Film Noir Project

Here’s the video that Lindsey, Lan, Drapeau, and I created. =) Enjoy!

In Cold Blood

My thoughts on the movie: That was an amazing movie. I just wish I’m going to have some time to read the book. That’d truly be an interesting read along with MANY OTHER BOOKS that I’ve been wanting to read. =( So little time … Anyways.. here goes

Richard Brooks’ film In Cold Blood portrayed several aspects of Modernism. It also had a film noir touch to it. A list of Modernist attributes could be ascertained here. The most noticeable modernist attribute is the nonlinear structure of the story. Notice how the story is told at the beginning. Truman Capote began the story with the following of the murder and how Perry Smith and Dick Hickock react afterwards. The film, then, turns back around and shows the murder scenes. Finally, it is brought back to the persecution of the two murderers. In addition to the restructuring of the plot, many flashbacks occur throughout the movie. Evidently, the story is not traditionally told sequentially and thus reveals a truly important modernist attribute.

These two kids are 2 out of the 4 children in the Clutter family. Unfortunately, these two were murdered.

Another aspect of modernist literature includes the psychological interior. Much of the reason why Perry Smith and Dick Hickock perform such murderous acts is because of their deprived childhoods. Perry Smith is traumatized by the split of his parents and the witnessing of his mother’s sexual activities with other men. Perry Smith relives the past constantly as he sees his mother and father as other people at certain times. He is haunted by his terrible childhood, in which his own father threatened to kill him. The psychological interior concerning Dick Hickock is quite interesting. Hickock is a manipulative person–a back-slapping, playful– who never fails to keep smiling. He seems to be optimistic but truly is not, as he says his last words before his persecution. He says that dying would bring him to a better place than this world ever was.

Thus, we are caught into the experience of reality. Are these characters really being truthful in their actions and thoughts? At times, Smith is not regretful, while at others he cannot understand why he even does such evil acts like killing the Clutter family. Hickock, on the other hand, is always laughing and smiling– getting the last word in on everything. Yet, he truly believes that this world is one filled with cruelty and emptiness, since he believes life after death will be better than living ever was for him. Another important attribute is the search for a meaning in life. These two people, Smith and Hickock, obviously have difficulties in searching for their meaning in life. Just as they were deprived of decent childhoods, their adulthood could not be fulfilled as much as possible. They live during each moment without thinking about the future. This is evident with the murder of the Clutter family. Smith and Hickock, then live tentatively, improvising on whatever they could possibly achieve.

As a result, Truman Capote’s novel In Cold Blood is one inundated with modernist attributes. The film involves not only modernist attributes, but it also has a Film Noir taste to it, as shadows and bars fill each room. There is a detective trying to find the murderers and there are seductive women, such as the “senorita” that Hickock brings home. In Cold Blood is another novel/film that does not fail to have many attributes of modernist literature.

Works Cited

Wikipedia. “In Cold Blood.” 10 May 2008.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Cold_Blood>.

Long Day’s Journey Into Night

Before you get a start on the essay, please watch this video! =) The video above is one of the most profound parts of the play. Jamie is the most realistic character throughout the play and at this part, it is difficult to understand whether he is being honest or if he is hiding his true feelings. Is Jamie being realistic or is he trying to hide the way he really feels underneath those nasty words? In my opinion, he’s speaking his mind.

As previously discussed in the last post, Long Day’s Journey Into Night provides one of the most valuable explorations into the losses of meaning and hope. Along the journey, Eugene also sends the reader into a search for the reality of an experience. What makes Long Day’s Journey Into Night even more valuable is the fact that it is based on a real day in the life of Eugene O’Neill.

The losses of meaning and hope are evident throughout the play. Edmund Tyrone is the best example of a person who faces these losses. When he learns of his disease (consumption), he loses all hope of living. Edmund constantly recites morbid poems that express death:

They are not long, the weeping and the laughter,

Love and desire and hate:

I think they have no portion in us after

We pass the gate.

They are not long, the days of wine and roses:

Out of a misty dream

Our path emerges for a while, then closes

Within a dream (O’Neill 133).

Even though Doctor Hardy warns Edmund not to drink, due to his consumption, Edmund rejects the doctor’s orders because he does not believe he will be treated. No longer does Edmund see a meaning to life at all; he shows this belief by drinking a lot of alcohol:

TYRONE

Passes the bottle to him– mechanically.

I’m wrong to treat you. You’ve had enough already.

EDMUND

Pouring a big drink– a bit drunkenly.

Enough is not as good as a feast.

He hands back the bottle.

TYRONE

It’s too much in your condition.

EDMUND

Forget my condition!

He raises his glass (O’Neill 132).

Edmund is not the only one who faces these losses; Jamie, too, stops hoping at a young age and shows no belief in a meaning to his life. Jamie witnesses the morphine addiction of his mother at a young age and thus, loses any hope for the termination of her use. He sees that she is constantly changing from “clean” to addicted so often that he keeps telling his family members there is no use in trying to stop his mother:

MARY

No. I know you can’t help thinking it’s a home.

She adds quickly with a detached contrition.

I’m sorry, dear. I don’t mean to be bitter. It’s not your fault.

She turns and disappears through the back parlor. The three in the room remain silent. It is as if they were waiting until she got upstairs before speaking.

JAMIE

Cynically brutal.

Another shot in the arm! (O’Neill 76).

Jamie is referring to his mother’s use of morphine again. He goes on to argue with his brother and father that they should not continue to hope:

TYRONE

Have you no pity or decency?

Losing his temper.

You ought to be kicked out in the gutter! But if I did it, you know damned well who’d weep and plead for you, excuse you and complain till I let you come back.

JAMIE

A spasm of pain crosses his face.

Christ, don’t I know that? No pity? I have all the pity in the world for her. I understand what a hard game to beat she’s up against– which is more than you ever have! My lingo didn’t mean I had no feeling. I was merely putting bluntly what we all know, and have to live with now, again.

Bitterly.

The cures are no damned good except for a while. The truth is there is no cure and we’ve been saps to hope– (O’Neill 78).

Jamie also proves that he sees no meaning in his life through constant stays with prostitutes during the nights and at bars.

EDMUND

What did you do uptown tonight? Go to Mamie Burns?

JAMIE

Very drunk, his head nodding.

Sure thing. Where else could I find suitable feminine companionship? And love. Don’t forget love. What is a man without a good woman’s love? A God-damned hollow shell. (O’Neill 161-162).

Mary Tyrone is another character who sees no meaning in her life. When left alone, while her family goes to bars to drink, she tells of how she has no friends. Mary talks to Cathleen, her servant, about how she lost all hope of being a pianist or a nun when she married James Tyrone.

MARY

I had two dreams. To be a nun, that was the more beautiful one. To become a concert pianist, that was the other.

She pauses, regarding her hands fixedly. Cathleen blinks her eyes to fight off drowsiness and a tipsy feeling.

I haven’t touched a piano in so many years. I couldn’t play with such crippled fingers, even if I wanted to. For a time after my marriage, I tried to keep up my music. But it was hopeless. One-night stands, cheap hotels, dirty trains, leaving children, never having a home– (O’Neill 106).

Here, Mary expresses her hopelessness and the dreams that she believes she would never be able to fulfill. What, then, is the meaning in her life if she refers to her life as one filled with “one-night stands” in “cheap hotels” and “dirty trains,” while leaving her children and “never having a home?”

Are these characters in Long Day’s Journey Into Night really facing reality? Indeed, the situation is real, but the Tyrone family is escaping reality in so many ways. Edmund and Jamie both drink alcohol and spend nights with prostitutes. Mary escapes reality by getting high off of morphine. James avoids the situation by focusing on his acting career. There is no doubt that the situation these characters are facing is real, but whether or not they are accepting it as real is the question. Jamie is the only person in the family that bluntly states his true feelings and his belief that his mother will always be addicted to morphine. The rest of the family tries to avoid the issue and keeps on hoping that Mary will stop her addiction. Overall, Long Day’s Journey Into Night is based mostly on these two themes of losses of meaning and hope and exploring the reality of an experience.

Drawing Connections Between the Themes and Long Day’s Journey

Before I start the essay on my attribute, I’d like to examine Eugene O’Neill’s recurring themes closely in Long Day’s Journey Into Night. Recall that the most recurring themes are maternal loss, sense of home, purpose for living, and the affirmation of marriage. All of these topics play a significant role in Long Day’s Journey Into Night (no pun intended HAHAHA, k I just got a huge crack outta that one).

The maternal loss that both Jamie and Edmund face is the most obvious reason that they are driven into morbidness. As a young child, Jamie faces the beginnings of his mother’s addiction to morphine. After the death of Eugene (in the play, of course, but in real life, Edmund), Mary Tyrone blames herself for leaving her beloved child at home. That is when she starts to take morphine to “cure” the rheumatism in her hands, but it is most likely for the depression that takes over. Jamie, then, learns the evil ways of alcohol and prostitution, which are the main components that contribute to his escape from reality. As the years pass by, Mary constantly changes from being “clean” to being addicted. While she is attached to morphine, she begins to detach herself from her family and slips into the past. Jamie and Edmund constantly have to face the loss of their mother– spiritually, mentally, and emotionally–for she is physically there with them at all times.

While maternal loss plays a significant role in the lives of Jamie and Edmund, a sense of home proves to be an even larger issue for Mary Tyrone. Whenever she is accused of being a “dope fiend,” she blames James Tyrone, her husband, for never buying a decent home in which she could live. Constantly on the road, following James on his tours, Mary is lost in an array of temporary settlements in cheap hotels. It is as if she cannot stable herself due to the constant moving. Her complaints are always based on the lack of a home. However, Mary is not the only one facing this difficulty. James, Edmund, and Jamie always want to escape the dreadfulness of being at home because they hate to see Mary the way that she is when she is under the influence. They, too, cannot call it a home when it is filled with simultaneous hate and love, tension, and constant suppression.

The purpose of living is greatly explored in Long Day’s Journey Into Night. Edmund, who learns of his consumption, feels as if there is no hope left for him. He constantly recites morbid poems of death and lifelessness. Mary Tyrone believes she is trapped in a world with noone to help her. She even rejects the help from doctors. When asked why she would not leave the house, she answers that she has no friends because she married an actor for a husband. Lastly, Jamie Tyrone shows no hope for his life as he spends most of his nights at bars and with prostitutes.

Affirmation of marriage is an important part of the play, for James and Mary Tyrone stay faithful to each other even through all of their troubles. Although James seems to be occupied by his acting career, Mary stays by his side no matter what– even if it means she has to spend her life in one night hotels and shoddy beach houses. James, on the other hand, sticks by Mary Tyrone, although he knows she is addicted to morphine. Many times, Mary distances her self because of the morphine addiction and her behavior is much too unbearable. However, James still admits that he loves her. Their marriage is depicted as a tough one, but one that will not fail to last, for James and Mary prove their love for each other in many ways.

Finally, it is only right to admit that Eugene O’Neill excellently incorporates these very themes into his plays. A Long Day’s Journey is best created by these themes that Eugene O’Neill often uses, for it is a day in his life after all. Evidently, Eugene’s childhood is a reflection of the recurring themes in his works of writing.

The Tragic Life of a Talented Playwright

Eugene O’Neill is a successfully talented playwright, who never ceased the search for a true meaning in life. The deeper he caved into his own mind and spirit, the less capable of surviving he became. His quest to find truth and meaning in life was due largely to his tragic childhood. Born into a family with a father, who was a talented actor, and a mother, who was addicted to drugs, particularly morphine, Eugene O’Neill suffered from lack of attention and nurturing. The reason for such lack of love from his mother was due largely to the death of his brother, Edmund. Eugene’s mother blamed herself for the incident and became addicted to morphine in order to detach herself from reality. From then on, it was as if Eugene did not have a mother. James O’Neill, Eugene’s father, was even less capable of being around his sons because of his acting career. Thus, Eugene was deprived of an enjoyable childhood.

Based on this tragic life, it is no wonder Eugene’s plays focus largely on typical themes such as maternal loss, sense of home, purpose for living, and the affirmation of marriage. In Desire Under the Elms, maternal loss is evident throughout the play. Peter and Simeon are not the only ones that do not have a mother around; Eben loses his mother at a particularly young age also. The presence of a marriage between Cabot and Abigail is used to introduce a mother into the family again to compensate for the loss of a mother. However, Abigail, a supposed mother figure transforms into Eben’s lover. The affirmation of marriage is then questioned. Abigail is unfaithful to Cabot. Thus, it is evident that Eugene is exploring the reason for marriage and its complications.

The transformation of a mother into a lover parallels the relationship between Eugene and Carlotta. Eugene constantly sees Carlotta as the mother he never had and thus, a suitable lover. She gave him the nurturing, care, and love that his mother never did– the love that he never received as a child. Thus, it was with Carlotta that Eugene found stability. Much of this relationship is explored in Desire Under the Elms between Eben and Abigail.

The sense of home is examined as all characters in Desire Under the Elms are in a constant rivalry for ownership of the farm. At first, Eben pays Simeon and Peter to buy the portion of their land that would be granted to them in Cabot’s will. However, Abigail comes along to take the land away from everyone, while Cabot is determined to keep it for himself and wishes that he could take it with him when he dies. What, then, is the purpose of living for these people? Is it to own a land they can call their own or is it to find true love? Eugene explores the meaning of life in Desire Under the Elms, for at the beginning, the struggle is to own land, but in the end, the struggle transforms into a search for true love– to love and be loved.

Desire Under the Elms

Several different modernist attributes are encompassed in Desire Under the Elms, written by Eugene O’Neill. The most evident attribute is the experimentation in form.

Traditionally, stories, plays, and other works of writing go by a specific structure that begins with exposition, progresses with rising action, hits a climax, reaches a falling action, and ends with a resolution.

However, in Desire Under the Elms, a small exposition is provided and there is no falling action nor a resolution to correspond with the climax of the play. Another attribute that ties in with this experimentation of form is the open ending of the play. The reader is left with countless unanswered questions.

The transformation in form is evident in Desire Under the Elms. The play begins right in the middle of a conversation.

Eben– God! Purty!

Simeon–Purty.

Peter–Ay-eh.

Simeon– Eighteen years ago.

Peter–What?

Simeon–Jenn. My woman. She died.

Evidently, a small exposition is provided when the Peter, Simeon, and Eben start talking about their father. The boys make it quite clear that their father left them in control of the farm while he took a trip.

Simeon– Mebbe–fur all we knows–he’s dead now.

Peter–Ye’d need proof

Simeon–He’s been gone two months–with no word.

Peter–Left us in the fields an evenin’ like this. Hitched up an’ druv off into the West. That’s plumb onnateral. He hain’t never been off this farm ‘ceptin’ t’ the village in thirty year or more, not since he married Eben’s maw. I calc’late we might git him declared crazy by the court.

No descriptions of characters or their conditions are explained, leaving the reader with a responsibility to discover all of the information in the rising action of the play. The action in the play keeps rising as Eben falls in love with his step-mother, Abbie.

Abbie–Vengeance o’ God on the hull o’ us! What d’we give a durn? I love ye, Eben! God knows I love ye!

Eben–An’ I love yew, Abbie!–now I kin say it! I been dyin’ fur want o’ ye–every hour since ye come! I love ye!

Abbie vows that she will bear the child of her husband, Cabot:

Cabot–The farm needs a son.

Abbie–I need a son.

Abbie then goes on to say:

Abbie–Ye’ll have a son out o’ me, I promise ye.

Instead, Eben and Abbie have a baby together and, suddenly, a misunderstanding comes between their love. Abigail believes the only way she can redeem herself and rejuvenate their love is by murdering her child:

Abbie–If I could make it–’s if he’d never come up between us–if I could prove t’ ye I wa’n't schemin’ t’ steal from ye–so’s everythin’ could be jest the same with us, lovin each other jest the same, kissin’ an’ happy the same’s we’ve been happy afore he come–if I could do it–ye’d love me agen, wouldn’t ye? Ye’d kiss me agen? Ye wouldn’t never leave me, would ye?

Eben–I calc’late not. But ye hain’t God, be ye?

Abbie–Remember ye’ve promised! Mebbe I kin take back one thin’ God does!

Eben–Ye’re gittin cracked, hain’t ye? I’m a-goin’ t’ dance.

Abbie–I’ll prove t’ ye! I’ll prove I love ye better’n. . . . Better’n everythin’ else in the world!

The play ends as the sheriff confronts Abbie and Eben, and Cabot orders the sheriff to take them away:

Sheriff–Open in the name o’ the law!

Cabot–They’ve come fur ye. Jest a minit, Jim. I got ‘em safe here.

Eben–I lied this mornin’, Jim. I helped her do it. Ye kin take me, too.

Abbie–No!

Cabot–Take ‘em both.

The end of this story is also the climax of the story. No resolution or conclusion is made. What happens to Cabot in the end? Does he stay on the farm alone? Do Abbie and Eben ever get released?

“Rise and Shine!!!” Time to Step Back into Reality!

“The Glass Menagerie”

A very significant theme explored in “The Glass Menagerie” is the reality of experience. Tennessee Williams continues to emphasize the importance of the style of the poem. Before the play begins, Williams makes sure that the audience understands that the play is a one based on memory. He justifies its lack of reality:

“Memory takes a lot of poetic license. It omits some details; others are exaggerated, according to the emotional value of the articles it touches, for memory is seated predominantly in the heart” (Williams 143).

However, in all of its fantasized elements, “The Glass Menagerie” is actually an in-depth exploration of reality. Thus, Williams does not fail to explain that it is the use of exaggeration that allows one to understand the difference between reality and fantasy.

The narrator, also a character in the play, is the person who re-tells this tragic story. Tom Wingfield describes himself as “the opposite of a stage musician” who “gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth” (Williams 144). He says, “I give you the truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion” (Williams 144). Again, the reality of the situation is explored. The point that Tom makes connects to a note that Williams makes in the Production Notes. Williams explains that:

“When a play employs unconventional techniques, it is not, or certainly shouldn’t be, trying to escape its responsibility of dealing with reality, or interpreting experience, but is actually attempting to find a closer approach, a more penetrating and vivid expression of things as they are” (Williams 131).

Evidently, reality is presented in the use of “unconventional techniques” like

“poetic imagination” that “can represent or suggest, in essence, only through transformation, through changing into other forms than those which were merely present in appearance” (Williams 131).

Williams is ultimately reiterating the significance of imagination, exaggeration, and illusion in order present truth and reality.

The main characters in “The Glass Menagerie” include two women who are trapped in their own worlds. Amanda Wingfield, the mother, has difficulty in letting go of her past. She lives in the past and constantly tries to re-live her life through her daughter, Laura Wingfield. Williams describes her as:

“A little woman of great but confused vitality clinging frantically to another time and place… Amanda, having failed to establish contact with reality continues to live vitally in her illusions” (Williams 129).

Amanda Wingfield constantly talks about the multiple gentleman callers that she had in her life. Tom and Laura make it obvious that Amanda loves reminisce on these memories and constantly tells her stories:

Amanda: Sometimes they come when they are least expected! Why, I remember one
Sunday afternoon in Blue Mountain–

Tom: I know what’s coming!

Laura: yes. But let her tell it.

Tom: Again?

Laura: She loves to tell it. (Williams 147).

Not only that, but when Laura almost meets her first gentleman caller, Amanda dresses up and begins to describe her days with many gentleman callers.

Amanda:…. This is the dress in which I led the cotillion. Won the cakewalk twice at Sunset Hill, wore one Spring to the Governor’s Ball in Jackson! See how I sashayed around the ballroom, Laura?

It is quite evident that Amanda is obsessed with her past. She does not quite grasp reality as it is looming about her. Her own kids even smirk at her vivid memories of a wondrous lifestyle. Not until Tom leaves the family does Amanda realize she needs to step out of her dream-like state and learn how to provide a life for Laura and herself.

Laura, on the other hand, is an even worse situation because she is like a shy 5-year old girl trapped in a 30-year-old woman’s body. Constantly subconscious of her legs, that are uneven in length, she is incapable of going out into the real world and exploring her future. Williams describes Laura:

“Laura’s separation increases until she is like a piece of her own glass collection, too exquisitely fragile to move from the shelf” (Williams 129).

Obsessed with her glass menagerie, Laura constantly polishes and treats these inanimate objects as if they were her best friends. Laura has no intention of developing a future for herself, since she has no confidence in herself.

Amanda: Laura, where have you been going when you’ve gone out pretending that you were going to business college?

Laura: I’ve just been going out walking.

Laura: I went in the art museum and the bird houses at the Zoo. I visited the penguins every day! Sometimes I did without lunch and went to the movies. Lately, I’ve been spending most of my afternoons in the Jewel Box, that big glass house where they raise the tropical flowers.

Evidently, these two women are living in a fantasy world, where only the both of them matter to themselves. Not until Jim O’Connor, a nice, ordinary, young man, arrives does reality start to slap these characters in the face. Tom refers to Jim as “the most realistic character in the play, being an emissary from a world of reality that we were somehow set apart from” (Williams 145).Jim O’Connor helps Laura grasp reality for once when he tells her how beautiful she is. He helps her overcome the flaws that she continuously dreads:

Jim: You know what I judge to be the trouble with you? Inferiority complex! Know what that is? That’s what they call it when someone low-rates himself! (Williams 220)

He continues on:

Jim: Just look about you a little. What do you see? A world full of common people! All of ‘em born and all of ‘em going to die! Which of them has one-tenth of your good points! Or mine! (Williams 221)

Finally, Laura realizes that she must not seclude herself from society. She presents the glass unicorn to Jim and tells him how fond she is of it. He then places the fragile unicorn onto a desk. While Laura and Jim dance around the room, they accidentally hit the desk, causing the unicorn to fall to the floor and break. It is then, that Laura presents her understanding of reality:

Laura: Now it is like all athe other horses.

Jim: It’s lost its–

Laura: Horn! It doesn’t matter. Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise. (Williams 226)

Laura continues on and says:

Laura: Now he will feel more at home with the other horses, the ones that don’t have horns. (Williams 126)

The conclusion that Laura makes also stands as a symbol of Laura’s understanding of the reality she must face. Her transformation from a shy girl, who is not able to face other people for fear of their superiority, to a more confident woman, who now understands that she is like the rest. Recall that Williams explains that he presents reality through transformation. Thus, he ultimately achieves the in-depth exploration of the reality of experience in “The Glass Menagerie” with the transformation of Laura.

Works Cited

Williams, Tennessee. The Theatre of Tennessee Williams: Volume 1. New York: New Directions Books, 1971.

A Streetcar Named Desire

A Streetcar Named Desire is another work of writing that explores the loss of meaning and hope in the life of a character during the 1950s. The way in which the loss is overcome is also examined. Tennessee Williams analyzes realism of human behavior into the characters of the play and thus, contributes to an exploration of the reality of experience. Therefore, a great amount of modernist attributes can be discovered in A Streetcar Named Desire.

The character whom Tennessee Williams most afflicts pain and suffering upon is Blanche. This affliction is evident in the death of many family members:

Blanche: I, I, I took the blows in my face and my body! All of those deaths! The long parade to the graveyard! Father, mother! Margaret, that dreadful way (261)!

However, Blanche is also the character whom Tennessee most sympathizes for and whose actions are justified. The much detailed character of Blanche thus reflects realistic behaviors of people in society. Blanche, an insecure and superficial woman, loses the meaning and hope in her life at a young age. She is only 16 when her husband is caught cheating on her with another man and ultimately commits suicide due to the overbearing pressure:

Blanche: Then I found out. In the worst of all possible ways. By coming suddenly into a room that I thought was empty– which wasn’t empty, but had two people in it . . . the boy I had married and an older man who had been his friend for years ( 354). . .

After Blanche whispers into the boy’s ear that she knew about his homosexuality,

Blanche: Suddenly in the middle of the dance the boy I had married broke away from me and ran out of the casino. A few moments later– a shot (355)!

From then on, the life that Blanche tries to grasp seems to slip from her hands as her family members all die. Her loss of hope and meaning in life results in multiple attempts to “fix” young men or at least please them, for she felt she could not do so for Alan, her dead husband. Thus, when Blanche finally loses all elements of herself, she still realizes that she has “always depended on the kindness of strangers” (Williams 418). That “kindness of strangers” is symbolized as the sexual encounters of Blanche with strangers, which Stanley reveals to Stella:

Stanley: She moved to Flamingo! A second-class hotel which has the advantage of not interfering in the private social life of the personalities there! The Flamingo is used to all kinds of goings-on. But even the management of the Flamingo was impressed by Dame Blanche! In fact they was so impressed by Dame Blanche that they requested her to turn in her room key– for permanently (360)!

Blanche tries to overcome the losses in her life by having sexual encounters with young men. Her continuous attempts to re-live the past and to right her “wrongs” are, in reality, what most human beings do. The fact that Stanley has to tell Stella about Blanche is due to the limited truths that Blanche feeds to Stella. These limited truths reflect the way human beings make impressions on people that are important to them and, therefore, exhibit a reality of experience in the story.

Although all hope for Blanche seems to be lost, a glimpse of it is restored when Mitch asks Blanche to be his:

Mitch: You need somebody. And I need somebody, too. Could it be– you and me, Blanche (356)?

Unfortunately, all hope is lost when Mitch learns of her multiple sexual encounters with younger men back in Laurel.

Mitch: I don’t think I want to marry you any more.

Blanche: No?

Mitch: You’re not clean enough to bring in the house with my mother (390).

Blanche loses all meaning and hope in her life after Stella and Mitch do not trust her. It seems as though nobody believes in her. She is not able to face these losses successfully because she becomes mentally ill. The continuous attempts of Blanche to be accepted into society are also found in the natural human behavior. Much of these realistic themes contribute to the buildup of a realistic experience. Finally, when Blanche is not given another chance at true love, the meaning of her life collapses and mental fragility predominates.

Works Cited

Williams, Tennessee. The Theatre of Tennessee Williams: Volume 1. New York: New Directions Books, 1971.

“A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”

One of the typical themes in modernist literature includes the loss of meaning and hope in the modern world and how these losses are faced. Ernest Hemingway contributes a tough realism into American modern literature that explores a meaningless and hopeless world. His symbolism of the dark night and bars contributes to this sort of world also.

In “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” an elderly man seems to dread the life he lives, for he spends his nights drinking at a cafe. Although wealthy, he is also unfortunately deaf.

“In the day time the street was dusty, but at night the dew settled the dust and the old man liked to sit late [at the cafe] because he was deaf and now at night it was quiet and he felt the difference.”

The loss of meaning and hope for this old man is evident, for he tries to commit suicide. One waiter announces, “‘Last week he tried to commit suicide… He was in despair.’” The waiter also assumes that the old man is in despair for no reason because he is wealthy. However, this does not seem to be the case, for wealth alone does not fully satisfy people. Evidently, the old man tries to face this loss of meaning and hope in his life by committing suicide.

Another character in the story also seems to lose hope and meaning in his life also. As a young waiter complains about the length of time the old man uses to drown himself in alcohol, an older waiter defends the old man.

“‘Why didn’t you let him stay and drink?’ the unhurried waiter asked.

‘I want to go home to bed.’

‘What is an hour?’

‘More to me than to him.’

‘An hour is the same.’”

The defense that the older waiter withholds makes it clear that the older, unhurried waiter is also in a situation where he would like to stay out late at night. Does this older waiter also suffer from a loss of meaning and hope? Clearly, he loses his hope in life, for he tells the younger waiter that he has nothing.

“‘You have youth, confidence, and a job,’ the older waiter said. ‘You have everything.’

‘And what do you lack?’

‘Everything but work.’

‘You have everything I have.’

‘No. I have never had confidence and I am not young.’”

The older waiter faces these losses by sleeping in the daytime and staying up during the night, for each night, he is “reluctant to close up because there may be some one who needs the cafe.”

“He would lie in the bed and finally, with daylight, he would go to sleep. After all, he said to himself, it is probably only insomnia. Many must have it.”

This waiter tries to understand the circumstances under which other people suffer during the nighttime. For example, he believes that the old, deaf man should be able to sit in the cafe to drink because it is a clean, well-lighted place, while bars, on the other hand, are loud and dark. The waiter also understands that fear nor dread is the reason in which the old man or he, himself, could not “stand before a bar with dignity.” Instead,

“It was a nothing that he knew too well. It was all a nothing and a man was nothing too. It was only that and light was all it needed and a certain cleanness and order. Some lived in it and never felt it but he knew it was all nada y pues nada y nada y pues nada.”

The use of the word, “nothing” emphasizes loss and emptiness in the world. Elizabeth Wall seems to think that “The only escape from this Nothing is blissful unconsciousness, permanent only in death.” However, this waiter could not seem to be at peace and to overcome the losses of meaning and hope in his life. Therefore, he essentially tried to help others in achieving reasons for them to live.

Ernest Hemingway does an excellent job with the contrasts between the dark and light. “Darkness is a symbol of fear and loneliness (Well),” which is why the deaf, old man likes to stay in the clean, well-lighted cafe. In order to escape the loneliness of the dark, the old man seeks refuge in the cafe that represents unity and safety (Elizabeth Well). Ultimately, the loss of meaning and hope is evident in the darkness of Hemingway’s bars and lonely nights.

“A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” outlines the circumstances of a morbid story. Evidently, the two elderly men seem to lose hope and meaning in their lives, for one tries to commit suicide, and the other sleeps by day, but stays up by night to drink in a well-lighted cafe to escape the loneliness and helplessness of the dark. The exploration of these realistic situations, in which the hope and meaning of life could be lost, is ultimately a typical theme of modernist literature.

Bereft of God in “The Hollow Men”

Before you start reading this blog, I recommed you watch this video on “The Hollow Men.”

“The Hollow Men” explores the search for the meaning of life without God and a loss of it along with hope in the world. Although the reader is led to believe that “The Hollow Men” represents meaningless lives, T.S. Eliot intends to make them think otherwise. Like in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” the reality of experience is also examined in “The Hollow Men.”

According to J. Hillis Miller,”the empty men are bereft of God.” The “hollow men” are separated from their spirits and minds– they are nothing but “walking corpses” (Miller). What, then, would be the meaning of life for such people? The hollow men “are quiet and meaningless” in this unreal world. Eliot seems to establish that there is no meaning of life in this world without God. However, these “hollow men”– “stuffed men”– beg “Those who have crossed/ With direct eyes to death’s other Kingdom” to “remember us … not as lost/ violent souls.” These men are generally calling out to those whom are still alive to remember them as more than just lost/violent souls, for, then, they would be capable of damnation. If there’s hope for damnation, then there is hope for salvation. T.S. Eliot also writes of these hollow men being sightless, since “The eyes are not here/ There are no eyes here.” Miller explains that “though Eliot’s language is deliberately ambiguous, it implies that the sightless eyes of the hollow men may see again.” Therefore, Eliot implies that even in a world where men are hollow and life seems to be useless, a glimpse of hope still lingers.

Again, the reality of experience is questioned in this poem by T.S. Eliot. “This is the dead land” where “shape without form, shade without colour, paralysed force, gesture without motion” exists. How can shape be without form and shade be without color? This setting ultimately supports the idea that a nonexistent world is in place. In general, the reality of experience is minimal and T.S. Eliot uses this fantasized setting to point out that, even in cases like these, hope still exists.