Essay Comparing A Streetcar Named Desire And Barn Burning

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Scenes 5-8 of A Streetcar Named Desire are reminiscent of William Faulkner’s “Barn Burning” because both texts demonstrate a frantic desire to keep something and the disastrous yet inevitable consequences of the misguided actions one takes for that desire as one relentlessly pursues them regardless of their futile attempts to escape retribution. When Sarty, the ten-year-old protagonist of “Barn Burning,” is first introduced sitting in the convenience store about to commit perjury, he notes that the one reason for his being there is the “old fierce pull of blood” (Faulkner 1). The idea that blood has the ability to influence one’s decisions as far as being the sole reason for the corruption and manipulation of an innocent boy demonstrates the …show more content…

Any human has only those experiences and opinions which have been so deeply instilled into their blood that they make desperate choices to keep those things. For instance, in A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche searches for meaning after the death of Allan, her dead love, continually throwing herself into encounters looking to turn on again the “searchlight which had been turned on the world” when she had been with Allan (Williams 115). The searchlight over the world is compared to the intense love she felt in order to highlight their shared brilliance and all-encompassing nature. Blanche feels nothing but love - bewitching, illuminating love. When that love is lost, she tries desperately to find it and bounces to and from the men around her to, as she admits, find rest and comfort in a love she has no hope of finding (Williams 95). In taking these actions counter to societal expectation, however, Blanche - similarly to Sarty - sets in motion her own

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