A crutch in the literal sense is defined by Cambridge Dictionaries Online as “a stick with a piece that fits under or around the arm, which someone, who is having difficulty walking, leans on for support” (“Crutch”). However, in Tennessee Williams’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, not only is the term crutch used in the literal sense, but also in a figurative sense. At times these “crutches” seem to be almost a necessity in the lives of Williams’s characters. “I don’t want to lean on your shoulder, I want my crutch” (Williams 32). This theme can be seen in many relationships throughout the book, and can lead to many instances of misunderstanding. Although Brick’s assuaging force is the most obvious, many other characters, both in this play and in others forms of literature, seem to also have crutches that make them who they are …show more content…
“I guess you must have needed a lot of it, [understanding], in your family, Maggie, with your father’s liquor problem and now you’ve got Brick with his!” (Williams 152). Mae’s major goal in using Maggie as her verbal punching bag is to get the rights to Big Daddy’s property. With Brick practically incapacitated, Maggie is the only threat to attaining that goal. Thus, resulting in Mae laying on harsh words to make herself more stable or, in her mind, favored. “She’s childless because that big beautiful athlete husband of her’s won’t go to bed with her!” Mae exclaims, quite proud of herself (156). But Maggie does not stoop to Mae’s level, and, using Brick as her crutch, manages to obtain the rights to the property. Maggie claims to be pregnant, which is, ultimately, what ends up winning her the plantation, but Mae refuses to lose with dignity. “Of course we know what this is-- a lie!” (169). Maggie managed to overcome being Mae’s crutch by learning to do something for herself, though in this case, it was quite
The Grandmother’s deviousness and immorality is evident in the beginning of the story. While reading the newspaper article about the Misfit, the Grandmother brings it to Bailey’s attention. In Short Story Criticism, Mary Jane Schenck writes “For Bailey, the newspaper story is not important or meaningful, and for the Grandmother it does not represent a real threat but is part of a ploy to get her own way” (Schenck 220). “A Good Man is Hard to Find” begins with an innocent road trip, however, due to coercion by the Grandmother; it soon turns into a fatal nightmare. In Short Story Criticism, Martha Stephens writes “… it is true that in a trivial sense everything that happens is the Grandmother’s fault…” She continues with “It is in the conscious of the Grandmother that we continue to experience the action of the story…” (Stephens 196).
As a result of Nanny’s desire to see Janie married to wealth, she forces Janie to marry Logan Killocks, an older black farmer who owns 60 acres and a mule. Janie does not love Logan but because Nanny pushes her into the marriage she believes love will follow marriage, but Nanny quickly says “You come head wid yo’ mouf full uh foolishness on uh busy day. Heah you got uh prop tuh lean on all yo’ bawn days, and big protection, and everybody got tuh tip dey hat tuh you and call you Mis’ Killicks, and you come worryin’ me ‘bout love." (3.17-20). Nanny believes a woman should be satisfied with her amount of property and Janie has trouble agreeing. Janie feels she has done something wrong by not being in love with L...
At the beginning of the short story Maggie's family is introduced, from her scrappy little brother Jimmie, to her short lived brother Tommie, her alcoholic mentally-abusive mother Mary, and her brutish father. Jimmie's friend Pete is introduced and becomes a mirror image of Jimmie later on in the book. They both are portrayed as Don Juans, the seducers of young women who treat women as objects rather than people. Maggie's father is as short-lived as her brother Tommie. However, he becomes a negative social factor in Maggie's life. Maggie’s mother was an essential symbol of hypocrisy and pessimism throughout the book, from her drinking to her last comment in the book “I'll Forgive Her” (Crane).
Maggie is a major character in Everyday Use. Because Maggie is quite and withdrawn, she is hardly recognized. “She has been like this, chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle, ever since that house burned the other house to the ground”(316). While Maggie loved that house abundantly, Dee despised it. Although she became attached to her previous house, she portrays that materialism is not as important as remembering spiritual values. She has a true, un-superficial sense of family, or heritage, as she tells her mother that Dee may have the quilts because she "can 'member Grandma Dee without the quilts" (321). Maggie comprehends that she can recall her spiritual values without material possessions, unlike Dee. Dee becomes more concerned
Maggie is introduced as someone who was shy and walked like “a lame animal” sidling up to someone who “was ignorant enough to be kind” (156). This is partly because of her self-consciousness of the scar scattering her arms and legs. Dee, by comparison, is the picture of confidence. She walks and speaks as if the world owes her everything she ever asks for. She feels powerful for getting away from what she saw as a prison. While Maggie is humble and kind, Dee will not hesitate to demand things and is ruthless in her pursuit. At least, Dee is ruthless in her pursuits, in Mama’...
For Maggie, “a small ragged girl,” tears, blood, and cursing are more normal than not. Granted, the character of Maggie knew that there did not need to be perpetual fighting and ugliness, but what was her alternative? Even though she “grew to be a most rare and wonderful production of a tenement district, a pretty girl,” Maggie was born into a destructive cyclical existence (20). She grows up in the tenements, probably the same ones her parents grew up in, and experiences a routine of drunken behavior, disrespect, violence, and poverty. Eventually, her father stops coming home drunk, accosted by her drunken mother, where they break furniture and attack each other until they pass out. However, Maggie’s brother replaces him. Both father and son obtain barely working class jobs and acquire no education to speak of, except what they learn by example. Not only did Maggie identify this destructive existence in the life of her family, she also sees it in the lives of her community. Generation after generation of children fall into groups, “Rum Alley” and “Devil’s Row,” taunting passersby and reenacting the violence they see at home. Crane ...
In “Everyday Use,” Mama illustrates the relationship between her two daughters. Both Maggie and Dee are like opposite poles, making it seem like their relationship is non-existent. Dee is a well-educated, good-looking young woman; who is so concerned with style, and fashion that she lacks the meaning of family and heritage. Maggie, however, is a simple, scarred young girl who truly understands the meaning behind family, and heritage. In “Everyday Use,” Alice Walker demonstrates through Mama’s eyes, the strain in Maggie and Dee’s relationship through Maggie’s actions towards her estranged sister’s visit, and Dee’s remarks and dominance over her younger sister.
Maggie lives with a poor and dysfunctional family and a hopeless future with only the small possibility of change. The environment and setting she grows up in do not support anything more than a dull, dreary and pathetic future for her. An old woman asks Maggie's brother Jimmy: "Eh, Gawd, child, what is it this time? Is yer fader beatin yer mudder, or yer mudder beatin yer fader? (Maggie, 10)" while he runs to Maggie's apartment one night. The lack of love and support of her family hinders Maggie's ability to live a happy and fulfilling life. Without knowing that someone loves her no matter what she does or how she acts Maggie may feel desperate enough to change her situation by any means she can, and without any useful guidance. Even without any positive influences Maggie grows up different from the low-life's living with and around her. Crane explains Maggie's uniqueness in the passage "None of the dirt of Rum Alley seemed to be in her veins. The philosophers up-stairs, down-stairs and on the same floor, puzzled over it" (Maggie 16). Maggie's uniqueness gives her the chance to improve her life, but only a slim chance. Even though Maggie differs from the people around her they remain sleazy, making it harder for her to change her life because she must go outside of her community for help.
The author uses direct characterization when mamma describes Maggie as insecure and jealous of her older sister Dee because she was able to escape the house when it was burning. Maggie’s direct characterization is shown to the reader through her...
...as part of the family. This shows that society has the power to shape and change people’s moral values. Nilofaur, the innocent child, believes in the acceptance of all, which is why she accepts Mariam despite her being a “Harami”. The step mothers, the eyes of society, wants Mariam to be married off, a social norm. Even though Jail’s heart may despise this idea, it is his duty, being a part of society and a decent family, to force her to marry Rasheed. Which we then later on learn she regrets this heavily. In contrast to Maggie her relationship breaks down when one retreats from life and the other runs towards it. “Because it's got to be told, and you, you!—you never let me!” Brick and Maggie's their marriage malfunctions when Brick tries to suppress her. Maggie being such a bold character cannot be suppressed, and must tell the truth about her history with Skipper.
Big Mama, Maggie and Mae all have very different roles within the family as well as in their respective relationships. Big Mama is, in both literal and metaphorical terms, the mother of the family but her most important role is being Big Daddy’s wife. Through all the years her and Big Daddy have been married, she’s been hopelessly devoted the entire time. Even after all the treatment she’s received from Big Daddy and even the cancer scare, it’s obvious she is very much in love with Big Daddy: “And I did, I did so much. I did love you. I even loved your hate an’ your hardness, Big Daddy!” (II.39). In everything she does, she only looks to please Big Daddy as housewives were supposed to please their husbands even through her outspoken ways. Big Mama’s personal identity is a mixture of society’s norms and her love for Big Daddy. Maggie doesn’t necessarily have a positive role in the Pollitt family. She’s supposed to be pleasing her husband and having children, but she’s doing neither of these things and it’s clear the rest of the family is concerned or looking down upon her for it. Maggie is not fulfilling a woman’s typical role in her relationship with Brick, which to the family means something is wrong with her. Even Big Mama says, “Some single men stop drinkin’ when they get married and others start! Brick never touched liquor…” (I.22), showing how even she
Communication is a very important aspect of any type of relationship. There are many themes in the play, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, by Tennessee Williams, but the major theme is that of isolation and the lack of communication. This type of theme involves many character such as Brick and Margaret. Big Daddy and his oldest son Gooper. And Big Daddy and his youngest son Brick. The entire Pollitt family manifests the theme isolation and lack of communication.
The story shows that one can make significant progress in life as a result of choice or circumstances, and the clearly opposite side of social-class that are high and low class level. Maggie is truly the low class who is always feel inferiority complex because she doesn’t have education: “I never had an education myself…She knows she is not bright” (472), and nice body as Dee because of home fire “Maggie will be nervous…homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs” (470). From the other point of view, Dee is totally different. She has the education: “her education from high school” (472). The mother was the sole breadwinner hence, she plays the role of a man as well as a woman. In fact, she views her physical characteristics equating herself to a man, “big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands” (470). Maggie is a character that is put down by circumstances and physical appearance; this is a typical representation of the struggles of the African Americans: “I am a large…I can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man…I can work outside all day” (470), The way Maggie’s walking is kind of “a lame animal” (471). Most women were not able to rise due to the unfavorable environment. As for Dee, her views were more accepted outside the boundaries of her
To understand the logic behind the actions of the grandmother, the consideration of what may have been her past life is very essential. O’Connor writes this story in 3rd person omniscient allowing the reader to have limited access to the thoughts of the grandmother. A sense of distrust is established immediately in the beginning of the story when the grandmother did not want to go to Florida and “she was seizing at every chance to change Bailey’s mind.”(193). Along with the sense of distrust in the relationship between the reader and the grandmother created from her actions, the aspects of a aristocratic lifestyle that once engulfed the grandmother begin to surface. Character...
Williams uses a lot of symbolism to illustrate this solitary confinement. Brick has a crutch for his ankle; this represents his physical need for a crutch and demonstrates how he uses it for support. This is also reflected in his drinking; Brick uses alcohol as a mental crutch for support. When Maggie is pushing Brick with the truth of what has happened between himself and Skipper "Brick is without his crutch". This signifies that he has no support and is unbalanced.