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Setting in animal farm
Animal farm setting analysis
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Racism has been prevalent in the United States for a while. Yet, all of a sudden severe racism of a new degree erupted in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Chaos ensued following the failure of the city’s levy system; widespread flooding left the Big Easy in a panic. Mass looting was sweeping the streets and the black population was soon targeted for widespread crime. In “Loot or Find: Fact or Frame” by Cheryl Harris and Henry Carbado, this act of stereotyping is discussed in detail.
Another important motif that has an interesting signification would be the Valley of Ashes. The Valley of Ashes is the depressing industrial area that is between the West Egg and New York City. This region is covered in dust and ash caused by the nearby factories. In the movie, Nick and other characters travels through and passes by the Valley of Ashes. While there is business and excitement in Manhattan, and there are ridiculous extravagancies in the West and East Egg, the Valley of Ashes would be a place that shows the darker side of the surrounding glamour.
Briefly characterize Blanche Dubois. What evidence is there in the text that supports your characterization? Blanche Dubois seem like a rich person due to what she’s wearing, ”white suit,bodice necklace, earrings of pearl, white glove…”. She was also described as a moth due to the white and her beauty that will cause attention to her. 3) How does Blanche react to Stella’s apartment?
Her Otherness and incongruity in the lower-middle class New Orleans neighbourhood are apparent from the moment she enters. At the beginning of the play, the inhabitants of Elysian Fields enjoy themselves in some earthly, bawdy activities. Eunice and the coloured woman are chatting “on the steps of the building” (3), making ribald jokes about Stanley’s “package” (4). Mitch and Stanley are going to the bowling club while Stella rushes to join them (4-5). Then Blanche, “daintily dressed in a white suit with a fluffy bodice, …, white gloves and hat” (5), the very image of a Southern gentlewoman, steps into the scene.
It is what is haunting Blanche’s life, it is what has made her mentally unstable. Throughout the play, she has been hiding her past from people so she looks like
Stella’s sister, Blanche, sees through the illusion and can see how toxic the marriage really is. Stanley and Blanche come from distinctly different backgrounds, Stanley is from the working class while Blanche comes from wealth. Williams uses these two contrasting points of views on marriage, to show the issues of possessiveness, class, and sexism. When it comes to Stanley’s marriage to Stella, one of the most notable characteristics is how possessive Stanley is. An example of this is when Stanley found out that Blanche and therefore Stella, lost their estate.
The audience already knows that Blanche is mentally unstable, however in this scene Tennessee Williams uses different techniques to demonstrate how the tension aggravates her case. The scene starts with Blanche dressed in a “somewhat soiled and crumpled white satin evening gown (...) placing the rhinestone tiara on her head”. Blanche is drunk and is trying to persuade herself that she is still young and beautiful by wearing a beautiful gown, however even dressed up she cannot hide her true self; the dress in itself is crumpled and soiled, exactly the way Blanche feels about herself and the reason why she tries to purify herself all the time. The audience perceives Blanche’s mental instability when she sees herself in the mirror. “She catches her breath and slams the mirror”, the mirror represents the reality, it contrasts with Blanche’s mind, in which she lives in a fantasy world where she is still young and unsoiled, the fact that she slams down the mirror shows that Blanche is surprised and repelled by her image and therefore has a mental issue with accepting reality and who she has become.
In the play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, the main characters, Blanche Dubois and Stanley Kowalski, share a great dislike and distrust towards one another, ultimately becoming the basis for the story’s conflict. Their common contemption stems from their contrasting personalities and backgrounds, their incompatibility of being able to function under the same environment, and inability to adapt to the situations they find themselves in. Although Blanche detests Stanley and the manner in which he behaves in, she realises that he is a necessary part for Stella’s life in New Orleans, an environment that greatly differs from the southern aristocracy that Stella and Blanche once lived in. Blanche expresses this idea by stating, “Oh,
Stanley, on the other hand, is aggressive and confrontational, determined to expose Blanche's secrets and bring her down. As the two characters face off against each other, the audience is left wondering who will come out on top. The scene opens with Blanche sitting in the apartment, drinking, and listening to music. Stanley enters the apartment and begins to interrogate her about her past.
That is one way the theme can be related to the text, but another interpretation is how Blanche appears to be sane. In reality, she has trauma related mental problems that become apparent throughout the text. The author tries to portray the character’s lives different then what is actually going on in their private lives. Symbolism is used in the play by Blanche’s “fancy and expensive” items. These possessions from Blanche’s perspective look new and expensive, but they actually are worn out and cheap from the outsider’s view.
Blanche flees a failed company and a failed marriage in attempt to find refuge in her sister’s home. Through her whirlwind of emotions, the reader can see Blanche desires youth and beauty above all else, or so the readers think. In reality, she uses darkness to hide the true story of her past. In A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, Williams uses the motif of light to reveal Blanche’s habit of living in a fantasy world until the light illuminates her reality. Blanche uses darkness to block her past from onlookers as to shape her image.
This is made clear through Stanley’s insecurities about inferiority to women and his prolonged struggle to defeat Blanche. Again, this is evident with Blanche and even Stella. Stella is perceived as a static character with no real individuality, and Blanche, who is seemingly more independent, is characterized mostly by her sexuality. Tennessee Williams demonstrates society’s need for the superiority of men to women through the interactions of Stanley and Blanche in the play, their struggles, and their ultimate
Williams uses the expressionist technique “The ‘Varsouviana’ is filtered into weird distortion, accompanied by the cries and noises of the jungle” to parallel Blanche’s inner mind and depicts Blanche’s deranged mental state after Stella’s betrayal. The imagery ‘Lurid reflections appear on the walls in odd, sinuous shapes’ highlights her mental turbulence and the stage directions ‘mysterious voices behind walls, as if reverberated through a canyon of rock…the echo sounds in threatening whispers’ heightens tension, positioning the audience to witness the overwhelming fear and exaggeration of her senses, further emphasising the detrimental impact Stella’s decision made. The Streetcar Named Desire also examines the influence that a person’s social standing can have. Stanley’s statement in scene 2 ‘The Kowalskis and Dubois have different notions’ indicates their social upbringing has influenced the way they think, hence disrupting their connection and loyalty towards one another. The use of their family name is metonymic for their ancestry and social standing, addressing the barriers derived from a social hierarchy which have affected their relationship.
Blanche is an old southern Belle who expects the man to be a gentleman and in her level of class, scene 10 “A cultivated woman, a woman of intelligence and breeding, can enrich a man’s life” (Williams, 1947) this is how Blanche intertwines the past and present as past women were only there to be seen, look after the house and provide children and present Blanche could be seen to be past her prime. Blanche is representing the past as she is still dress in grand dress white moth Ironically Blanche appears in the first scene dressed in white, “the symbol of
During this time men brought in the money for the household, while the mother’s would stay at home and watch over the children of the family. With this came a sense of pride and authority for the men. Throughout the film Stanley continually abuses Blanche and even goes to the extreme of raping her. He depicts an animal-like man with no awareness of morals. When he gets angry he has no control of his reactions and results to physical violence.