Wow this blogging stuff is definatley alot more complicated than I had originally thought.
Hopefully this will get easier as we go LOL :)

"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

In the story, "The Yellow Wallpaper", the main character, the unnamed narrator (John's wife), is telling her story through journal entries. She tells of this nervous condition that her husband (John, a physician) has diagnosed her with. She also tells about all the ways that John has basically taken over her life and treats her as incapable to take care of herself. He moves them to the country to a very nice house. Inside this house there is this room that is more like a nuthouse than a bedroom.
Inside this room there is this unsightly wallpaper that drives the woman crazy. She asks her husband to remove it, but he says that "nothing was worse for a nervous patient than to give way to such fancies."
Little did John know that this wallpaper would be such a problem and in the end would worsen his wife's condition.
In the narrators mind she sees this wallpaper as a representation of herself and her condition. When she first sees the paper it bothers her and she finds it repusive. At this point her condition has not bothered her too much and though she bothers her to have it, she is capable of carrying on fairly normally.
As the days pass by the wallpaper begins to agitate her more and more. She spends so much time studying the "irritating" wallpaper. At this point her condition has worsened and in her mind her husband is seeming to act more "queer[ly]" towards her.
The paper has now awakened more than just her sight, but also her sense of smell. She says that it has a "yellow smell". At this point her condition is taking over her senses and messing with her mind. She is beginning to loose control.
Now the time of day and night causes the paper to transform. She believes that there is a woman creeping around in the paper who is trying to get out. She believes that during the day the woman escapes and that she can see her creeping about, all around the house. At night the woman is trapped in the midst of the horrid paper. At this point, the narrator sees herself as the woman in the paper. She wants to be free of this condition and all that comes with it. She longs to just escape and leave this all in the past.
Finally the wallpaper has consumed her total existence. She must let the woman escape. She locks the door and begins to tear the wallpaper down all around her. Now consumed by the wallpaper woman her craziness has been unleashed. At this point, she has given up her fight and has become what she so strongly wanted to be free of.
That is why the narrorator and the wallpaper are one in the same.

The Lame Shall Enter First by Flannery O'Conner

While reading, "The Lame Shall Enter First", One idea kept popping into my head. The story on the surface seemed to be about helping out the less fortunate and the strain that selfishness puts into a relationship. Sheppard appears to be this caring man who wants nothing more than to see Rufus Johnson better himself and his own son, Norton, to learn selflessness through his own selflessness.
Sheppard in all reality had the need of being needed. After losing his wife, he senses a longing for someone or something else that he can support. He couldn't find fufillment for his need in his son, Norton, so he choose the neediest person of all, Rufus. He feels that if he can change this boys life, then there is nothing he can't do. Sheppard believes that he knows everything and the outcome that follows. He truly wants to help Rufus, but it is his need that compells him to do so.
In the end, it is Sheppard's selfishness that causes him to lose both his battle with Rufus and everything that he holds dear to himself. Sheppard spent so much time looking at the bad and distasteful traits that others posessed, that he didn't realize the hippocrite that he had become. So it was Sheppards need to be needed that pushed his most loved posession over the edge.