Blog 5: Good Country People

Face Value

          In the short fiction "Good Country People," by Flannery O'Connor, the character Joy/Hulga is characterized in such a way that she sees people as tools to be used.  O'Connor lets readers into Joy/Hulga's thought process at the onset of the story as, "Hulga had learned to tolerate Mrs. Freeman who saved her from taking walks with her mother.  Even Glynese and Carramae were useful when they occupied the attention that might otherwise have been directed at her."  (O'Connor 1342)  I get the impression that Joy/Hulga would not like this live-in family at all if they didn't serve some purpose that suited her personal desires.  This process extends to the world around her as her mother reminisces, "All day Joy sat on her neck in a deep chair, reading.  sometimes she went for walks but she didn't like dogs or cats or birds or flowers or nature or nice young men.  She looked at nice young men as if she could smell their stupidity." (O'Connor 1344)  Without much more than a cursory glance she is writing off people as useless and also ignoring the larger world around her with all of its inherent beauty, because they don't serve her a particular purpose.  Later while thinking of her coming date with Manly, "she imagined, that things came to such a pass that she very easily him and that then, of course, she had to reckon with his remorse.  True genius can get an idea across even to an inferior mind.  She imagined that she took his remorse in hand and changed it into a deeper understanding of life.  She took all his shame away and turned it into something useful." (O'Connor 1349)  Joy/Hulga sees herself as so superior to Manly and his intelligence, that his simple problems, thoughts and notions can be changed by her in a moment.  Much to Joy/Hulga's chagrin, the date didn't pan out quite so well.  As he makes off with her glasses and prosthetic leg, Manly informs her, "One time I got a woman's glass eye this way.  And you needn't to think you'll catch me because Pointer ain't really my name.  I use a different name at every house I call at and don't stay nowhere long.  And I'll tell you another thing, Hulga, you ain't so smart.  I been believing in nothing ever since I was born!"  The whole time he was playing into her hubris, she couldn't get past his appearance and paid the price; one thing Joy/Hulga or her mother probably should have done was ask to open the bibles, and they should have wondered why he wasn't quoting any scripture.  

          There's an old saying that I think we're all familiar with that says, "don't judge a book by its cover."  This is something I have tried to adhere to throughout my life when dealing with people.  I have always tried to let peoples actions speak for them, instead of their looks, ethnicity, sex, or sexual preferences.  Even then, you would have to do something pretty bad for me to write you off as a bad or unintelligent person, for example unprovoked violence and animal cruelty are a couple of things I don't tolerate.  As for intelligence, I think everybody, country or city folk, educated or uneducated, upper or lower class, is smart in their own way.  I'd be willing to bet there isn't many doctors or lawyers that can repair their own vehicles, fix a roof or wall, or run plumbing through their homes.  What makes them so much better than the people that can do these things with their eyes closed, and visa versa.  Everybody knows something about something.  People that lack this quality do so at their own loss, because they will miss out on meeting a lot of great people and experiences, and instead spend their days dwelling on which single story someone belongs to.  I believe that world leaders and decision makers who lack this quality are the reason that nationalism and inequality have been so prevalent throughout history.  The thought that your country, and its people, is the best one is not the way we should be viewing humanity and our planet.  

Literary Context Response of Tennessee Williams

Thomas Lanier Williams

          Although Tennessee Williams wrote fiction he drew heavily from his own life for inspiration, making his works nearly autobiographical, and while reading his play, "A Streetcar Named Desire" an understanding of his family and upbringing adds a great deal of depth to its characters Blanche, Stella, and Stanley.  According to the Gale Literary Database entry on Williams, "he spent his first seven years with his mother, his sister, Rose, and his maternal grandmother and grandfather, and Episcopal rector.  A sickly child, Tom was pampered by doting elders.  In 1918, his father, a traveling salesman who had often been absent, [...] moved the family to St. Louis.  [...]  The contrast between leisurely small-town past and northern big-city present, between protective grandparents and the hard-drinking, gambling father with little patience for the sensitive son he saw as a "sissy," seriously affected both children.  While Rose retreated into her own mind until finally beyond the reach even of her loving brother, Tom made use of the adversity."  (Gale 9)  The Norton Anthology expands on Williams and his family, "His Mother, "Miss Edwina," the daughter of an Episcopalian minister, was repressed and genteel, very much the southern belle in her youth.  His father Cornelius, was a traveling salesman, often away from his family and often violent and drunk when at home.  As a child Williams was sickly and overly protected by his mother; he was closely attached to his sister, Rose, repelled by the roughhouse world of boys, and alienated from his father."  (Baym 1113)  With this background information at hand I can clearly see where Blanche and Stanley come from.  Stanley is the embodiment of Williams' father, an absent, gambling, drinking, violent man.  Blanche on the other hand, I believe is a combination of Williams mother and sister; she is the classy, proper, refined southern belle, but also has psychological problems.  While I'm sure there are other people and experiences that factor into his characters, I can definitely see his sister and parents portrayed in Streetcar.

          I also found that the conflicts within Streetcar are incarnations of Williams own struggles with identity and his perceived place in society.  The Gale database states, "Williams family problems, his alienation from the social norm resulting from his homosexuality, his sense of being a romantic in an unromantic, postwar world, and his sensitive reaction when a production proved less than successful all contributed significantly to his work."  (Gale 11)  I think this statement sheds some light onto Stella's unhealthy relationship with Stanley, and her desire to stay in it even though he is blatantly abusive in front of family and friends.  I believe their relationship is representing the social norm as Williams sees it, and Blanche, the single and promiscuous old maid, is just outside of that norm, and from the poker night on is slowly pushed farther and farther away until finally being sent away.  In his article, "Tennessee One-Step, author Terry Teachout notes, "The particular "family madness" that became Williams's main subject was sexual inhibition.  Like so many gay playwrights of his generation, Williams found it difficult to come to terms with the furtive urges that his mother (as portrayed in The Glass Menagerie) regarded with a mixture of contempt and fear: 'Don't quote instinct to me!  Instinct is something that people have got away from!  It belongs to animals!  Christian adults don't want it!'"  (Teachout 75)  This struggle with sexuality is uncannily depicted in opposing ways by Blanche and Stanley.  Stanley is very open about his sexuality, in fact he does and takes what he wants, and in the end has the happier ending staying at home with his wife and child.  While Blanche struggles with her sexuality and tries to suppress her desires, and in the end she loses everything; her home, family, sanity, and loses whatever sexual power she may have had after being raped by Stanley.  I can see Williams's dilemma, should he try and fit into the social norm and be accepted or do what is right for him and be ostracized from society?

          Throughout my research, the thing that really caught my eye was the fact that Williams is considered to be one of the three best playwrights of the 20th century, even though he had relatively few successful plays in comparison to his many flops.  According to the Gale Database, The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire alone won 2 New York Drama Critics Circle Awards, 2 Donaldson Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, and he continued to win awards and prizes for many other plays as well.  (Gale 1)  I think this is pretty amazing considering Williams was a gay man writing in the 40's and 50's when homosexuality was not accepted.  Williams turning point happened in the 1960's in Teachout's opinion when, "The sexual permission that Williams helped create sort of robbed him of a platform.  He found himself a revolutionary in a post-revolutionary era.  By the time the 60's rolled around, the things Williams had liberated were everywhere irrelevant."  (Teachout 76)  I believe that while Williams helped create a sexual openness that was crucial to the social movements of the 60's, he had the misfortune of being born or starting his career about a decade too late.  A little earlier and he may have enjoyed a longer run of success, but because of the social movements and sexual revolution of the 60's, Tennessee Williams's works became commonplace instead of titillating. 

Works Cited:

Teachout, Terry. "Tennessee One-Step." Commentary (2014): 75-77. Literary Reference Center. Web. 20 Mar. 2015.

Tennessee Williams. N.p.: n.p., 2008. Contemporary Authors. Web. 1 Mar. 2015. 
     <http://galenet.galegroup.com>. 

Williams, Tennessee. "A Streetcar Named Desire." 1947. 1865-Present. Ed. Nina 
     Baym. 8th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2013. 1113-77. Print. 
     Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 2 vols. 

Blog 4: "A Streetcar Named Desire"

Consideration

          In "A Streetcar Named Desire," by Tennessee Williams, Stanley Kowalski is characterized as a shallow person by everything he does and says.  While meeting Blanche for the first time in the opening scene Stanley inquires, "Stella's spoke of you a good deal.  You were married once, weren't you?  What happened?" (Williams 1125)  I found this to be a very personal and inconsiderate topic to bring up during a first conversation with anybody, and if Stella had said anything about Blanches late husband I think it would have involved not mentioning him.  Stanley's greed is shown in the second scene as he rifles through Blanche's things, and demands to know all about the loss of Bele Reve.  Surely an expecting father should be concerned for his family's financial well being, but he is failing to realize that under his Napoleonic code he would be just as entitled to a debt as an inheritance, and he should be handling this situation with a little more tact.  After getting blackout drunk and striking Stella on poker night, Stanley is concerned only with getting his Stella back, going to the street screaming, "Stell-lahhhh!  I want my baby down here.  Stella, Stella!"  (Williams 1138)  I feel like he should be concerned with his pregnant wife's well being first and foremost, the neighbors that he is undoubtedly disturbing, and maybe being ashamed of himself for his actions; not with how much he misses her and how that makes him  feel.  The next morning he eavesdrops on a conversation between Stella and Blanche.  He is unconcerned with a domestic dispute upstairs, and instead lets Blanche know that has been snooping into her affairs, and has also been poisoning Mitch's thoughts of Blanche with his ill-begotten information.  Even after discovering Blanches many problems, and on her birthday no less, Stanley has the gall to produce a bus ticket to Blanche and inform her of her departure in a couple of days.  Through it all, Stanley is only concerned with himself, and comes off as a very shallow person looking out for number one.

          I see a lot of Stanley Kowalski in my own father, but with a very profound yet subtle difference.  My dad worked a lot while I was growing up, and when he did have time off he drank quite a bit.  He did in fact have a pretty hot temper, but never went as far as hitting anybody.  The big difference is his outlook towards people.  My dad is always concerned with others before himself.  He always sees the best in people and tries to help everybody that he can, even at a significant loss to himself.  Things didn't really matter unless his family was o.k.  I remember being about 16 and wrecking my dad's car. I freaked out, because I was familiar with his temper, and I thought he was going to kill me.  Sure enough, he was plenty mad when I called him, but by the time he got there he was only concerned with my safety.  Something he said that day will stay with me forever, "Danny, I don't care if you burned the Mona Lisa, as long as you're o.k., stuff can be replaced, you can't."  That is one of the most important things my father taught me, people come first.

          While it is important to look out for yourself, I think it is equally important to consider the consequences of your actions and how they effect those around you.  I think it would be pretty amazing to live in a world where people think about others before they do or say something.  Then maybe we wouldn't have issues like the financial crisis a few years ago with its massive bailouts to corporate sleaze who made unethical business decisions at the cost of everyone else.  Considering others first might lead to a world of tolerance, where people walk a mile in someone else's shoes before making a harsh judgement or going farther with violence, murder, or even genocide.  I think it could also create a sense of community throughout humanity; people that are genuinely concerned about each other and care about the success of humanity.

Works Cited:

Williams, Tennessee. "A Streetcar Named Desire." 1947. 1865-Present. Ed. Nina 
     Baym. 8th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2013. 1116-1177. Print. 
     Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 2 vols.