Nicholas A. Smith’s “Idealism and Insanity: The Subversion of the Southern Belle through Blanche Dubois” describe Southern Belles as charming, educated, and independent (Smith 1). These characteristics describe the main character, Flossie, in Patricia McKissack’s “Flossie and the Fox.” Southern Belles are taught at a young age that knowledge instead of beauty provides prosperity, an idea that surfaces in McKissack’s short story (Smith 1). They have a different portrayal in films, such as Victor Fleming’s Gone with the Wind; beauty is the path into prosperity (Gone with the Wind). Flossie symbolizes a Southern Belle, whose knowledge soon becomes tainted when she employs charm as a means of manipulation to trick the fox. Flossie use of manipulation transforms her into the villain of the story. Flossie exemplifies a Southern Belle because her focus is geared towards knowledge rather than beauty. Similar to Southern Belles, she utilized knowledge to attain her goals. She gained knowledge by combining Big Mama’s warnings and her school’s teachings. Big Mama explains, “Don’t tarry now. An...
Price’s view of American culture as materialistic and obsessed with displaying wealth, even if it meant straying from the standards and traditions that American culture had had before, is shown by her use of diction, tone, and simile/metaphor. The flamingo’s rising popularity in the 1950s is an example of the American culture’s obsession with wealth because it exhibits an unexpected rise to fame by a frivolous and gangly bird who differed from the expected and conventional standards. This is seen by Price as ridiculous because it was such a peculiar bird, due to its bright pink color and thin and scrawny physique, that the only way it could have gained fame was if it brought American culture something it craved, wealth or, in other words, the display or possession of money.
The book by Faith Ringgold entitled Faith Ringgold, explains the story of a mother and daughter during the Harlem Renaissance era in New York. According to the book, the series deals with many generational issues of a middle class black family and focuses on the drama, and tension between a mother and daughter who are profoundly different. The series represents a relationship much like the relationship between Faith Ringgold and her two daughters. The story follows a daughter named, Celia Cleopatra Price, a graduate of Howard University, who graduated first in her class. She is unable to identify with her mother, CeeCee. CeeCee had only finished the 8th grade and dropped out due to her pregnancy with Celia. CeeCee is a very creative individual and makes bags; she is married to”the dentist”, who a young CeeCee meets in the first quilt Love in the School Yard. CeeCee thinks Celia has develope...
Mary MacKillop was born in Fitzroy, Melbourne on January the 15th 1842. She was the first child to Alexander MacKillop and Flora MacDonald. Mary was one child out of 8 and spent most of her childhood years looking after and acting like a second mother to her siblings. The MacKillop family were quite poor so at the young age of 14, Mary got herself a job as a governess and as teacher at a Portland school. All the money Mary earned went towards her families everyday living. While working as a governess, Mary met Father Julian Tension Woods. By the time Mary had reached the age of 15 she had decided that she wanted to be a nun. She also wanted to devote her life to the poor and less fortunate. So upon meeting Father Julian Tension Woods she told him her hopes and dreams, and together they decided to set up a school. In 1861, they worked together and opened Australia's first free Catholic school. At the time only the rich could afford schooling. But at the school Mary opened anyone was welcome. Mary was a great teacher and became very popular within the community. Although Mary was very pleased with her work she still felt a religious calling. So Mary and Father Woods started their own order, 'The Sisters of St. Joseph.' In 1867 Mary then moved to Adelaide where she opened another school. Before long there were 17 schools open across Australia. Mary's followers grew and by 1909 she had followers all over Australia. Mary later died on the 8th of August 1909.
At first glance, the reader could not imagine a more incompatible and diverse pair than Blanche DuBois and Fernie Mae Rosen, two women from very contrasting backgrounds and racial standings. However, these two women share similar passions and mental disorders, showing both their vulnerability to the world and mutual personal energies. Both weave an alternate reality inside their psyches that deceive them into believing that life is not worthwhile, and yet both appear to live life to various sexual and emotional extremes. Such compatibility shows the correlation in their mutual lifestyles despite incongruous backgrounds. Men always seem to be at the root of their problems, despite their clear and discernible negative reactions to the opposite sex. The examples of a virginal aura that eclipses their sexual promiscuity, their mutual hatred for the world and the people that surround them, and their transformation from passion into real madness show the reader that they have more in common than one would think.
In Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire, main character Blanche Dubois to begin with seems to be a nearly perfect model of a classy woman whose social interaction, life and behavior are based upon her sophistication. The play revolves around her, therefore the main theme of drama concerns her directly. In Blanche is seen the misfortune of a person caught between two worlds-the world of the past and the world of the present-unwilling to let go of the past and unable, because of her character, to come to any sort of terms with the present.
Presently, many books and fairytales are converted movies and often, producers alters the original tales to grasp the attention of a large audience. However, some of these interpretations hide the primary interpretation. The original interpretations of the Disney classics Snow White and Sleeping Beauty are greatly reinvented from the original fairytales Sun, Moon, and Talia and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs because of the brutal nature of the treatment women in these original forms. Although there are differences in certain aspects from the original tales to the movies, there are many issues that are influential to the young girls who are still watching the Disney version. I realize this when my youngest niece, Anella asks me, “Why can’t I be beautiful and fall asleep and suddenly wake up to finally find my prince?” This is true in all cases of the four different translations of the fairytales. Every single girl in these stories are in a “beautiful” state of half-death who wake to find a prince who if eager to carry them off. This can lead to negative psychological effects on young girls as they are growing up, creating a large amount of pressure and low self-esteem due to the beauty that these stories portray and maintaining restrictions that these women experience in the stories. While it is true that Sleeping Beauty and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves are considered Disney classics that entertain children and provide meaningful role models, it is evident that the true, vulgar nature of these tales are hidden; these stories are about women who are thrown away.
The American Dream is an ethos idealized by millions of people. It is an attitude and mindset that can promote success and prosperity throughout life. When it comes to the American dream, a significant part is the quest for money. As shown in classic American Literature such as The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, the influence of money plays an important role throughout both novels. There are characters in both books that use money as a way of representing what their morals and values are. The decline of the American Dream is evident in both novels considering the negative effects money has on certain characters.
Due to a combination of her being an airhead, and her want to start over and dismember her past from herself, Blanche begins self-delusion. She creates a fantasy life, in which she is still a young, beautiful, innocent woman who has ju...
The characters in “A Streetcar Named Desire”, most notably Blanche, demonstrates the quality of “being misplaced” and “being torn away from out chosen image of what and who we are” throughout the entirety of the play.
Superficial is the first impression that Blanche gives when she enters the play. Consumed by appearance and face value, she is unable to see that Stella’s new lifestyle is not as horrid as she imagines. In comparison to Belle Reve, it is true that these New Orleans slums may not meet Dubois standards, but Blanche is unable to see beyond the way things appear in order to realize that Stella’s world does not revolve around material items. This flaw is intertwined with her vanity and her need keep up appearances. On the surface, Blanche appears to be snobbish and conceited.
Blanche grew up living on a plantation in Laurel, Mississippi which is why she considers herself a Southern Belle, despite the changing environment around her. Her life at Belle Reve does not fulfill the dreams that once encircled the wealthy plantation. Instead, Blanche finds herself assuming the responsibilities for the “epic fornications” of her families past lives, along with the financial debt that comes with owning the house. This isn’t the only thing Blanche has been left to take care of though. She is also left to simultaneously pay for the funerals of her relatives, and after being unable to reimburse her debts, Blanche eventually succumbed to the loss of her cherished land. In addition to the loss of Belle Reve, she is also impacted by the lifelong guilt coming from the fact that she made a cruel r...
Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont’s take on “Beauty and the Beast” is a pretty simple story. A single merchant father of six kids loses his fortune. He meets the Beast when
Disney movies have a very narrow view of what women should be like. Since the arrival of the first Disney movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937, the idea of it has expanded, but rather marginally. There is a clear distinction of what a young women should be and what she shouldn’t be. Those who do not fit the mold of Disney’s expectations are cast aside to become villains, but those who do, end up becoming the damsel in distress. Ultimately, these stereotypes are what influences young girls who watch these films, and can have devastating effects on their self worth and change their idea of what it means to be a women. Films like Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,
From dreams deferred to identity affirmed Lorraine Hansberry’s, “A Raisin in the Sun,” presents readers with many differing themes. The most prevalent and reoccurring theme is the effect money plays on society’s views of manhood and happiness. Readers are shown multiple characters with a diverse view on manhood. From Walter Lee with his matching societal views that a man should be able to provide whatever his family needs or wants to Lena whose views are a biased compilation of her late husband’s behavior and her own ideals, that a man should maintain his honor and protect his children’s dreams.
Portrayal of Women in The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Orpheus Descending, Suddenly Last Summer, and Period of Adjustment