Appleman Chapter 5

A Lens of One's Own: Of Yellow Wallpaper and Beautiful Little Fools.



I like the idea of incorporating theory into the classroom. I think that it is an excellent thing to do besides a reader-response theory. It is important for students to interpret individual characters. By giving the students the proper lens to do so, a better understanding of literature and society is achieved. Promoting students to think outside the box and opening their eyes to the truth about American society is extremely important. This is one of the things that I am looking forward to in teaching english. With America in such turmoil as it is, we need our younger generations to consider what is happening and how to change.
Much like the quote that Todd has by Einstein "The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it. "
By using theory students can look analytically at novels and achieve a better understanding of what that novel is doing, or its importance. Also, thinking critically is something we should teach at a young[er] age. "Theory helps us recognize the essentail quality of other visions: how they shape and inform the way we read texts, how we respond to others, how we live our lives. Theory makes the invisible visible, the usaid said" (75).
Incorporating feminist theory into the classroom, we are opening the eyes and minds of students. The patriachy society that we live in has undermined women, and this is evident through literature. Appleman wants her students to use the lens of feminism by...
[1] how students view female characters and [2] appraise the author's stance towards those characters... [3] how students evaluate the significance of the gender of the author in terms of its influence on a particular work... [4] how students read the gendered patterns in the world."
This ease into a classroom is essential because consideration of how the student has been raised is important to consider. Some students may be completely niave to this idea, while others ready to learn more. Feminists are often viewed as hard headed man haters. I think that the activities 11 and 12 allow are a great strategy to introduce feminist theory. I especially enjoy the poem by Pedro Eisto that she uses. The responses that the students gave were great.
The students have already done a Marxist theory on Hamlet. I like the idea of going back to Hamlet to now use a Feminist one. I think that this will allow the students to understand how to apply theory seeing that they already did with Marxist- the responses were obviously successful.
I like the activity she uses, "can you think of anything that has happened to you or to a friend of yours in the past 2 weeks that could be better explained through a feminist lens"
The first response literally made me laugh out loud.
"One must question what kind of ideas this plants in the head of an impressionable 10-year-old: Stupid women are fun to watch. I shudder for the future" (91). On her sister watching Miss USA.
How true this comment is! I watch the Bachelor. It's wonderfully trashy, the women are portrayed as 'stupid,' and ready to do anything for this block headed, rich hottie. It's a great way to see how women are actually often portrayed in the media and literature. I think that developing an excercise using an add or television show could also help in introducing feminist theory.