A Streetcar Named Desire

The title, "A Streetcar Named Desire," is what this play was all about. A streetcar brought Blanche to the home of her sister Stella and her sisters husband Stanley, and the main theme of the play was about desire. Desire is what caused Blanche to be driven out of her hometown, and it describes the relationship between Stella and Stanley. Fantasy, loneliness, and cruelty were also themes that I saw present in the play.

Fantasy was Blanches primary means of self defense. She seems to tell things how they should be, but not how they really are. In scene ten, Blanche tries to convince Stanley that she is going away with a rich man that she used to know. Blanche: "I received a telegram from an old admirer of mine." Stanley: "Anything good?" Blanche: "I think so. An invitation." Stanley: "What to? A Fireman's ball?" Blanche: "A cruise of the Caribbean on a yacht." I think that she tells stories like this because it is a way for her to block out her memories of sorrow. She went through so much in her hometown, and I believe that when her husband shot himself it really traumatized her. I wonder what Blanche found out about her first husband to make him want to shoot himself? In the end, Blanche's fantasy was shattered by Stanley, and I think that was the reason for me not liking him. In the end, I was hoping that Blanche, Stella, and the baby would move away together, leaving the drunken, violent, and rapist Stanley behind.

Loneliness was a characteristic of Blanche. Throughout the play she seeked companionship and protection, and never recovered from her first husbands death. When Blanche first met Mitch, I thought to myself, "maybe he'll make her loneliness go away." I think Blanche could have been so happy with Mitch, but Stanley destroyed their relationship. Maybe Mitch could have been the one to take her away from her fantasies, bringing her back to reality.

Cruelty was a characteristic of Stanley. He's also controlling and doesn't have much self control. In scene five Stella and Stanley get into a big fight over a radio playing, "She turns the knob on the radio and it begins to play. Blanche waltzes to the music with romantic gestures. Mitch is delighted and moves in awkward imitation like a dancing bear. Stanley stalks fiercely through the portieres into the bedroom. He crosses to the small white radio and snatches it off the table. With a shouted oath, he tosses the instrument out the window." Then an argument develops and Stella and blanche end up going upstairs to Eunice. Stanley acts like this often, and this fight was over a little radio playing.

I couldn't believe the ending. Stanley actually rapes Blanche. After all Blanche has been through he still forces himself on her, and it must have been obvious to Stanley that she was mentaly ill. Worst of all, Blanche's own sister took Stanleys side over hers. In scene eleven Stella says, "I don't know if I did the right thing." Then, "I couldn't believe her story and go on living with Stanley." It seems to me that she believes her sister, but is not ready to leave Stanley because of their new baby. I couldn't believe that she made that choice. If it was consentual sex between Blanche and Stanley maybe I could see Stella forgiving Stanley, but he forced himself on Blanche and raped her. I don't understand how Stella could forgive him for that. Why would she want to be married to a rapist? I wouldn't even be able to look at that person anymore. Stella makes the decision that Blanche should be taken away by a doctor, and I think that was the right choice. But I think Stella should have taken her baby and leave with Blanche.

Their Eyes Were Watching God

I thought the book, "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Hurston, was very enjoyable to read. There was so much happening in the story that I didn't want to put it down because I wanted to see what was going to happen next. When I first read the title I thought the book was going to be about issues with race, but race was not the central theme although these issues were present in the book. I thought "Their Eyes Were Watching God" was about Janie's quest to find out who she is, which is why the title shows spirituality. Throughout this book Janie achieves a strong sense of self and comes to appreciate her independence. The only thing that I didn't like about this book was Huston's continuous use of southern black dialect. I know that the dialect is an important part of the book, but after awhile I got tired of reading that kind of language.

The book starts off with a passage on page one that reads, "Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men. Now, women forget all those things they don't want to remember, and remember everything they don't want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly." In this passage Hurston is talking about gender differences, she is establishing a difference between men and women. To me, it sounds like Hurston is saying that men have dreams they never lose and will always follow, and that women don't have dreams they follow. Women just live their lives according to what they already have.

In the beginning of this book Janie's grandmother told Janie that she had to marry Logan even though their was no love present. When Janie told her grandmother that she wanted to marry for love and that she didn't love Logan, the grandmother didn't seem to care about that. I believe that the grandmother forced Janie to marry Logan out of love because she wanted to make sure that Janie was taken care of after she had passed away. The grandmother knew that Janie would be all alone, so she wanted to find someone to take care of her, giving her food, shelter, and protection. I think that the rape of her mother played a big role in the decision. The grandmother wanted to make sure nothing like that would ever happen to Janie. At first I thought to myself, "I would never marry someone I didn't love," but after I thought about it some more I realized that in that time period women didn't have a lot of opportunity, they needed a good man to provide for them. It's sad to think of love being absent from a marriage. I don't think I could ever be truly happy in a marriage if I had a man that was a good provider, but with the absence of love.

When Jody took Janie away from Logan I was so happy. Logan didn't seem like a bad guy and it seemed that he really cared for Janie, but Janie was unhappy with him because love was missing. I finally thought that Janie had found her true love with Jody, but quickly found out that I was wrong. Jody seemed to only care bout his work as a mayor, and would often alienate Janie from socializing with the people in their town. When Jody died, Janie didn't grieve over him. The last person she married in this book was a young guy named Tea Cake, and Janie had finally found the love she was seeking for with Tea Cake. Tea Cake is a very positive character, and the gender roles seem to stop with him. Janie is now equal with Tea Cake, and began to do things for the first time like hunting and playing games. He had given her the life that she had dreamed about and she loved him even after his death. "Of course he wasn't dead. He could never be dead until she herself had finished feeling and thinking" (193). I thought these sentences showed how much Janie truly cared for Tea Cake.

One of the issues of race that stuck in my mind was in chapter 16. Mrs. Turner didn't seem to like Tea Cake because of his dark black skin, and would constantly question Janie about why she was with him. On page 141 Mrs. Turner said, "If it wuzn't for so many black folks it wouldn't be no race problem. De white folks would take us in wid dem. De black ones is holdin' us back." Mrs. Turner is going against her own class of people just because she has white features. Another issue of race I noticed was in chapter 19, the court scene. The white people seemed to be with Janie, and the black people against her. I think that the black people were against her because it was a black man that was murdered and they were upset with Janie being found innocent. They thought that if she had killed a white man she would have been found guilty. On page 188, a paragraph described how Janie felt about being on trial. "It was not death she feared. It was misunderstanding. If they made a verdict that she didn't want Tea Cake and wanted him dead, then that was a real sin and a shame. It was worst than murder." I took this as Janie being more concerned about what people thought of her than for being convicted of the murder. She wanted people to know that she truly loved Tea Cake and that she would never do anything to harm him. If she was convicted of killing Tea Cake because she wanted him dead, then she would have been thought of as never loving him or caring about him, and that was not what she wanted people to think. She wanted them to know her true feelings about Tea Cake.

I thought that the last few sentences were about Janie reflecting back on her life, "The kiss of his memory made pictures of love and light against the wall. Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see."

The Ethics of Living Jim Crow

I enjoyed reading "The Ethics of Living Jim Crow" by Richard Wright because it was simple, direct, and had a real sense of purpose. Although, reading about the segregation system in the south upset me. It was hard for me to read about how unfair people of color were treated even though they worked so hard and were very kind. Throughout the reading, it seemed to me that Richard was trying to make the best out of what he had. In the beginning on page 548, Richard said, " Nothing green ever grew in that yard. The only touch of green we could see was far away, beyond the tracks, over where the white folks lived. But cinders were good enough for me." The simple things made him happy. When Richard and his friends got into a fight with a few white kids and Richard became injured, I couldn't believe how his mother treated him. She was outraged for him getting into a fight with the white kids and even beat him. There was no sympathy for Richard, and I think that's what he wanted. I do understand that Richards mother was trying to protect him from white people, which is why she acted like that, but I think a little sympathy and love would have been good. Maybe they could have talked about it instead of his mother using verbal and physical abuse. He had already been through enough.

As I continued to read this story, I made a connection with Frederick Douglass. Richard Wright reminded me of him. Wright had the same drive that Douglass had, which was the desire of learning a trade. They both also went through many hard times while they were growing up, and both wanted to do things that society wouldn't allow them to do. I also thought they were both very clever and smart because they knew what to do in difficult situations. The way that Frederick learned from the white children, and the way that Wright acted in the elevator towards the white man taking his hat off for him are examples of both of them being smart and clever.

Richard Wright learned so many valuable life lessons at all of his jobs. He learned to do only what he was hired for, not to ask to learn anything new, and to mind his own business, paying no attention to whats going on around him. He had to learn the hard way at his first job. Pease and Morrie seemed to like Richard at first and they all seemed to talk a lot together. But once Richard asked them if he could learn a new trade things changed. Pease and Morrie became very upset with Richards request, and they changed towards him. They no longer talked to him anymore, and became very cruel towards Richard. They both soon drove Richard out of the job by giving him no choice but to leave, in less he wanted to get hurt very badly. On page 551 Richard said, "If I had said: No, sir, Mr. Pease, I never called you Pease, I would have been automatically calling Morrie a liar. And if I had said: Yes, sir, Mr. Pease, I called you Pease, I would have been pleading guilty to having uttered the worst insult that a Negro can utter to a southern white man." It's obvious that both men made this up to drive Richard out. This was all about power, and Pease and Morrie didn't want Richard to learn a trade because they didn't want him to be equal to them. This imbalance of power happened a lot in this reading.

Race mixing also happened in this reading like it did in Douglass (554). The bellboy was forced to marry one of the maids because he was accused of sleeping with her and getting her pregnant, but when the baby came it was light. I believe that the bellboy never slept with her, he even denied it. I think a white man slept with the maid and got her pregnant, then it was covered up by forcing the bellboy to marry with her. The white men also had a joke about this, "some white cow must have scared the poor girl while she was carrying the baby." I still don't understand what that means, but I do know that they were making fun of the situation because her baby came out white. The white men had so much control and power over black people, and it is played out throughout this entire reading.