A Street Car Named Desire

A Street Car Named Desire

Main Characters:

Blanche: a middle aged woman, who goes to visit her sister to escape her past, and drinks often.

Stella is Blanche’s younger sister who moved away from home, and married a guy named Stanley.

Stanley is Stella’s husband. He drinks a lot, and is very controlling over Stella.

What do I know about the story?

In the story Blanche goes to visit her sister, and Stanley. Blanche at first seems very stuck up and snobby, but then she really seems to be concerned about her sister. While Blanche is there she meets Mitch when all the guys come over for a poker game. Also while at the poker game Stella and Stanley get in a fight and Stanley hits Stella. While the guys grab Stanley to get him away from Stella, Blanche grabs Stella and takes her to stay with their neighbor. Mitch and Blanche start to date. While Mitch and Blanche are dating Stanley finds out that when Blanche was back home she had a reputation of sleeping around with lots of men. Stanley then tells Mitch about Blanche and instead of acting like a gentleman like he had been. Mitch acts like a completely different guy and tries to become intimate with her when Blanche keeps telling him no. Stella also finds out in the story that she is pregnant. While Stella is in the hospital having the baby, Stanley comes onto Blanche and rapes her. After the rape Stanley and Stella send Blanche to a Psych hospital.

What can you imagine?

I imagine that back home when Blanche was back home she was raped by someone else, and had issues with her father, possibly sexually abused. I also imagine that Blanche didn’t have as much money or as good of a life as she lead onto people. I also imagine that in the end all she had been through may have made her seem a bit crazy, but I do not believe she should have been committed.

What do you feel about what you read?

At first when I was reading the story I really didn’t like Blanche. I thought she was very selfish and didn’t care about anyone but herself. In the end after reading and talking about in class I really started to feel bad for Blanche and became sympathetic for her. I truly believe that she was abused in some way and that is why she is the way she is. As for Stella I was very aggravated when she went back to Stanley after he beat her. I wish she would have stayed away, and then what had happened to Blanche might have been different.

Intimate Apparel

Main characters

Ester- A middle age lower class black woman who makes clothes for a living for the upper class white women.

What I know?

 “Intimate Apparel” is about Ester who one day receives a letter from George. She cannot read or write so she has a friend help her read and write back to the man. They continue to write back and forth and while doing this Ester falls in love with him. When he finishes working in Jamaica he goes to Ester to marry her and live with her. While there Ester makes him extremely nice clothes to help him find work. She also makes him a very nice and expensive smoking jacket. George continues to go out late at night and spend Esters money that she has been saving to open up a beauty salon. One night George takes the money and says that he is going to invest it into a business to make them rich. After George leaves with the money Ester goes to see her best friend who works as an “entertainer” when she gets there she is wearing the smoking jacket that Ester made for George. When Ester tells him she says that he is supposed to be on his way over. Once he gets there Ester begs her not to answer the door. In the end of the story Ester ends up going back to George even though he had been cheating on her and he spent all the money.

What can you imagine that is not specifically outlined?

I imagine that while Ester’s best friend was hooking up with George she knew that it was Ester’s husband. I also imagine that the fabric guy was very attracted with Ester and he wanted to be with her. They were often flirting with each other and very awkward around each other because of their attraction with each other.

What do I think/feel about what I read?

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. The only thing I didn’t like was the ending. I thought honestly her leaving him and going to the be with the fabric salesman would have made a lot better story. Emotionally I got attached to Ester and I wanted her to be strong and stand up for herself. To tell him she was taking it and wasn’t going to continue to live that way.

I want to learn more about what happens next. Does George continue in his ways and continue to cheat on George? I also want to know if Ester’s best friend continues to see George even though she knows it’s George. The last thing I would want to know is what happens to the fabric salesman? Does he end up going through with his arranged marriage?

Experience/relating:

Although I wasn’t married, I have had experience with a guy cheating on me after I have spent a lot of money on. Unlike Ester I did end up leaving him for what he was doing. I decided that I deserved more than that, and that I was not going to take it. I have also had a friend betray me with one of my ex’s before and in the end I did forgive her, but it did take a lot of work.

Hands

At the beginning of the story Hands I honestly believed that Wing Biddlebaum was not making an innocent gesture. I thought that Wing played with his hands to fight urges. When I was younger and a teacher touched me I did not find it awkward or uncomfortable because I knew it didn’t mean anything. If someone of authority touches a younger person and they feel awkward then it usually means their reaction is normal and it is a problem. After Biddlebaum had raised his hand to caress George Willard he freaked out. I thought he did this because he knew his intentions and as trying fight his urges. He also told George that he could no longer speak with him. If that was an innocent thing with no hidden urge then I would not see why them talking to each other again would be a problem. Then as I read further into the story my mind was changed. I believe that when he was a young school teacher it was normal for you to touch a child. Touching someone is a sign of caring and encouragement, so it would be normal for a teacher to touch a younger person on the head our shoulder as a way of saying good job. The reason for him freaking out is because he didn’t want to be accused of something that had not taken place. I then thought that the reason he plays with his hands all the time is because he is nervous that no matter what he does he could be in trouble just because someone says something. There is a part of me though that believes that young boy did not make up a story about him. Maybe the things the child said had really happened, but he had repressed the memory. There are so many theories that could go along with this story.

Cathedral

The narrator at the end of the story come to see outside of himself, and to be apart of something bigger. It's one of the moments when you look back on your life and say wow that really changed my life. I do not believe that this was just a moment of being high. I believe that this was an opening of consciousness, and maybe a little of a spiritual experience. For once the man was doing something out of his normal life. He opened himself up to a much bigger picture. He allowed himself to be in someone else's shoes for the first time. Before the blind man came to visit her was thinking that he would be the stereotypical blind mad he had heard about and seen on TV, but instead he turned out to be a very average and normal person who just couldn't see. The narrator opened his mind and conscious feelings of this man and in the end came to realize that there is a much larger picture to everything. You could also say that this could be spiritual because if there is a much bigger picture then there must be something bigger out there to believe in.

Invisible Man

This story may not have been intended to be about race, but in the end that is how many people ended up taking it. I think also to this day that it would be taken as being about race as well. Here you have black men beating each other up to become the champion and for the entertainment of these older white gentleman. You do not see white men fighting and getting hurt. This is almost like treating them as animals, using them to entertain themselves. Then it comes to the coin rug. None of those white men would need to jump and dive for those coins because none of them need the money. It is outrageous the things people will do for money, and in the end the coins the older white gentlemen had put on the coin rug weren't even real coins. The last thing is the scholarship he was given it was not to a college, but a college that was for blacks. This man who had endured so much had to go to a college that was for his color. He wasn't even good enough to go to a college with whites.