Paper #1 (Tolerance)

Nefi Navarro

Prof. Brady

English 102

March 17, 2011

Tolerating the Opinions of Others

            Women tolerate many issues these days, where it comes to a point that enough is enough! Tolerance is clearly presented within the stories The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gillman, Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway, and the movie Enough directed by Michael Apted. The females within each story tolerate the judgment of their life style and getting out of their current situation or breakdown and get stuck in a situation that they do not want to be in.

            Throughout “ The Yellow Wallpaper” , the woman feels the need to obey her husband in order to make him happy. Although she is often inspired to write, John continues to discourage her by explaining that her medical condition will worsen if she continues to write. As a result, she gives in to his discouragement of what is supposdly best for her.  The women states “I think sometimes that if I were only well enough to write a little it would relieve the press of ideas and rest me” (Gillman). She is having problems balancing her desire for literature and performing the household duties which society expect of her. She is isolated from society until her husband feels is getting well, which makes her feel worse. While being locked away in a room she begins to become annoyed by the yellow wallpaper that does not help her situation, as stated within the novel, “This wallpaper...a particular irritating one” (Gillman). John does not allow her to write or interact with other thus; suppressing her ideas. John as a physician believes that with plenty of rest will help make a speedy recovery; However, John has a problem with treating her as both a wife and as a patient. This ultimately destroys her as she tends to loose her sense of reality. “The faint figure behind seemed to shake the patterns, just as if she wanted to get out” (Gillman). Over time this isolation begins to affect her brain, as she begins to see this image behind the Yellow Wallpaper’s patterns which is a symbol of society’s view on women. Even though this female did attempt to do something other than what John asked of her she always ended up pleasing her husband’s ideas. The idea of her being isolated, was the major problem to why she began to fall apart. At the end of the story, the women in the yellow wallpaper escapes and crawls over her husband’s unconscious body. She feels relieved from her oppressor as she rips the wall paper to shreds. Although the women did feel released she allowed herself to become mentally unstable as she continued to allow John to oppress her.

            In the short story “Hills like White Elephants” the main character is a young women who alows herself to be oppressed. The young woman and The American are discussing about whether or not they should get an abortion. The setting of this short story is extremely important as to how it relates to the situatuin. The young woman and the American are waiting for a train that will take them to the doctor who will abort the child. If she decides to have the abortion she would go with the American to the doctor, however if she chooses otherwise her decisions may impact the relationship between the two. The railroad station illustrates the idea of the girl making life changing decisions. Although she evidently presented that she did not want to abort her child, she is not confident with herself which leads her to feels the need to make the American happy. The American said; “I think it’s the best thing to do. But I don’t want you to do it if you don’t really want to” (Hemingway). The American contradicts himself by telling her that it is alright if she does not want to have the abortion and in the same breath says that it will be better to have it done. He manipulates and pressures her to have this abortion. This girls proves the idea of tolerance towards her male partner; “But I don’t care about me. And I’ll do it and then everything will be fine” (Hemingway). She alows herself to be manipulated by his request only to a point when she finally says “Would you please, please, please, please, please, please, please, stop talking?” (Hemingway). This major decision impacts her life in a similar manner as in the Yellow Wallpaper. As in the “Yellow Wallpaper”, she is pressured to do something she does not want to do but feels powerless to change. When she is asked if feels ok about the decisions she said, “There’s nothing wrong with me. I feel fine” (Hemingway). Unlike the woman in the “Yellow Wallpaper” she has no way to escape.

            Similar to the two short stories a idea of tolerance towards a male figure is clearly evident in the movie “Enough” directed by, Michael Apted. In this film starring Jennifer Lopez, who played a role of a female who was defending her views against her husband. Jennifer or Slim (Her character in the film), feel in love with a man she believed her “knight in shining armor” (Mitch), in which she had been married to with a child. This character had allowed herself to be sucked into the lies of a man and lived happily as a housewife until she found out Mitch had not been as faithful as she believed. This triggered him to become more and more violent towards her and would lead him to state, “Whatever happened to privacy” (Mitch). The relationship went on for a while until Slim finally realized she would not live under those conditions. The title of the movie, “Enough” had been perfectly chosen by the Director to inform the audience that Slim had been tolerant towards the life style of her husband Mitch for to long. She has now decided to change her role in society and not put up with this ongoing abuse. The strength and courage of Slim allowed her to escape the actions of being tolerant towards other actions that do not benefit her.

            Many women these day have been tolerating a lot when it comes to their significant other. Like in the stories and the film it is very hard for someone to make a decision to leave their significant other but sometimes they relize it is for the best. Women should not have to deal with some of the situations men put them in, but they do because of their lack of selfconfidence. Women should be a lot stronger when it comes to their significant other and should not be afraid to stand their ground.