Assignment: Answer the following questions about "The Yellow Wallpaper (submit these WITH your essay):

Brainstorming Questions

1. What is the story's major conflict? Is it a struggle within a person, between people, or between a person and a culture or environment? What minor conflicts occur?

2. What complications do characters face as the plot unfolds?

3. Who is the protagonist (main character)? Are there multiple main characters? Does the protagonist face an antagonist (an opponent)?

4. What are the most important characteristics of the main characters? What defines their personalities? What motivates them?

5. Who are the minor characters? What purpose do they serve in the story?

6. Which characters are round (well developed), and which, if any, are flat (one-dimensional)?

7. Which characters are dynamic (growing and changing) and which are static (remaining unchanged)?

8. Does the author show any bias or sympathy to one or more characters?

9. Is the narrator a character in the story using first-person language ("I") or a nonparticipant using third person ("she," "he," "it," "they")? Or is the point of view from the second person ("you")?

10. Is the narrator a character in the story using first-person language ("I") or a nonparticipant using third person ("she," "he," "it," "they")? Or is the point of view from the second person ("you")?