Critical Thinking Blog #9 - The Swimmer

I had an extremely hard time understanding The Swimmer because of the almost whimsical nature of it. The hero tries to swim through everyone's pool in order to get back home. In discussing the story it becomes apparent that this is a pilgrimage in which to seek redemption. In applying that I came to see it as the man was an alcoholic and the water symbolized him coming to grips with that. He swims through the pools of the rich noticing how they're all fake and pretending to be happy and the water (alcohol) allows him to mingle with them. Eventually he discovers one of the neighbors does not drink anymore and that his family has fallen into harsh time. Apparently his drinking has caused things to move on without him and he seeks to swim, free of alcohol, in order to win back his family sober. The most interesting scene is when he's at the public pool. He's uncomfortable because he's thrust into situations with normal people, unlike the "fake" people who live in a nice community away from prying eyes. His dirty laundry is aired for normal people to see. When he finally gets home the house is up for sale and is disarray with his family missing. The message I ended up getting is that, since this is written after WWII, we may have nothing to fear from enemies outside our country, the greatest fear is losing everything over something stupid. The hero loses his family because he could not get past his drunken haze. All he has is this never ending journey to find them and the memories of what they used to be. The fact that he only has a few scattered memories of his family shows he is starting to forget who they even were.

Critical Question: If this is not the message of the story then what is? What clues and scenes can be used to come up with an alternative theme?

Critical Thinking Blog #8 - Streetcar Named Desire

In watching the movie and reading the play they were both incredibly similar. I've read The Glass Menagerie and for me I saw several similarities in how the women are portrayed in both versions. In the film version of Streetcar Named Desire Stella is utterly in love with Stanley, her passion for him is so intense he could probably murder someone and she'd be fine with it. It isn't until Blanche reveals that Stanley raped her that she leaves him. I prefer the play version because it shows Stella's need and dependence on Stanley, in the movie she just seems to do it because it is "the right thing" (as deemed by the Hayes Code of Hollywood at the time). In Blanche you see a character who wishes to return to the old days of the Southern belle, something often seen in Williams' plays. Blanche wants romantic love with someone who can protect her and finds Stanley's brute nature a sign that he's beneath her. She considers him and Stella's baby as "diluting the bloodline" in a way but finds it a necessary fact of life in the current time. Stella lives in reality while Blanche dreams of an old world sensebility with manly chivalry. And I'm not gonna lie...Marlon Brando's pretty hot throughout the movie even though he's an ass.

Critical Thinking Question: How is the rape of Blanche the final break in her worldvie, eventually driving her to madness? Would she have gone mad without the rape? And just how hot is Marlon Brando?

Critical Thinking Blog #7

So since there's only one reading this week I wanted to talk about the age barrier in Steinbeck's Leader of the People. Throughout the novel you have the four male characters who represent various age groups. There's the young Jody, the impressionable boy with his childhood innocence, who enjoys hearing about all these great people doing great things and envisioning he might do them someday. Then you have Billy Buck, the young adult ranch hand who seems to be the living incarnation of the grandfather in his younger days to Jody. Carl, the father, is the responsible family man who lives in the here and now and doesn't dwell on things past and then there's Grandfather who constantly talks about his days of former glory. Steinbeck shows all the different generations and the way they interact shows how society views the different stages of life. Jody reveres his grandfather and finds his stories a source of comfort while Carl thinks they're annoying and just the wild tales of an old man who has nothing left in life. Billy seems to go about things with no opinion but it's implied that he find the grandfather someone worthy of looking up to and respecting. The Grandfather is the most heartwrenching character since all he has left in life are his stories. The theme seems to be, when your sole purpose in life is over what is left to do? The Grandfather is shuffled to different areas and unfortunatley his son-in-law can't stand him and it stresses his daughter out to keep everyone happy, the man has to know he's a burden. The only one he makes happy is Jody and even then there's a sadness in the Grandfather's stories because he knows he's nothing in this new and fast paced world.

Critical Question: What does Steinbeck intend to say with all these different men, how do their interactions uncover the main theme of the story?

Critical Thinking Blog #6

I noticed many similarities with Hemingway's "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" and Faulkner's "Barn Burning." The main issue I noticed was the main male characters who seemed like incredibly bitter and selfish men. In Kilimanjaro, Harry is constantly belitting his wife, drinking when she asks him not to and flat out saying he doesn't love her, "I don't think so. I never have" (1985). I never felt anything for Harry except his regret about never writing about the things he should have and his impending death. In "Barn Burning" Colonel Snope's father has bitterness against the upper class and torches their wealth whenever he's taken advantage of. Colonel could also be seen as the wife in Kilimanjaro because they both try to help their significant other and end up being the worse for wear. The wife in Hemingway's story is no wilting flower, capable of hunting and such, but is in a loveless one-sided marriage. Colonel in Burn Burning loves his father and wants to help but is constantly torn between familial duty and doing the right thing. Both of the characters have this sense of regret and hatred, more expressly stated in Kilimanjaro than in Faulkner's story. Both stories focus on fear and also that the men are in powerless positions, the father is lower class and Harry is dying. Both are unable to do anything about their situation, yet have family trying to support and reassure them.

My critical thinking question is what do you think Hemingway and Faulkner were trying to say with their main characters? How does regret and loss come into the plot of both characters and create their actions?