, the wife in the yellow wallpaper must occupy a space simply due to her existence, but her current space is pathological – disease-producing. Like the benzene-containing air of cities, her room is pathological. Applied to my own life, I occupy pathological spaces too. The horror for me is the lack of knowledge and confusion when occupying pathological spaces. In short, I relate and enjoy this story because I can apply it to my own life.
I am grateful for taking this class as I practiced reading. I did not expect to read these stories, but I am glad that I did. I hope that I continue reading after this class now having practiced my reading-muscles. I hope to relate to more stories, perhaps from the same authors Walt Whiman, Charlotte Gilman, and Alice Walker.
Works Cited Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper” 1892 Walker, Alice. “Everyday use” 1973 Whitman, Walt. “I Sing the Body Electric?” 1855