The Creep

The Yellow Wallpaper was actually very interesting for me to read, and while we discussed it I realized even more how creepy it actually was. A question from the Socratic seminar that I found the most interesting was number 8: "Who is the woman behind the yellow wallpaper, who looks out through its bars at the narrator as she sleeps? Why does she creep about the yard and garden at night?" I think the woman behind the yellow wallpaper is a portrayal of the narrator herself. She obviously has some form of a mental disorder by the point that she begins to examine the wallpaper. It may not be severe case of a mental illness, but when one begins to examine and think about wallpaper and hate it then like it so much, there is definitely something wrong. To normal, sane people, it is just yellow wallpaper with patterns on it. Also, the narrator says the room she is staying in is a nursery, when it obviously is not. The windows are barred, the bed is fastened to the floor so it cannot be moved, and there are rings on the walls that are used to restrain someone. She may think they are just staying there to help her get away from everything, but her husband really took her as an initial step to heal her mental illness, hoping it would not get any worse. This is all proof that the narrator is mentally ill. Thus, when she begins to see women behind the pattern in the wallpaper it is showing that her mental state is getting worse. At first when she sees multiple women imprisoned in the wall it could be her portrayal of any woman who is being told they have a mental illness and all of their initial steps that the world gives them to cure it. They are are locked away and monitored with thoughts from physicians that solitude and control will cure them, and the women in the wallpaper represent them being locked away against their will. This is when the narrator still has some grip on reality and recognizes that she is being cared for because of an illness. The single woman behind the yellow wallpaper is solely the narrator, once she completely loses saneness. She wants to help let her out so badly, and doesn't want anyone elses help and once she finally is 'let out' she acts as if she was the woman behind the wall. I don't really understand why the woman creeps about outside during the day though other then the narrator is crazy and obsessed with the wallpaper and the woman behind it so then it is constantly on her mind and sees her outside at all times through the windows. And when the narrator creeps around the room once she 'lets the woman out' I believe it is just because she has gone crazy and now she believes she is the woman she always saw creeping around, so now she is reenacting that. The way that women were treated back then for their mental illnesses is a lot different then how mental patients are treated today, but there are some similarities. While patients aren't confined alone in a room anymore and forced to just lie there and eat milk products to boost weight, they still are confined to a specific room/area at certain times of the day (examples: dorm room, cafeteria, group discussion room, psychiatrist room..) and given medicine at night to force them into a sleep. Media and society portrays mental hospitals as horrendous, misunderstood places probably because of the reps they received from earlier mental practices, however they do help patients a lot and although they do perform some practices that I disagree with (forced sleep and forced schedules) they have evolved quite well. I completely disagree with the practices perform in the past for mental disorders for women and I have not the slightest clue how they thought forcing them to sleep all the time and feeding them milk products was supposed to solve anything. Isolation from everyone probably made them worse and I don't understand how they could not see that. In The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator was not very sick and wanted to go visit her cousins and be around people, but by forcing her into isolation and to stay in a house that she did not like and not allowing her to write in her journal so she had to sneak it, drove her to the point of a mental breakdown.

Cultural Relativism

"Morality differs in every society, and is a convenient term for socially approved habits."- Ruth Benedict

Cultures have many different moral codes, but in the end they are all generally the same. While one culture may think it is morally correct to have something eat the dead body of one of its members and the other think it is morally correct to have them burned, they both are the same in the thought that the dead bodies should be gotten rid of in some fashion. This is the same to how our culture believes in either cremating or burying the dead bodies of our loved ones; we are still doing something with the body to get rid of it. In saying that, I agree there is no right or wrong method, it is all based on the culture. While one may be disgusted at the thought that people may feed the dead bodies to an animal, they have no right to judge or retaliate because that is what the people of that culture think is honorable. They would think burning the bodies is totally disrespectful, but it is just the opinion. This could lead to many clashes between cultures if they were being mixed with one another. How would they decide which method is the correct one? Another question brought up is what would you do if in one culture it was custom to kill everybody of a certain race? Like with the Holocaust, is it considered a moral code for the Germans to kill the Jews? And if you can consider it like that, how was it valid for everyone to try and stop them if that was their morals that we have no right to judge? I believe that moral codes can only be brought to an extent. In harmless matters such as the burning or eating of dead bodies, then that is all based on the opinions of that culture. When much more serious matters come into play like genocide, then you have every right to step in. While I believe it is sort of a moral code, it is too extreme and should be tampered with. In addition, our moral codes are definitely not all perfect, which cultural relativism would forbid us to say. One example of an imperfection in our moral codes is many believing men are superior to women. Which leads into moral progress, because the role of women and their power has greatly increased over time and is still leading towards 100% equality. Moral codes are typically generated through many facts and religion, in addition to values. This accounts for the difference in customs, the different contributions of different aspects. Like all cultures have different moral codes, they also have many that are alike. For example, the caring of infants because they cannot take care of themselves and they are the future of that culture. I agree with the two lessons we should learn from the theory of cultural relativism. It does show that many of our practices are peculiar to our society, and not able to be proven correct. If so, then everyone would have the same moral codes. Also keeping an open mind with moral codes is essential to daily life, getting along with people of different views, and ultimately living a happy life.