The Last Post For English: Blanche and Stanley Are Alike???

One word in the title, “A Streetcar Named Desire“ unveils to the audience the raw force that drives each character of this play, and that word is desire. For each character, desire works in a different way in their stories and in their life. Two characters dominantly reveal this, and those characters are Stanley and Blanche. Even though Stanley and Blanche seem to be complete opposites, they are both driven dominantly by their desire for attention and respect. Even though their dominant desires are alike, Stanley and Blanche are two very different people, which reveals that they ultimately were driven by these desires on completely different routes.

Stanley and Blanche share the same desires of both attention and respect. However, these two want these desires in a specific way and these characters act a different way to get it. Blanche desires attention from anyone to gain a sense of importance. She does not just want attention from people she knows, but she wants attention from anyone, including strangers. She reveals this in Act 11 when she states “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers” (1602). However, Blanche more specifically desires the attention from men in general. She wants to be complimented and wants the men to woo her, so she acts flirtatious and presents her physical beauty in a way that attracts them to her. She wants this attention from the men more so to blind her of the reality that she is aging. Thus, she desires the attention to remind herself that she is still the beauty that she was in her youth. However, Blanche also takes on this persona to gain respect. She wants the men to come to her and not think lowly of her. She thus expects these men to act like gentlemen because they are in a presence of a lady.

However, Stanley’s desire for attention is different than Blanche’s want for attention. He does not want to be the center of attention, but wants others to heed to his needs. Yet, Stanley goes beyond what Blanche is willing to do to gain attention and respect because he has another desire. This other desire of Stanley’s ultimately corrupts his want for attention and respect from others, which this desire is for control over others. Blanche only wants some control over the men that she was interested in to give her gifts, along with a “magical” lifestyle, but Stanley wants control over everything and everyone around him and does not want anyone controlling him. Due to this craving for control, he demands the attention and respect from others, which he finds he can get by being rude, ruthless, dangerous, and loud. He reveals these characteristics especially to Stella. Even though Stella is his love, he makes sure that his desire for control is fulfilled, even with her. He orders her around and if she does not respond, he starts yelling for her. He wants her then and there, and he makes sure that he is in control over her rather than vice versa. Stanley reveals this when Stella decides to tell his friends to leave his house even though they were in a middle of their poker game. Stanley realizes that he is losing control over his wife, and when he notices this, he decides to beat her for doing so. Therefore, Stanley’s dominant characteristics are brought forth by his desires. These desires ultimately blind Stanley from the reality that respect and attention can be gained by other less destructive means.

Even though Stanley and Blanche have the same dominant desires, these characters take on different ways to obtain what they desire. Blanche creates a flirtatious ladylike persona because she feels this will help her in attaining her desire for attention and respect to gain pleasantries from others. On the other hand, Stanley only allows his emotional, illogical self to take over him in order to gain his desire for attention and respect.

STELLA!!!!!

In “A Streetcar Named Desire,” Stanley’s character is prominently shown as a one-dimensional egotistical brute. His actions and reactions throughout the play make the audience see Stanley’s character as this because he is selfish, disrespectful, impatient, rude, controlling, rough, and dangerous. Stanley won’t take orders from anyone and wants to be in control of everything around him. He does not want anyone giving him orders, and he feels no need to change himself and will not let anyone tell him otherwise. However, two moments in the play specifically allow the audience to see Stanley’s character take on a greater complexity than the one-dimensional egotistical brute. He breaks away from this title in these scenes and reveals another side to him, which is uncharacteristic of Stanley.

One scene that reveals complexity to Stanley’s character is when Stella leaves their house after Stanley beats her. He had invited his friends over that night to play poker and got drunk. At this point, his impatience had increased and he became more controlling. Therefore, when Mitch had annoyed him by turning on the radio, he decided to throw the radio out the window. Stella told his friends to leave the house then if they knew what was best for them, and that was when Stanley began to beat her. The men pried him off of her and Stella left to Eunice’s place. Stanley yelled for Stella at the top of his lungs and says he wants his baby back. This still reveals the one-dimensional character of Stanley because he does not care that it is early in the morning and people may be asleep. He does not care that Eunice is telling him to go away and just keeps on screaming for her. However, when Stella comes down the stairs, Stanley is not mad at the sight of her, but is sincere, which is uncharacteristic of his brute nature. He kneels to her presence and then holds onto her. The audience can discover at this moment that he truly is not as stern as he portrays. He reveals here that he is vulnerable to the notion of not being with Stella. He cares so deeply for Stella and shows that he does not want to be away from her. This allows the audience to see that this character does have a heart. Before this scene, Stanley’s genuine and caring side is not truly prevailed, and at this scene it is. Also, by him also taking care of the broken radio the day after, he reveals that he knows he did something wrong. By getting the radio fixed, he admits his wrongdoing with how he reacted at the poker party and shows that he feels responsible to fix his mistakes to regain Stella’s love and trust for him.

The second moment in the play that opens up an alternate view of Stanley is when he returns back from fixing the radio and he decides to overhear Blanche and Stella’s conversation. By how the play portrays Stanley as being loud and intrusive on others without warning, it is quite surprising to see that Stanley does not just barge into the room without any disregard of intruding their conversation or not. He decides to stop before the entrance of his place and overhear what Stella and Blanche are talking about. He overhears Blanche ongoing insults of Stanley’s characteristics out loud to Stella. At this point, the audience would suspect that Stanley would make a big scene where he starts yelling at Blanche that she knew nothing about him and would then take the opportunity to say everything on his mind about her, but he does not. All he does is just overhears them until a train passes outside their place, which he uses the loud noise of the train to disguise that he was right there in front of his place. He does not even mention that he had overheard them, but just switches the subject as he enters in. He only keeps his anger inside rather than showing his anger right out forth like he usually does. Also, the audience would not think that Blanche’s comments would affect Stanley because he has had a low opinion of Blanche from the start, but yet he remembers the title that Blanche had referred him as, which was “common" (1568). He shows that this comment bothered him because he mentions the comment later on in the play. Therefore, this moment in the play reveals that Stanley is truly not as hard headed as he conveys at the start of the play and is affected by what even Blanche says about him. Also this scene opens the play to a character that may realize that he needs to change his rude habits for the one he loves to make her happy.

Stanley’s actions in the play have dominantly given Stanley a personality that is controlling, rude, and vulgar. However, Stanley prevails in these two scenes other aspects to his character, which reveal to us a softer side to Stanley, which is quite unusual for Stanley’s character. These scenes allow Stanley’s character to have more depth and allow the audience to not see Stanley plainly as the brute in this play.

Paralysis? Epiphany? What does this all mean???

In each of the three short stories that we read from James Joyce’s Dubliners, Joyce grants each main character a “paralysis” and follows this up with the main character having an “epiphany” at the end of each story. Joyce gives both these qualities to the main character, which he uses the idea of “paralysis” as the inability to act, and an “epiphany” as a sudden realization. He does this for instance in his short story Eveline. Joyce introduces a character named Eveline who seems to be plagued by the idea of still living with her father at her hometown. This plagues Eveline because her father threatens her more than he did when she was a child, because she is the only one left in the house and her mother is no longer alive. Eveline’s father also does not trust her enough to even give her any money, because he believes that she will spend it unwisely. Therefore, Eveline’s inability to leave her house is due to her connection to her home and mostly because her father does not truly allow her to leave the house to live on her own, especially with Frank. This is the paralysis that Joyce grants to Eveline. However, as the story progresses, Eveline figures that she can escape her hometown if she marries her lover, Frank, secretly. He would support her and take her all the way to, the unfamiliar location to her, Buenos Ares. Although this seems like an easy resolution to her problem of her dad’s continuous threats and to stop the palpitations that her father gives her each night, Eveline’s epiphany at the end of this short story prevents her from taking this path to escape it all. When she is about to leave with Frank on the boat to Buenos Ares, she freezes and cannot get on the boat. She suddenly feels like Frank is drowning her at that moment when he encourages her to get on the boat. She looks like a “helpless animal” and she exclaims to Frank that she will not go (41). This moment of her being terrified of leaving her hometown made her realize that she could not leave this town all behind her. She has a sudden realization here that she does not want to leave because everything at her hometown is familiar. She has gained happiness from the familiar hometown and from the people there at the town at one point in her life. Also, she realizes that she cannot leave because she remembered what her mother told her before she died, which was to keep their home together as long as possible. Ultimately her own epiphany resulted her in the same situation she was in before, which is being stuck at her hometown and living with her dad once again. However, now she realizes that she could not and does not want to leave her hometown. She has chosen her path.

Joyce also uses “paralysis” and “epiphany” in the same way as in Eveline in his other short story Araby. The boy in this story, who is not given a name, finds true adoration for Mangan’s sister. He seems to be shy in conveying his feelings towards her though, for he does not ever tell her his feelings and seems to only follow her around without ever talking to her and constantly thinks about her. When Mangan’s sister finally speaks to the boy, she asks him if he was going to the Araby, which was a bazaar that was only there for a short time. She had told him that she wished that she could go to it, but she had to go on a retreat with her convent that day. So at this point, the boy makes the effort to try to make it to the bazaar that Saturday evening and get her something that would reveal his true feelings for her. But as the day approaches, the boy’s uncle does not come back until later, which the boy cannot leave to the bazaar unless he gets money from his uncle for the trip there. This is the paralysis that he experiences, which is the inability to go to the bazaar because his uncle is not there to provide him with the money and permission necessary for him to leave. This is yet another adult figure that is the paralysis. Due to his uncle’s tardiness, when the boy got to the bazaar, mostly everything had closed. He was too late to experience the entire bazaar and found nothing for him to buy for her. However, he went to a particular stall, which granted the main character his epiphany, and revealed his true paralysis. After going to one of the booths at the bazaar and seeing the lady, who was running a particular stall, was flirting with the two soldiers, he realized that his purpose for being at the bazaar was due to “vanity” (35). By saying this, he reveals that he realizes that everything comes at a price, which in this scenario, it was buying a gift for the girl for her to like him. He expresses that his “eyes burned with anguish and anger” at realizing this, which actually reveals the boy’s true epiphany (35). He realized at this moment that if he got a gift here at the bazaar for the girl, he would not reveal to her that he adored her, but it would only be an item to her. The boy had not built a relationship enough with her as well for the girl even to think that this gift meant anything. His paralysis then was that he was unable to act and think reasonably about this adventure that he undertook at the bazaar because he was blinded by his own desire to please the one he adores.

Even though these two short stories have different characters and different locations, Joyce seems to use the paralysis and the epiphany in the same manner for each story. Each of the main characters’ paralysis had been driven by their heightened emotions. Eveline’s paralysis was created by her fear of the unfamiliar and unknown, and the boy’s paralysis was created because he was too shy to reveal his feelings to the girl. These two also had outside influences that gave the main character the solution they wanted at the start of each short story, but by the end of them, due to their epiphanies, they could not accept their offerings. Eveline rejected the escape that Frank was providing her, because she realized she wanted to be there instead of Buenos Ares. The boy could not buy anything from the lady when he realized his epiphany. Therefore, both of their epiphanies made them realize that they were better off in the situation they started out as, then what they were about to put themselves into.

Why Lucy Would Keep the Baby...

My name is Lucy Lurie and I am the daughter of the former professor David Lurie. After David had been charged with sexual harassment of a student of his, he decided to come visit me for two weeks. He ended up staying longer than he intended because of the theft that happened to my house. Two men and a boy had come to my house, and they did not just steal everything valuable from my house, but raped me as well. I feel that I deserve this act of rape because of history and because I am trying to be independent here in the country. When I then found out later that I was pregnant, I knew I had two options: I could abort this child, or keep it. I know David would tell me that I should not even consider the idea of having this child. That would be a true response that a father would tell his daughter. In the end, I know that this is my life, not his. This second chance of having a child at this time of my life made me think about actually keeping this child. The possibilities of what this child could do for me began to add up. I did not want to lose another opportunity to have a child by aborting this one. I am in fact a lesbian, and so therefore I cannot have children one day with the one I choose as a partner. I also am at an age where I could support a child and I also like and want children. Also, having this child could liberate me from the fears that I have now within my head. I know that Petrus knew of some idea of what was going to happen to me that day. I figured this out when I found out that the young boy was the brother to Petrus’ wife. I do not believe Petrus was responsible for the rape and theft, but I have a feeling that he could not do anything to stop it because he wanted to show loyalty to his new family. Since he allowed the events to occur, I believe he is trying to make amends for his family, or at least make it seem like that he is making amends for them. If I have this child, I know that Petrus will feel accountable for the child that I have, and so will protect me as he does his family. This child will then allow me protection from the two men and the boy that Petrus is related to, and from any other attack from another black man. I could not tell David this because he would not understand. He does not need to know the tale that occurred with me, for he has already gone through so much as it is. This is my life, not his. I am keeping the child and I hope not to regret this decision.

Analyzation

Lucy shows that she could say this story above because of what she says to David and how she reacts in certain instances in the book. She emphasizes the point of history and her independence resulting in her rape when she states, “In another time, in another place it might be held to be a public matter” (112). She realizes that they are in a time after the apartheid. Lucy saying this implies that she knows that the only reason the black Africans most likely attacked her was because she is a white African. Also, this emphasized how she knew that because of the apartheid ending, there would not be as much punishment towards the idea of these men raping her. Lucy shows that she could have thought about each issue presented for keeping the baby by first stating to David that she did not want to go through another abortion again. She has already gone through this process once and now is analyzing this situation with experience, versus easily saying that she wants to abort the baby. She would then say that she knew that Petrus knew beforehand that she would be robbed because of how Petrus reacted to the boy being there at the party. By Petrus not telling the boy to leave and supporting the idea that the boy was too young to go to jail, Lucy knew that this boy would be sticking around for a while, which she implies when she tells David not to call the police. She has a feeling that this boy will be there for a while because he is appearing at this party without any need of hiding. This shows that he knows he is in a scene that will protect him from being arrested. Therefore, he is displaying that he will not be thrown in jail and ultimately is not afraid of getting caught for what he did. So Lucy knows he will not be leaving anytime soon, and she respected Petrus enough to figure out the situation after the party. Also by her stopping David from calling the police, she shows that she has accepted that this rape was only a price she had to pay. She has accepted the idea that she was raped, and feels no urgency for a sense of justice that the police can do for her. The police will not get rid of the feeling that these men gave her when they raped her, so she feels that they will not benefit her in any way. She only fears her attackers, and she shows that when she instantly stops dancing when she sees the boy. Lucy accepts things as they come and when she makes a decision, she sticks to it. This is also why she would state at the end that she would not hear what David says, but will stick with her decision through and through. Her willingness to stay by herself at her place even after this rape reflects this as well. She has decided that she wants to continue being independent, for she knows she is able to take care of herself and knows that she can make her life however she wants it. Therefore, she figures that if her life now accounts for taking care of a baby, she will find a way to take care of the child as well. She has had the determination to find a way to take care of herself, and by deciding that she will have this child, she has decided that she believes she can take care of the child as well.

He Has Changed

At the start of the novel Disgrace, we are introduced to a 52-year old white professor named David Lurie. He had divorced twice, paid a prostitute for weekly sex, and his latest act was finding sexual relief from a 20 year old student of his, named Melanie Isaacs. But when the college finds out about his relations with Melanie, David Lurie pleads guilty to the case, and then decides to leave the college and move to the country to see his daughter. Although David keeps insisting that he is at an age where he cannot change his ways, his leave to the country makes David evolve. This move to the country evolves his perspective on the superficiality he has with women, his relationship with his daughter, and his view of the reality of his relationship with Melanie.

Before moving to the country, David Lurie truly appreciated women basically as objects of beauty and remarked how they needed to share that beauty with the world instead of just keeping it for themselves. He basically only looked at and paid attention to the girls that he thought looked “attractive,” and thought other women that did not even try to look attractive, such as Bev Shaw, had nothing to be proud of. Though he still resorts to keep his perspective of women as he lives in the country, it has been altered just a bit because of his relationship with his daughter and even Bev Shaw. Lucy does not make herself look attractive, which means she is one of those women that David cannot stand. However, as time goes on, he does not just base his appreciation of her on her physical attractiveness, but he finds that he respects her for what she does and says. He respects her view on the world around her and does not judge her view as being of the younger ignorant generation, which is how he viewed his college students that he taught. As he grows to appreciate and respect her in this way, he even starts seeing how she could be attractive to other men. As he grows respect and appreciation for Lucy everyday, he slowly gains appreciation for Bev Shaw. When he first meets Bev Shaw, David describes her as this very unattractive woman, and gives the indication that he does not have any interest of getting to know her due to her appearance. However, when Lucy tells David to go and help her out at Bev’s little animal clinic, he slowly starts to respect her. David though did not truly appreciate Bev Shaw until the robbery at Lucy’s place. When she took the two of them in and helped him out with his bandaging, he felt a particular peacefulness with her. She was willing to help him and his daughter, even though he had not done much for her. Even though Bev Shaw’s appearance is not attractive, David realizes that her being attractive is not the most important aspect to make him appreciate her, but her kindness and generosity was something he realized that he should appreciate. In the country, he is truly realizing that he can respect women that are not attractive, and that is not their only characteristic that truly distinguishes them.

By moving to the country, he has also improved his father-daughter relationship with Lucy. Before going to the country, David had not kept close contact with his daughter. He did not really have the chance to take on the fatherly role with her. However, when two men and a boy invade Lucy’s place, he expresses fatherly characteristics. When the men had trapped Lucy in the house, all he wanted to do was find a way to get into the house and dive into the danger of these men to save his daughter. When he forces his way into the house, he is knocked out by the men and locked into the bathroom. Though he had just been knocked out and feeling incredibly dizzy, all he could think about was the safety of his daughter. He was not concerned about his well-being, but only his daughter’s. He was willing to risk his own life, as he shows by persisting to engage with the men even after he had been knocked out, to save her life. Also, when one of the men throws methylated spirits on him and lights him on fire, after recovering from the burns, all he thinks about is saving his daughter. He does not let go of this instinct to save his daughter from harm, and by doing this, he allows himself to continuously get hurt. Before moving to the country, he never had truly shown fatherly characteristics, but when he moved to the country, he got to reveal his true love for his daughter and discover the innate feeling that parents have to protect their children.

Being in the country also allowed David Lurie to see his harassment case that he committed, at the college where he taught, in a new perspective. This new perspective occurred because of how the two men and one boy robbed his daughter’s place. These men did not just steal the items of the house and set David Lurie on fire, but they also supposedly raped Lucy. Lucy never tells David that she had been raped, but by her not wanting to talk about what happened to her and by her always being in a state of thought, David only assumes that rape had occurred. This made David look upon these men and what they did and made him even realize that there were some similarities with what they had done to Lucy and what David had done to Melanie. He was realizing that maybe what he did with Melanie was on some level rape. He put himself upon her just as these men put themselves upon Lucy. They wanted power, so they got it by taking away Lucy’s, just like David Lurie only wanted a passive lover, not an active woman. He wanted a woman to give him what he wants, not really concerning if she was into it or not. He now perceives some idea of how Melanie may have felt in their situation because of his own daughter getting raped.

So far, to where we have read, David’s move to the country has only started to barely change his ways. Just within the first couple of weeks that he has stayed with his daughter, he slowly does what he thought was impossible; he has changed.

"This is Just to Say" Parody-By Alex G.

I have eaten

the cake

that was in

the fridge

and which

you were probably

preserving

for your wedding

Forgive me

it was delicious

so sweet

and so yummy

The Political Background of "Harlem"

The poem “Harlem” by Langston Hughes was directed towards the African American population living in Harlem, New York, who were often denied the right to fulfill their dreams because of the prejudice against their skin color. In 1951–the year of the poem's publication–frustration characterized the mood of American blacks. The Civil War in the previous century had liberated them from slavery, and federal laws had granted them the right to vote, the right to own property, and so on. However, continuing prejudice against blacks, as well as laws passed since the Civil War, relegated them to second-class citizenship. Court and legislative decisions later emasculated the legal protection of blacks. For example, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1896 (Plessy v. Ferguson) that it was legal to provide "separate but equal" accommodations for passengers of Louisiana's railroads. This ruling set a precedent that led to segregated schools, restaurants, parks, libraries, and so on. Access to other facilities, such as buses, required them to take a back seat, literally, to whites. Meanwhile, hate groups inflicted inhuman treatment on innocent blacks, including brutal beatings. Lynchings of innocent blacks were not uncommon. As life in the South became increasingly difficult, African Americans began to migrate North in great number. Those expanding northern communities confronted familiar problems—racism, poverty, police abuse and official hostility— but these were in a new setting, where the men could vote (and women, too, after 1920), and possibilities for political action were far broader than in the South. Many in the Harlem Renaissance were part of the Great Migration out of the South into the negro neighborhoods of the North and Midwest. The Harlem Renaissance refers to the flowering of African American cultural and intellectual life during the 1920s and 1930s. Characterizing the Harlem Renaissance was an overt racial pride that came to be represented in the idea of the New Negro, who through intellect and production of literature, art, and music could challenge the pervading racism and stereotypes to promote progressive or socialist politics, and racial and social integration. The creation of art and literature would serve to "uplift" the race. Therefore, in his work he confronted racial stereotypes, protested social conditions, and expanded African America’s image of itself; a “people’s poet” who sought to reeducate both audience and artist by lifting the theory of the black aesthetic into reality.