The Yellow Wallpaper And The Boat By Alistair Macleod

Art and literature are the foundation of life. Long before Netflix and social media existed, people used books to entertain themselves. Mason Cooley said “reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are”. Even in 21st century, the age of technology, people use books as a source of entertainment and writing as a form of self-expression. Books and reading in general has many benefits like mental stimulation, gaining knowledge and much more. The function of books, reading and writing is further highlighted in “The Yellow wallpaper” and “The Boat”. “The Yellow wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “The Boat” by Alistair Macleod tells the story of two families, their struggles and how they cope with daily problems. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator is suffering from postpartum depression, and her husband John who is also her …show more content…
They are a source of self-expression for both characters. The books provides the father intellect, excitement, imagination and a temporary escape, whereas the diary allows the narrator to have an opinion and voice of her own. Both the narrator and the father use books and diary to rebel against reality and resist the struggles in their lives. However their resistance is limited, and it eventually lead them to their doom. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator begins to write erratically in her dairy as she begins to lose control of herself. These erratic entries highlights the narrator’s descend into madness. In “The Boat”, the author foreshadows father’s ultimate doom by referring to father as “our Ernest Hemingway”, a well-known writer, who eventually ends his life through suicide. This implies like Hemingway, father would end his life through suicide. At the end of the story, both characters are freed. Father’s books liberated him and freed him from responsibilities and life bound to the sea, whereas the narrator’s diary, freed her