A Streetcar Named Desire revolves around a theme of progressing madness. Blanche is the focal point of the madness because she has a low self esteem and her behavior is delusional. Her delusional behavior consists of her alcoholism, promiscuity, and compulsive lying. She constantly tries to cope with the madness, but the people around her drive her deeper into a delusional mental state. Many aspects of her life; however, make her madness more justifiable. Blanche’s increasingly unstable state culminates in her being committed to an asylum. The cause and effect of Blanche’s madness are used to bring the play together as a whole and show how madness affects everyone in the play. (more…)
July 14, 2010
June 16, 2010
Shogun Essay
The novel Shogun, by James Clavell is not just a book, but a cultural insight into a country that has flourished for over a thousand years, and is as rich, diverse and beautiful, as it is violent and cruel. The novel deals with themes and issues such as cultural acceptance, death, tradition and religion, to mention a few, and the story progresses through the eyes of numerous characters, both Japanese and European.
The setting for Shogun is Japan in the year 1600. The main characters are John Blackthorne, whose dream is to be the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe, to break the monopoly the Portuguese and Spanish have on trade between Japan and China and to return home famous and wealthy; Toranaga, the most powerful lord in Japan, who’s burning desire is become the Shogun, (the supreme military dictator) and to unite the waring samurai clans under his own leadership; and the Lady Mariko, who is a Catholic convert who must decide whether to support the Church or her own county – these loyalties however, are confused when she falls in love with Blackthorne. The novel begins when Blackthorn’s ship hits a reef while trying desperately to escape a storm. Incidentally, the ship is wrecked and Blackthorne and his crew are stranded on an uncharted landmass. Over the next few days, Blackthorne discovers that he is in Nihon or Japan and that his crew is being held captive. He whiteness first had the extremes of violence akin to the Japanese, when a Samurai hacks off a man’s head for being impolite. (more…)