A street car named desire's film version and its name

  A street car named desire is a great book, compare to the book, the first film adaptation by Elia Kazan made a deeper impression on me. I think the actors of the movie did an effective job showing the personalities of the characters and the conflicts within the book.

  Blanche is a sensitive and prissy character, which was played by Vivien Leigh. I love the how Vivien shows the personalities of Blanches. The Blanche that Leigh played always has a typical terrified and anxious look on her face, but at the same time, her eyes express some sort of expectation. Her expressions effectively carry Blanche’s character. Blanche is scared of many things because her past is impure and she has lied about it. However, she always ignores truths and her poor situation, and keeps on living in her fancy dream. I have to admit that the Blanche that Leigh played is attractive somehow, especially when she is flirting with men. The sweet, excited tone she has when she speaks, the way she looks at men and her gestures can easily create a sexual, ambiguous atmosphere. Which is ironic because she dresses so delicate but she made me feel that she has been dealing with men for a long time.

Stanley, which was played by Marlon Bando, is an emotional, irritable and sexual character. Marlon Bando is the perfect man for the role since he is masculine and he has an attractive look. When Stanley first meets Blanche in his house, he looks down at Blanche’s face and breasts and talks to her with one of corner of his mouth turned up. This expression completely shows his reckless attitude and sensual personality. When he plays the gentle Stanley, he makes audience fall in love with him. However, when he plays the mad Stanley, he turns into a total monster, shouting at everyone and breaking everything in sight.

The name of the book metaphor that desire take characters to their downfall. Blanche take the streetcar named desire to New Orleans, which is a really messed-up place back in the day. She lives in her sister’s house and earns sympathy by lying and making stories up. She ending up raping by her sister’s husband and going crazy, she is sent away at the end. Stella and Stanley’s relationship starts with sexual desires and sex is also what holds their relationship from breaking down after marriage. Their “desire love” loses the battle to the cruel live. Stanley loses Stella at the end because his desire of control, desire of price and desire of sex. Desire is part of our human nature, if we indulge and take no control on it, it will hurt us eventually. 

Lord of the Files

 Lord of the Flies by William Golding tells the story of a group of English schoolboys marooned on a tropical island after their plane is shot down during a war. Free from the rules and structures of civilization and society, the boys on the island in Lord of the Flies descend into savagery. As the boys splinter into factions, some boys rebel and seek only anarchy and violence. Most of them turn into savage, killing each other and enjoying the ruleless life. At the end, they are found and saved because of a big fire that they cause, but everything has changed.

Conflicts in Lord of the Flies including Man vs. Nature, Man vs. Man and Man vs. Self. The boys fight with the nature for keeping themselves alive, they fight with each other for properties and power, the fight with themselves to avoid the savagery side but failed at the end.

The most important theme in Lord of the Flies is savagery. Golding writes the story to express the idea that savagery lives within all human being but is restricted by society pressures and rules. As the time goes, the boys’ savageries are showing more and more. They paint their faces with different colors just like savages; they stop taking showers and wearing proper clothes, they start to hunt and hurt animals without feeling fear, and finally they start to kill their old friends. At the very beginning of the novel, even Jack is afraid of killing a pig. After living in the island for a long time, Jack leads a group of boys to hunt; they find a pig with her piglets, they chase it, hurt it, kill it and celebrate the butchery. “ The afternoon wore on, hazy and dreadful with damp heat; the sow staggered her way ahead of them, bleeding and mad, and the hunters followed, wedded to her in lust, excited by the long chase and the dropped blood. (Golding, 148).” The boys, or the savages, feel excited and happy when they kill the pig and see its pain instead of feeling pitifully and scared.

Compare to The Book of Negroes, both of the books express the idea that evil and savagery live within all human beings, when there are no rules and pressure from society to control them. The dark side of humans will surface and human beings could feel joy and superiority while they are living with their dark side. Characters from both books are well educated under society rules and pressure, but their dark sides that live within them can still be found and shown when there are no restrictions. Mentally, characters from both of the book all have their evil thoughts, plans and moves that could bring them benefit by hurting others. Physically, they exaggerate those thoughts and plans, turn them into violent moves, and they indulge their savagery and hurt others with it.

5 quotes

I walked, because I was made to do it. I walked, because it was the only thing to do. And that night I walkd, over and over again I heard my father’s final word. Aminata. Aminata. Aminata. (p34)

  This is the last sentence of the first chapter, after Aminata got kidnapped and her parent got killed while they are trying to save her. It is very important because this that is the first time she left her parent in her whole life and this is the first day of her salve life. In this sentence, she keeps hearing her father calling her, after that, her father and mother sound keep showing up in her brain throughout her whole life.

I screamed as I have never screamed before. I didn’t recognize myself. I had no clothes, no hair, no beauty, no womanhood. (p203)

  Aminata just got marry and had her first child. Her owner Appleby found out about her baby and the celebration of the marriage. He gets very mad; he rips her good clothes and shaves all her hair. Aminata loses her mind when she sees herself in the mirror. This is related to the theme dehumanization, Appleby humiliate Aminata physically and mentally because he “owns” her. I think Aminata should not have the celebration at the first place because she knew that she has such a master.

Allabu Akbar, I mumbled to myself. But maybe Fanta had been right. Maybe God was impossible here. ( p107)

  When Aminata was crossing the ocean, she watched toubabu and black people killing each other. She watched Fanta killed her own baby, who just caught by Aminata, and she watched her throwing Sanu baby into the ocean. After the rebellion of black people, Aminata almost lost her faith. I felt unbelievable and sad when I was reading this chapter. It shocked me when I found out Fanta kills her baby. I think she killed her baby because she doesn’t want the baby to spend the rest of her life as a slave, which I can understand. But I don’t think it is fair for her to kill someone else’s baby, she doesn’t have the right to do it.

We stayed with the beast until new lands met our feet, and we stumbled down the long planks just before the poison became fatal. Perhaps here in this new land, we could keep living. (p109)

This is the last sentence of the book one. In my opinion, it is saying that they got out of the ship before it kills them. And they shall keep living if the new land offers them a chance. I think Aminata is quite a positive person. She can always think of the good side, of situation and people. This personality of her keeps her from losing her mind and going crazy, after she lost so many things and people she loved and cared.

I didn’t mind the sliver-grey coloring by his temples, or the smooth baldness of his head. He was my man, just further along the road of life. I wanted to watch him grow older still. I wanted to note all of the changes, one day to the next, and I wanted to protect his hands, in mine. (p325)

This is how Aminata feels when she saw Chekura again after another 9 years. This paragraph moves me but makes me feel sad at the same time because she is going to lose him again. This is related to the theme love vs. freedom. In my opinion, love is more important to Aminata, because love is the one thing that she is living for and fighting for. She wants her freedom for love, she wants a good life with love, she want to go back to Africa and find love. Everytime she moves on, she has her faith on Chekura and their love.

Post #6: Obstacles

  A very big and important obstacle in my life so far is to study at Canada. It is a chance, an experience, but an obstacle at the same time. The hardest thing is to speak English all the time, since I don’t really use English back home. It was very hard at the beginning because I could not understand anything at all. I had to stay up late doing homework and memorizing English vocabularies. Beside language, I had to get used to the life style, the weather and the rules here. Unlike home, I need to do and face everything by myself, laundry, cleaning my room, getting sick, feeling sad…  It is impossible that all these things did not change me, it changed me more than I could ever image.  Living and studying in Canada made me a maturer than before because I need to deal with everything by myself, I knew my parents would not be there for me when there were problems. However, I learned to be independent. I met lots of great friends here, from all over the world, everyone of them teach me something I could never get a chance to learn if I was studying back home.
  Growing up is never easy. If I stay in China I wouldn't be able to become whoever I am. We only get to grow up when we experience pain, when we suffer from unfamiliar place, when we feel sad and disappointed. Therefore we get to know the world, get to understand the rules, get to see who we are and get a chance to be a better person.

  Coming to here is a obstacle, but I prefer to consider it as a chance, a chance for me to go through different experiences, a chance for me to grow up, a chance for me to find myself.