Charlotte Perkins Gilman does a remarkable job letting readers get inside the head of her unnamed main character in “The Yellow Wallpaper” giving us a taste of the female psyche, in particular showing how some women are so heavily influenced by the treatment of the middle class wife and her submissive role. Alternatively, Nick Hornby does something altogether similar with “High Fidelity”, introducing us to Rob Fleming, whose male psyche reveals, among other things, how some men judge themselves based on the societal image of a successful, dominant man. Rob Fleming, however, proves to be the exact opposite of the idealized image of a man, and possesses a rather feminine psyche. In the paragraphs that follow, I will attempt to compare and contrast
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This alone has an immense impact on the male psyche. In the past, during times of kings ruling, and the start of religions which only has male gods, and when patrilineal beliefs first began, there was one correct way to be a man. In the journal “Men, Masculinity, and Manhood Acts” by Douglas Schrock and Michael Schwalbe, they write about societies idealized image of a man. “For an individual to enjoy the benefits that derive form membership in the dominant gender group, he must present himself to others as a particular king of social being: a man.” (Schrock and Schwalbe 279) When males are born into a role of such with such heavy dependence on success, sometimes if a man falls short, he does not see himself as a true man; which in turn gives such a male such a poor belief in his own male psyche. This holds to be the case in Nick Hornby’s fiction novel, “High Fidelity”. Unlike Gilman in “The Yellow Wallpaper” Hornby writes of a main character, Rob Fleming that proves to be rather opposite of the typically male psyche, in that he does not believe that he is the dominant or that he is successful. Rob Fleming, suffers from constant fear that he does not have enough success or dominance to be considered what society deems a man. In Hornby’s novel, he writes, “When I walk into the …show more content…
Male and female psyches are generally thought to be parallel opposites in the fact that men are dominant and females are submissive; however, they can now be thought of as somewhat similar in the fact that both psyches and genders, have idealized images placed upon them, and that these stereotypes do not have to hold people back. Society always has, and always will have a strong influence on how people live their lives, but society should not have complete
This alone has an immense impact on the male psyche. In the past, during times of kings ruling, and the start of religions which only has male gods, and when patrilineal beliefs first began, there was one correct way to be a man. In the journal “Men, Masculinity, and Manhood Acts” by Douglas Schrock and Michael Schwalbe, they write about societies idealized image of a man. “For an individual to enjoy the benefits that derive form membership in the dominant gender group, he must present himself to others as a particular king of social being: a man.” (Schrock and Schwalbe 279) When males are born into a role of such with such heavy dependence on success, sometimes if a man falls short, he does not see himself as a true man; which in turn gives such a male such a poor belief in his own male psyche. This holds to be the case in Nick Hornby’s fiction novel, “High Fidelity”. Unlike Gilman in “The Yellow Wallpaper” Hornby writes of a main character, Rob Fleming that proves to be rather opposite of the typically male psyche, in that he does not believe that he is the dominant or that he is successful. Rob Fleming, suffers from constant fear that he does not have enough success or dominance to be considered what society deems a man. In Hornby’s novel, he writes, “When I walk into the …show more content…
Male and female psyches are generally thought to be parallel opposites in the fact that men are dominant and females are submissive; however, they can now be thought of as somewhat similar in the fact that both psyches and genders, have idealized images placed upon them, and that these stereotypes do not have to hold people back. Society always has, and always will have a strong influence on how people live their lives, but society should not have complete