Short Stories of

Male Child and

The Yellow
Wallpaper
BY: NUR DIYANAH FARZANA BT SHUKUR
Synopsis of Male Child by Catherine Lim

MALE CHILD

Male Child Short Stories tells the story of the selfishness of a husband and a
father of wanting a male child. But his unfulfilled desire for a son led him to
believe that he was under a curse because of his past sins. As such, his attitude is
from a caring husband and a successful business man who takes care of his wife
and six pregnant children to a man who beats his wife and a husband who
doesn’t care about the wife’s condition. Plus, his wife is also the one who had to
suffer giving birth to so many baby girls and the husband is still not satisfied with
what has taken place. He continues to deny the fact that he will never have a son
no matter what he hopes his wife will give birth to.
 Synopsis of The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte
Perkins Gilman
THE YELLOW WALLPAPER

The Yellow Wallpaper tells the story of the gradual deterioration of mental health
by a woman who is also a narrator in this short story while she is resting on a
rented summer farm with her family.The problem faced by this narrator is that it
involves her obsession with yellow wallpaper in her bedroom. This also indicates
that her offspring became psychotic from her depression throughout the story.

The narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” has begun with her move to a beautiful
farm for the summer. Her husband, John, who is also her doctor, was involved in
helping the narrator overcome his "illness", which he described as nervous
depression, or anxiety, after the birth of their baby. John's sister, Jennie, also lives
with them and works as their housewife.
 Synopsis of The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte
Perkins Gilman
THE YELLOW WALLPAPER

While her husband is confident she will get better by relaxing and by not worrying
about anything, the narrator has an active imagination and loves to write. Then,
the narrator and her husband move into a large room that has ugly yellow
wallpaper that is criticized by the narrator. She asked her husband if they could
change rooms and move downstairs, and he refused.

After hosting the family, the narrator expressed worse feelings and fatigue. John
urges her to rest more, and the narrator hides her writing from him because he
disagrees. Each days, the narrators looked like crazy with yellow wallpaper. She
slept all day and stayed up all night to stare at it, believing that it was alive, and it
pattern changed and moved. Later, she began to believe that there was a woman
in the wallpaper who changed the pattern and observed it.
 Synopsis of The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte
Perkins Gilman
THE YELLOW WALLPAPER

A few weeks before their departure, John spent the night in town and the narrator
wanted to sleep alone in the room so he could stare at the wallpaper without
interruption. He locks Jennie in and believes he can see the woman in the
wallpaper. John returned and in a panic tried to let him go, and the narrator
refused. John was able to enter the room and found the narrator crawling on the
floor. He claims that the woman in the wallpaper finally came out, and John
fainted, much to his surprise.
 Multicultural
Element in the
Male Child and The
Yellow Wallpaper
 Types of Elements

01 02
Social Issues Family

04
Relationship

03 05
Value SYstem

Gender Issues
Belief System
 01
SOCIAL ISSUES
 Male Child
Prostitution
● Men went to the whore-house to fulfil
their desires, young women were
being exploit as sexual object. This can
be seen in Male Child (page 41) when
Chuan Poon was accepting the
invitation from Ah Bah to drink some
beer at the whore house.
Infidelity
● Chuan Poon is cheating on his
wife. He having an affair with the
woman that he found at the whore
house as he always thinking that
she is the only one that can satisfy
his lust.
 The Yellow Wallpaper
❖ From the story, the narrator
complains that her husband,
John, who is also her doctor,
belittles both her illness and her
thoughts plus concerns in
general.
Social Repression ❖ The narrator is a depressed woman
who cannot handle being alone
and retreats into her own
delusions as opposed to accepting
her reality.
 02
Family
Relationship
 Male Child
1) A father's hatred of his
wife and daughter
● It is because his dream of having a
son was unfulfilled. For example:
Chuan Poon has distances himself
from the family. He forgets what
being a father is all about, as seen
in the story (page 42, paragraph 2)
2) An unhealthy relationship
between husband and wife
● Chuan Poon loves his wife
but he ended up cheating
with a young beautiful lady
who is the nephew of the 50
years old lady from the
brothel.
 The Yellow Wallpaper
Relationship
Between Mother
and Child

The narrator is nervous to meet her baby because of her

illness- She left her baby with a nanny. She is not being
able to raise her own babies because of her condition.She
wanted to get better but her condition become more
worsen.
 03
Gender Issues
 Male Child

Gender bias Ignorance towards

Chuan want a son because women’s feelings
daughters cannot inherit his
In The Male Child, Chuan does not care
wealth. Instead of being happy
about his wife feeling if she happens to
having many daughters, Chuan
find out that Chuan is having fun with
feel sad that he does not have a
another woman at the whore-house.
son. (page 40, paragraph 4)
 The Yellow Wallpaper

● Women were rarely seen

Second Class working outside the house,
Citizen and those who did were
looked down by society.

● While their spouse worked

● They are not given the
outside the home, a
chance to pursue their
woman's role was to have
dreams like men do.
children and manage the
family.
 04
VALUE SYSTEMS
 Male Child

Disrespecting of other
Lack of loyalty
people
People tend to be ungrateful: Chuan
Some people have this thinking that
forget how his wife is so loyal to
they are better and more valid than
him, he want another woman to
others. For example, Chuan felt that
only what he wanted matters without entertain him with excuse that he
even thinking about his family. wants a son.
 The Yellow Wallpaper
John was very loyal to his wife
even though she was being sick,
For example, she said to John
that he loves her very much and
also hates to see her being sick.

Loyalty John also carried her to upstairs and

laid her down in order to make her wife
felt better by showing his efforts
towards her.
 05
BELIEF SYSTEMS
 Male Child
Belief in Karma
Chuan believed the reason
behind he does not have any
son is because of what he did
before (sin that he committed
back then
Believe in God and
superstitious.
Chuan believes about God and
superstitious. For example, in
this story, Chuan had gone to
the temple with his wife to offer
prayer during the festival of
Nine Gods.
 The Yellow Wallpaper

Both of them have a strong belief about

Strong belief in the patricial hierarchy and also
applying in their lives. This is the
patricial hierarchy reason why they think that their
opinion and point of view are matters
and not willing to listen to other
person, women in particular.

For example, her husband doesn’t

believe in the power of expressing
feelings. He thought that it’s
better to rest rather than
expressing it.
THANK
YOU!