Embedded Files
Essential Question:
Essential Question:
Whose stories are told and privileged and how does this impact our understanding of what it means to be an American?
Whose stories are told and privileged and how does this impact our understanding of what it means to be an American?
Short Story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1892
Guiding Question: How does the portrayal of the main character in “The Yellow Wallpaper” compare with the way women are depicted in The Great Gatsby?
Access Recommendation: This short story should be printed out for students so that they can annotate as they read. The teacher could conduct a read aloud or play the audiobook. It would be best if the teacher stops periodically to ask questions and help the students understand the text.
Annotation: “The Yellow Wallpaper” was written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1892 and is widely considered one of the first pieces of feminist writing. It depicts the deterioration of a young woman’s mental health as she remains confined to the bedroom of a vacation estate house. The short story raises questions of women’s autonomy and self-identity as the narrator is infantilized by her husband (who is also her doctor) and prevented from doing anything that would stimulate her mind, such as writing and visiting with friends. This story is indicative of the way women were treated at the time of The Great Gatsby.
19th Amendment: ‘A Start, Not a Finish’ for Suffrage
6 minute video by National Public Radio (NPR)
Guiding Question: How does the intersection of one’s multiple identities give a more complete picture of American identity and inform the concept of the American Dream?
Access Recommendation: This 6-minute video by NPR is easily accessible for students to watch on their own but would benefit from a class discussion both before and after the video.
Annotation: Women were given the right to vote in 1920 by the passage of the 19th Amendment but this history is often told in a way that makes heroines out of people like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. These white women, among others, actually used women’s suffrage to support white supremacy rather than uniting with Black women to fight for suffrage for all. This 6-minute video gives a succinct explanation of this history and also explains how although African Americans technically had the right to vote after the 15th and 19th Amendments, both were effectively disenfranchised for years following the 19th Amendment due to racist Jim Crow laws, violence and lynchings. The video also explains how Native Americans and Asian Americans were disenfranchised as well, ultimately referencing issues with voting rights up until today.
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