A Street Car Names Desire Essay Example for Free

A Street Car Names Desire Essay ? A Street Car Named Desire deals with a culture clash between the Old South’s â€Å"plantation† mentality (priding itself on false pretenses) and the New South’s relatively uncivilized, yet real, grip on reality. The two characters who come to represent this tension are Blanche and Stanley Kowalski. Blanche advertises herself as a champion of â€Å"Southern Honor. † This entails an unfaltering dedication to virtue and culture. These are not, however, driving factors in her life but only mask her alcoholism and delusions of grandeur. By contrast, Stanley is an industrial worker who acts on habit and structure. Tennessee Williams juxtaposes illusion and reality by depicting the antagonistic relationship between the two by consistently employing symbolism. Blanche is constantly escaping the realities of life by retreating into her own fabrications. Her plummet into a delusional world begins when her beloved husband reveals himself to be gay and, soon after, shoots himself. She falls into a spiral of affairs after this event in a search to find emotional satisfaction and to reaffirm her womanhood. She ignores the obvious detrimental effect of her intimacies because all she wants is to be happy again: to be loved. Blanche physically escapes the reality of her life by leaving Belle Reve and Laurel to go to her sister’s home in New Orleans. Here, she misrepresents who she is and enters another relationship where she recreates her identity. When confronted about her lies, Blanche explains that she lies because she refuses to accept the hand fate has dealt her: I don’t want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, magic! I try to give that to people. I misrepresent things to them. I don’t tell truth, I tell what ought to be truth. And if that is sinful, then let me be damned for it! (Williams, 34) Lying to herself and to others allows her to make life appear as she thinks it should be rather than as it is. Her final, deluded happiness (as her sister and Stanley commit her to an insane asylum) shows her acceptance that illusion is an adequate reality, but it also shows reality’s inevitable triumph. The driving force of reality, embodied by Stanley Kowalski, quickly dismantles all the falsities Blanche comes to represent. He is a practical man firmly grounded in the physical world who disdains fabrications. He finds meaning only in the primitive and straightforward: â€Å"There’s something downright bestial about him! †¦ He acts like an animal, has animal’s habits! †¦ Yes, something ape-like about him† (71). An animal would not create an alternate reality for a situation but would act according to the real, harshness of life in order to ensure its own survival. Stanley’s animal habits can be looked at as an appreciation only for tangible truths. In the end, Stanley succeeds in debunking all the false images Blanche created about herself. He goes out of his way to reveal Blanche’s past and then flaunts it in a crude, insensitive way: â€Å"Take a look at yourself here in a worn-out Mardi Gras outfit, rented for 50 cents from some rag-picker†¦ Do you know that I’ve been on to you from the start, and not once did you pull the wool over this boy’s eyes?†¦ Ha ha! Do you hear me? Ha ha ha† (67). Stanley again asserts his bestial tendency, but this time to show his dominance. When he proceeds to physically rape her, he metaphorically strips her of the false reality she created. Williams uses symbolism to show that Blanche is trapped in a life of delusion. The Varsouviana Polka and the use of light are reoccurring symbols that elude to her disconnect with reality. The Polka is the music that played the night her husband committed suicide. Blanche says that it ends only after she hears the sound of a gunshot in her head. It plays at various points in the play, symbolising this event that triggered her mental decline. Whenever a situation gets too â€Å"real,† Blanche firmly believes she hears the Varsouviana, panics, and looses her grip on reality. Also, throughout the play, Blanche avoids appearing in direct, bright light, especially in front of Mitch: â€Å"And turn that over-light off! Turn that off! I won’t be looked at in this merciless glare†(45). It is clear she avoids the lights in efforts to conceal the reality of her age and fading beauty. Symbolically, Blanche avoids light in order to prevent Mitch from seeing her for who she is. She, once again, retreats into her own world of illusion. Blanche is never able to be looked at â€Å"in the light† and exposed. She never faces reality. Both Stanley and Blanche have a hard time relating to the other gender without sexual implications. The difference is that Stanley is upfront about this â€Å"animalistic† behavior towards women, while Blanche tries to paint herself as above the primitive nature of her sexual impulses. We can call one approach realistic and the other delusional, but it doesn’t change the fact that both characters approach interactions in a sexual way. What does this say about the nature of what is real and what isn’t? Williams seems to draw an ambiguous line. This implies that reality and illusions coexist in our lives, and what we choose to label our views and actions is just a matter of perspective. A Street Car Names Desire. (2016, Dec 03).

Onion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Onion - Essay Example This onion is generally known by the name Vidalia. This species of onion is derived from Texas Grano 502. It reaches maturity early. Granex are normally available in yellow, red and white colors. Among all varieties of onions, the yellow onion matures the earliest, but it can not be stored for long. The white Granex onion is generally known as Miss Society and resembles the yellow onion in characteristics. Immature Granex onions, generate green onions upon harvesting. It is possible to thin the onion plantings by over-planting them from their seeds. 2. Texas Super-Sweet onions: Like Granex onions, Texas Super-Sweet onions are also derived from Texas Grano 502. Also, they are a short-day onion variety. As the name implies, Texas Super-Sweet onions are mildly sweet in taste. Large bulbous yellow onions having the shape of the globe can be seen in this variety. Unlike the Granex onions, Texas Super-Sweet onions have a large period of storage. Although it is derived from the Texas Grano 502, its resistance to disease is marvelous unlike many other varieties of onions that are derived from the same specie. They are far less likely than other varieties of onions to be bruised while being transported.

The Implementation of International Treaties (with Specific Reference Essay

The Implementation of International Treaties (with Specific Reference to the United Nations Convention for Biological Diversity - Essay Example ‘Implementation’ in legal terms refer to the different regulations, laws, policies, and various other initiatives and measures adopted for fulfilling the obligations as made mandatory under an environmental agreement (Donald, 2002). Implementation of environmental policies, at a global level, is liable to face more issues than implementing at a national level. This is owing to the fact that global implementation depends on mutual collaboration between different countries that have their own set of political, socio-economic and environmental issues, and are under voluntary obligations to follow the treaties; hence it is difficult to hold them responsible for failure in adhering to and implementing the convention guidelines. States with emerging economies may find that implementation of global environmental policies lacks feasibility. Such countries would prefer to allocate public funds for promoting socio-economic growth, instead spending money on safeguarding and regulat ing environmental resources. In developing nations (often, also observed in developed countries) increasing populations and demands for bettering the quality of life, a pressure develops on state governments to relax environmental protection norms. Keeping the challenges and the need for environmental protection in mind, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was created in 1992 for promoting worldwide sustainable environmental development. CBD is an international body that evolved from the Earth Summit (June 1992), also known as the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), in Rio de Janeiro. The chief aims this Convention are: â€Å"conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources, including by appropriate access to genetic resources and by appropriate transfer of relevant technologies, taking into account all rights over those resources and to technologies, and by appropriate funding† (Convention On Biological Diversity, 1992, p. 3). The Convention takes into account many issues that range from safeguarding natural resources, to making â€Å"use of traditional knowledge, innovations and practices relevant to the conservation of biological diversity and the sustainable use of its components†(ibid, p. 2), arranging for incentives in cases where there have been sustainable use of environmental resources, and transfer of science and modern technology. In this context, this research paper will study and analyse the 1992 Convention for Biological Diversity (CBD) in order to review the issues faced while implementing global environmental policies. In recent years, countries have become dependent on different international bodies to promote cooperation between States at a global level on various aspects (Lane, 2006). International treaties have turned into foundation stones for various multilat eral regulatory efforts along with being an institutionalised kind of global collaboration, a process based on notions of shared sovereignties (Sharma, Chettri, Gurung and Shakya, 2007). Increased institutionalised collaboration in the recent years has created a complex mosaic of agreements at the global, regional and bilateral levels (Kim, 2003). Even after 2 decades since its inception, CBD continues to be one of the most important global