Weekly Synthesis No. 2

The entirety of week two has been dedicated to the theme of conflict. It started with the innocent titled of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” but ideas of cheery housewives and smiley rooms faded as the story revealed the struggle of the post-partum mother against her husband’s almost sadistic order of rest and the insanity caused by the yellow wallpaper.  The same author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, wrote Herland, the piece showing three distinct male character who stumbled into the land of women, the ideals of womanhood clashing upon their entrance. After these stories were in circulation, World War I began shortly after. To make of WWI’s sheer brutality, Americans used the ideals of democracy destroying autocracy to justify the worldwide conflict, especially when America itself became involved in the meaningless war. Woodrow Wilson’s crusade to make the world safe for democracy was in full flight during the war and it included his brainchild, the League of Nations, which would ensure peaceful diplomacy to end international conflict. After the belligerence of the war fizzled to a drained stop, peace settled unsteadily over Europe, the Versailles Peace Treaty forcing unhappy compromises, such as the reparation statement for Germany; though Germany was alienated, Wilson consented to most compromises in return that the European powers joined the League of Nations. However, Congress did not allow the U.S.A. to join the League of Nations, effectively killing the international peace group before it even started. In the USA, affairs seemed to progress similarly, there were nationwide strikes regarding low wages and high prices and many returning veterans found only massive unemployment waiting for them. Some veterans, like Earnest Hemmingway, stayed in Europe, distancing themselves from the USA; they became writers and their works, such as Hemmingway’s The Sun Also Rises and his short story collections, exemplified the hardships of veterans that coped with trauma, physical injuries, and the emotional drama accompanying their daily lives. Back in the U.S.A., life progressed without the expropriates, and soon Harding was elected to office, prompting America to return to normalcy by shedding the burden of conflict, societal change, and international affairs in exchange for prosperity with business. Conflict reigned, tying these thoughts together succinctly and completely.