Escape+into+the+Mind+The+Yellow+Wallpaper+and+A+Souvenir+of++Japan

=Introduction:=

"Be master of mind rather than mastered by mind." ~ Zen proverb "Limits exist only in the mind." ~ Anonymous

“A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes." ~ Mahatma Gandhi

What is the mind?
According to [|Webster's Dictionary] every organism that has healthy, normal mental capacities is in possession of "a mind." The dictionary describes the mind as "the conscious mental events and capabilities in an organism" or "the normal or healthy condition of the mental faculties." This definition, however, is too broad. Too generic. How can "the mind," the most mysterious and fragile of human organs, be considered nothing more than a collection of "conscious mental events?" Surely more explanation is needed. Doctors, for example, might consider the mind synonomous with [|the brain], which relays sensory information throughout the central nervous system and regulates such bodily functions as sleep, thirst, appetite and agression. Pshychologists might define the mind in a slightly different manner. [|Dr. Sigmund Freud], for example, credits the mind with housing the unconscious - those "hidden causes in the person's mind" that prompt behavior. Finally, artists might see the mind not as a physical or behavioral entity. For the artist, the mind stores the imagination. Novelist Joseph Conrad certainly takes this viewpoint, He asserts, “Imagination, not invention, is the supreme master of art as of life.”

What power the mind holds! As an organ, it can direct the daily breath and tingling nerves within one's body. As a warehouse for emotions, memories, and thoughts, it can hide one's deepest secrets, desires, and fears. As the creator of imagination, the mind can lead one into new realms of existance. The mind, it seems, is supremely powerful and beneficial. However, what happens when one dwells too much within the mind and becomes far removed from reality?

Angela Carter's "A Souvenir of Japan" and Charlotte Perkins Gilmore's "The Yellow Wallpaper" are two short stories that explore this question. Both stories feature female narrators who are forced to live in enclosed spaces. These narrators not only feel constrained by their male counterparts, a husband and a lover. The women also reveal a sense of isolation from society in general. To cope with this isolation, these narrators do not try to forcibly leave their locked worlds. Instead, the narrators of these short stories escape into their own minds.

Lonely. Misunderstood. Outsider. These are all ways one might describe the narrators of "A Souvenir of Japan" and "The Yellow Wallpaper." What is the true nature of these narrators' complicated minds? Read on. Explore. Escape, if you dare, into the mind...


 * This page was created by Erinn Bentley.**

"Mind." __Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary__. 2 February 2008. 
 * Works Cited:**

"The Brain" image can be found in The American Medical Association's article, "Atlas of the Body," found at http://www.medem.com/MedLB/article_detaillb.cfm?article_ID=ZZZ0ZFP46JC&sub_cat=75