Institutional Lies (paper)

The main objective of an oppressor is to emanate a strong sense of power and dominance. The theme of manipulation is clearly demonstrated in The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gillman and Hills Like White Elephants, by Ernest Hemmingway. In both literary pieces, the oppressor skillfully manipulates the oppressed until the exploited eventually begins to perpetuate their own oppression. This theme is also portrayed in the song The Blacker the Berry by Grammy award-winning rapper Kendrick Lamar. When individuals become so brainwashed by oppression it often leads to their downfall, like the woman in The Yellow Wallpaper, Jig from Hills Like White Elephants, and the African American race demonstrated in Kendrick Lamar’s music. 

            It is clear that the wife in The Yellow Wallpaper is manipulated by her husband, John. John convinces his wife into thinking that domestic tasks such as cooking, cleaning, and childcare are her responsibilities since she is a woman. When she is unable to accomplish these tasks, she is labeled psychotic and is sent away by her husband to live in isolation. The woman begins to succumb to John’s covert oppression and begins to see herself as unstable just as John had flawlessly intended. Over time, the demeaning phrases John uses toward his wife, like “bless her little heart” or “What is it little girl”(Gillman 322) begin to make her feel objectified and she starts to believe that she truly is inferior to her husband. John’s constant manipulation makes his wife lose grip on reality. She starts to envision a woman trapped behind the wallpaper in her room and she effortlessly tries to free her while John is away. It is no longer John who is pointing out her instability; she is doing it to herself. While obsessing over the woman behind the wallpaper she states, “as soon as it was moonlight and that poor thing began to crawl and shake the pattern, I got up and ran to help her” (Gillman 326). This manipulation and exploitation has crept so far back into the woman’s subconscious that she starts to believe that she really is as crazy as John claims. This new discovery causes her to perpetuate her “illness.” By the end of Gillman’s short story, the main character has gone absolutely mad and is unable to grasp reality. John successfully oppressed her to the point that she began to perpetuate her own oppression.

            Ernest Hemmingway conveys the same theme of manipulation in his short story, Hills Like White Elephants. Hemmingway depicts a man and a woman, with no signs of being married, discussing whether or not the woman should abort her pregnancy. Throughout the story, the man portrays himself as more intelligent than the woman, Jig. This is done to make her feel incompetent to make such a tough decision. He does this by over simplifying the procedure to make her feel like she is overthinking her choice. He states, “It’s really not anything. It’s just to let the air in” (Hemmingway 115). He is also seen as superior to her when she relies on him to translate Spanish for her. Just like John in The Yellow Wallpaper, the man in Hemmingway’s piece has a patronizing undertone when he speaks to Jig. The man uses repetition throughout the piece as if to insinuate that she does not understand the situation. He repeats that the procedure is “perfectly simple” (Hemmingway 114), when that is not the case at all. The man also states multiple times that it is her decision whether or not to keep the baby, and again that is not true. It was not until 1973, that women had full rights to their body. Through the man’s persistence on aborting the baby and undermining Jig’s intelligence, he is able to manipulate her until she finally allows him to make the decision for her. She begins to believe all of his lies and ultimately gives him control over her body, which is one of the most drastic forms of oppression.

            Fortunately, since these influential pieces of literature were published, women have acquired more rights in regards to their health and their body. However, the theme of manipulation leading to the perpetuation of ones own oppression is still prevalent for black people in America. Kendrick Lamar, a Grammy award-winning rapper born and raised in Compton, California, produced a song entitled The Blacker the Berry in 2015. The lyrics describe how this theme is impacting the African American race. Kendrick Lamar expresses how America has suppressed black people for centuries by covertly keeping them in ghettos and giving them fewer opportunities to progress. This manipulation has become so imbedded in the eyes of society that it has subconsciously became the norm. African Americans have been oppressed for so long that now they are beginning to perpetuate their own oppression. With lyrics such as, “It’s such a shame they may call me crazy They may say I suffer from schizophrenia or somethin’ But homie, you made me” (Lamar 2015). In this country, white people of power are so quick to call African Americans “thugs” or “delinquents” when they are the ones who have kept them down for so long. Kendrick also raps, “You sabotage my community, makin a killin. You made me a killer” (Lamar 2015) and “Institutionalized manipulation and lies reciprocation of freedom only live in your eyes You hate me don’t you” (Lamar 2015). Kendrick Lamar wants to open the eyes of African Americans who struggle like he did. His lyrics state, “Why did I weep when Treyvon Martin was in the streets when gang banging make me kill a nigga blacker than me Hypocrite!” (Lamar 2015). These poetic lyrics explain just how hypocritical it is that African Americans use the term “gangbang” so freely and treat it as an act that is accepted in their culture. Though accepted, it still contributes to so many fatalities, yet they wept when George Zimmerman killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Kendrick is trying to warn African Americans that they need to open their eyes to the unfair manipulation and break these unjust ideologies. Kendrick wants to see an end to his race perpetuating their own oppression.

            The theme of manipulation is apparent in the works of Gillman, Hemmingway, and Kendrick Lamar. When the oppressor manipulates, with such repetition and force, the one being exploited begins to make their own oppression. This theme has been clearly illustrated in The Yellow Wallpaper and Hills Like White Elephants by the way the men controlled the women through psychological warfare. In recent decades, women’s rights have flourished and our society has seen such an increase in respect for women. Kendrick Lamar is beginning to shed light on how this issue of manipulation is affecting African Americans in this country. Kendrick believes that the government, along with oppressed black individuals, need to make changes in order for African Americans to be respected individuals with equal rights and opportunities.