"Oppression" Short Story Response to Freedom

Throughout history, the desire for freedom has been the cause of many wars and battles. There is the need humanity has to be free to think and express what they feel. Unfortunately, not everyone has this choice because of the people and the government suppressing them. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” People all over the world today and throughout history have united and taken a stand for the right to express themselves freely. Today there are revolutions breaking out all over because the oppressed are demanding their freedom.

Freedom is something that can be taken for granted and you don’t realize its impact till it’s all gone. In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, freedom is taken from a woman by her husband. The young woman had just given birth to a baby when she began suffering from temporary nervous depression. Right away she was prescribed “REST”. With this one word she had lost her freedom. She was not allowed to do anything on her own. Everything she did was watched and she was stuck in this room with wallpaper that drove her crazy. When she asked her husband to change it he said he would not. The freedom to go outside and talk to others where all stripped away from her. This was all because she didn’t demand freedom. Instead, she allowed her husband to suppress her. This all led to a mental breaking point where she projected herself into the wall paper. The paper trapped her and she needed to escape it. She believed that she had come from the paper and she feared that she would be put back. The women said, “I’ve got out at last, in spite of you and Jane. And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!” (Gilman 328). The freedom that she was stripped of drove her over the edge until she took control of her life and once again demanded it.

Freedom is made possible through people fighting for a united goal. In the novel The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins the world is controlled by the capital. The world had been split up into thirteen districts but only twelve remain. This is because the Thirteenth district started a revolution that the capital crushed which destroyed the district. This revolution was the reason the Hunger Games were created. Katniss, a tribute from district twelve, challenges the capital with her fellow tribute, Peeta. They challenge the authority of the capital in front on the entire nation and win freedom for the both of them. They both united together even though they knew the possible consequences of the actions. They stood up to their oppressors and demanded their freedom and got it.