To quote Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “I am glad my case is not serious! But these nervous troubles are dreadfully depressing. John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him” (Gilman 650).  The story of “The Yellow Wallpaper”, originally published in January of 1892, is told through the deteriorating mental state of a depressed woman. She describes her husband’s controlling nature and his desire to keep her on bed rest, restricting her ability to write. Gilman uses her protagonist's circumstances in order to provide social commentary on marriage in the 19th century. She warns the audience about the severe power imbalance between a husband and wife and the dangers of a lack of identity. Mentally ill individuals, most prominently women, are marginalized within society. They are discredited and forced to fit into a culture centered around the cliched concept of family, while maintaining a socially accepted job. A.J Finn’s novel, The Woman in the Window, follows an agoraphobic woman, Dr. Anna Fox, who witnesses her new next door neighbor being murdered. As she tries to relay what she saw to authorities, they doubt her story due to her “mental instability”. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata centers around Keiko Furukura, a Japanese woman who works at a convenience store, whose personality borders on psychopathic. The contemporary novel discusses topics of social normality and capitalism, as well as her culture’s inability to properly deal with mental disorders. Both authors critique their society’s disregard for mental health using each protagonists’ experience navigating through its vices.           

Both authors utilize their female protagonist's stream of consciousness in order to portray their society’s ignorance towards mental health. Keiko, who admits she was perceived as odd even in her youth, confesses she went to see a therapist who inaccurately diagnosed her mental status. He blames her abnormal behavior on family problems, despite Keiko explaining her family is loving and tries to support her. She reminisces, “My parents were at a loss on what to do about me, but they were as affectionate to me as ever. I’d never meant to make them sad...so I decided to keep my mouth shut as best I could outside home. I would no longer do anything of my own accord, and would either just do what everyone else was doing, or simply follow instructions” (Murata 10). Keiko’s therapist, whom she drove hours to meet, demonstrates the Japanese culture’s ignorance surrounding mental health. It also depicts how, in Japan, help is often inaccessible. Even a trained professional, who should be qualified to help Keiko with her psychopathy, negligently fails to detect warning signs. Similar to Keiko: “My head was once a filing cabinet. Now it’s a flurry of papers, floating on a draft” (Finn 45). Dr. Anna Fox -- once a therapist for children herself -- confesses to her rapid increase in anxiety and depression following the years after the death of her daughter and husband. The author evokes the image of her as a doctor, organizing records of her ill patients. This line is primarily meant to express the irony of her now unravelled state contrasts to her old self, as well as helps to demonstrate her lack of grasp on reality.

Additionally, the two authors use their primary protagonist’s interactions with others to characterize their society as a whole. Keiko, while working at a Smile Mart, meets Shiraha, a lazy middle-aged man who also does not conform to social normalcy as he isn’t married and has been fired from numerous convenience jobs for slacking off. He rants to Keiko,  “This society hasn't changed one bit. People who don't fit into the village are expelled: men who don't hunt, women who don't give birth to children. For all we talk about modern society and individualism, anyone who doesn't try to fit in can expect to be meddled with, coerced, and ultimately banished from the village” (Murata 104). Shiraha’s bitterness represents not only the minority of sexually frustrated individuals who are down on their luck, but also those who are mentally ill. Both are generalized as outcasts. Those who do not conform to their own society’s social structure, such as women producing offspring by a certain age or men acquiring a successful job, are expected to be distanced from the community. This more greatly applies to the mentally ill, as they are not given help when they diverge from society, but are seen as undesirable. When Anna attracts detectives after calling 911, one of them accuses, ‘“And from what Mr. Russel tells us,” says Norelli, “no one in the neighborhood ever sees you. Seems you don’t go outside very often.”... “So here’s another theory”, she continued, “You were looking for some attention”’ (Finn 180). Assuming that Anna was unreliable because of her agoraphobia, Detective Norelli ignores her claim without a second thought. The detective ultimately decides to discredit her from the beginning of her interaction, classifying her as a socially deprived “crazy lady”.

To contrast, Murata shows through the resolution of her novel how her society has caused Keiko to remain stagnant, while Finn demonstrates how one can battle their mental illness and emerge victorious. When Keiko quits her job working at the convenience store after 18 years, she falls into a depression. Months later, Shiraha makes her attend a job interview. On her way, she enters a similar store and starts to organize items. She states,‘“I realize now,” I went on relentlessly, “More than a person, I’m a convenience store worker. Even if that means I’m abnormal...I can’t escape that fact. My very cells exist for the convenience store”’ (Murata 161). Her society allowed her to return to her old ways. When she was able to break the cycle of breathing, sleeping, and eating for work, she was able to break her gnawing need to fit in. Because she had no stable support system, she was unable to break away from her unhealthy lifestyle. She had no one who truly understood her. In comparison, Anne concludes after her neighbor attempts to murder her,  “I was fighting for my life. So I must not want to die. And if I don’t want to die, I’ve got to start living” (Finn 426). Because Anne had a support system, a physical therapist who had cared for her prior to her attempted murder and another detective showing compassion for her situation helped in bringing about dynamic change to her character.

Murata and Furkura’s description of their protagonists, such as their unreliable narration, human interaction, and the conclusion of their stories help to characterize their respective societies as a whole. Both use the environments they’ve tailored to critique the misogynistic substance of the “crazy lady” stereotype that further contributes to the anti-help, anti-mental health attitudes plaguing the country. By allowing negative connotations relating to those with mental health issues, this further encourages unhealthy behavior and discourages individuals from getting the proper treatment they need. In a life where we are what we consume from the media, we have to be equipped to take back the narrative -- and live to see another day.