In Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, the characters are extremely well defined. In fact, they are so well defined obtuse critics have characterized them as two-dimensional, but Williams drew them that way intentionally so as to underscore the flaws that make their characters so memorable.
Blanche is an aging single Southern woman whose best days are in the past. Blanche has not been able to make the adjustment from when she was the belle of the county at Belle Reeve, her family's southern home, to the harsh realities of her present situation, one in which she has always "depended on the kindness of strangers" (142). All of her attempts at living in reality involve her trying to keep up appearances to match the fantasy "self" she sees in her mind. Stella adjusted to the loss of Belle Reeve better than Blanche, but she cannot resist being submissive to her brutish husband, her way of maintaining an identity. Stanley is all animal passion and male hormones. He works, eats, drinks, plays poker with the guys and has sex. If he has to slap his wife around once in a while to maintain order that's alright by him. Mitch is the perfect mama's boy and he cannot help being at the mercy of his illusions regarding women. He is used to being mothered and he is a middle-aged bachelor who carries around a cigarette case given to him by a formed love interest who died. He is no more in reality where his idealization of women is concerned than Blanch is regarding her feminine appeal to men. Everyone but Stanley is filled with illusions and needs, but Stanley is all passion and animal hunger, hunger he satiates in whatever way pleases him. The characters are reinforced by the dialogue as we see Blanche beg St...
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...d we could hear it rumbling on the tracks as Stanley erupts in one of his angry outbursts). Music of black performers should also be heard occasionally. Music could also accentuate the date between Blanche and Mitch and it could be used effectively to help set the time and tone and flavor of the south during Blanches recollections of Belle Reeve. The character I relate to most is Stanley because it would be fun to play a sensitive brute who only was a slave to his animal passions regardless of anyone else. While it would be hard to surpass the film casting of Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter and Karl Malden in the lead roles, modern actors might include Kathleen Turner (Blanche), Brad Pitt (Stanley), Drew Barrymore (Kim Hunter) and Dabney Coleman (Mitch).
WORKS CITED
Williams, T. A Streetcar Named Desire. Signet Books, NY: 1947.
Blanche, a fading beauty, uses her sugary charm and soft southern ways to attract men. In comparison, Stanley "sizes women up at a glance, with sexual classifications" to "determine the way he smiles at them" (Williams, Street 29). Course and deliberately aggressive, he is a "survivor of the stone age" (Williams, Street 72). Despite their differences, they both possess a raw sensuality. In their first confrontation, Blanche's thick display of charm angers and attracts Stanley.
Popular in the united states, the rhythmic music known as rap can be traced back generations to it’s ethnic origins. Centuries before hip hop music existed, the Tribes of West Africa were delivering stories rhythmically, over drums and sparse instrumentation. Connections between tribal story telling virtuals and rap music have been acknowledged by many modern day "tribes", spoken word artists, mainstream news sources, and academics. In the 21st century, rappers rap about their lives and how the place they grew up in was very hard and that is why many people think like rap music so much, because there are many connections rapper can relate to.
Many symptoms exist with Tourette Syndrome patients. They include involuntary body movements called tics. These consist of but are not limited to eye blinking, arm thrusting, kicking movements, shoulder shrugging, and jumping.
Rap is about giving voice to a black community otherwise underrepresented, if not silent, in the mass media. It has always been and remains … directly connected to the streets from which it came. (144)
The essential conflict of the story is between Blanche, and her brother in-law Stanley. Stanley investigates Blanche’s life to find the truth of her promiscuity, ruining her relationships with Stella, and her possible future husband Mitch, which successfully obtain his goal of getting Blanche out of his house. Blanche attempts to convince Stella that she should leave Stanley because she witnessed a fight between the two. Despite these instances, there is an essence of sexual tension between the two, leading to a suspected rape scene in which one of their arguments ends with Stanley leading Blanche to the bed. Branching from that, Stella has an inner conflict because she does not know whether to side with her husband or her sister in each situation. Blanche and Mitch ha...
Rap artist tell their life story through rap. Not only do they tell their story, but they also have a moral to their story. Tupac was one of the greatest rappers of all time. He was murdered at the age of 25. He is still, even in death, one of the most influential artists in the lives of urban people. Tupac told his life, from the beginning to the end, in his music. He was in a gang, he did drugs, and he was also known as a “thug.” If peop...
Rap music from the 1990’s to the year 2000 is known in hip hop as “the golden era”. This era is all about individuality and innovation of creating music in one of the newest musical art forms. Rap music started out as the expression of young black youths in the inner city of New York. Rap music is rhymed storytelling accompanied by highly rhythmic, electronically based music. It began in the mid-1970s in the South Bronx in New York City as a part of hip hop, composed of graffiti, breakdancing, and rap music. From the outset, rap music has articulated the pleasures and problems of black urban life in contemporary America. Rappers speak with the voice of personal experience, taking on the identity of the observer or narrator. Rap music has lost a lot of it purity and essence due to the multimillion dollar business. Rap music is always critizied because of it’s violent and sexual nature but its just reporting what is views in this cold world.(Rose, 1994)
Many schools of history begin the story of rap music as a mutation of southern soap-box blues. Using the basics of the blues style of music, rap is all about emotions and the personal interpretation of reality by the author of the song. Rap, then, should be considered as a definition essay of sort. What is rap? Rap music is an American minority artist creation. Unfortunately, rap music is not perceived by many Americans as an art form, but as a fad which they hope will soon fade away, one can trace the history of rap back to the West African professional singers/storytellers known as Griots. Rap is spoken word, rap is slang from the street corners of your brain. Rap is smoking herb, rappers recite truthful social bombs, preachers even rap it just comes out in a religious form. Rap is the heart and soul of citizens in the tall cold walls of property. Rap is the story of the time when people lost all control. Rap is regional, descriptive, and ethnic.
In spite of the controversy the hip-hop culture encounters, its' significance cannot be overlooked. Rap music is an important cultural phenomenon that represents a part of society that, after many years, has found a voice. It would be a mistake to think of all hip-hop as monolithic in fact it could be seen as a continuous dialogue within a community. Despite some of the controversial elements of hip-hop, rap music is an essential tool for the African- American community's search for identity.
Blanche who had been caring for a generation of dying relatives at Belle Reve has been forced to sell the family plantation. Blanche is a great deal less realistic than Stanley and lives in illusions which bring upon her downfall.
Rap is becoming more popular than ever, soon most of the world will have some type of knowledge of rap music. Rachel Sullivan from the University of Connecticut stated “White respondents in this survey had difficulty naming three rap artists, which indicated that they did not have a high level of commitment to the music.” This statement was produced in 2003, also seemed to be very one dimensional. Recently, rap music has been surging through the masses no matter the race. Furthermore, rap is becoming very prevalent especially in the youth of this era. Many trends, commercials, social media, etc. are revolving around rap music.
You learn so much about a rapper, and all the hardships they had to overcome in their lives to get to where they are now, through their music. Hearing their stories, really makes me wonder that, if they can get through so many hardships, why can’t I? I use rap as motivation to achieve my goals in life, and as a stepping stone, where one day I want to be driving a million-dollar car and living in a mansion with tons of money because of my hard work, dedication and persistence. I know that in today’s society, people look down on rap due to the things that are spoken of in it and it is affecting kids. However, that applies to almost everything; somehow, somewhere someone always finds a way to find a flaw and exploit it and make it a bigger issue than it should be. I understand why people think it is wrong when rappers tell their audiences to go out and do drugs and other wrong things, however, a lot of artists have given rap a bad name, when it had really started out as a form of expression and a way to convey messages about the hardships people went through. Rap has changed remarkably from when Tupac was alive and now. There have been a plethora of rappers that have come and gone but some stuck around and produce music until this day. Additionally, rap back in the day was better than it is now because back then every song had a deeper message within it, whereas artists are mass-producing just to make money and putting less and
Rap music has served as a tool to speak out against negative aspects of life, such as violence and guns. Many artists use their musical talents to promote peace and anti-violent acts. By communicating messages about violence and discrimination, and relating to youth, it provides an opportunity for them to make positive changes in their own lives. When dealing with social problems, one of the most important ways of finding a solution to the problem is to make others within our society aware of it. Rap music is a great tool for facilitating that process because due to its popularity, it has the ability to bring a message to the
Its influence is demonstrated in different features such as the lyrics of the songs, emotion and rhythm and of course the call and response. We can see the parallel to the method of the treatment of African Americans in the society today through the references to bondage and the outrageous racism of the past. Rap songs have something in commun which is their lyrical signs to slavery, yet in various styles. By comparing slavery and the current porblems
Five men changed the world of music as we know it in the early 1990s. A rap group that went by the name N.W.A. paved the way for the popularity of rap music that has lasted decades. Rap is “a type of popular music of United States Black origin, in which words are recited rapidly and rhythmically over a prerecorded, typically electronic instrumental backing” according to Google Dictionary. This paper will take you through the origin of rap, when rap became popular, and the effect rap has today. Rap has been around for many years and is both loved and hated by people all over the world.