Barn Burning

This story is about a family who moves a lot, because the father and older brother burn the barns of the farms they are working at. There is a Justice of the Peace in every town who bans them from the town. One day they go work at a rich man's house, the father upsets the family by walking on the runner with dirty boots. When the father and older brother go to burn the barn, the little brother runs and tells the farmer. The farmer kills the father and older brother. The little brother runs away.

This story is about disloyalty, distrust, and lying in relationships. The father and older brother do not establish a firm relationship with their employers or within the family itself. It is sad to say that the little brother knew more of that.

Sweat

This story is about a lady named Delia. She is married to Sykes, who obviously abuses her in the story. She is hard working and any money she earns Sykes uses it to spend on the woman he is having an affair with. He gets a snake and uses it against Delia, because she is afraid of it. He thinks it will get her to leave the house. So one day she went running out of the house when he saw it. He went in and was bit by the snake. She sat under the window and listened to him die.

I think this story is definitely about spousal abuse or abuse to woman in general. The amount of male dominance that one can have on a female. Sykes is a representation with the devil, because the snake closely resembles the snake from the Bible in the Garden of Eden.

Paul's Case

The story is about a boy who is stuck in a fantasy land. He is not pleased with the life he is living and wants more out of it. He works at Carnegie Hall and enjoys doing that because the music soothes him and helps him escape reality. He lives at home with his father and siblings, because his mother has passed away. He starts stealing money from his work and then decides to go to New York. After all the money is gone he realizes that the only place to go is home, but instead he kills himself by jumping in from of a train.

I think that depression is a very important theme. The death of his mother seems to be a big factor. Also the monotonous life that he lives. This story also deals with the issue of class. Paul seems to know that he does not want to live the life of a poor man. He wants to have luxury and an easy lifestyle, but the problem is that he cannot grasp the concept that you have to work for that sort of life. He wants it now and nothing will stop him.

The Yellow Wallpaper

This story is about a woman who is suffering from depression; however, her husband does not think she is. They moved into this house temporarily so that their other house could be fixed or something like that. She is supposed to stay home and get better while her husband goes to work. She writes while he is away, because he does not want her to. Slowly the reader sees her go through the depression, until she thinks that their are woman in the wallpaper. At the end she goes insane thinking she was in the wallpaper and got out.

This definitely is a story of self reflection. She needed to identify the wallpaper with something, so she identifies it with a human, then a woman, and finally herself. The story also deals with the subordination of woman. The husband does not take into consideration what the wife says she is feeling or what she thinks she has. He is right and that is all there is to it.