In the novel The Lost Weekend, the author, Charles Jackson uses alcohol to display that the main character Don Birnam is a homosexual. The reader gets to spend six days with Birnam as he drunkenly reminisces on his past, present, and future. Although Charles Jackson does not indicate that Birnam is a homosexual, the details given suggests that Birnam is a homosexual alcoholic who spends most of the novel in gay bars.
In the beginning, the reader meets Birnam who ditches his brother on a trip out of the city. He rather binges drink and visit the local bars, stealing and borrowing money from friends and family, in order to pay the drinks. At the bar Birnam says ““Sam, I’ll have one more rye.” To celebrate, he said under his breath. To celebrate
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Did she forget herself long enough to prize his, did she lay her head on his stomach, feel his chest and thighs, was he big?” (30) and within the same paragraph he thinks “The handbag caught his eye and he puzzled about it contents” (31). In this scene Birnam’s having drinks at a restaurant booth and notices a couple sitting by the bar. Birnam’s curious, if the woman provide the man with the necessary attention his body deserves and does the man sexually satisfies the woman. He likewise wonders if the man has a big “package”. In the same encounter, he speculates on the contents in the woman’s purse. Mutually the scenes can be indicators that Birnam’s a homosexual because although a woman present in the restaurant, he pays more attention to the physical attraction of the man, and also the details of the woman’s handbag and what she may keep inside of the bag.
Birnam describes a man “sat at the tiny piano, talking dirty songs. The men and girls strained to anticipate the double-meanings;..They were songs called “The 23rd Street Ferry” and “Peter and the Dyke”; camping, queen, faggot, meat were frequently played upon” (28-29). In this scene Birnam’s sitting in a bar listening to songs about fairies and dykes, he states that the men, who he describes as football players, and the girls are uncomfortable when they find out the songs double meaning. The words queen and faggot have history linked to homosexual so we can presume
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There are signs the bars Birnam’s frequently visiting are homosexual areas. Birnam’s contemplating on traveling to Jack’s, believing he’s drunk enough to drink and socialize with strangers. Later in the story he reads the newspaper clip “JACK’s—in Charles Street—WHERE GOOD FELLOWS GET TOGETHER” (85). The newspaper clip Birnam’s reading advertises bringing all men together to have a countless time. The clip’s intended to draw the eyes of men to attend the bar, and not women, thus through both scenes Jack’s a gay bar where Birnam visits when he want to socialize with other gay
The poem was part of a Sandra Cisneros’s book called, My Wicked Wicked Ways, collection of poems that has the themes of Chicanas’ sexuality, culture, and history. It is a narrative because it paints a picture in my head even though it has a few words. For All Tuesday Travelers is an empowerment poem because it tells a story of a woman acting against the traditional role of being woman by using allegory, mood, and alliteration.
In his work about gay life in New York City, George Chauncey seeks to dispel the various myths about the gay lifestyle before the Civil Rights era of the 60’s. He distills the misconceptions into three major myths: “…isolation, invisibility, and internalization” (Chauncey 1994, 2). He believes a certain image has taken in the public mind where gays did not openly exist until the 60’s, and that professional historians have largely ignored this era of sexual history. He posits such ideas are simply counterfactual. Using the city of New York, a metropolitan landscape where many types of people confluence together, he details a thriving gay community. Certainly it is a community by Chauncey’s reckoning; he shows gay men had a large network of bar, clubs, and various other cultural venues where not only gay men intermingled the larger public did as well. This dispels the first two principle myths that gay men were isolated internally from other gay men or invisible to the populace. As to the internalization of gay men, they were not by any degree self-loathing. In fact, Chauncey shows examples of gay pride such a drag queen arrested and detained in police car in a photo with a big smile (Chauncey 1994, 330). Using a series of personal interviews, primary archival material from city repositories, articles, police reports, and private watchdog groups, Chauncey details with a preponderance of evidence the existence of a gay culture in New York City, while at the same time using secondary scholarship to give context to larger events like the Depression and thereby tie changes to the gay community to larger changes in the society.
... homosexual being felt in the world around the 1970’s and 1980’s. The time period in which this play was written was one of great dissonance to the LGBT movement. For Harvey Fierstein to be so bold and public with his own lifestyle was truly admirable and brave. Fierstein shows us that ignorance can destroy a life because of what is unknown.
In an effort to legitimize all subcategories of sexuality considered deviant of heterosexual normatively, queer theory acknowledges nontraditional sexual identities by rejecting the rigid notion of stabilized sexuality. It shares the ideals of gender theory, applying to sexuality the idea that gender is a performative adherence to capitalist structures that inform society of what it means to be male, female, gay, and straight. An individual’s conformity to sexual or gendered expectations indicates both perpetration and victimization of the systemic oppression laid down by patriarchal foundations in the interest of maintaining power within a small group of people. Seeking to deconstruct the absolute nature of binary opposition, queer theory highlights and celebrates literary examples of gray areas specifically regarding sexual orientation, and questions those which solidify heterosexuality as the “norm”, and anything outside of it as the “other”.
In every walk of life, people seek refuge from the judgmental perception of their contemporaries. Thus, many people live in secrecy. For them, secrecy is an absolute necessity in dodging undesired scrutiny and maintaining normalcy in public. When it comes to gender and the expression of it, lines are often blurred. While some hide, others brazenly parade their sexuality in public and their alternative perspectives on gender roles. In “The Bowery as Haven and Spectacle” from Gay New York, by George Chauncey, explores the emergence of the Bowery “fairy” bars, and how they became a sanctuary for the queer and working-class of New York City. He discusses in great length the tension that arises between the middle-class and working-class, the bars as a spectacle and a place to be entertained, the solicitation of sex work, and the makings of gay culture in the bar scene. The lines of gender were blurred when men took up cross dressing and the mannerisms normally associated with women. On the other hand, Merril Mushroom, writer of "How to Engage in Courting Rituals 1950's Butch-Style in the Bar", complies a laundry list of rules for butch lesbians on methods of attracting other women. Here, females cross gender boundaries and take on masculine personas. With this said, both pieces show the development of alternative gender identities. However, this switch in gender roles seldom occur outside the bar scene. Despite the semi-public gender blurring, those who identify with this lifestyle still feel the need to express themselves in an environment most accommodating to their blatant disregard of gender norms. The aforementioned pieces answer questions in regards to why one must live in secrecy, and how this secrecy gives way to the developme...
It was obvious in the story; the Narrator had already been drinking (96). Even t...
The topic of homosexuality has always been one approached with caution due to its taboo nature derived from its deviation from the heterosexual norm. Traditionally, and across several cultures, homosexuality has been successfully discussed through normalizing the behaviour through heterosexual representation. Gender reversal or amplification of feminine qualities of male characters have often been means by which authors are able to subtly introduce the foreign idea of homosexuality and equate it to its more formal and accepted counterpart, heterosexuality. The works of Shakespeare and Li Yu have assisted in exposing homosexual relationships while still maintaining them under the heterosexual norm, whether it be through direct or metaphorical representations.
In the beginning of his story Baldwin speaks of his young adolescence during which various men constantly take advantage of him. In this part of life he speaks much of loneliness. First, as he talks about those who are literally androgynous, containing male and female parts, he guesses at the “…all-but-intolerable loneliness…”(150) that they must feel at not being able to find love by being themselves for fear of humiliation at being so different. Later, he tells of his many encounters with men that appeared to be stereotypical American citizens looking “…like cops, football players, soldiers…or bank presidents…construction workers…”(153). These men would accost Baldwin in dark movie theaters and in the alleys at night begging or bullying him to take them to bed.
1) “The Hours”, based on the novel written by Michael Cunningham, is more than a biographical movie about Virginia Woolf. How can you discribe the importance and co- relation between the three female main characters: Virginia, Laura Brown and Clarissa Vaughan?
The topic of homosexuality has become a constant issue throughout our society for many years. Many people believe that being gay is not acceptable for both religious and moral reasons. Because being gay is not accepted, many homosexuals may feel shame or guilt because of the way they live their everyday lives. This in turn can affect how the person chooses to live their life and it can also affect who the person would like to become. Growing up, David Sedaris struggled to find the common ground between being gay as well as being a normal teenager. He often resorted to the conclusion that you could not be both. Sedaris allows us to see things through his young eyes with his personable short story "I Like Guys". Throughout his short story, Sedaris illustrates to the reader what it was like growing up being gay as well as how the complexities of being gay, and the topic of sexuality controlled his lifestyle daily. He emphasizes the shame he once felt for being gay and how that shame has framed him into the person he has become.
In chapter two of The View from Saturday, the author, E.L. Konigsburg introduces the character Nadia Diamondstein, a sixth grade girl who considers herself a hybrid/mixed breed, because both Judaism and Protestant run in her family. Like Noah Gershom, Nadia has a place as both a member of The Souls and the Epiphany Middle School Academic Bowl team. The chapter opens at the finals of the Academic Bowl. The commissioner of education reads the next question, “What is the name given to that portion of the North Atlantic Ocean noted for its abundance of seaweed and what is its importance to the ecology of our planet?” This time, Nadia’s buzzer sounds. Using a flashback, Konigsburg shows the reader events of Nadia’s summer, to explain how Nadia could
Through symbolism the author shows us how Neddy goes from social drinking to destitution. Each stop at a neighbor’s pool gets progressively harder, but he keeps on. Neddy ignores these signs and becomes beaten and finally alone. This truly is a sad journey of a man who destroys himself through alcohol. As the story ends, Neddy realizes that he is alone. Will he change? Get help for his alcoholism? The author leaves us hanging, but at this point we know he is alone, everyone has abandoned him. Neddy has followed the stereotypical footsteps of an alcoholic.
In the short story "weekend" by Ann Beattie, there is one main central conflict between the main characters of Lenore and George. This conflict arises from that fact that George and Lenore have a child together, live in the same house, yet they have no apparent relationship. George is always bringing back women to the house in front of Lenore and she hides how it hurts her deep down. George’s character is portrayed as an alcoholic older man who does not seem to care too much about anything that is going on around him. While Lenore is shown to be a “simple” woman who just lets George walk all over her by showing up with younger girls and who rarely shows emotion. Although Lenore is not as simple as she leads on to George, she has a lot of emotion buried inside of her that she does not always show, and her character is a lot more complex after a second glance.
This quote addresses directly the primary difficulty of the issue. The terms gay and lesbian are useful in literature in that they allow a group of people who have been marginalised and even persecuted to become visible. They enable a way of life and a set of identities, harmonious or conflicting, to be presented, to be questioned, to be understood and accepted. As categories they create ‘space’ in which there may develop a more evolved understanding of texts and they also create a genre within which many lesbian and gay writers are comfortable with being placed. A gendered reading of a text can reveal undercurrents and depths which might otherwise not be apparent. These categories also make ‘space’ for the author within the text which leads to a closer tie between the author and the reader in the reading process.
The traditional short story is a genre of a prose. It is a fiction work that presents a world in the moment of an unexpected change. The traditional short story obeys some rules, such as the unexpected change and major events with detail. The modern short story is a revolution which is based on the traditional short story. In other words, if the traditional short story is in the first floor, the modern short story is in the second floor. Therefore, the modern short story still obeys some rules that the traditional short story obeys, and breaks some rules that the traditional short story obeys. One rule that the modern short story still uses is the unexpected change. The rules broken by the modern short story are that the major events are not detailed, and that the border between the real world and the fiction world. This paper first talks about the unexcepted change and uses the examples of “Eveline” and “The Open Window.” Then, this paper talks about major events with detail, and uses the examples of “Lottery,” “The Open Window” and “Hills Like White Elephants.” Finally, this paper talks about the meta-literary and the border between the real world and the fiction