Streetcar Seasons

Do you think that the seasons in Streetcar play an essential role, and/or have a symbolic like in The Bluest Eye?

NB: The play starts in May and ends in September/November so that is from Spring to Autumn. What's more, Williams skips a few months after the beginning of the play. Why is that?

Streetcar synthesis Questions

Streetcar Synthesis Questions


1.What do you think defines tragedy to Tennessee Williams?  Compare Blanche’s tragedy to Medea’s.  How do you feel Aristotle’s definition applies here?

2.In thinking of Blanche, Stanley, Stella and Mitch, where does the audience’s sympathies lie?   Blanche, at one point, says: “Deliberate cruelty is not forgivable.”  How can this statement be applied to each character?

3.Which title do you prefer for the play: A Streetcar Named Desire or The Poker Night? Give reasons for your choice.

4.Explore the following symbols and expressionistic devices in Streetcar: the moth,  the paper lantern, the Varsouviana, jazz, the blues, the bath, Belle Reve.

5. “It wouldn’t be make believe if you believed in me.”  Do you think Blanche should have gotten a second chance with Mitch?  Why or why not?  Be specific in your answer.

Who is worse to Blanche? Stanley or Mitch?

Practice DST questions

1. Show how the climaxes in two works of literature that you have studied are related to the central action and give meaning to the whole work.

2.We can, at times, forgive the damage caused by the weak and the stupid; but when the damage is caused by the strong and intelligent, the action producing the damage shocks us.  Develop this idea by discussing the damage produced by characters in two of the works you have studied.
3.”It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering, for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive.”  Do you agree with these words by W. Somerset Maugham?  Discuss, using two works of literature you have read.

A debate about Blanche....

Today, Rania and Matthieu made some excellent points regarding Stanley's behavior.  Reprehensible, no doubt.  But Blanche's motives?  And her part in his behavior?
Share your thoughts below...

"Who shall measure the heat and violence of the poet's heart when caught and tangled in a woman's body?

This space if open for a discussion of the rest of Woolf's A Room of One's Own.  To what extent does Woolf offer Shakespeare's sister's example as a way of saying that women are "locked in" their own bodies?
How did women come to enter the world of woman and fiction through the art of fiction rather than poetry?
Why does Shakespeare have an incandescent mind?
And what is truth?

How did Medea chose this punishment for Jason and how did it affect him?

Throughout the play “Medea,” Medea’s character feels such pain, sorrow, and anger because her husband, Jason left her for the Princess of Corinth. This betrayal was not only emotional, but more important than that since Jason had swore an oath to the Gods when Medea sacrificed her home and family for him when they left on the Argo. Medea therefore did not want to be embarrassed in front of the Gods, as Jason left her. Since Jason left, Medea’s thoughts were filled with anger and a need for revenge. Indeed, her revengeful thoughts began to dominate her reason. Her main focus was her plan against Jason. She wanted him to suffer to an extreme extent, as she had suffered since the day they came together. Medea gave up her family to be with him, along with her home and everything she ever knew. Medea therefore wanted Jason to suffer in a way that left him with absolutely nothing. She wanted him to have no more reputation, no family, no money, etc.

In order for Medea’s wish to succeed she had to suffer herself as well. Medea decides to give up her motherhood in order for Jason to no longer have any children either. She believes that losing children could be the worst thing for Jason, meaning she allowed herself to feel the same pain that he would feel as well. So she must feel something when she gives up her motherhood because she thinks that it is the worst thing she could do to Jason. Her pain for giving up her children is seen through her indecisiveness when she sets up her plan for her children to deliver the dress. In that moment, she knows she is sacrificing her children, so then goes through moments of hesitation where she wonders whether or not it is worth it.

This can be seen from the way she goes back and forth wondering if she will kill her children. “No, I cannot. Goodbye to my decisions.” (p 376) Nonetheless, her need for revenge dominates, “Do I really mean to let my enemies go? To laugh at me?” (p 376) Her motherly instincts are overlooked because of her intense sense of vengeance. Moreover, even though Medea is able to put her children aside, she knows that Jason’s complete loss of children will destroy him.

Medea makes Jason suffer by taking away everything that he knows and that is precious to him. Most importantly, she takes away his fatherhood and his right to bury his children. The audience then begins to feel pity for Jason. Indeed, Medea begins to appear as a monster when she willingly gives up the life of her children; however, Jason must feel the pain unwillingly. The loss of children can be the most painful experience for a person, which is why the audience begins to wonder if he really deserves this punishment for leaving his wife. The initial villain then becomes somewhat the victim.

Jason’s suffering reflects Medea’s excessive nature. She suffers to an extent of what she should, which is seen as the women of the Chorus tried to convince her that she was overreacting because many women suffered the same pain. Medea also acts excessively to her unrestrained emotions. She kills many people just to avenge Jason for leaving her. Moreover, she may want Jason to suffer on an unrestrained level because she always does, and cannot control it.

Not the HOW but the WHY?

We know how Madea destroyed Jason and the lives of those around them (including her own): she told us the evil plan she had hatched. We also know the basic why: Jason left her. However, the more complex "why" is what remains hard to discover.

It would seem as though her excessiveness was the root of her evil. But, love, pride, stubbornness, or spitefulness could all be reasons of her excessive actions. Or is it mix of all three? What I'd like to know is why, what made it possible for her to get so murderous, to the point of killing her own children.

Medea: whose tragedy is it, anyway?

What is madness? Is Medea mad?

A Room of One's Own is not a feminist book, but one about human rights!

Is it better to be locked out or locked in?

Bluest Eye Notes week of 09/08/10

• self-hatred, not about racism
• narration: multiple, have to piece each one together
• different than poisonwood bible, white people refusing to understand black people, more about racism
• Pecola feels different than other people wants blue eyes: hates herself but not because of her skin color (not entirely)
• piece everything together only at the end of the book: Cholly, has no perception of what a family should be like.
• Structure is backwards
• Morrison focuses on the how and not the why
• Cholly (aka Charlie) is a tragic hero
• Pecola’s outcome is determined so is Cholly
• Choly’s inner turmoil has no boundries, he functions on hatred and tenderness.

09/09/10

• Nathan, Troy and Cholly don’t have the ability to provide and protect his family.
• Nathan feels guilty, didn’t want so many girls, was tormented.
• Nathan is ignorant, selfish and an egomaniac, he is naïve, refused to try and understand the natives
• He is ignorant, ignorance is a major theme of the book
• Ignorance: to deliberately shut out knowledge
• Nathan, Troy and Cholly have intimacy issues, all have a childhood trauma, translates through sex
• Lea and Mother evolve the most out of the family, Rachel remains ignorant
• Nathan is arrogant, also ignorant of what manhood is. What is the role of a man?
• Epistemology: What is knowledge? What is ignorance? What can we know? What should we know?

09/13/10

Bluest Eye Notes:

• Lorraine, Ohio -> no segregation, 1941
• True story
• This is not a book about racism, it is about black is beautiful and self-hatred, she is the most ugly, she is the “blackest”
• Claudia felt guilty
• They never speak about pecola “quite as its kept” they can’t even say her name

09/16/2010

• Introduction loses value third time because no spaces between words.
• Less and less meaning from version 1- 3
• Symbolizes Pecola’s evolution, her mind, her lifestyles, she can’t even focus on what’s the ideal and what she wants, everything is mixed together: words put together represents her reality.
• Juxtaposition between what it means and its inverse: IRONY
• Texts become more and more perverted: goes from natural to unnatural
• They have everything but there’s complete perversion
• IRONY: Pecola named after Peola character from movie “Imitation of Life”

What goes on in the mind of Cholly, Soaphead and Mr. Henry?

"Now I wish to introduce the following idea. Between the age limits of nine and fourteen there occur maidens who, to certain bewitched travelers, twice as many times older than they, reveal their true nature which is not human, but nymphic (that is, demoniac); and these chosen creatures I propose to designate as "nymphets." [...] But let us be civilized. Humbert Humbert tried hard to be good. Really and truly, he did. He had the utmost respect for ordinary children [...]. But how his heart beat when, among the innocent throng, he spied a demon child, "enfant charmante et fourbe,"dim eyes, right lips, 10 years in jail if you only show her your looking at her. So life went. Humbert was perfectly capable of intercourse with the EUve, but it was Lilith he longed for. The bud stage of breast development, [...] the first appearance of pigmented pubic hair [...]. My little cup grins with tiddles."

Lolita, Nabovok. 16, 20.

Story of a pedophile, who explains his cravings and adventures with his Lolita, Dolores.

There is obviously a "glitch" in all four of these men's minds. They have unnatural desires. Mrs. Reilly was saying that Mr. Henry was a worse offender than Cholly. I however disagree because in all cases these men use little girls as substitutes for their unrealized fantasies:

-Cholly: his inability to love, his longing for past happiness and freedom,

-Soaphead: his homosexual desires blocked by his hate of people, ...

For Mr. Henry, it is harder to discover but he is the one I associate most with Humbert Humbert: they seem nicest on the outside but are predators on the inside. The intricate workings of their mind are most dangerous.

The question here is whether what makes their offenses appalling is that they abuse a child's trust or that they are directed towards children. I lean towards the latter and that is probably why I find that there is no saying that one offender is worse than the other. What makes the offense bad for you?

Civil Disobedience

Click here for an annotated version of the text:

http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/thoreau/civil/


An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dick and Jane and Sesame Street....end of the bluest eye?

Here was a review of Sesame Street when it first came out.  What do you think?

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1971/05/big-bird-meet-dick-and-jane/5125/

MLK "Letter from a Birmingham Jail"

Read the full text here:


http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html

View a clip here:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knFojb020bY

What is the difference between being "free" and being "dangerously free"?

Love is never any better than the lover and the love of a free man is never safe....thoughts?

Cholly is less of an offender than Mr. Henry....what do you think?

Dear oib class,

Well, we're still in Autumn, but that's ok.  We were exploring the topic of love and we want to lay the groundwork on how that's related to beauty and power, so let's talk about the ugliness of the Breedloves tomorrow.  I'd also like to think about the difference between the Macteers and the Breedloves, but I think we'll wait until Winter to do that.
I'm hoping to do Winter and some of Spring on Wednesday, work some more on Spring on Thursday and start moving to Summer, and hopefully finish our discussion the following Monday.

In the meantime, you should be:

--working on a possible essay topic for your free topic essay.  You can choose either Bluest Eye or Poisonwood Bible or both...You can focus it on passage work, but if you do that, remember that you must have an argument that you're hoping to work out through the selected passages.  I'd like an essay topic by THURSDAY.  That essay will be due the week before vacation (possible Thursday the 14th)

--your rewrites are due on the 7th

The Bluest?

Watch a clip from Imitation of Life

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggkLhL2xjdc

What's Coming Up

Check out BAM's website http://www.bam.org/

Here's some of what I see coming up there:
Hamlet, Metamorphosis, Throne of Blood, Frankenstein and, if you like trapeze, check out Raoul in November.

Week of September 20th

Dear oib class,

It's The Bluest Eye for the next couple of weeks, with you guys running the show.  I expect everyone to get a chance to really present some ideas through the piece you are responsible for.  Ultimately, you'll be writing an essay on a topic of your choice, so keep an eye out for what interests you.

On Monday, I'll give you an hour to meet in your groups.   You should:
--report back on what you've found after rereading the section in the novel that belongs to you
--you should all then discuss the seasonal reference and how it relates (ironically, perhaps) to the events in the seasonal section
--you should track down the primer elements and relate them to the unit

I presume this will keep us busy for a while...
I'd love it if you posted your findings on the blog.  This way we can have a patchwork of thoughts on The Bluest Eye!!

Have a great weekend class

After the DST!

Dear oib class,
Congratulations, you have survived your first DST!  And  you wrote on a bac question!  Good for you.  You are now on your way.  Did you find a good thesis?  Did you define your terms?  If you did, you're already half way there.  Now, all you've got to do is finish writing that essay.  Revision, anyone?
Post away and tell the class what your impressions of the questions were.  Hauntings, anyone?

DST #1

Dear oib class,
sharpen your wits, take out your notes and books from last year and get ready for our first DST!  You'll be writing on Monday, September 13th.  Reread your compo from last year to refresh.