As a child, the narrator, along with his brother and a group of men, went into the woods to investigate the old woman’s death. “She did not look old, lying there in that light, frozen and still. One of the men turned her over in the snow and I saw everything” (pg 54).
This was the first time the narrator sees a woman’s naked body and it was also the first time he experiences death. For a child this is a disturbing occurrence. Yet, he construes this as something spiritual. “My body trembled with some strange mystical feeling and so did my brother’s. It might have been the cold” (pg 54).
It is because he witnesses her death that he becomes haunted by her existence and compelled to tell “her story”. The account of the old woman’s life is very similar to particular events that took place in the narrator’s life. This is where we begin to decipher fact from embellished memories. The old woman worked on a German’s farm. It is implied that she had been sexually abused by the Farmer. “She was a young girl then and scared to death. You see, the farmer was up to something with the girl- she was, I think, a bound girl and his wife had her suspicions.
She took it out on the girl when the man wasn’t around” (pg 47).
On the last page of the story the narrator states his own comparable account. “When I was a young man I worked on the farm of a German. The hired girl was afraid of her employer. The farmer’s wife hated her” (pg 55).
The Term Paper on Female Genital Mutilation Girls And Women
OUTLINE Thesis Statement: The continued underground practice of FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) must be stopped in order to protect women throughout the world from a useless, unnecessary procedure that has been supported by male dominating societies as a means of control, at the expense, and lives, of women. I. Millions of girls and women have been mutilated by the practice of FGM A. Model Waris ...
It can easily be decided that the narrator combines parts of his own history with her story in order to provide a substantial narrative. He even declares, “I wonder how I know all this. It must have stuck in my mind from small-town tales when I was a boy” (pg 47-48).
Another paralleled detail that came forward in the story concerned the dogs. “Once later, I had a half-uncanny, mystical adventure with dogs in an Illinois forest on a clear, moonlit winter night” (pg 55).
The narrator is speaking of a memory from after the woman died. Yet, it is strangely familiar to the night the woman did die. “After a time all the dogs came back to the clearing. They were excited about something. Such nights, cold and clear and with a moon, do things to dogs” (pg 51).
He describes the woman’s dogs as being “tall, gaunt fellows”.
He later uses the same term to illustrate the dogs he encounters in his own life. The only thing we know for certain is a fact is the woman’s death. The narrator remembers the picture of her lying in the snow. “We had never seen a woman’s body before. It may have been the snow, clinging to the frozen flesh, that made it look so white and lovely, so like marble” (pg 54).
He also notices the tracks in the snow left from the dogs. This points out the fact that the dogs were present with the woman at her time of death The narrator describes the night the woman was found in great detail.
Both himself and his brother make the choice to be late for dinner in order to follow the men into the woods to see her. “Well, we would have something lucky to tell. A boy did not get such a chance very often. It was lucky we just happened to go into the grocery when the hunter came in” (pg 53-54).
He makes it clear that their journey began out of curiosity. They were children and they were most likely excited to be a part of the action. The narrator obviously wasn’t aware of the impact it would have on him. Children are not supposed to be exposed to disturbing scenes as they were.
In this sense the narrator was haunted by her death. He later states, “You see, it is likely that when my brother told the story that night when we got home and my mother and sister sat listening I did not think he got the point. He was too young and so was I. A thing so complete has it’s own beauty” (pg 55).
The Essay on The Yellow Wallpaper Woman Narrator Story
'The Yellow Wallpaper' by Charlotte Gilman is sad story of the repression that women face in the days of late 1800's as well as being representative of the turmoils that women face today. Gilman writes 'The Yellow Wallpaper' from her own personal experiences of having to face the overwhelming fact that this is a male dominated society and sometimes women suffer because of it. The narrator, being ...
He is describing that even though they were both young, his older brother missed the entire meaning of what they witnessed. The narrator was too young to understand completely but he was aware of the impact it would hold. He knew that it was a profound moment in their lives. The whole thing, the story of the old woman’s death, was to me as I grew older like music from far off. The notes had to be picked up slowly one at a time. Something had to be understood” (pg 55) I think the importance of combining stories from his own life with the story of the old woman is in the influence her death had in his life. He is emotionally connected to this woman even after all these years. He has been carrying her with him his entire life and he incorporates her into his childhood memories. He was unhappy with the way his brother spoke of the incident because for the narrator, it was a much deeper experience. Getting the story ight was important to him because it changed his life forever.
