Binary Oppositions
Opposition Significance
Public Garden/ War The garden represent life and
Monument fertility or femininity in
contrast with the war
monument that illustrates
death and war or masculinity;
also gardens can represent
nature and man-made.
Gardens/ Sea The garden represent land
and man-made nature,
whereas the sea is pure
nature - humans cannot
control or manipulate the sea
(the sea is rough and forever
changing). The garden
however is manicured by
gardeners to fit humans
satisfaction and because of
human’s intervention the
garden is unable to bloom
differently because gardeners
control what plant is grown
for example.
Cafe/ empty square The cafe embodies the life
and warmth of love and
kindred. It protects the people
inside from the rain (
boredom, sadness or
fertility?) The cafe is energy,
the warmth of the beverage
warms the heart and fulfills
your desires; however it could
also be a drug to persuade
Relation to the rest of the story
The relation is that the public
garden links with the amercian
wife’s behavior, how she wants a
peaceful life and find fulfillment in
her wishes - similarly to how
nature beautiful like her, however
also craves for more, like wanting
to grow and grow without humans
manicuring its foliage; this
correlates with how the wife
doesn’t want his husband
controlling her life and want what
she wanted.
The garden can be an example of
the american wife, because how
the plants in the garden is confined
in a prison of humans making (
cannot grow to its full growth) -
similar to the wife’s feelings where
she feels she is imprisoned by his
husband, she can’t do what she
wishes for; however ironically the
husband lets her roam free and
financially support her, but yet so
far from her dreams. The sea can
represent the masculinity - how
man can do whatever they want
and be uncontrolled in those days,
where females cannot do have
their own free will and be owned
by a man to have power.
This can relate to how the cafe is
protection from the rain; also the
cafe is where padrone and the
maid is - the padrone is special to
the amercian wife, therefore is like
a break from her mundane life with
her husband. The empty square
empties her hopes from getting a
cat because it stops her from
going outside to find a cat. The
 you go inside and have a
drink and never leave - this
could make you unable to
experience good things
outside of the cafe (e.g.
sports, sightseeing etc). The
empty square suggest the
sadness, the absence of life
energy and joyfulness. The
square is a place for meeting
with other people and
friendship; now that it is
empty because of the rain the
square has lost its friends.
Bronze/ Rain The bronze represent the
man-made and hardness -
unbendable not very flexible.
Bronze is dead and hard,
whereas the rain is fertile and
transparent with liquid
texture. This represents the
sternness of the bronze and
flexibility of the water in
contrast.
Good weather/ Bad weather The good weather represent
outside and the freedom of
life - the good weather
illustrates the idea of
happiness and hope.The bad
weather represent absence of
people and sadness - where
people all hide away from the
weather.
empty square with rain also
creates a feeling that they she has
to stay inside near her husband
instead of exploring the outside
world and experience italy by
herself.
This can relate to how the bronze
dead and still, similarly to how the
american wife is want physical
things - instead of wanting things
that can last longer and
everchanging like rain.
The good weather symbolises
break-out-of-jail-free-card for the
wife because she can leave the
husband and venture on her own
out in Italy, and go out to the sea
that she sees so much outside her
hotel window. The bad weather
symbolises the restriction where
she cannot go outside and have to
stay inside and how she has to be
with her husband all the time and
be inside, unable to explore