Against Regulations

Joe has finally been heard. In this chapter, Joe gets a new nurse. When she comes in she unbuttons his shirt and traces “Merry Christmas” on his chest. He nods that he understands, and Joe and the nurse start to communicate by head nods on Joe’s part. The woman goes off to get someone who knows Morse code, and when she comes back with a man, all he codes is, “What do you want?”
Joe is really taken aback by this question. Well, of course whatever material object they give him he would have no use for. And the only thing that he wants is his arms and legs back, but the man knows that is impossible, so Joe thinks the question was mean and cruel.
We already know how anti-war Joe is, so he decides to be used as an educational tool. He wants to be shown as an example of how bad war is. He wants to bring the war to people and show them how gruesome it is, and what they are really fighting for. Joe wants to show everyone his body because he wants to spread awareness about the war that most people don’t know because they don’t hear about it in newspapers.
The man leaves and then comes back and says that what Joe wants is against regulations. Joe doesn’t know why they would deny him something so important to a man in his condition, but then he realizes that it isn’t really “against regulations.”
They just want to hide him. They want him to be a body that they are keeping alive, but they don’t want him to be a person. They don’t want him to think for himself. At the end, they are sedating him again and they won’t let him communicate anymore.
Joe wanted to show people how bad war is, and they want to hide the truth. If men knew about Joe, they wouldn’t want to be in the war.

Christ

When Joe is sedated, he has a dream about Christ. The dream relates to his earlier memory of the train station when he went off to war. There was a woman calling for her son and saying that he did not belong in the war, he was only sixteen years old. Joe sees the woman’s son, and he realizes that he is Christ.
Joe is in the train station and sits by while a group of men are playing cards. The men all sitting in the train station have something in common: they are all going to die in the war. They play cards and discuss their deaths, and Christ joins them and proves that he is Christ by making whiskey appear for the men.
One man playing cards points out Joe and pretty much said that he doesn’t belong there because he is not going to die. But, Joe tells the men about his fate. He is just the stub of a man with no arms or legs, no face, and no way to communicate with others. That shuts the other men up and they agree that being Joe is worse than being dead.
The men all get on the train, and Christ leaves because he has other dying men to see. Joe feels like he does not belong on the train, so he gets off. By getting off the train he puts himself in a place where he is neither alive nor dead. Joe finds Christ and cries at his feet asking for mercy.

Morse Code

One day when Joe is in his hospital room, he feels the presence of a few male visitors. They touched him and set something heavy on his chest. They kissed his temples. Joe figured that they were generals from the war, coming to reward him with a medal. At first, he feels slightly honored, but then he starts to feel very angry. He feels almost cheated. He thinks about how the generals just go around giving medals, and they never fight. They never have to put their lives in danger. The soldiers in the war died and fought for their lives and Joe said that no generals ever got injured in war and he could only think of one who had died.
In his fury, he starts thrashing in his bed, trying to make the bed cover fall off of him so the generals could see his body. While he is thrashing his body, he feels his throat vibrating. Joe knows this is a noise that the other people can hear.
Because Joe has lost all of his senses besides touch, he depends on vibrations to feel footsteps. He realizes that if he can understand what’s going on through receiving vibrations, he can give off vibrations to communicate to others.
Joe starts tapping because he finds a way to communicate to others. He knows Morse code from when he used to type messages to his best friend, Bill Harper, on rainy days. So, he taps his head to Morse code. He gives off the message “SOS” to his nurse whenever she comes in, but she does not understand he is trying to communicate with her.

Time

It is said that when a person loses one sense, their other senses are heightened. In Joe’s case, he has lost all but one of his senses. He has no mouth, ears, or nose. All he has is the sense of touch. But, even then he does not have any hands to touch with, so he has to play a passive role. Something has to touch him, and then he can use his sense of touch to wrap his head around it.
So, with only the sense of touch, he figures out a way to keep time. He waits to feel the warmth of the sun on his skin from the window when the sun comes up. Then, he knows it is dawn. The first time he every figures this out, he says it is January 1st. Even though it is not the first day of the year, it is a way to keep everything in order.
Joe says, “If you can keep track of time you can get a hold on yourself and keep yourself in the world but if you lose it why then you are lost too. The last thing that ties in wit other people is gone and you are all alone.” Joe knows that he is very alone, and realizes that time is the only thing that connects us and keeps us together. Everybody goes by the same time. Joe plays a very passive role, because he can’t get up and do anything. He can’t do anything about how he feels. He can’t communicate with others and there’s no way to fix him. Mastering time was a way for Joe to take control of himself for himself.

Worth Fighting For

Joe believes that nothing is worth fighting for. He goes on a tangent about how nothing is worth more than your life. He thinks that if you lose your life, the thing you were fighting for wasn’t worth it. Recruiters always drop the words democracy, independence, and liberty. But Joe says they are just words, and why fight for words? If people fight, they should fight for their loved ones, but not to the their death.
When someone is going to die, they think about their family and friends, not about how they won’t die in vain because they are fighting for something. Joe says that it’s not cowardly to not want to die.
The only thing that Joe thinks is worth fighting for is one’s own life. If you fight for a cause, but die during the fight, you will never get to have the benefits of the win, because you’re dead. He thinks about how men who go to war don’t really know what they are fighting for. Joe wants just one perfect answer of why to go to war, and he can’t find one. He wants to know the reason to go to war, so he can see if he’s gained it. Joe considers him as close to death as one can get, and he has lost so much. He wants to know what he has gained.

Rat

In these chapters, Joe feels that there is a rat eating at one of his open sores. He remembers when he was in the war, he and his fellow soldiers found the body of an enemy soldier. He had been dead for weeks, and there was a rat eating the face of the body. Joe and the soldiers chased away the rat and killed it. He had come up with the conclusion that the enemy was not the other soldiers but the rat.
In reality, he is actually dreaming this but he can’t figure out whether it is a dream or really happening. Joe figures that if he can feel the nurse cleaning and bandaging his wounds, and he can feel the rat gnawing on his wound, they both must be really happening. He feels there is nothing he can do to stop the rat, because he doesn’t have any arms or legs. He becomes restless because he can’t do anything about it and he continues to fall in and out of consciousness.
Like most of his nightmares before, Joe is comforted that he could calm himself down by waking up and opening his eyes. He knows he cannot do this now, and it is why he is unable to tell if the rat is a dream or reality.

Jose

After Joe realizes that he has no face or legs, he thinks that he is not really living, but can’t kill himself. He tries to stop breathing, but he can’t because a machine is pumping up his lungs for him.
He breaks into a memory about working the night shift at the bakery in L.A. On busy nights, the bakery would call a shelter to get some extra hands. One man named Jose comes from the shelter. He is a very hard worker and tells stories about his old job as a driver for a wealthy family. He left because the daughter of that family supposedly fell in love with him. Even though people don’t believe him, no one calls him out on it. Jose ends up working at the bakery full time.
One day Jose brings a letter to work from the daughter of the wealthy family. In it, the girl wants to visit Jose so they can marry. However, Jose does not want to marry her because he does not love her.
Jose gets another job at a studio, and he wants to quit the bakery job but can’t find a way to because he feels too grateful to Jody, the manager. For a while, he works both jobs and he only gets about an hour of sleep a night. He tries to get fired, and when he drops a whole cart of pies, he finally gets fired. He offers to pay Jody for the pies though, and he actually does. Joe never sees Jose again.
Joe respects Jose because he didn’t marry the girl for her money. He also respects him because he didn’t quit the job at the bakery right away when he got a new one. Jose is also a very peaceful person, and doesn’t want to tip the pies in the first place.

Drowning

Joe has been badly injured from war. He is covered in bandages, blind, unable to speak, and the doctors had to remove his arms. He is really upset about this because without his arms, he can’t hold his girlfriend, Kareen. Because he is deaf, all he hears is a very loud ringing that brings him back to an earlier memory of when a phone call came from his mother telling him to come home because his father died.
When Joe is in the hospital, he is in very bad condition. He is barely alive, and in severe pain. Machines are breathing for him and he has to have food pumped into his stomach. He can’t communicate with other people and has a hard time figuring out what is reality and what isn’t. He compares his thought process to drowning because he can’t differentiate what is happening and the conscious, to the unconscious. He keeps drifting in and out of awareness, like struggling against staying above water.

Irwin

Ever since Esther first finds out about Buddy, she thinks that is it really important for her to have sex. She separates the world into two categories: those who had had sex, and those who have not. She doesn’t feel better after it’s happened because of her injury, but she definitely feels different. She says that after having sex she waited for the miraculous change to occur. “I wanted to ask him if I was still a virgin… The blood was my answer. I couldn’t possibly be a virgin any more. I smiled into the dark. I felt part of a great tradition.” (pg. 229) Esther has finally crossed the line into the experienced category. It is not the kind of transformation that she expects though. But she feels relieved to get rid of her virginity. She doesn’t have to worry about it anymore.
However, while she is having sex with Irwin she is in a great deal of pain and afterwards she bleeds so much she has to go to the emergency room.
Esther thought that the first man she ever slept with must be intelligent and respectable. She also wanted someone experienced to make up for her lack of experience. Esther says that ever since she found out about Buddy, her virginity “weighed like a millstone around my neck.” Irwin was just a random man who qualified and who also didn’t have any connections to her. He didn’t really mean anything to her.

Bell Jar

The first time that Esther mentions the bell jar she says that even if she were on a cruise or in Paris, “I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air.” Esther has no way to release all of the sour air. We’ve talked in class about how Esther doesn’t really have any good friends or good relationships with anyone. This bell jar keeps her away from others, or at least connecting with others. Esther says that she hates her mother, when she is just trying to help.
Esther can’t find a way to feel better. She can’t escape from her sour feelings. She has no control of her sickness – it has a mind of it’s own and she can’t do anything about it. She is trapped by her depression and insanity.
One time she talks to a religious man who comes to visit her. She explains how she believes that she has to live hell before she dies, because nothing will happen after she dies and that whatever people believe will happen to them. She thinks that her insanity is her hell on earth and she can’t get out of it because the bell jar keeps it surrounding her. Although, after her first shock treatment at the new asylum, she feels like the bell jar has been lifted. It doesn’t last for that long but this means it may work in the future.

Asylum

The new asylum that Esther goes to is really nice. It is private and is being paid for by some famous writer that takes interest in Esther’s case because she used to be in an asylum herself.
At the new institution, there are no bars on the windows. It seems almost like a country club. None of the patients are never in because they are outside playing sports or something. There is a lot more trust here. Esther’s doctor is a woman, which surprises her. Dr. Nolan starts out trying to gain a lot of trust by Esther. She first asks her about Dr. Gordon and Esther explains how she hated the shock treatments and how it made her feel. Dr. Nolan told her that it should feel like you are sleeping, and many people actually enjoy them. She told her that if Esther were to ever have to go through more shock treatment, she would give her a warning.
After she leaves, Esther finds a box of matches left by Dr. Nolan. I think she left them because she wants Esther to trust her. Why else would she have left fire to a crazy person?
I don’t think that Esther would have been better where she was. Throughout the novel, I feel that she is getting more and more paranoid. She feels that everything is a test and people are testing her. At the old asylum, the nurses and doctors didn’t really treat the patients that well. One time when Esther kicks off some thermometers and states that it was an accident, a nurse yells at her. At the new asylum, she has been cooperating much better and has actually been moved to a better room.

Suicide Attempt

Esther had already tried to kill herself several times. The first time, she tries to slit her wrists. She practices on her leg but she just can’t do it. Other times she tries to hang herself but can’t find someplace to do it, she tries to drown but the ocean keeps spitting her out, and finally she swallows a bottle of pills. When she swallowed the pills, she actually almost died. She took the pills when she was in a crawlspace of her house.
She is found and is rushed to the hospital. She does not die, but is sent to a psychiatric ward.
Esther has been through a lot in just a couple months. In New York, she finally realizes that she doesn’t know what to do with her life, she almost gets raped, she fails to make connections with people – when she gets back she gets rejected from the English program she wanted to get into, she finally mourns for her father, Buddy falls in love with a nurse, she can’t sleep anymore, she can’t read, and finally she can’t write. Everything has just been piling up on her and finally the load was too much for her to bear.
I think one of the reasons she tried to kill herself was because she couldn’t see a future for herself. She already felt like she couldn’t really do anything, like cook or write shorthand, but now she realized that she had no idea what she wanted to do. She imagined herself sitting in the crotch of a tree. Each branch was a different future, and she couldn’t decide which branch to choose. She waited so long that they all crippled and fell off.

Dr. Gordon

Esther doesn’t like Dr. Gordon because she sees him as conceited. The first thing that bothers her about him is how he set the picture of his family on his desk. It is halfway towards his side of the desk, but halfway towards whoever sits in the chair across from him. This way, everyone who came into his office could see his “perfect family.”
Another thing that she doesn’t like about Dr. Gordon is how he talks about himself when they meet. One time he randomly asked what college that she goes to, and then started talking about how he used to be in some WAC program there, even though it has nothing to do with helping Esther. Also, Doctor Gordon always phrases things like, “What do you think is wrong with you?” As if nothing really is wrong. Esther knows something is wrong and it is like Dr. Gordon does not believe her.
Esther is bothered by him and doesn’t think he is even trying to help her. When she first went there, she thought there would be a man who would listen attentively and say, “Ah!” like he made a sudden realization. He would put his fingers in a steeple, tell her what was wrong, and fix her.
However, he said that he should try shock treatment on her. After the shock treatment she endures, Dr. Gordon asks what college she goes to again, and when she replies, he says the same thing about the WAC station. Obviously he hadn’t even been paying attention in their meetings. She probably didn’t even need shock treatment.

Marco

On Esther’s last night in New York, she goes on a double date with a man named Marco to a country club dance. She immediately classifies him as a woman-hater. Marco gives her a diamond stickpin, and says he will do something that it worth the diamond. He grabs her arm so hard that he leaves four bruises and continues to boss her around the whole night. He brings her outside and they start to talk. Esther makes him mad when he says he is in love with his cousin but she is going to be a nun. Marco grabbed Esther, causing her purse to fly into the darkness, and threw her on the ground, ripped her dress, and got on top of her. Esther figured that if she didn’t fight back, he would rape her. He started yelling “Slut” in her ear and she fought back and punched him in the nose. He stopped then, but was still aggressive with her. He demanded to know where his stickpin was and she said it was in her purse that was somewhere in the dark. Esther left right after and she got away from him while he was searching for her purse. When she gets back to the Amazon, she throws every piece of her wardrobe out the window. This is sort of like her defense mechanism. She is trying to get rid of the dirtiness of the night. Just like how she took a bath earlier in the novel.
Esther is becoming more erratic and detached. Buddy writes her a letter that he is falling in love with a nurse and that she should come to see him to win back his affections. She writes back that she is engaged to a simultaneous interpreter. Her biggest disappointment is that she didn’t get into the writing course that she wanted to and she planned her summer around.
She is losing a grip on the real world. Marco had physically hurt her within five minutes of meeting her. She already knew he was a woman hater and the whole night he continued to be rude and forceful, yet she stayed in that situation until it was almost too late.
Also, when she gets back she has trouble sleeping. Esther spends a lot of time thinking about everything she wants to do, but can never settle on something. It is sort of like the story of the tree, and how the longer she waits to pick something, the more options fall off the tree.

Constantin

Esther decides to let Constantin seduce her while on their date. When they go back to his apartment, they sit outside and look up at the sky. During their day together, they held hands in the car and had a good time. He took her to the UN where he is a simultaneous translator. While he is translating, she sits and thinks about all of the things she can’t do. This is when she starts to think about Buddy and how she needs to sleep with someone to even the score with Buddy.
But, at Constantin’s house, he does not seduce her. Esther even pulls the “”Oh, I’m tired, I think I’m going to lie in bed.” But, instead of following her to have sex, he comes inside shortly after that and just lies in bed with her. They fall asleep together, and it’s kind of a beautiful thing.
Earlier Esther talked about a guy named Eric who thought sex was dirty and never wanted the woman he loved to experience it. When in reality, sex is something shared between two people that love each other. In this scene, Esther and Constantin do not have sex, but they lie in bed and fall asleep together. I think this is also something people who love each other can share, because it shows that not everything is based on that physical aspect of love.
I liked his reaction a lot. I’m glad he didn’t try to have sex with Esther or push himself onto her. His reaction makes me respect him, but I’m not sure why he did it yet.

Buddy

Esther had liked Buddy for a while, but never actually talked to him. Instead, she would just have a crush on him from afar. After more time, Buddy tells Esther that he is going to stop at her college sometimes to say hi to her. Esther likes him a lot because when he mentions that he has a date, she lies that she has one too. But what actually ends up happening is that Buddy asks her to the Yale prom. At the beginning, she liked him so much and thought he was very smart and “pure.”
In one of the first mentions of Buddy, Esther mentions that he was stupid enough to have an affair with a waitress from the cape. So, we know that she was upset by this. But what she was really upset by was how Buddy always acted so innocent, when he really wasn’t. Buddy had slept with this waitress for 10 weeks, and Esther had never seen a man naked before Buddy. One day, she asked him if he had ever slept with anyone. Esther thought Buddy was pure that he was going to respond he would wait until marriage. But instead he admitted to sleeping with this woman for months. She was very upset by this because he had never acted in such a way that Esther would have guessed this was the case. She was mad that he had always called her sexy and said she was so good looking, but in fact she had never slept with anyone but he had. She wanted Buddy to think that she was experienced when in reality she was not.

Chemistry

Esther avoids Chemistry in college by talking to the dean. She asked the dean to allow her to take chemistry without getting a grade. Esther said it was to free up space in her schedule for a Shakespeare course, but really she just wanted to avoid Chemistry altogether. So when she went to the class, she pretended to take science notes but just sat and wrote poems all class long. The dean and the Chemistry teacher both admired Esther for this because they believed that she loved Chemistry so much and she as such a good student that she would take the class for no credits or grades. Esther was a good student; she pretty much got straight A’s in every class, even Chemistry when she took it. The dean thought she was a model student, and was touched my Esther’s Chemistry plan.
Esther is obviously a writer. She is into English, rather than science. She talks about how she enjoyed botany, but can’t stand Chemistry. She mentioned how she loved the pictures and the interesting words from botany. Esther hated the ugly abbreviations of words for the elements and the “hideous, cramped, scorpion-lettered formulas.” Chemistry is all about method and why things happen. Esther isn’t really sure of what’s going on and what she wants. While she is talking to JayCee, she realizes she doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life.

New York

“It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.”

She explains the summer as queer and sultry. This means it’s odd, out of place, sexy, erotic, scandalous, hot, humid, and airless.
The Rosenbergs were the first people to be killed because of treason. They were a couple who were Communist spies. Esther describes hearing about the Rosenbergs as the first time she saw a cadaver. It was everywhere, and she couldn’t keep from thinking about it. It stuck with her. Even though she has no connection with the story, she has some sort of relationship with it.
The first thing in the entire book is about Esther’s uncertainty about her situation.
She talks about how she had no idea why she was in New York. Esther has won a contest and is now living in New York as an intern at a fashion magazine. She has all of her expenses paid, and she gets to get her hair and make-up done, and wear the nicest clothes. She goes to parties and is seen by people. Esther says, “I was supposed to be having the time of my life.” Instead, she worries about how she can’t enjoy all of these things. She feels left out, and out of place. Esther feels lonely and isolated, even around all the people at parties and the fellow girls who try to be her friend.

Betty

Betty is one of the main characters in the movie. I pretty much hate her because she is a b*tch. She’s really touchy and aspires to be the typical “housewife.”
She gets upset when she finds out that the nurse is giving out birth control to girls. So, she complains about it in her newspaper job. However, she seems kind of cowardly because instead of telling the dean, she writes it in the school paper. Maybe she does this because she wants to show off. Betty does the same thing to Katherine.
She calls Katherine subversive because she said that she would fail Betty for not coming to class. Connie said that most teachers turn their heads when the married students don’t come to class or don’t turn in papers. But Katherine expects her to be in class and to do all of the assignments. This makes Betty angry and they have a face-off, which concludes in a few snide comments of each other.
In one of her columns, she writes that Katharine is disrupting their traditions, messing with the women of the school and keeping them from “the role they were born to fill.” The values for women in the 1950s were to get married and have children. The expectations were to clean, cook, and take care of the husband and kids.
In the movie, Katherine challenges these girls to think outside the box. She wants them to think for themselves, and not what a textbook tells them to say and think. Betty just wants to be married and have her children and her laundry washer and dryer. Betty is the epitome of the values in the 1950s.

1953

The film Mona Lisa Smile is about a teacher in 1953 at Wellesley College. This college was an all girls school and back in this time, there were different expectations about woman. Everything was about the man.
In 1953, the women were the housewives. But it had been different earlier. When World War II took hundreds of thousands of men from their homes, there were many jobs available. Women filled these jobs, even if they had previously been “manly jobs.” For example, this was the time period when “Rosie the Riveter” was drawn. After all of the men returned from World War II, women were pushed back into the house to cook, clean, and care for children. Now, if they even had jobs it would be something like a secretary. They did not have any important jobs.
Their role in life was to take care of their husband. In the movie, Joan and Betty want that life. They want to be the good housewife. Even though they are both very intelligent young women, they want a future for themselves that involves them wasting their intelligence at home washing dishes and talking soothingly to their husbands when they get home from work.
In the movie, Joan is a very smart woman who is pre-law. When Katharine asks her what law school she is going to, Joan just says she plans on getting married. She’s deserted this dream to be a housewife.

Scene Eleven

In the last scene of A Streetcar Named Desire, Stella is packing Blanche’s things while the men are playing poker and Blanche is in the bathroom. While Stella packs her sister’s trunk, she is crying. She is very sad because she has planned to send Blanche away. She is not sure if she’s made the right choice in the matter.
Blanche is at the point where is really crazy. Stella is actually planning to send her away with a doctor to some kind of mentally ill hospital. Stella talks to Eunice about her second thoughts. She’s not sure if calling the doctor was the right choice. Eunice tries to reassure her that it was the right idea. Stella tells Eunice that she couldn’t believe Blanche’s story about Stanley raping her, and continue to live with him. Blanche thinks that she is going to leave with Shep Huntleigh. Even though Blanche and Shep have never talked since she saw him again, Blanche thinks that he wants her to travel with him.
Stella isn’t really sure of her decision. She is second guessing herself, and she can’t believe that she did such a thing to her sister. I personally think that it’s necessary, but it is a very hard choice for someone to make. I think some of the reason why Stella is so upset about her decision is because maybe a tiny part of her believes Blanche when she told her about the rape. Especially since Stella has seen how Stanley gets, and how he treats his own wife sometimes. Eunice even said that Stella had no choice but to doubt the rape and pretend like nothing has happened.

Secrets

There is a lot revealed about Blanche in these couple scenes. First, we learned straight from Blanche what had happened to her husband. One day she came home and found him in bed with another man who was his friend. Even though it was really awkward, they pretended like nothing happened and went out that night. They were all drunk, and Blanche made a comment to her husband about how he disgusts her. He ran out and committed suicide by shooting himself. We figured out why Blanche feels guilty for her husband’s death.
But, we also learned a lot about Blanche’s personal past. Stanley Kowalski figures out Blanche from his friend Shaw, who makes frequent trips to Laurel. Stanley finds out that Blanche was known for staying at a hotel names Flamingo Hotel. It was a pretty shady establishment, and even that hotel asked her to leave because of her immoral behavior. Everyone in the town thought Blanche was crazy. The most crucial thing he figured out was about her job. She wasn’t given a leave of absence after all. She was fired because she was dating a 17-year-old student, and the school found out about it.
I was pretty surprised by most of these discoveries, especially what happened to her late husband. But, some of these revelations came as a shock because Blanche always tries to play a really innocent and fragile character when in reality she got kicked out of the Flamingo Hotel because she was too inappropriate. The one thing that didn’t surprise me, but equally grossed me out was how she was caught for having a relationship with a student. I already knew that she was creepy with kids after she kissed that newspaper boy.

Disapproval

Blanche disapproves of Stanley mainly because of his aggression. She got very upset about the whole radio situation. When Stella stuck up for Blanche for turning on the radio, Stanley got angry. He was already drunk by the time the girls got home. When Stella made him mad, he charged at her and causes a huge ruckus in the other room. After the assault, Stella and Blanche go to Eunice’s room. Later that night, Stella goes back to Stanley. Blanche was confused and angered by this. She even stayed up all night worrying. She couldn’t understand how anyone would want to be in a relationship like this and how Stella was acting like it wasn’t a big deal and that it was normal.
During the play so far, Blanche has made many comments about how Stanley is primitive. She doesn’t want her sister to be married to such a man. Blanche tells Stella how she is going to work to get her out of this situation too. We know that Blanche is supposedly “high-society.” She is very out of place in this area of New Orleans. Many times it is referenced that Blanche is too good for the place that Stella and Stanley live.
Blanche doesn’t like Stella to be married to a madman, as she puts it. Blanche says that even though she has no money, no job, has lost her estate, and is staying with her sister in her tiny house, Stella’s situation is worse just because of who she is married to.

Stanley

In the first scene, Stanley Kowalski is described as a womanizer. “Animal joy in his being is implicit in all his movements and attitudes. Since earliest manhood the center of his life has been pleasure with women, the giving and taking of it, not with weak indulgence, dependently, but with the power and pride of a richly feathered male bird among hens.” (page 29) Not only is Stanley rugged and rough, it is said that the thing he cares about most is getting what he wants from women.
Stella is attracted to Stanley a lot, and she thinks she is in love with him. In fact, she is carrying his baby. Stella tells Blanche about how whenever he gets back from his travels she cries in his lap. She obviously cares a lot more about him than he does about her. He seems indifferent to her, and like he doesn’t really care. A lot of the time, he is disrespectful to her. He keeps talking about the Napoleonic code, and what’s his wife’s is his. This seems very manly, in a bad way.
When he isn’t acting like he doesn’t care, he is being dominant over her. In the book, but mostly in the actual movie, Stanley was grabbing Stella a lot. He even yelled at Blanche the first time he met her. He is turning out to be a really aggressive person. At the end of scene three, he slaps Stella for turning on the radio. Stanley and Blanche also have a sexual tension between them that is uncomforting.

Essay Thoughts

First of all, I think I will enjoy this paper more so than I have with the others. I like how we are comparing two people, one from a short play, and the other from a great movie. The two characters, Willy and Norma, are both crazy. Especially Norma. I think it will be fun to compare them.
I feel pretty prepared because The Death of a Salesman was a pretty easy read, and I thought Sunset Boulevard was a really good movie. I took notes in class, so I have a lot of points to write about.
Another thing that also helped a lot was when we took apart the poem Harlem. We wrote down what every single line meant, and this way it will be really easy to relate the poem to both Willy and Norma.
Willy and Norma are crushed by the weight of their dreams, and by the ideas they have of themselves. These two characters are obsessed with achieving their dreams, but neither of them can. My main point in this essay is to pull apart every line from Hughes’ poem and relate that to each character. I like the idea of this comparison paper more than the kinds of essays we have done in the past.

Norma

Norma Desmond used to be in silent movies. She was really big at the time, and now that talking pictures were new, the silent actress wasn’t in showbiz anymore. From what we expect, we think that Willy used to be a really good salesman in his youth. From the Death of a Salesman, as an older man, he isn’t a very good salesman.
She is crazy too, just like Willy. She had her own monkey, and when the monkey died, Norma buried him in a satin coffin. She even had a funeral for it that was very serious. This showed that she had a really empty life. Willy also has an empty life because he has nothing to show for what he has done with his life.
Because Norma doesn’t want to be in any of the talking pictures that are “strangling the business,” she is stuck in the same place in her career as Willy is stuck in his.
Norma is really, really, really arrogant. Desmond has pictures all over her house of herself and whenever her and Joe watch movies, she is always in them. In her own script, her character is in every single scene.
Norma isolates herself from everyone else is afraid of the world outside her home, because she doesn’t want to see how different it is because of the time that has past. Willy doesn’t really isolate himself, but he doesn’t like to think of the present timing. He is always thinking in the past, and can’t let the past go either.

Mistress

After Biff flunked math, he went to visit his father in the summer. Willy was staying at a hotel in Boston at the time. Biff entered Willy’s room and Willy told his mistress to go hide in the bathroom, and so she went in there.
Biff had no idea that there was someone else in his hotel room. Then, Willy and him were talking about how Biff flunked math. Biff wanted Willy to talk to his teacher to try to help. Willy told Biff that he would, and Biff was complimenting his father on how he was good with people.
After they talked for a while, Biff started to hear noises and laughter in the bathroom and he asked his dad if someone was in there. His father denied that there was someone there and made up the excuse that it was probably the people in the next room. Willy was pretty nervous that Biff would find out so he kept trying to push him out of the room, like telling Biff to go tell the clerk that he was about to check out. But finally, the mistress asked if she could come out because there was a bug in the bathroom. Willy immediately freaks out and tells her to leave and makes up an excuse about her being from next door and taking a shower there. Biff obviously doesn’t buy into the excuse for the naked women in his father’s room.
Biff is really upset and starts crying and changes his mind about wanting Willy’s help. He says he’s not going to U. of Virginia. Biff calls his dad a liar and a fake and yells at him for giving the woman his mom’s stockings. Willy gets really defensive and gets mad at Biff about it. He even says he’ll whip him if he doesn’t obey Willy. Biff runs off. Biff has gone from idolizing his father to thinking he’s a fake and a phony. I believe that this is definitely why their relationship is so rocky in the modern time.

Job Offer

I think that Willy made a really really dumb decision to refuse Charley’s help. First of all, Willy has just gotten fired from his job. You could tell he was desperate because when he approached Howard for a non-traveling job, his request for pay kept getting smaller and smaller each time Howard said no. So I couldn’t understand why Willy denied Charley when he offered him a job. Especially because he’s like 60 and it could be hard to find some good work.
It was all about Willy’s pride and dignity that he didn’t take the job from Charley. He doesn’t even have a good reason why he won’t take it beside, “I just can’t work for you, Charley.” Just because Willy is jealous of Charley, he won’t allow himself to work under Charley because that would mean that Willy has finally admitted it. Charley has offered him a good job, and he wouldn’t have to travel, which is what both Willy and Linda really want. Plus, Willy is going to be making about 50 dollars a week, which they can live on.
This whole time that Willy has been visiting Charley, he’s been borrowing money from him. He’s taken hundreds of dollars and says he’s going to pay back because he keeps a really good account of how much he takes, but we don’t know if that will ever happen. So even though Charley has been giving Willy money anyway, Willy doesn’t want to work for it. Earlier we said that he values working hard to make a good amount of money for yourself. But Willy doesn’t want to do that at all.

Benjamin

Ben is Willy's wealthy older brother. Ben has recently died and he appears in Willy's daydreams and memories. In his memory/daydream, Ben came and asked Willy to go to Alaska with him. Ben wants Willy to help him manage a tract of timberland that he has just bought.
For Willy, Ben represents success. Willy craves success his whole life, and gets jealous of others who have it, and disregard and look down upon the people who don’t have it. He wants success and to be popular and well liked for himself and his sons. He looks up to Ben a lot because of his success. Because of this, I don’t think that Willy is positive influence on Willy because all Willy’s life, he has been trying to aspire and become as successful as his brother, but he just can’t. He also regrets that he didn’t make the decision to go to Alaska with Ben. This upsets him throughout his life. Anyway, whether or not Ben was a positive or negative influence on Willy, Willy still tried so hard to gain his older brother’s approval.
Linda is actually a little scared of Ben. When Ben asked Willy to come to Alaska with him, Linda convinced Willy that he had a good job right where he was and he didn’t have to go to Alaska.

Loman Brothers Plan

Biff and Happy come up with a plan to make some money. They figure to go to Oliver, Biff’s old boss back in high school, and ask if he could loan them some money. Happy and Biff want to open a sporting goods store with the loan they ask Oliver for.
They really think they are going to get the money, but they are thinking about asking him for a loan of 10,000 dollars. Willy even says to ask him for 15,000 dollars.
When Willy hears about their plan, he says that it is a “million dollar idea.” Not only does he think their plan will work, but he encourages them a lot, and gives them tips
on how to approach Oliver and what to say to him. They all think that this plan will be successful because of the fact that Happy and Biff used to be popular and well-liked. I don’t think the plan will work because the Loman Brothers are kind of flaky, and I don’t think they will be able to get that much money from a man they haven’t seen or talked to for years.

Willy and Charley

While Willy was sitting in the kitchen, talking crazy, Charley walks in to check up on Willy. They start to play a card game, and began talking about random things. Death of a Salesman describes Charley as a “large man, slow of speech, laconic, immovable. In all he says, despite what he says, there is pity, and now trepidation.” (pg. 41)
These two men don’t have a good relationship. Willy and Charley seem to always be going back and forth. Willy takes offense to what Charley says a lot and always responds, “Don’t insult me.” They are always sarcastic with each other and seem to never get along. Plus, they always argue about stupid things, like how to put up a ceiling, vitamins, heartburn, when Charley offered Willy a job, and when Willy suspected Charley of cheating in the car game they were playing.
Earlier, Willy was complaining to Linda about how he is jealous of Charley. Willy tells Linda his insecurities, and how he talks to much. Willy says, “One thing about Charley. He’s a man of few words, and they respect him.” His jealousy is pretty clear, and I think this is why Willy got so insulted when Charley offered him a job. The argument about the ceiling showed that Willy felt superior in a masculine aspect because he said that a man who couldn’t handle tools wasn’t really a man, and Charley was acting like he wouldn’t know how to put up a ceiling. This made Willy feel a little better because of his jealousy of Charley.

Biff and Happy

Biff and Happy are both the sons of Willy and Linda. They are both well built.
Biff is two years older, and has just returned home. He had been previously worked as a farmhand, and before that just picking up odd jobs here and there.
Biff used to be really popular in high school, but now Willy says he is lazy. I’m not quite yet sure if Biff or Happy are reliable characters. It sort of shows Happy as a womanizer, and Biff as a bit dishonest. Biff feels the need to take control, like he does with his executives’ girlfriends. He lures them away and “ruins” them, and then goes to the weddings. I trust Biff a bit more than Happy, but I’m not sure about either of them yet.
Neither Happy nor Biff are happy. Biff talks about being mixed up and how he acts like a boy because he’s not “stuck into something.” Even though Happy has the regular type of job with success and money, he’s still not happy either. “It’s what I’ve always wanted. My own apartment, a car, and plently of women. And still, goddammit, I’m lonely.” (pg. 23) Both Biff and Happy are very confused, and neither are truly content or happy. Neither of the men are in a real relationship, and they want to be.

On Trial

After Tea Cake and Janie ran away from the hurricane, Tea Cake started to get really sick. The doctor told Janie that the rabid dog that bit him caused it. The mad dog had almost attacked Janie, but Tea Cake saved her at the cost of a bite. They did not think anything of it at the time. Tea Cake started to go crazy and think paranoid things about Janie and Mrs. Turner’s brother. Janie knew that his disease was deteriorating him. Janie says, “That big old dawg with the hatred in his eyes had killed her after all. She wished she had slipped off that cow-tail and drowned then and there and been done. But to kill her through Tea Cake was too much to bear. Tea Cake, the song of Evening Sun, had to die for loving her.” (pg 208) She knew that he was going to die. The doctor told her that it was too late for Tea Cake. Janie had found a loaded pistol under the pillow. She grew scared of the mad dog inside of Tea Cake. Janie hides a rifle in the kitchen in case Tea Cake’s mad dog decides to use the pistol. Later, they were arguing and he pulled his gun on her. She grabbed the rifle and shot him right before he shot her. Tea Cake died after biting her arm. Janie sat and held her husband’s head to her chest.
That same day she was put on trial for the murder of Tea Cake. During the whole trial, Zora Neale Hurston never quotes Janie on anything. Janie keeps quiet until she is brought to the stand. All of her old friends had turned on her and thought she had killed him out of malice. The only person speaking in her defense is the doctor.
Janie doesn’t really care if she goes to jail or not, or if the jury finds her guilty or innocent. The only thing she is afraid of is a misunderstanding. She wants them to know how much she loved Tea Cake, and not trying to make up excuses to stay out of jail.
When Tea Cake died, Janie died as well. When she shot Tea Cake, she was protecting herself, but also putting Tea Cake out of his misery. Janie does not speak much at the trial except when she takes the stand and explains to everyone how much she loved him, and how the mad dog inside of him wouldn’t leave without him dying, and he couldn’t live without the mad dog. The jury found her innocent and she was free. Janie had a glorious funeral for her love, and invited all of the people who had turned on her to it. Janie knows that Tea Cake is waiting for her, and she buried him with a guitar so he could play her songs when she got to heaven too.

Their Eyes Were Watching God

In Chapter 16, Janie had tried to de-friend a woman named Mrs. Turner. Mrs. Turner is a light-skinned black woman who practically worships white people. She likes Janie because of her white characteristics and hates Tea Cake because he is dark-skinned. Mrs. Turner wants Janie to marry her light brother. In the book, it says that Mrs. Turner's God is white characteristics. It is all she cares about, and she puts everything into looking white and praising white people. Janie, on the other hand, has put everything into Tea Cake. Tea Cake is Janie's God. She wants to be whatever Tea Cake wants her to be.
"All gods who receive homage are cruel. All gods dispense suffering without reason. Otherwise they would not be worshiped... Real gods require blood." (pg. 170) This quote shows that when you put everything into one altar, there must be some sort of sacrifice for it. This is why it says that real gods require blood. Some sort of blood will have to be spilt.
In Chapter 18, the hurricane comes. Tea Cake and Janie did not leave, despite the rumors of a hurricane. Tea Cake has parties and pretty much decides that there is no danger for him. When the storm hits, Janie, Tea Cake, and Motor Boat are all huddled inside. Tea Cake asks Janie if she would have rather stayed in her big house, and not here with Tea Cake. Janie said she wouldn't be upset, even if she died in this hurricane because Tea Cake is what she has been looking for all her life. She has found this mutual love she had always wanted.
The three of them are seeking refuge in their shanty from the storm outside. "Their eyes straining against crude walls and their souls asking if He meant to measure their puny might against His. They seems to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God." (pg 187) It is the humans against God and nature. Janie and Tea Cake are in love with each other, and this helps them get through the hurricane. Their safety is out of their hands, and they are looking to God to help them, the same God that set this hurricane upon them. This hurricane is the sacrifice they have to face.

Everglades

Before Tea Cake and Janie go to the Everglades, Janie hides 200 dollars from Tea Cake because she wasn't sure if she could trust him yet. About a week later, Tea Cake is gone for most of the day when he said he was just going out for a bit, and Janie finds her 200 dollars gone. When he gets back he admits that he spent the money on his friends from work. He said that he didn't want Janie with these low class people. Janie isn't really mad that he took the money, but that Tea Cake said he didn't want her to be with the people he was with because Janie was better than them. This is when she told him that she wanted to enjoy all of the things that he enjoys and partake in whatever he does. Tea Cake agrees to this, and promises he will reimburse her. He gambles and makes more money than what he owes her. Janie sees that she can trust him, and tells him how much money she has in the bank. Tea Cake tells her that she will never have to touch the money in the bank because he will provide for her. Soon after, they both move to the Everglades so Tea Cake can find some work.
While Tea Cake and Janie are in the Everglades, Tea Cake works out in the muck while Janie stays at home and cooks. Soon, Tea Cake starts cutting work to come home and see Janie. He tells her that he gets lonely without her. So, the very next day Janie went to work with Tea Cake so they could be together all day. Janie likes working alongside Tea Cake. This is different than with Logan and Jody because they made her work. Tea Cake had offered this job to her, and she took it enthusiastically. Janie loved Tea Cake so much that she would work all day in the muck just to be with him.

Angels

This parable tells the story of when God created man. He made man so beautiful that even the angels were jealous, so they broke him up in pieces. But even in pieces, you could still see its beauty and sparkle. So they kept crushing him more, Finally the angels covered them with mud.
Janie's whole life, she did everything that her Nana wanted her to do. This included marrying into security, and not love. She used to think that marriage was all about true love, but now she has realized that it won't be like that for her.
Every marriage that she has been in she has felt like she doesn't have a voice, and she can't be herself. She cannot shine. While the angels were crushing man, the men in Janie's life were keeping her down and keeping her quiet. She didn't stick up for herself, and as the years went on she silently submits to Jody more and more.
He has never been satisfied with who she was and alwasy tried to make her someone else. When Jody dies, Janie figures out that she needs to finally find someone who will let her shine so she doesn't lose her sparkle and voice.

Mule

Janie cares about the mule because she can relate to the mule. The mule is being mistreated by everyone in the town, and when it finally escaped, everyone started hitting it and being mean to it. Janie sympathized with the mule because of the way that she has been treated in the past, and by Jody.
Jody doesn't treat her very well. He always acts like he is the big man, and she is oppressed. Janie wasn't allowed to go to the funeral because Jody said that she is better than the trashy people and that it wasn't appropriate for her to go to the funeral with all the other people. Janie and the mule have no power. Neither of them have voices and neither of them can stick up for themselves.

Jody's True Personality

First of all, Jody has this dream of having a big voice in the town of Eatonville. He also has the money to be able to do it. When he arrives in the town, one of the first things he does is purchase 200 acres to the already 50 acre town.
He starts building stores and a post office, and sells lots to people. After being named mayor of the city because of his contributions, Taylor asks Janie to prepare a speech. Jody says that wives should not give speeches, and even though it angers Janie, she does not do anything about it. Previously Jody said that Logan shouldn't have made Janie work and that she should just sit on the porch, but he still has her working in the store. He even said that she shouldn't give a speech. It seems like he is turning out to be a little like Logan. One time Janie says that she wants to spend time with him now that he has done so much work, but he sort of ignores her and says he has more to do with the town.
Jody is also pretty arrogant. He makes a big show about everything he does for the town. It all started when he purchased more land for the town, but then he wants to install a streetlight. He makes sure everyone knows that he is buying it with his money by making them vote to see if they want to install it too. After putting it on display for a week so everyone knows how great he is, he has a big party for the streetlamp. As time goes on, the townspeople start to feel doubt in Jody, but no one dares to challenge him because of everything that he has done for the town.
Jody likes to flaunt his wealth and he seems a little too masculine, and almost domineering over not just Janie, but the town as well.

Setting Sun

Ever since Janie's Nana caught her kissing the other boy when she was younger, it was decided for her that she would have to marry for security, and not for love. Janie had this ideal thought of love that it would be truly outstanding and amazing, but let go of this dream when she had to marry Logan. Although she thought she would love him after they had married, she simply couldn't.
After Nana died, Janie met a man named Jody. She sees him as a ticket out of her marriage and decides to go away with Jody, even though he is still not her idea of love.
"They sat on the boarding house porch and saw the sun plunge into the same crack in the earth from which the night emerged." This quote foreshadows that this decision will not change for the better, because it says that the sun is setting, not rising. It is in the same crack and sky that the night comes about, so the change will not be bring about a better experience for her. Although it is a new beginning for Janie, it will end the same way.

Returning Home

In the beginning, Janie is returning home and the townspeople criticize her. They see her in muddy overalls and gossip about how she left town with a young man and how he probably left her for a younger woman. They talk badly of her, but it seems that they are jealous of her, like for her beauty straight hair.
When Janie was growing up, she played with white children, and actually thought she was white until she saw a photograph of herself. After realizing her differences, when Janie goes to the black school, she is made fun of by the black students because she lives on white land. They also make fun of her because of the poor state her parents are in.
In both of these experiences, Janie is being criticized. When Janie is younger and is being made fun she tells her grandmother that she wants to become more white. This was when she had not accepted her differences yet. But in the beginning of the novel when Janie is coming home, she is in earshot of the gossiping ladies but their gossip does not seem to phase her and she keeps on walking like she doesn't care.