Lauren Pope
It’s
God’s Nature
The readings “The Birthmark,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne,
“The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “I Wandered Lonely as a
Cloud,” by William Wordsworth and Zen Meditation on campus, all deal with seeing
beauty in God’s gifts. “The Birthmark,’’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne presents a
character, Aylmer, who cannot see past the small, rose-colored birthmark that
sits upon his wife’s check and presses her to allow him to remove it. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins
Gilman, once again, a husband has trouble noticing the positives in his wife’s
condition and tries too hard to keep her in good spirits. William Wordsworth’s poem “I Wandered Lonely
as a Cloud,” portrays a man who can notice the beauty in nature as he takes a
stroll through his memories. Zen
Meditation ties into all the readings because while meditating you keep open
ears to the sounds created by nature and have an appreciation for all living
things. Some of us in the world have
trouble seeing the beauty in God’s creation, whether it is in nature or in
human beings, science seems to get in the way of our appreciation.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman in her
short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” portrays a man who takes care of his wife
who suffers from “nervous depression.” After being diagnosed, he moves her
to a house upstate for the summer to “help” her condition. What her husband fails to realize is that he
is only making her condition worse by not allowing her to do what would
actually make her happy. Instead of loving and nurturing her, she feels as
though he belittles her thoughts, concerns and illness. In the new house the
narrator begins to write a journal where she speaks about how beautiful and
grandeur the house is, but at the same time describes it as an aristocratic
estate or a haunted house. As the story goes on we notice the narrator growing
more and more anxious about the yellow wallpaper and states seeing women coming
out of the wallpaper. “I wonder if they all come out of that wallpaper as I did!”
(Gilman 398). All along her husband
fails to notice that what he is doing to her, by keeping her in her room, is
only hurting her and causing her to grow more insane. It would’ve helped if he
had allowed her to go outside, enjoy nature and show her some affection.
In
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “The
Birthmark,” he writes about a husband who has a love for science and
experimenting with things that are revolutionary for his time. Instead of appreciating his wife’s beauty, he
has trouble holding back the wonder in his mind and asks if he may remove that
mark on her face. “Has it never occurred to you that the mark upon your check
might be removed?” (Hawthorne 467). After questioning his wife she gets upset and
feels that she has to let him do what he wants in order for him to love
her. With his efforts to remove her
birthmark he manages to also take her life.
Instead of appreciating her beauty and uniqueness given to her by God,
he wants to make her perfect and winds up killing the thing that makes him most
happy.
The poem “I Wandered Lonely as a
Cloud,” by William Wordsworth talks about a man who finds great love and
appreciation for nature. This scene of
daffodils next to a great lake has become embedded in his mind so whenever he
is feeling “vacant” or “pensive” it pops up and makes him feel bliss and
solitude. Zen meditation would tie into
this poem because when meditating one must create a blissful picture to keep
serenity. One must remain still for a
given amount of time and in order to do so one must go to a place that creates
peace and will help them remain calm.
For me I thought of a place like the poem talks about, appreciating Gods
creation in nature. It made me
appreciate everything that I have been given in my life and all God has
provided for me.
“The Birthmark,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The
Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,”
by William Wordsworth and Zen Meditation on campus all ties into appreciating
the beauty around us. Within each we
find the characters and myself finding love for others and nature. It takes a lot for someone to realize the
beauty in other’s and nature, especially when ideas of science block our thanks
for God.
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