Fourth Page

 In the short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman the story is told in diary entries and they show that the main character is slowly descending into madness and it is getting worse with each entry. This foreshadowed by her increasing paranoia and obsession with the mysterious figure behind the pattern of the yellow wallpaper. As her mental breakdown worsens, the readers are given a window into the perception and treatment of mental illness in the late nineteenth century. The husband John tries to treat her but it only ends up aggravating the decline of her mental health. There is way to cure her that could work using the rest cure by Weir Mitchell. In, "The Swimmer" by John Cheever, the main character Neddy Merrill wants to swim home 8 miles by using his neighbors' swimming pools and during this a violent storm hits. Neddy's fixation on swimming across the county shows his tendency to live buried in delusion, finding pleasure while refusing to put up with pain and difficulty and also face his own problems. Knowing this, his afternoon of swimming stands in for an adult life of him repressing pain and chasing only pleasure, while having a vain and immature attitude that causes his life to become devolved and he can't even acknowledge it. I do not think he can be cured, as he seems to be too deep in his own delusions and is drowning in them. In, "Paul's Case" by Willa Cather, the main character is obviously Paul. Paul has problems with lying and gets expelled from his school by his teachers. Paul does not see the world as it is because he tends to look down on the people around him and he also knows that he does not fit in with the other kids. He does want companionship and friends however, he just does not know the way of going about it. He starts to lie about being friends with popular actors in order to gain attention from other people, but the people are not dumb and knows that he is clearly lying. Paul's condition can not be fixed because he unfortunately ends up committing suicide by the end after he spent all his money on shopping. 

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