In the novel Quicksand, one major struggle that Helga Crane has is identity crisis. The tragic ending seems to suggest that although she tries very hard, it is ultimately impossible for her to find a satisfying identity in this world. Near the end of novel, Helga Crane projects her anger into Christianity: “And this, Helga…
F. Scott Fitzgerald created a very complex rich and relatable character when he gave life to Jay Gatsby and, in doing so, has left us with a character that continues to reach and relate to millions of Americans to this day. Throughout the novel, readers are intimately invited into the home and life of Gatsby. We see a…
I both loathe and love the endings to books. The finality of them is both a relief and a sad loss. The characters all cease existing at the same moment. At least three different works have left us with a messy, dead heap of dreams that make me wonder whether even chasing the most minuscule…
Editor’s Note: Readers should be aware that this post contains a discussion of rape in A Streetcar Named Desire, and rape culture, which may be triggering. I’m going to preface this blog post with a trigger warning for mentions of rape, sexual assault, and David Hookstead’s often-controversial social justice ideology. When I read A Streetcar…
Post-impressionism was a movement in art in the 1880s which Vincent Van Gogh was at the forefront of. “Through the use of simplified colors and definitive forms, their [post impressionist’s] art was characterized by a renewed aesthetic sense as well as abstract tendencies” (Voorhies). Tennessee Williams creates a sense of immediacy by using these techniques to…
I realize that I am not the first to write a biographical themed post about F. Scott Fitzgerald, but that actually makes the idea all the more interesting to me. After learning about Fitzgerald as a person, his writing in The Great Gatsby becomes even more intriguing. Here is a man who created a fictional…
While reading F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, I felt myself drawn to the character of Daisy Buchanan. She struggles between her old life, when she used to love Gatsby, and her current life with her husband Tom Buchanan. This clashing of two worlds places Daisy in a precarious position, tempted by her love of Gatsby,…
In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald brings up plenty of different themes: betrayal, the American dream, greed and more. One of the most important and far-reaching themes was that of social class. The Great Gatsby, set in the Roarin’ 1920s, offers a vivid picture of the times. By including people of different classes, Fitzgerald paints a picture of the greed that…
If asked, I would consider myself a movie buff. As a former film major, I am always “that girl” quoting movies constantly and then reprimanding my friends for not recognizing said quote after I’ve said it. As an English major, I am also very judgmental when it comes to movies made from books. I’m a…
To many critics and people alike, Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is hailed as the greatest American novel of all time. Published in 1885, the novel itself sparked immediate controversy through its topics of challenging authority and making fun of religion. Through all of the controversy though, the novel had one very important…
The play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams was originally displayed and depicted by white actors and actresses, such as the film adaptation in 1951. Recently the play was redone at the Broadhurst Theater in April of 2012, directed by Emily Mann and had a cast of black actors and actresses playing the leading…
In an early lecture on Anne Bradstreet, Professor Steele introduced to us the concept of “cultural location.” Bradstreet, for example, operated within a Puritan society that discouraged women from writing, forcing her to conceal beliefs contradictory to or dubious of the accepted religious and social norms. Bradstreet navigates these limitations through irony. For example, in…
For me, The Great Gatsby and A Streetcar Named Desire distinguished themselves as my two favorite pieces from our syllabus. The incredible depth Fitzgerald and Williams go into surrounding the characters is truly fantastic, and both works are really masterpieces of American literature. Within each text several themes map out wonderful narratives, but specifically each work examines the theme…
While the story of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is read as a fictional tale its setting is about as real as it gets. The towns known as West Egg and East Egg, throughout the novel, are more commonly referred to, now, as Great Neck and Sands Point. The characters of this 1920s fantasy…
Reading the play A Streetcar Named Desire, I instantly noticed the gender stereotyping that Tennessee Williams brings to light in each of the characters, and became interested in how this relates to gender stereotypes in advertisements today. We discussed advertisements at length during The Great Gatsby lectures, but did not touch upon them related to…
American Lit 309 Fall 13 