Compare And Contrast Gilman And W. E. B. Dubois

Final Exam Charlotte Perkins Gilman and W.E.B. Du Bois both focus on the inequalities faced by certain individuals based on their social characteristics. For Gilman, she was concerned with the political and economic foundation in which gender inequality is built upon, the reinforcing of gender inequalities through different socialization patterns, and evolutionary benefits inherent in one’s gender classification (Edles and Appelrouth 2010:225). She took a Marxist approach toward explaining why the breadwinner/homemaker model of the family was conflictual, in that it forces women to be economically reliant on their male counterpart. She also believed these issues are engrained in institutions and social life in general. Similarly,
Du Bois focused on the issues regarding one’s race and class in America.
He was concerned with the effects that certain social and cultural problems have on the behaviors and perceptions of individuals. He also expressed that race and racism are created by social powers instilled in societal structures, and these powers and structures effect each social group differently. He believed that in order to combat these issues, one must develop racial consciousness to understand the struggles of certain groups and work toward eliminating the barriers brought about by their race and class (Edles and Appelrouth 2010:335). In The Yellow Wallpaper, Gilman uses the wallpaper to symbolize the constraints of domestic life placed upon women and seeks to explain how these constraints are detrimental to women’s health; and in contrast, Du Bois’ The Souls of Black Folk, uses a veil to explain the wall that separates African American’s racial identity from that of their White counterparts, and how Blacks’ are forced to live with a double conscious of being an American and a
Negro American. In The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator of the story struggles with her husband’s preferred method of treatment, the “rest cure” – isolating women from social bonding. Gilman is adamant of this treatment because she believes that women should have an opinion on what is the best therapy for their diagnosis, and for her, the best way to cure her “hysteria” was through exciting activity (Edles and Appelrouth 2010:232). During this “rest cure” treatment process, she is placed in a room within a home in the countryside that resembles both a nursery for a child and a mental ward with barred windows and bed bolted to the floor (Gilman in Edles and Appelrouth 2010:234). It is here where she becomes fascinated with the yellow wallpaper and all of its different patterns and intricacies. Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses the wallpaper to symbolize the societal norms and domestic holds placed upon women of that time. The narrator in the story becomes obsessed with the wallpaper and insists that there is a woman trapped behind it. She vividly explains what she sees in her journal, “Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over. Then in the very bright spots she keeps still, and in the very shady spots she just takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard. She is all the time trying to climb through the pattern – it strangles so…” (Gilman in Edles and Appelrouth 2010:239). In this passage, she is explaining how women get trapped behind the social norms and domestic constraints placed upon them and they are constantly trying to free themselves of these inequalities. During the day, women must abide by the roles that society has in order for them, but in the night, when everyone is sleeping they are free of these constraints; to move in whichever direction they desire. Gilman’s use of the wallpaper is common to W.E.B. Du Bois’ use of the veil to symbolize the struggles of African Americans in society. W.E.B.
Du Bois states, “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line – the relation of the darker to lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea” (Du Bois in Edles and Appelrouth 2010:355). Du Bois has a problem with racial characteristics creating racial segregation and White people believing in White superiority. He states, “the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world, - a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world” (Du Bois in Edles and Appelrouth 2010:351). This veil is a translucent wall, in that one can only faintly see through what’s on the other side of it, but cannot fully distinguish the image. The veil separates the racial identity of the African American from that of the White American. Du Bois asserts that in order for White’s to understand the struggles of what it means to be black in America, they must step through the veil. It is not enough to simply present empirical observations and statistics because those are proven not to work. He believes that the problem of the color line can never be properly addressed without those in power understanding the internal and external struggles of African Americans. He also asserts that Blacks should be able to live free of their double consciousness – having a Negro self and American Negro self. They should
only have to live as an American (Du Bois in Edles and Appelrouth 2010:362). The works of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper and W.E.B. Du Bois’ The Souls of Black Folk both spoke to problems of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The residue left from these issues are still apparent in American society today, but to a lesser degree. In order for America to fully become the country of freedom and equality that it is supposed to be, these issues must be completely diminished. Women should be freed from the wallpaper that traps them in their domestic lives and African Americans should be able to step from within the veil and live life as natural Americans.

Works Cited
Edles, Laura Desfor, and Scott Appelrouth. Sociological Theory in the Classical Era. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, 2010. Print.