Cause and Effect Essay Outline/Writing: What motivates the author to write? Select any of the authors whose work was read in class to base your analysis(You can choose your related topic).
– Keep in mind
Choose an event or condition that you think has an interesting cause-and-effect relationship. Introduce your topic in an engaging way. End your introduction with a thesis that states the main cause, the main effect, or both.Organize your essay by starting with either the cause-then-effect structure or the effect-then-cause structure. Within each section, you should clearly explain and support the causes and effects using a full range of evidence. If you are writing about multiple causes or multiple effects, you may choose to sequence either in terms of order of importance. In other words, order the causes from least to most important (or vice versa), or order the effects from least important to most important (or vice versa).Use the phrases of causation when trying to forge connections between various events or conditions. This will help organize your ideas and orient the reader. End your essay by drawing a conclusion based on the information presented. You may find it helpful to think of the conclusion as an answer to the question: “so what” or as a continuation of the statement “and so. . . “. In some cases, may be appropriate to issue a call to action in your essay’s conclusion.
Cause-and-Effect Relationship in Yellow Wallpaper
The Yellow Wallpaper is an 1892 short story by Charlotte Perkins that provides a glimpse into the oppression of women and how furious they are. The narrator is a woman with feelings and thoughts leading her into an obsession with the yellow wallpaper hanging in the bedroom. Cases of nervous depression manifest circumstances the effect of oppression on the life of women in marriage. Charlotte develops the short story to allow the narrator to transform the wallpaper into an obsession that causes her mental state to deteriorate due to the subordination of women in marriages. The Yellow Wallpaper events explore a story that concerns the life of a woman whose husband continues to antagonize her, causing her mental and psychological trauma.
The subordination of women in marriage originates from the cultural systems. The Yellow Wallpaper outlines the extent to which cultural and social beliefs subject women to subordination. The outcome of the forms of subordination leads to a condemnation of women’s treatment in some societies. The narrator is a woman who, by her gender, cannot engage in gainful employment. Also, the woman feels isolated instead of engaging constructively with the rest of the society members. For example, isolation exposes the narrator to an emotional and mental breakdown. These manifest in how she compares her life to living in a haunted house. She feels strange about the wallpaper in her house (Gilman 1892). The symbolic relevance of this statement outlines levels of mild delusion due to the pain, oppression and hopelessness that she feels in her life. For instance, her antagonistic husband has isolated her from her child, who wants to watch over her. For this reason, it makes her feel so depressed due to the condition and state she is passing through.
The Yellow Wallpaper creates inconsistency. The narrator ends up in a paradox because she fails to understand the reality of her life. From the story, Charlotte utilizes irony and symbolism to show how the narrator faces harmful relationship challenges. All these situations seem to be innocent, but in a real sense, they are oppressive. From the beginning, the narrator is an imaginative woman who expresses herself well. The author indicates that when the narrator remembers terrible night moments as a child. The surprising part is that to achieve the cure for her obsession, her husband prevents her from freely enjoying her positive imaginations. For this reason, she trains her emotions and thoughts against any form of treatment that her husband suggests. Her focus is on the wallpaper that hung on the wall of her house. The wallpaper is the only thing that tends to distract her thoughts from oppression and the pains of subordination.
Charlotte captures the rigid distinction between gender roles. The conflict that ensues touches on the domestic functions of women and the dominance of men in society. According to the author, The Yellow Wallpaper reveals the extent to which gender division affects women by enslaving them and keeping them in a state that does not allow them to develop. John assumes that his wisdom is superior and that his choices reflect maturity. However, the self-belief leads him to patronizing, dominating and misjudging his wife in an attempt to help her (Gilman 1892). Therefore, the narrator emerges as a person trapped in the wallpaper. As a result, she attempts to understand why society is against women and realizes that society’s gender roles and domestic patterns are part of the tools that enslave them.
The narrator focuses on rescuing herself from the traps and situation that enslaves. The Yellow Wallpaper unveils the patterns of life of women in society. All this complicates any effort for her to free herself. The treatment of John extends the depression of the narrator. However, John continues to use more force and authority to try and help her (Gilman 1892). The technique affects the readers’ interpretation positively and makes him or them understand the story well. In the first case, the narrator does not reveal her thought to the rest of the world. As a result, these thoughts begin with fantasy, where the author employs symbolism to clarify the situation of women in society. For example, she understands that the yellow stains and the smoothness of the wallpaper are connected. Also, she tends to fight any realization that the image of a woman in the wallpaper symbolizes her situation. Therefore, all this makes the reader understand that the story’s technique depicts the reality of some women situations.
The subordination of women reduces the narrator to act like a petulant child. Throughout the actions of John and other menfolk, the narrator becomes unable to stand up for herself without risking appearing disloyal. For example, the narrator is a woman that does not take part in the details of her life. As a result, she retreats into obsession and fantasy. In this place, she can only exercise control and the power of her mind (Gilman 1892). Comparatively, the event depicts the cause of pain and subordination among women in marriages and their mental and psychological well-being. All the events in this story indicate how domination facilitates the violation of women’s rights to observe traditions and customs. Therefore, Charlotte depicts that men force women d to pass through some outdated cultural practices.
In the Yellow Wallpaper, socially and culturally patterned norms restrict women. All these create a sense of intimacy and immediacy. The author clarifies that John’s paternal behaviour towards his wife is a manifestation of disdain and flights of fancy that belittles creative impulses. The Yellow Wallpaper is the window through which the audience’s perspective expands to understand women’s negative image in society. Charlotte Perkins Gilman shed light on his life experiences by addressing how women and their rights to vote and assume the status of full status become a primordial issue that captured the political and media spaces.
The effect of subordination is rising of women. Most women rights movement have gained considerable popularity among women. In this dimension, The Yellow Wallpaper categorically constructs the developmental immaturity of women, their emotional stability, and low cognitive abilities. The physician who has little understanding of women and their bodies face complex situations in addressing the challenges of women. Such medics base their arguments on the inferiority complex of women, which contradicts the religious perspective that allows John to patronize the treatment of his wife. Throughout the story, Charlotte conveys the message of hope. The narrator personifies her quest to seek help and maintain her hope for a better future.
The Yellow Wallpaper underscores a personal struggle with postpartum depression. The primary cause of this is that woman play a leading role in shaping the social direction of society. In this case, the narrator realizes that women are suffering in isolation. The event happened when women brutally mutilated one young girl by failing to conduct the female genital mutilation process well. The effect of this was the death of the girl when she was going to the hospital. In connection to that, when other girls realized the tragedy was happening, they ran away to seek their rights. For this reason, the event clearly shows that the information had come out whereby they still underwent the brutal practices in their lives, although there were rights that protected them. It was not long when the concealed information helped some of them to escape the practices.
From the event, Charlotte strengthens the belief that women in most societies occupy the less important even when they raise complaints. The reason is that actions against oppression and subordination are not fast and treasured more than women who violate them from enjoying their rights. The narrator is not given a chance to do her issues from the story but is instead locked in a room and stays there. Social norms, patriarchal structures, and male dominance have denied women the chance to be with the rest of the community. As a result, the woman suffers from depression which clearly shows the pain of being a woman.
The setting of The Yellow Wallpaper affects the attitudes, feelings and emotional disposition of the narrator. The narrator feels confined in the bondage of slavery. All these are due to the social-cultural norms that characterize the setting of the storyline. For example, John’s house stands along the road. Also, it is miles apart from the village. Therefore, this demonstrates the social requirement that restricts the place of women and their progress (Gilman 1892). The setting captures the emotional situation of woman that face restriction and isolation. For this reason, Charlotte symbolizes the bondage that comes with a social setting. The connection between the house and the narrators reveals the tendency of John to disregard her and refers to her as a little goose (Gilman 1892). All this attempts to infantilize and treat the narrator like a child (Gilman 1892). The cultural setting builds on the historical understanding that woman are inadequate and have extensive inadequacies.
The Yellow Wallpaper depicts the subordination of women. The story reveals that gender discrimination occurs because of patriarchal social norms and structures. This subordination is extending the mental imbalance and psychological pain that most women face in society. The author evidence that the effect of subjecting women to discriminatory social norms is that women tend to remain in a childish state, manifesting ignorance and challenges in their personal development. The story assumes that John has superior wisdom and manifest maturity, which predisposes him to dominate his wife and make a wrong decision in the process. The woman does not have any say even in the least important factors of her life. Therefore, due to subordination, the woman extensively retreats into her obsession and fantasy.
References
Gilman, P. C. (1892). The Yellow Wallpaper.