A Streetcar Named Desire Scene 4-5: Blanche's Secret

Although in the beginning of the play Williams illustrates Blanche to arrive at Stella’s house and behave haughtily, in scenes four and five of A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche’s rivalry with Stanley ultimately gives insight to her secrets. Because Stanley is determined to figure out what happened to Belle Reve now that it is “lost,” he discovers that a man named Shaw believes he knows Blanche from “Hotel Flamingo.” When he asks Blanche if she knows Shaw, Williams’s scene directions reveal that she “laughs breathlessly” before she responds (Scene 5, 89). By describing her laugh to be breathless, Williams depicts Blanche to be overcome with worry and concern, and one begins to question what she is hiding from Stella and Stanley. When Stanley leaves, Blanche aggressively questions what gossip Stella has been hearing about her, but there is none. Blanche then admits that a “good deal” of gossip arose in Laurel as a result of her not being “so good the last two years” (Scene 5, 91). By declaring that she has not been “so good,” Blanche begins to divulge that her strong desire for men is the cause of her naughtiness. She later shows that she cannot help but attempt to seduce the young man from the local paper, and soon after she meets Mitch. One starts to question the connection between Blanche’s promiscuity and the loss of Belle Reve. 

A Streetcar Named Desire Scene 1: Analyzing Blanche

In Scene 1 of A Streetcar Named Desire, Williams introduces two main characters, Stella and Blanche. As they reunite, Williams suggests that their reconnection is not very affectionate but is rather awkward. The source of their unease arises from the many differences that set them apart. Blanche haughtily arrives at Stella's house and continually criticizes the environment of Elysian Fields. When Stella returns home and finds Blanche, Blanche does not hesitate to call Stella's home a "horrible place" and asks Stella why she didn't tell her that she "had to live in these conditions" (Scene 1 pg 11-12). Williams reveals that Blanche views the lifestyle her sister has chosen in a condescending manner. Rather than letting her sister be happy, Blanche cannot accept the very different atmosphere Stella has set for herself. She regards Stella's home to be "horrible" because of how different it is from what she is used to. Williams suggests that perhaps Stella is not open to change but is too scared. In addition, Williams later publicizes that Blanche's grievances arise over her bitterness from the past. While Stella left home to obtain a happier life, she did not hesitate and rather left her sister to take care of disorder at home where "all the burden descended on [her] shoulders" (Scene 1 pg 20). One questions whether Blanche is truly condescending or if her bitterness transforms her character to behave disdainfully.

People who invest their time in gaining pecuniary strength are never satisfied.

Examples to support the prompt:
1. Gatsby: He always assume the position as the host and wants to ensure a stronger status.

2. Myrtle: Has an alter ego in New York but she never gets to live that ideal life to the fullest extent.

Examples to oppose the prompt:
1. Nick: He attends Gatsby's parties but never aspires to become a host.

2. Daisy: She is willing to marry Gatsby even though he was not wealthy

The Great Gatsby Chapter 9: The Foibles of the East

“Even when the East excited me most…even then it had always for me a quality of distortion…I see it as a night scene by El Greco: a hundred houses, at once conventional and grotesque, crouching under a sullen, overhanging sky and a lusterless moon. In the foreground four solemn men in dress suits are walking along the sidewalk with a stretcher on which lies a drunken woman in a white evening dress. Her hand, which dangles over the side, sparkles cold with jewels. Gravely the men turn in at a house—the wrong house. But no one knows the woman’s name, and no one cares” (Fitzgerald 176).

At the end of the novel, Nick finally discloses that despite his excitement and desire to live in the East, he has always found the eastern environment to be very distorted. He depicts his perspective of the east as if it were a painting produced by El Greco, a Greek Renaissance artist who was well known for dramatizing his paintings by warping images. Nick emphasizes the distortion he discovers by “painting” the environment through El Greco’s eyes. Nick regards the houses in the east to be “conventional and grotesque.” Like eastern people, the “conventional” houses are created according to what is commonly accepted; furthermore, Nick’s use of grotesque reveals that he dislikes how easterners conform to conventionality. The houses are crouched under a “sullen, overhanging sky” and a “lusterless moon” because their lack of individuality does not grant them contentedness. Like the houses, the woman who lies drunk on the stretcher possesses a hand that “sparkles cold with jewels.” Describing the jewels to radiate coldness suggests that materials and wealth do not grant a person warmth or happiness. Like the woman, the four men who pass by reveal another foible of eastern society: that no one cares about anyone but himself or herself. Nick reveals this conviction by describing how effortlessly the four solemn men walk by the drunk women without knowing her name or caring about her well being. 

The Great Gatsby Chapter 7: Myrtle's Doomed Life

Earlier in the novel, Nick recognizes Myrtle’s duplicity when he goes to New York with Myrtle and Gatsby. Nick remarks, “…her personality had also undergone a change. The intense vitality…was converted into impressive hauteur” (Fitzgerald 30). When he first meets Myrtle in Wilson’s garage, Nick identifies a unique vivaciousness despite the dreary atmosphere of her home. Once they arrive in New York, Nick describes her overpowering vitality to be “converted into impressive hauteur.” Now that she is in a city environment, Myrtle’s behavior becomes haughty and arrogant. Although he initially does not see Myrtle’s duplicity, Fitzgerald discloses that Wilson has now become aware of Myrtle’s dual nature. Nick notes, “He had discovered that Myrtle had some sort of life apart from him in another world…” (Fitzgerald 124). Nick describes New York as “another world” because its urban environment enables citizens to behave as they desire without being confined. In New York, Myrtle is capable of creating a life that is independent from Wilson; furthermore, Wilson ultimately grows sick by recognizing his wife’s desire to have another life. Ironically, when Myrtle gets hit by a car, the police inform Tom that there were two cars on the road, one that was going to New York and one that was coming from the city. The cars represent Myrtle’s life because she possessed two lives at once. Since the car which was coming from New York ultimately kills her, Fitzgerald attempts to represent that her duplicity is deathly. Furthermore, one questions whether Fitzgerald tries to divulge the fatality that cities engender. 

America's Modern Economic Mobility

In Guy Raz’s interview with Erin Currier, they discuss how America has lost its “exceptionalism” and no longer provides the opportunities that once were associated with the “American dream.” Currier reveals that kids in the United States do not receive the same opportunities that kids from Europe or Canada do. She discloses that although 70 percent of Americans because they are capable of climbing up the “socioeconomic ladder,” they are most likely incapable of bettering the socioeconomic standing they were born into. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the existence of a hierarchy within society becomes influential because it shapes characters depending on their status. Nick describes that he was born into a “well-to-do” family who were supported by his grandfather’s hardware business which was soon taken over by his father (Fitzgerald 3). Unlike his family, Nick moves to West Egg, where he begins to feel that “life was beginning over again” (Fitzgerald 4). In relation to Currier’s theory, Nick suggests that pursuing his career in the bond business will allow him to become more prominent than his father or grandfather. He hopes to be considered more illustrious by escaping his socioeconomic status and obtaining a more famed profession. Nick, like modern-day Americans, wishes to climb up the socioeconomic ladder to a more promising profession. 

The Great Gatsby Chapter 6: Gatsby's Mystery is Solved

When Daisy and Tom attend Gatsby’s party in chapter 6, Gatsby becomes disappointed because he believes Daisy did not enjoy herself. By disliking his party, Gatsby feels that she has grown to dislike the person he has grown to be over the past five years. Thus, Gatsby declares that he feels “far away from her” because they have grown to enjoy different entertainments, and have therefore grown apart (Fitzgerald 109). However, Nick tells Gatsby that he cannot expect Daisy to fulfill his expectations because five years have passed, and Gatsby can not expect their past relation to be reinvigorated into a different setting in the present. Gatsby becomes very excited and says, “’Can’t repeat the past?... Why of course you can!’” (Fitzgerald 110). Fitzgerald reveals that Gatsby believes that he can revive the partnership he once had with Daisy five years earlier. Fitzgerald reveals the source of Gatsby’s mysterious aura. He appears to be peculiar because he struggles to live in the present. Nick declares that Gatsby “wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy” (Fitzgerald 110). Gatsby fails to recognize that both he and Daisy have become different people since their relationship. Even if Gatsby were to “recover” characteristics of the man he thinks he has lost over time, Daisy has still grown into a completely different woman. Fitzgerald’s continuous depiction of Gatsby in the darkness and shadows makes sense because living in his shadow symbolizes how he lives in the past. Gatsby is looking backward and therefore looking at the shadow he casts.