Short Story Reading Habits

As I read The Yellow Wallpaper and Desiree’s Baby, I tried to channel my focus into specific diction used in the texts. Because the length of the text is exponentially shorter, the author must choose every word with conviction. I was much more inclined to read every word in both stories rather than skimming the page as I would normally do with larger texts. When I skim large texts, I am able to fill in the gaps of the specifics words that I bypassed. In short stories, however, the text is so brief that a line could change the entire plotline.

In Desiree’s Baby, I noticed the manner in which old Monsieur Aubingy was described and actually took the depiction of his character to mean something deeper. I did not think that Chopin would frivolously foil old Aubingy’s “easy-going and indulgent” attitude which made his slaves happy with Young Aubingy’s strict rule that stifled their gayness (Chopin 517). It seems as though every detail that is included in short stories have some meaningful significance. Chopin’s portrayal of the father’s kind demeanor to his slaves foreshadowed his love and acceptance of African Americans.

The Yellow Wallpaper was a much more complicated story that took a tremendous amount of attention and analysis. I re-read the last two pages of the story very slowly and still felt confused about what was actually taking place. Only through close reading did I discover that the narrator was suffering from post-partum depression. She briefly mentions that she “cannot be with [the baby]” because “it makes [her] so nervous” (Gilman 507). An important clue like that may have been easily missed in a longer text because it would not seem to hold the same import as it does in this ten page text.