Who Actually Holds "The Gaze"?

I found this unit of “Seeing and The Gaze” to be extremely interesting.  "The gaze" is extremely powerful.  I feel that “the gaze” can be found in many different stories, even when you do not realize it.  “The Gaze” is something that I feel everyone has experienced once in their lives.  Just like in the short story, "Miss Brill", everyone has been looked at before, positively or negatively, and felt a gaze on them.  What I find most interesting is who seems to hold the gaze most of the time. 

When talking about “the gaze”, it is usually inferred that it is a man looking at a woman.  The male is the usual person to hold the gaze on a female.  In the story, "Miss Brill", she is a woman who holds the power to see.  Not only does she hold the power to see men, but also other females.  I thought this literal gaze in the story that she had upon other people was a good way to show a female having the power instead of a male. 

"Miss Brill" is told in a very interesting way.  I felt that it allows the reader to hold “the gaze” on Miss Brill herself.  While reading this story, I felt that I was in a sense watching Miss Brill watch all of these other people in the park.

"She glanced, sideways, at the old couple.  Perhaps they would go soon.  Last Sunday, too, hadn't been as interesting as usual.  An Englishman and his wife, he wearing a dreadful Panama hat and she button boots.  And she'd gone on the whole time about how she ought to wear spectacles; she knew she needed them; but that it was no good getting any; they'd be sure to break and they'd never keep on."

The above passage shows how the reader is about to "see" and "watch" Miss Brill examine the old couple next to her.

Having the gaze of the people in the park be from Miss Brill's eyes and opinions only, makes it hard to realize how much of it is reality and how much is altered/filtered by her own desire of what is happening around her.  If the story was told from a different point of view or from a different person do you think the effect of the story would be different?   

                   

Unreliability

       An unreliable narrator is a narrator whose credibility has been seriously compromised.  In both The Yellow Wallpaper and The Ones Who Walk Away From The Omelas, an unreliable narrator is seen.  Having this kind of a narrator forces the reader to draw conclusions about the story on their own, without actually flat out telling them the story details.  

In The Yellow Wallpaper, the story is told in third person.  This is helpful in this story because if we did not have access to the woman’s thoughts, the story would not have included the wallpaper and what she thought was behind it.  Reality vs. narrator’s perception was a major factor in the unreliable narrator of this story.  At sometimes it was hard to tell which characters were actually real.  The narrator changes her mind about many different things in the story, which is hard to trust and to follow, making her unreliable.  You can see this with John’s character.  Somedays John is talking about how the woman is progressing and improving, and then next day he is saying that he may have to send her away and that she may not recover.  Her opinions on many things change rapidly, back and forth.  She likes one thing, then hates it and later likes it again.  This rapid change can be seen with these quotes about John...“It is hard to talk with john about my case, because he is so wise and because he loves me so.” “The fact is, I am getting a little afraid of John.” “I get unreasonably angry with John sometimes.”  I think that it can be concluded that the narrators mental health can be the reason for her unreliability.  As a reader it is hard to understand if the woman in the wallpaper is real because she does have a mental heath issue that can make her visions unclear.  Overall, the narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper is deemed unreliable.   

The narrator of The One’s Who Walk Away From The Omelas is also unreliable.  This story is told in second person.  This is unlike many stories because most are told in first and third.  Second person allows for more control over the reader’s perceptions.  The narrator of this story has an extremely hard time to narrate.  She never knows how to fully explain why the town is so perfect, before the child in the basement is exposed.  The narrator talks about the town as if she herself is uncertain of why everything is so perfect and always happy.  She says at one point, “but I wish I could describe it better. I wish I could convince you. Omelas sounds in my words like a city in a fairy tale, long ago and far away, once upon a time.”  This quote shows how the narrator of the story is trying extremely hard to describe what is going on in the town, but simply can not put it into words.  The only thing that the narrator is certain about and talks about, is the child that is locked away in the basement and that is where the sole happiness and perfection of the town comes from. 

What do you think?

"A Woman on the Roof" - Characters

In this unit, lust, betrayal, and attraction, the short story A Woman on the Roof clearly portrays the theme of lust.  All of the characters in this story, play a major role, each one being throughly defined.  The extremity of the characters is what makes the story and helps to understand it.  Set in the 1960’s of London, a woman decides to go tanning on the roof of her suburban home.  

Passerby’s of the woman have all different reactions to the situation, the strongest reaction coming home Stanley.  Stanley is in his mid 20’s and is recently married.  He has a plethora of emotions, from excited, to pissed, to extreme anger.  It seems though, that the main reason he feels this way is because of his outrage of the woman’s audacity.  I believe that he is thinking to himself, “what if it were my wife up there”.  I also think that he is so outraged because he is ashamed of himself for being tempted and looking up there at the woman sunbathing.  

While Stanley’s reaction is extreme anger and resentment, Tom has a completely different view on the woman.  This is where the theme of lust in the story takes over.  Tom is 17 and he very mush believes he is in love with this woman, when in reality is just “lusting” over her.  All day he thinks of her and how he is going to muster up the confidence to be able to go to her and ask her out.  When he finally does, he is rejected.  Out of anger he drinks.  This shows how naive and immature he is as a teen.  His idea of love is not completely developed.  His love for this woman on the roof is filled solely by the idea of her.  Being on the roof, dressed half naked, forces Tom to come up with ideas of what she is like in his own head.  Tom thinks that she is confident and bold.  To him, she holds the power of what he is going to do.  But his “love” that he thinks that he has for her, is just lust and infatuation.  He actually knows nothing about the woman and is only in love with the infatuation of her.   

Harry is the oldest of all of the boys and men that walk by the woman on the roof.  Harry is older, roughly 45 years old.  As he sees the woman, he doesn’t have nearly as extreme of a reactions as the others.  He is not as infatuated.  His age and maturity show because he is not one of the men cat calling at the woman, he is being respectful.  His age and maturity also show is experience.  He has seen much in his lifetime, being married for a very long time.  

Lust, betrayal, and attraction are all seen by all of the characters throughout The Woman on the Roof.  Lust seeming to be the main theme that takes over, is shown dramatically by Tom.  Without the extreme definitions of each character and how they feel and view the woman, the story would not be as understandable.  The characters help to drag the reader to each different view point of each character, Stanley, Tom, Harry and the Woman.    

The Metamorphosis: Close Reading

     The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka, seems from the surface as very simple story of a man turned to bug.  But after close reading, you can see that this story is actually very complex.  There are factors that play into ever aspect of the story, including the characters, the many different themes and symbols, and also the point of view.  

     The characters of the story all have deeper insights.  Gregor has always lived his life to please his family, being the sole supporter of the family.  He always care for others over himself.  He is not entirely happy with his job and he is extremely sad and pitiful.  Being this way, could be what some people assume was the reason of his morphing into a bug.  Gregor is alienated from his family, prior to being a bug, but once turned into a bug, he is alienated from the entire world.  He accepts all of the hardships and misfortunes that are brought upon him without any complaints.  While Gregor is a bug, his humanity never fully disappears and goes away.  The family as a whole is very unsympathetic towards Gregor, before and after his bug transformation.  They are all very reliant on Gregor and are lost without him during his bug stage.  They are very quick to write him off, being extremely neglectful.  Grete is the only person that cares for Gregor, before and after is he a bug.  Grete is Gregor’s caretaker.  When he is morphed into a bug, he steps aside, letting Grete prosper and blossom into a woman.  This was like a role reversal.  

There are many different themes and symbols throughout the story.  A major theme in the story is to appreciate what you have.  The saying “you don’t know what you have until it’s gone” is very prevalent.  The family is so reliant on Gregor and don’t realize that until he is already transformed into a bug and can no longer provide for them.  This then makes them before extremely quick to get rid of him and forget about him.  The main symbol of the story, in my opinion, is food.  Food is seen as a symbol of value.  The food represents the way that the family acts, feels and passes judgement toward Gregor.  Food is also what Gregor provides for the family before he is transformed into the bug.  After he is transformed he can no longer give what he was giving to the family, food being one.  The setting of the story, is somewhat of a symbol as a whole.  Gregor’s bedroom goes from being a home to a prison and a cage.  The main symbol is the Lady in Furs picture shows a connection to humanity and normalcy.  Looking at the picture, Gregor is able to hold on to the last bit of humanity that he has.  He can look at the picture as something that he would want to embody and strive to be.   

The point of view of this story, being the last close reading done, is very vague.  The author leaves the reader in the dark on many different things.  Much is left unexplained such as, why he was morphed, why the family wasn’t working to help in the first place, and how her could transform back.  The author uses this tactic to leave the story up for interpretation for the reader.  For myself, I enjoyed this because it made the story more enjoyable to read.    

The Necklace

     The short story, The Necklace, is the story of an average woman who is very unsatisfied with her life and goes to extreme lengths to become like the rest of people around her, surrounding herself with amazing jewels.  In the end when it turns out that the “beautiful, amazing, expensive” necklace was a fake, the reader is able to see how the theme of beauty is very negative.  

     This story is the perfect example of the theme "beauty".  The woman needs to look hold the  standards of society and fit in, so she has to dress with things that she can not afford herself and and in this case doesn’t own.  The societal expectations that she felt, forced her to do something that she did not have too.  She is seen as greedy, disrespectful, and disconnected.  She comes off as if nothing is ever good enough for her.  She finally got the invite to go to the party, but she needs an amazing dress.  Then the dress is not enough, she needs a beautiful necklace to go along with it.  Beauty is usually thought of as “high class” or a “privilege”.  In this story, beauty comes off as "evil".  It is something that she strives for so hard.  Something that she has to work rigorously the rest of her life, and in the end it never really existed.  This necklace symbolizes a sense of “false beauty”.  "Oh, my poor Mathilde! But mine was imitation. It was worth at the very most five hundred francs! . . . "  In this last sentence of the story, Madame Forestier reveals that the necklace was fake and that is was not worth even half of what she thought the cost was.  If Madame Loisel had known that the necklace was indeed not real, she would not have taken it to borrow from her.  All Madame Loisel wanted in the first place was real jewels to fit in with everyone else, for this false perception of beauty.  With Madame Forestier having this fake necklace, this brings up the point that this idea of “beauty” that Madame Loisel has in her mind, is triggered by lies from other people also.  No one knows that the necklace is a fake, so other people who have just as spectacular necklaces could be fake also.  Everyone looks at the necklace as if it were real, but in reality it is just something else in her life that is not.  For one single night of beauty that she wanted, the dress and necklace at the party, she lost her own beauty in the process of it all.  She became old and tired as she worked for years to pay back the expensive debt of the necklace, that was a fake.  This story is one of the many from the "beauty" unit, that perfect portray how beauty is seen societally and personally.