Leven and store bought crumb cake

Overall the women in this play were seen negatively, but also as one the driving forces behind the men of this play. The women were pushing the men toward a potential downfall caused by, if nothing else, a stress induced heart attack. Even if for reasons beyond their control, like an illness, these women were the reason for pushing harder at a sale or even their reason for theft. These women were not portrayed as the stand by silently type of women, but instead the women who had their own agendas, agendas too full to bake a crumb-cake. These assertive women were not seen as real “go getter”. These women were not seen as benefiting the characters in any way. And the way the men responded to these women was fascinating. The men judged their crumb- cake, or became irrational with fear when they decided to buy an investment without their wife. One woman was not well and her father fell so love sick that his mind became twisted enough to commit a crime that would change the future for many others. These women were acting as the brain or possibly will power of these men, and I was not a fan of the majority of this men. It truly made me sick to see Levene’s heart wrenching as he realized his fate…it was not his daughters fault but the control she had over his will power that ended his career and his free life. I do not admire these men or the women intertwined with them. I feel that they all have a screw loose somewhere. However I did like Levene as he was the only one who seemed to be a strong, hard working man. While the others sat and smoked he was in the rain putting himself out there for his sale, for his daughter. That I do admire…

Rear Window

Jeffries is a man who is unwilling to marry. He fears that maybe the marriage will become annoying or too settled and he is a restless independent man. As we can tell from his job he is a man who desires action, adventure, and having little baggage to weigh him down. Jeffries sees Lisa as baggage, excess, weight in which he does not desire to carry. He cannot see her adventurous, independent spirit at first and because of his blindness he is unable to see himself marrying her. He views her as an upper class sort of woman who will need a man to take care of her financially as well as be home for her. Jeffries is not willing to be a homebody, but a man who will pack up and leave with only a bag and a camera to capture a picture in harm’s way. He feels that Lisa is not up to the task of following him and thinks she will be bored with him gone and upset when she finds herself in a less than luxurious life. Jeffries also has a negative view of marriage. He sees marriage as a man who is constantly nagged by a woman. And many of the marriages surrounding him confirm his concerns. Take the newlyweds with their shades drawn; at first they seem perfectly happy and compatible. Their shades are drawn and they are both happy to be together in their own little world. However after a few weeks the new is beginning to wear off and the man needs some breathing space to catch some fresh air. Jeffries hears his nagging wife calling to her new husband just as soon as he sticks his head out of their window this is not a contradictory sign for Jeffries’ marriage theory. Miss Torso seems to be somewhat of a free spirit. She is hard working and dedicated to what she loves which is not only dance, but also her soldier. She remains true to him even though men surround her constantly. Jeffries cannot see that Miss Torso is not in love with any of these men but Lisa can. Lisa can understand men throwing themselves at her, just like Miss Torso, but only wanting the man who is unavailable. Miss Lonely Hearts is a sad sight and I think Jeffries sees her as something he will become with time, lonely and maybe a bit crazy. However Miss Lonely Hearts and the Composer find themselves in a relationship in the end. Eventually Jeffries allows himself to see Lisa’s true colors and he learns to lay aside his preconceived notions of her.
At first Lisa thinks Jeffries has caught a bit of cabin fever and dismisses his theories and tries to distract him from the peeping tom he has become. She brings him exquisite dinners and wears expensive clothing. This does not do the trick, but when she begins to buy into his stories about purses being left and murders occurring Jeffries is delighted to see this new Lisa. Lisa becomes more alive and Jeffries finds her more attractive. She is climbing out of windows sneaking into apartments and he has a new look in his eye, but this time it’s for her. As the composer and the lonely lady are falling in love Lisa and Jeffries are finding themselves very comfortable and very compatible with each other. Jeffries has a smile on his face as he sleeps in the closing scene and I assume it’s because he knows what is to come with their relationship and he likes the way their future looks.

king Lear

Response to 1:
I am not sold on this idea of hysteria being a feminine force in this play. The hysteria King Lear is feeling is certainly due to his quick loss of power combined with the elements of nature and the lacking of a proper diet. I would not say that this hysteria he is feeling is a feminine side or the woman in him, as mentioned in the first question. King Lear was losing his mind, not becoming more feminine. However, I do feel that as King Lear and Cordelia were reunited he was able to have feeling and show his emotion because his pride had fallen to the wayside. He was no longer a proud king, passionate about his power, but a man who was hurting. To say that this was a more feminine trait is not true; I know plenty of power hungry and proud women. Am I to just assume that they are more in touch with the man in them? No, I am to assume that they need control and maybe care too much about the things that mean nothing. King Lear was feeling more humble and with humbleness comes thankfulness and often times with thankfulness one will feel love toward those helping; these qualities are not necessarily qualities of a woman, but qualities of a humble human being.

Response to 2: A women’s weapon is her tears, according to King Lear, and he is crying, but why would this make him more in touch with his feminine side, more of a mother, because he uses her weapons? Maybe the fact that he is crying and that he feels crying is a way for a woman to win, often women are stereotyped as criers to get out of tickets and such, but this alone does not allow Lear to be more in touch with the mother/woman in him. This again means that King Lear has humbled himself and this line makes me think that Lear feels women use tears as a means of defense and he is now crying himself and his “man cheeks” are becoming moist with a woman’s weapon, a sign of weakness for him, but I see it as a sign of humbleness. He has reached a point of no pride, regret maybe even a bit of self loathing, but I still do not see this line as him giving in to the mother, or woman, in him. He is still calling the tears a woman’s weapon, not a women’s emotion. If anything Lear has simply borrowed a lady’s gun and will return it when he regains control of his mind and his emotions.

Response to 3: Yes, I agree with this quote more than the other two, King Lear is crying and his tears almost force him to admit that he needs help. King Lear needs his daughter, for once he needs someone to save him and not fall to their knees “honoring” him at a simple wave of his hand. Now he needs someone to carry him and be strong because he can’t be. Again I am not certain these qualities are that of the mother in him, but maybe of the broken, sickly old man. King Lear has never acted like a lady, nor should he; King Lear acted as a proud, pompous king who had ever lie told to him sweetly and felt safe on top of all the people willing to carry him through his reign. Eventually he lost his power and started dealing with the truth. Not everyone loved him for him, in fact only a handful would stick around after his riches became rags and his once active mind became an imaginative mess. Lear was humbled, humiliated even, and needy. These traits come from his losing everything that was held dear, hysteria would set in with anyone man or woman if they went through this madness. It does not make you more of a man or more of woman to admit you need help. It makes you more of a human, a humble human. I do not feel King Lear ever came to know the mother in him or the woman in him, but maybe came to know the emotion in him. He came to feel love beyond his money and beyond his power. He grew up from his tantrum throwing days. We watched a man mature, not a man who got to know the woman in him.

I completely disagree with her father’s statement. Marji is surviving because her mother and her grandmother have shown her that politics and sentiment are mixed. How could they not be? How can a woman who is forced to cover her hair so that men won’t become excited not feel some form of sentiment or emotion for the situation? If the government made every person drive a yellow car than maybe those rules could be better obeyed with little or no sentiment, but they are asking the women to mask the parts of them that add to their femininity. I am certain Marji’s father was simply trying to teach her to see that the rules of the government are to be taken without changing who she is so that she will not lose herself or lose her life. I feel her mother was doing well by taking in the government’s rules with only a touch of sentiment until the men approached her on the street remarking that she should be raped. At this turning point we see Marji’s mother pull out all the stops on her sentimental drive and allow Persepolis to attend their next rally. At this rally we see how sentiment and government meet and it is not pretty. The men, well the sane men, must have felt sentiment for the women they care for, watching them go through strife so that the perverts of the world can better control themselves. Marji’s grandmother’s sentiment was one of the strengths that helped Marji become who she is, a strong woman who has taken charge of her life, if it was not for her grandmother’s wisdom and emotion Marji may have fallen away from her own character and masked who she really is. It would have been easier for Marji to play the role of a French woman, but her grandmother’s words, filled with emotion, haunted her. Those words reminded Marji of who she was and where she came from. Marji displays her sentimental feelings toward the teachers at school, those women where the ones who showed no sentiments, when she tells the class of the teachers lies and reminds the class of the men in prison suffering as they were being taught that the men were all free. Another time when Marji displays her sentimental feelings is when the men ask her to stop running as it is exciting for them and her response if that they can stop staring at her butt. I am glad she had enough kindled sentiment sorted up to fight her own battles and keep her strong in situations that could have pushed her over the brink so that she could tell this story that needed to be heard.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Through the story of the great Gatspy we see Nick discover what it is to have desire, Nick is finding himself through all of the characters in this novel. Through these irresolute characters, Nick is able to find his own self, a solid ground to construct his life. It seemed to me that Nick was a person of solitude, a loner, and even after he was out of the military he was left with a sense of longing and lack of knowledge about himself. He seems intelligent and is in the process of becoming a bondsman; basically he is just doing something to say he does it. His life’s goal is not to become a bondsman; it is more of just something to do than something he longs for. He finds himself borrowing from his parents to begin his own journey. As he sets out and finds this peculiar, out-of-touch group of people he begins to relax and find comfort in their dysfunction. The dysfunction leader, Gatsby, teaches Nick a thing or two about desire. At the beginning of the novel, and really right up toward the end, I see Nick as lackluster. He has no career that he is just dying to be a part of, or a love he is aspiring to have, or really any life at all. We discussed light and floating and how lovely things seem to just float about in this novel. Nick is floating, but not in a picturesque sort of way, Nick is floating in a boat that was not tied to the pier properly sort of way. That is why his mind lacks judgment and he is able to gather with so many different people. He is aimlessly floating from one dysfunctional group into another. The coast is smooth sailing until Gatsby’s life unravels in front of Nick. Gatsby is a different kind of dreamer. He would have made for a fantastic artist if only his efforts were toward art and not money, I feel this way because he had such a wild imagination. It is this imagination that allows for the elaborate schemes and parties pushing him further toward his desires, money and Daisy, while masking who he truly was. Gatsby was not honorable but he was admirable in his quest to pursue the American Dream, which so often ends in defeat. I feel it is through Gatsby we see Nick blossom. He begins to look at life differently, and this is evident in the last few pages. He is not only ending Gatsby’s life with poetic phrases, but he is beginning to find his own desires. As the pool is filled with blood and the picture of a summer ending with defeat, Nick is developing his own life. Nick is blossoming into a person who has desires and goals. He is beginning to feel the pull of desire. He sees Jordan and feels something for her; almost regret in not pursuing her further, this is a sign that Gatsby did inspire Nick through his desire for Daisy. I am not suggesting Nick will begin a life built around Jordan, but maybe a life built around pursuing things he wants and not letting it just drift away. I feel that Gatsby had a light coming from his life, despite his criminal tendencies, and as his story ends that light is spread to Nick. Nick has moved on from being a wall flower.