Pub #3: Oppression in The Yellow Wallpaper

            Oppression can make even the strongest of people collapse under its overpowering weight.  The profound Martin Luther King Jr. stated, “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”  This quote is of great significance because it references two very opposing sides to humanity.  On one side is the oppressor, the single person or, more commonly, the group of people that believe, and act on their beliefs, certain groups should be subject to cruel or unjust treatment.  The oppressor controls but does not ask for that power, they take it through force.  The other group is the oppressed, the ones with their heads being pushed under the water so the oppressor can swim just a little higher.  The oppressed did not ask or volunteer to be in their position but were coerced into the perceived lower tier of people.  The oppressed are submerged under a continuous bombardment of suppression by their attacker.  Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to those who were unable to keep their head above water, lost in an ocean of abuse.  He was letting them know that they have to push up against the hand holding them under until their lungs fill with the fresh air of freedom.

            Charlotte Perkins Gillman shows a great example of oppression in her short story “The Yellow Wallpaper.”  The protagonist in the story is forced to spend most of her time on bed rest and is not allowed to do much of anything for herself.  This is due to her suffering from nervous depression after giving birth to her child.  This woman is not allowed write, which to her is of very high importance because that is how she expresses herself.  She is silenced under the caring oppression of her husband.  As a result of her husband not taking her seriously, because he believes he knows best, she is forced to keep most of her thoughts to herself.  She lets the reader know this when she says, “John doesn’t know how much I really suffer.  He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him” (Perkins Gillman 317).  She is unable to express her true thoughts because her words would not carry the weight that they would if they were spoken by a man.  She is being silenced by the very man she loves the most.

            Forms of oppression can be found in many other areas of literature.  One example is the movie Watchmen (2009) directed by Zach Snyder.  In the movie masked heroes are outlawed.  This is due to the passing of the Keene Act which was a national law that prohibited “costumed adventuring” because of the way the vigilantes punished criminals.  All heroes retired, hung up their costumes and were forced to turn their back on their crime fighting days.  All but one, one vigilante who claimed himself Rorschach would not let go of fighting for justice just because the law tells him he cannot.  To show that he will not be oppressed, even by the United States government, he left the dead body of a rapist outside a New York City police precinct with a note, on it was his symbolized signature and the word “never.”  Rorschach did not stop vigilantism despite the government passing a law; he did whatever he had to do to continue on his path of justice.  Not one person should ever be silenced.  Freedom is a right that everyone deserves and no one has the right to take away.