The Relationship Between Culture and Individuals.
Everyday people collide with their culture and values that have been set for them. In these two texts," The Yellow Wallpaper" and "Desiree's Baby", things are just the same. There were expectations and values set by society. In some cases they were followed and in other cases they were deviated and people followed their own set of rules. The narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" and Desiree from "Desiree's Baby" chose to do what they felt was in their best interest after encountering the situations that society put them through. In these two texts I will compare and contrast the argument between culture expectations, individuals who follow them, those who rebel against them, and the reactions they cause.
In these two texts cultural expectations are somewhat similar. In both of these stories women are expected to be submissive to their husbands. In the story "The Yellow Wallpaper" the narrator falls into submission when she allows her husband to control her thoughts. "If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression-a slight hysterical tendency-what is one to do"(92). She has accepted the fact that she is going through a temporary nervous depression, but she allows her husband to control her by telling her what he thinks is good for her. Yes, he is a physician and may know what is good for her, but he keeps her confined up in a room that she seems to not like. She continues to show compliance even after she tells her husband that she does not like the room. Instead he gives her a reason not to switch rooms and she accepts. He tells her other things like when she can rest, when she can and cannot write, which she likes to do, and also when she can go outside for fresh air. And she follows the rules only because it is expected of her.