Women's Literary Expression in America
             Women offer a needed different perspective from men's writing. Women authors offer a voice for women that couldn't be heard for many years. Specific authors like Sylvia Plath and Toni Morrison are more modern authors. Plath was a leader in the 1950's and paved the way for the women's liberal movement of the 1960's. She spoke bluntly and openly about her depression, contempt for her father and husband, and attempted suicides. Toni Morrison is a strong African American voice. Not only does she speak positively for women in general, but also she can speak specifically to black women. There are certainly themes to women's writing throughout the changing years. Gilman and fellow authors of her time discussed the so-called "nervous condition" that was labeled on women frequently in the late 1800's and early 1900's. In the 1950's Sylvia Path was an honest voice for her generation that was rare.
             When women were first able to start printing their own literature, they wrote about what they knew. The mostly knew about domestic things such as having babies and life on the farm.
             A strange amount of female authors suffered from, what they called at the time, the nervous condition. Edith Wharton, in 1899, was recovering from her nervous condition. She sought the rest cure treatment from Dr. S Weir Mitchell, which was very popular (Cahill 9). Wharton then went on the write many well-known novels. Another author who suffered from the so-called nervous syndrome was Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Dr. Mitchell also prescribed her the rest cure. This rest cure seemed to cause more problems then the patient had before. Gilman dramatizes the situation in her story "The Yellow Wall Paper." It is about a women being treated using the rest cure, and it makes her crazy. In Elaine Showalter's words "the yellow wall pap...