sad

When Stella was in the hospital, preparing to have her baby the next morning, Stanley raped Blanche. He did this because he could not stand her, and wanted to harm her greatly. Blanche was hurt so much by this that she told Stella, who in turn protected Stanley and did not believe her. Stella loved the comfort and security of having Stanley around. She would always fall for it when he would apologize for yelling or beating her. She was a sucker. So she didn't believe that Stanley would do such a thing because she believed Stanley was inherently good. Stella thought that Blanche was crazy, and tricked her into going to a mental hospital. Stella thought that Blanche had ruined her and Stanley's relationship, and she wanted it to go "back to the old way." Blanche also would do many weird things. First, she just in general acted weird. She would talk about hearing music, always take baths, and she would always talk badly about Stanley. Blanche also had had a relationship with a 17 year old and had lied about her past. Blanch had slept around with other men at Hotel Flamingo and then acted as if she was "old fashioned," to Stella, Stanley, and Mitch. She completely lied about her recent past to everyone. Blanche only believed in telling people what she wanted to be true, instead of reality, just like characters in Sunset Boulevard and in The Death of a Salesman. I think that Blanche's "tape recorder" was Stanley when he exposed Blanche's past. 

I think that in the end, sending Blanche to a mental hospital was absolutely the right thing to do because she was flat out crazy. She had been raped, dumped by Mitch, lost her job, lost her husband, kicked out of a town and a sleezy hotel, and just did not have much of a happy life. Everything added up in the end, and she cracked. I wish, though, that Stella had believed that Stanley had raped her because maybe this time Stella would have gathered up the courage to leave Stanley. Stanley had been such an awful husband. 

Hotel Flamingo

We find out that Blanche was attracted to children and that she might have had a problem with children. We also find out about Blanche's husband, Allen. She was very young when she married him. She loved him very much. One day when she came home, she peered into her room and saw her husband in bed with another man. She didn't say anything for a while, but one time when she and her husband got drunk at a casino, she called him out on it and he went out and committed suicide. Ever since then, Blanche has been very guilty about the death of her husband.
Stanley also found out from his buddy, Shaw, that he had seen Blanche at the Hotel Flamingo. Shaw had seen Blanche there and told Stanley that Blanche was kicked out of the hotel because of her immoral actions. Blanche had also been fired instead of "taking a leave of absence." Blanche had a relationship with a 17 year old boy at her school. The father of this boy found out and complained to the school about it.
I think that this was pretty interesting, especially about her cousin. I didn't see this coming. I can see why she feels quite guilty about her husband. I think she should feel guilty because no one should ever tell anyone else that they are disgusting because of their sexuality.

approval

Blanche does not approve Stanley because she thinks that she is in the upper class, and does not think that Stanley is good for Stella, let a lone the DuBois family. Stanley beats and curses Stella, and she does nothing about it. Blanche thinks that Stanley is a brute and that their are more creatures that are more "evolved" than him. Blanche is a very stuck up person and does not agree with the class that Stanley is in. Stanley is part of the working class. He does not have very much money and can not provide much for Stella. He beats her when he's angry, but then will apologize to her, telling her that he wants her back. She falls for his rouse an she usually goes back to him, after a couple of days of quarelling. Stanley also for no good reason smashed all of Stella's shoes on their honey moon, and Stella could really do nothing about it.

CHARACTERRRR: Stan

So this Stanley guy is pretty weird. He's really weird because he changed a lot. Stanley seemed like a simple flirtatious guy. He seemed to come onto Blanche a little bit when he first saw her, but other that, I thought he was pretty cool, and down to clown. Sure, Stanley seems sort of merciless, vicious, and intimidating, but I feel like he honestly does care for Stella and was very nice to her. He respected her in the first scene and was nice to her. They used terms of indeerment like honey, baby, and sweety with each other, making it seem like they were extremely close to each other and had a great relationship. Later in the play, we see that Stanley is a violent, degrading, and drunk brute who does not respect his wife, Stella.
Stanley first starts to show his true side when he starts to freak out about how Blanche has all of this nice stuff. He goes through all of Blanche's stuff and starts to wonder where she got it all. Then when he is drunk he starts to freak out about the music saying that it's too loud. He then eventually throws the radio out the window and proceeded to beat Stella. He is quite an angry person and yells a lot. He curses at Stella and Blanche and accuses Blanche of selling the estate for her personal gain.

PAPeeR

I think that this paper is interesting because we can compare a book to a movie, and still find many similarities. It's very interesting to see that the idea of a dream and the American dream was a large topic in the early to mid 20th century. I didn't realize that it was such a big deal. I like comparing the two characters of Willy and Norma. All they initially seem different, you eventually can draw up many similarities between them...like how they both remember the good things from their past and how they want to be like their past.
I also like how we are using a Langston Hughes poem. It's cool to see how even thirty years before they were talking about dreams. It's interesting because that's what all people have in common. No matter race, social class, and economic class, everyone has a dream. So literature from the Harlem Renaissance can be compared to literature from the "Lost" group and from a movie made in 1950. It's all connected, and it shows how everybody is connected.

NORMAAAAAAAAA AND WILLLLLAAAYYYYYY WILLLAAYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's really interesting to see the close comparisons and similarities beetween the characters, Norma in Sunset Blvd. and Willy in Death of A Salesman. Norma and Willy are both characters who used to be successful, or so we are told. They both live and reminisce in their glory days, and are sort of whack-o people. They are extremely messed up. I also think their are comparisons beetween their house. Although Norma's is large and full of stuff and Willy's isn't, I still feel like both houses are very empty and are quite lonely. Both houses were both nice houses that their owners obviously liked, but over time Norma's became overgrown with vegetation and Willy's was overcrowded by apartment buildings and urban development.
Both characters are crazy and seem tp not reallly understand modern life. Both Norma and Willy have a dream that they cannot get away from and cannot stop holding, just like in Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Great Gatsby, and The Last American Man. Both Norma and Willy are obsessed with their past. I don't think that Norma was honestly as big as she thinks she was. I think, like Willy, she exagerates her past, and remembers things that only she wants to remember.

Dead

When Willy gets into his car while Biff and Happy are listening, he goes crazy and does some weird things, and he eventually dies in an accident. I think that by purposefully dying, Willy ends his misery. He tries to justify his death by saying he will do it for the $20,000, which to a certain extent is actually true, but deep down, Willy does not have enough will power and desire to keep going. He knows he is unsuccessful, he had just been fired, he ruined his son's life, and he, in general was just a crazy guy. I think that it was not his fault that he died. He could not control it and there was nothing that he could do about it. He was not weak, but he was also not a hero. It just sort of happened. Every lie and exaggeration he told, and every dream about himself that he made up amassed together and eventually built up, and in the end, this bubble of fake lies and dreams popped and he went crazy. He could no longer be the positive dramatacist that he was. Everything caught up to him in the end, and he could not deal.
So, in the end it was not a weak thing of Willy to do, but rather something that was inevitable. He in general was a crazy person. It was his destiny to die the way that he did.

MISTRESS

When Biff goes to Boston to tell his father that he had failed, and that he wants Willy to go and talk to his teacher, Mr. Binbaum, about his grade, he notices that there is someone else in the bathroom with Willy. All Biff's life, Biff had looked up to his father. He though of his father as perfect. Biff thought that everybody in Providence and in Boston lived Willy and Willy just made all of this comission money because he was such a great saleman. Nothing Willy did was ever wrong according to Biff, and their relationship was great. Not only did Biff think that his father was perfect, Willy thought that Biff was perfect as well. Willy thought that everybody loved his son, that he was handsome and great with the girls, smart, funny, and athletic. He thought that all of these things would make him successful. This is interesting because this is another example of how Willy is a kid and how he does not act mature. He has tons of these visions and dreams that aren't really true, just like a young kid has. Anyways, when Biff realizes that his father is lying about the woman, he starts to ignore Willy, and the view that Biff had of Willy was completely gone. Biff lost all of his respect of his father, and all of his idea of perfection of Willy also went down the drain. Biff then gave up on his life because he figured no use could come from it. What was the point. Willy had set an awful example for Biff, and Willy also contradicted everything that Biff had ever taught him.

JOB

I personally do not think that Willy made a good decision to not take the job. It was quite silly of him. Willy needed to swallow his pride and jealousy, suck it up, and take the job. He had just gotten fired, he was going crazy, he needed money, wanted to be a role model for his kids, and wanted to be successful, so I think that it was a big time mistake that he did not take the job. He did not have.

Willy was not only jealous that Charley was successful in the business world, he was also jealous that his son had turned out so great. Bernard, who he had thought was a dorky little kid, was now a successful lawyer who was taking cases to the U.S. supreme court in Washington D.C. whereas his sons, especially Biff, were bums who were sitting at home thinking about starting a Sporting Goods company. Willy then starts to think that it was all his fault for the Biffs giving up on life. Willy knows that his affair had something to do with it, and he starts to realize what kind of example he set for his boys. He is upset for himself, and is therefore mad at Charley because Charley has a good son who is highly educated and successful. Also, this job that Charley was going to give Willy was going to pay decently ($50) and would not require Willy to travel, which in the end would work out quite well. I think that Willy is basically miserable and insane, and is an awful decision maker and has no judgement skills. WILLLYYYY

Bennnnnnyyyyy

I think that Ben is a negative influence on Willy, but in a way Ben unintentionally did it. Willy is obsessed with success, and becoming successful, and when his older brother, Ben, reached success and Willy didn't, Will became sad and became infatuated with the fact that his brother had money. Willy becomes crazy and has these illusions about his brother, and these flashbacks about his brother has money, and he loves the "story" of how Ben became successful. I also think that Willy looks up to him too much, and desperately wants to become like him. This is an example of materialistic America, and how people become so obsessed with success in the business and economic world. Willy then teaches this idea of success, which in my opinion is a bad version of success, to his sons and thinks that they will only make it in the world if they are financially successful. So, when one of his sons, Biff, does not reach the level of success that he had wanted him to have, he becomes increasingly dissapointed in him. Willy thinks that since his sons are popular, handsome, and well-liked, they will become successful someday and will become financially stable. Ben is a negative influence because he instilled materialistic ideas of success into Willy, who in turn instilled these ideas into his son's. Willy and his sons are now extremely miserable and unhappy.

WE LOVE SPORTZ

Biff and Happy are sitting around, and decide that they should work together to create a Sporting Goods store. This is something that both of them would like, and would be happy with doing. They get very excited about it, and even their father, Willy, thinks that it's a "Million dollar idea." They starting creating the idea and building a business proposal to show Bill Oliver, a man who works at a bank and would give them a business loan. Biff and Happy think that this will work because they were popular, well liked, jocks in high school, and they figured that this would also apply to themselves in the business world.
I do not think that this plan will work because first of all, they are asking for a lot of money. Second of all, they are not organized and focused enough to complete this job. They have no idea how to run a sports shop, and neither of them have let alone ran a shop. They also think that because they were popular in high school, that they will be successful. Biff also said that he was only happy with working on a farm, and Happy wanted to become a big executive. This business will not work because these boys just aren't focused enough and hard working enough to carry out their plans.