A Daily Joy To Be Alive By Jimmy Santiago Baca

In Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, there is a constant struggle between individuals and their ability to shape their own identities. The play follows various characters that attempt to find the balance between dealing with hardships in life and their own personal desires. In contrast, “A Daily Joy to be Alive” by Jimmy Santiago Baca explores how individuals can strive to have control over their identities. External factors such as mental state, societal norms, and past behavior can limit an individual's ability to shape their own identity.

The play’s tragic protagonist Blanche DuBois is a prime example of how a broken mental state can prohibit an individual’s ability to shape their own identity. Blanche’s past was filled

with

In an instant, the identity that Blanche attempted to create for herself through lies and deceit crumbled and sent her into a spiral causing an unstable mental state. These external factors prevented

Blanche from creating her ideal identity.

Stanley was also caught in an identity crisis between choosing to be an independent man or a loving husband. Being the primary antagonist, Stanley, the lower class man, is in a constant power struggle with Blanche, the upper class lady, over his wife Stella. Stanley desires to be a good, loving husband but he is insecure about the power that Blanche has over Stella. At the time, society’s norms led Stanley to believe that ‘“Every Man is a King!”’ and that he was the king over his own household (Williams, Scene 8 page 131). This ideal influenced Stanley to be power hungry and abusive, which negatively affected his relationship with his wife Stella.

However, Stanley never gave up on Stella when she ran away because he was determined to be a good husband (Williams, Scene 3 page 65). Throughout the play, Stanley constantly goes back and forth between these two ideals, not seeming to have a control over which pulls through in

On the other hand, some individuals do have the power to shape their identity through self discovery. In the poem “A Daily Joy to Be Alive,” Baca discusses how individuals have the power and freedom to create their own path in life. With only “a dream of who [he] can be,” the author is able to move through life with optimism that he can reach his full potential (Baca line

6). Baca explores how individuals can have the power to shape their own identity. Individuals consistently have the power “to fly again each day, or die,” it depends on the choice they want to make (Baca lines 7-8). However, these choices are not always easy to make due to external factors. Blanche attempted to “find [herself] in the ruins of new beginnings” by running away from her hometown but she failed to create the identity she yearned for because she was haunted by her past (Baca lines 20-21). Baca acknowledges that a “heart has many thorn-studded slits of flame” which represents wounds from sacrifice after an individual chooses to shape their own identity, implying that this is not an easy journey for most (Baca line 28). A Streetcar