Perhaps the narrator’s biggest act of defiance within the story is her keeping of a diary. On several occasions, the narrator discusses how those in her life greatly disapprove of her writing at all, nevermind keeping a diary to voice her thoughts and feelings. On page 2, the narrator discusses how both John and her brother disapprove of her keeping a diary and how their opposition only makes her feel worse about her condition “I did write for a while in spite of them; but it DOES exhaust me a good deal—having
to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition. I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and
stimulus—but John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad.” It is crystal clear that writing is an outlet for the narrator and by her willingness to defy John and others to keep a diary, she knows in her heart what is best for her. Evidently, it is not sitting in a locked room with nothing to do but stare at a yellow wallpaper which she despises.
