Close Reading

              The yellow wallpaper in the story, "The Yellow Wallpaper", by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, represents the narrator's feeling of imprisonment as a woman. The narrator hides her writing from her husband in a room with yellow wallpaper. The room traps her while she gains back her health from "nervous condition", and her writings become consumed with notes about her hatred of the yellow wallpaper. The narrator hints at her oppression when she states "I did write for a while in spite of them; but it does exhaust me a good deal-- having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition" (Perkins Gilman 368). This quote alludes to the side of the narrator that wishes to accomplish greater goals in life. However, after journal entry that reflects this personality, the narrator apologizes for opposing her husband. Near the end of the story the narrator gives way to her illness and this rebellious side of her personality. She exclaims this quote to her husband: "'I've got out at last,' said I, 'in spite of you and Jane? And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!'" (Perkins Gilman 380). This quote shows the narrator breaking free of the room with the wallpaper that traps her under her husbands command. The yellow wallpaper signifies the narrators ripping away at her husbands rules for both her health and life.

Perkins Gilman, Charlotte. "The Yellow Wallpaper." Trans. Array Anthology of the American Short Story. Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company, 367-380. Web. 23 Jan. 2014. <https://bblearn.saintmarys.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-234339-dt-content-rid-322604_1/courses/HUST103.03-04.201420/Gilman - Yellow Wallpaper.pdf>.

Discovery of Yourself

My first home at SMC

Before attending Saint Mary's College it was my dream to attend the University of Notre Dame. I grew up in South Bend, IN where that is the dream of a lot of students even knowing how "impossible" it is to be accepted into Notre Dame. While applying for schools though I noticed that Saint Mary's had the exact program I wanted to be involved in, Art Education. I really found myself wanting to combine assets of the two schools (yeah right). I applied to both Notre Dame and Saint Mary's because my mom's job at ND covers my full tuition at both of them, and I knew I wanted to stay close to home.

When I got my rejection letter from ND (actually I got two counting the one notifying my mom), I think I cried for a full day.


Thinking back to that time in high school, I really want to kick myself in the butt for ever second guessing Saint Mary's. Now I'm even telling my younger sister how much I want her to attend Saint Mary's, particularly because she also loves art. Even though the reason I ended up at Saint Mary's seems shallow and simple the reason I plan to stay here, why I work here, and desperately want to move back to campus is because SMC gave me something I never had. It gave me numerous opportunities, I don't think I've ever been told I couldn't do something since I walked through the door, I'm never afraid to ask questions, and I have the most educational support I've had in my life. Sometimes it even comes from girls who barely know me.

First Portfolio Review - Out in the open

I think my empowerment at Saint Mary's comes from the fact that it is a small school where I can get the attention I need. I think it comes from being a single-sex campus where I can feel 100% comfortable walking around outside at 11PM in my pajamas. I think it comes from a focus on liberal arts education that opens your mind social inequalities and connects them to your interests and values. I don't think I would've ever had this experience without Saint Mary's College.

The Cousins

There's a house in middle-of-nowhere West Virginia that has become sacred to my cousins and I. It rests between two edges of wooded area that encloses the large, hilly backyard. This backyard contains not only woods, a small horse shed, and a very huge pine tree, but also almost all of our childhood memories together. We played on a broken, makeshift swing set. We learned to climb to the very top of our favorite pine tree. We found the ruins of an old brick house in the woods. We built forts, played in leaves, ran until we couldn't anymore, and caught tadpoles in the old bathtub behind the shed. Our adventures started here and almost always ended with a bonfire and roasted marshmallows, or occasionally a cut or bruise.

Grandma yelling at us to wear long pants and shirts to protect us from poison ivy did not stop us from crossing the property line in the woods. Of course we never got lost because the woods sloped downward and to find the house all you had to do was follow the hill back up. By the time you hit the field in the back of the woods you knew to turn back. One of my favorite memories is finding a fort that two of my older cousins built eight years after they built it. They never told us where they built it except that it was on the property line. My cousin Yancie and I had stopped to rest at it's ruins and remembered what it was! The woods made the backyard never-ending along with our adventures.

I have so many memories in this backyard with people who are not only related to me, but are also my closest friends. The house belongs to my grandma and grandpa and most of it was also built by them and other family members. As I grew up, I lived in a lot of houses and moved numerous times, but this house never, ever changed. The backyard is where my cousins and I grew together. It contains our childhood together. It matters the most now because even though most of us are growing into adults, there's no way we'd pass up a chance to find a new adventure in the backyard of our grandparents familiar house.