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Symbolization through the Personification of Ordinary Objects

Charlotte Gilman emphasizes her main character's unique feelings in "The Yellow Wallpaper" by implementing an internal dialogue that effectively depicts this dramatically charged character's intimate experience as she drifts into a gradual state of insanity. As the readers of Gilman's story are allowed access into the inner psyche of this main character, the underlying theme of imagination over nature / reason emerges, thus making Gilman's story a perfect example of Romanticism. John Cheever's "The Enormous Radio", on the other hand, depicts a story themed around revealing the less than perfect world of an upper-middle-class couple despite their effort to appear perfect. Through a mystical "ugly gumwood cabinet" radio that allows the couple to overhear the private conversations of their neighbors, an element of abstraction is introduced that defines this story as one of fantasy (85). While Gilman and Cheever's stories are both geared towards strikingly different themes both authors' employ a similar method of personifying ordinary objects in order to use those objects as fictional devices to serve as symbols for the feelings and interactions of their main characters.

Gilman personifies ordinary objects in her story "The Yellow Wallpaper" to symbolize the suppressed feelings of her main character while also effectively developing her stance as a writer of Romanticism. Gilman personifies the "delicious garden" that is filled with "riotous old-fashioned flowers" which is a symbol of John's wife's desire to explore her imagination (360, 362). Although John's wife is innately drawn to imaginative forces, such as the knobs of her "big old bureau" and rooms with "roses all over the windows", these desires for an imaginative outlet are suppressed by John's "practical in the extreme" nature (359,362). The "repellent, almost revolting" wallpaper pattern that covers the nursery is a fictional device of Gilman's that serves to symbolize reason and the suppression / idleness that John's reason casts on his wife (361). John's wife writes in her journal, "I take pains to control myself - before him..." which describes her stifled feelings (360). While referring to the paper's pattern she writes that it "slaps you in the face, knocks you down, and tramples upon you" while also commenting that the "pattern strangles" which parallels the suppressed feelings that she experiences while living in John's world of reason that lacks an imaginational outlet (369). Lastly Gillman uses the woman in the pattern that "by daylight...is subdued, quiet" but "creeps in the moonlight" as a direct symbol of John's wife's imprisoned disposition as she drifts into insantity (369).

While Gilman personifies ordinary objects to symbolize elements of Romanticism, Cheever personifies ordinary objects in his story "The Enormous Radio" to symbolize the interactions of a New York couple as they struggle to live up to the expected norms attributed by their social class. The Westcott's "old..., sensitive, unpredictable" radio at the beginning of the story serves as a fictional device to symbolize the simple

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