Life, Love, and other Miseries?

“Man is a knot into which relationships are tied.” ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Flight to Arras, 1942, translated from French by Lewis Galantière



In the play “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams, the characters all seem to be driven by their relationships with each other and society. But the sad thing is, that none of them seem to know how to create positive relationships; they are all ruled by intimidation, lust, fear, or misunderstanding.

The most obvious example of this is the relationship between Stella and Stanley. With a scream and a show of violence, Stanley is able to both control and thrill Stella; resulting in her continually throwing herself into his arms. Clearly, this is not the healthiest relationship. In Scene Three “The Poker Night,” Stanley becomes drunk and hits Stella. Initially, Stella is very upset and runs out of the house. But Stanley doesn’t have to do much to bring her crawling back to him. With a few violent screams from Stanley, Stella and Stanley come back together “with low, animal moans” (653). This scene does not illustrate a loving relationship to me. It instead portrays a relationship built on lust. If Stanley truly loved and understood Stella, would he have ever beaten her? And if their relationship was built on more than lust, wouldn’t they be communicating with each other in ways that weren’t merely sexual?

Another key relationship in this play is the relationship between Blanche and Stella. Here they are sisters, one of the closest bonds in nature, and they seem to not know a thing about each other. Stella doesn’t know all about Blanche’s risqué past and Blanche doesn’t even know where Stella lives, or more importantly, how she lives! All of their dialogue seems to revolve around Stella trying to soothe Blanche and Blanche trying to rile up Stella. They do not communicate on a deeper level. Blanche is so self-centered and caught up in her life and lies, that she never even allows Stella to speak anything genuine. One of the greatest examples I found of this was in Scene One:

Blanche [looking down at her glass, which shakes in her hand]: You’re all I’ve got in the world, and you’re not glad to see me!
Stella [sincerely]: Why, Blanche, you know that’s not true.
Blanche: No?—I’d forgotten how quiet you were.
Stella: You never did give me a chance to say much, Blanche. So I just got in the habit of being quiet around you.
Blanche [vaguely]: A good habit to get into … [then, abruptly] You haven’t asked me how I happened to get away from the school before the spring term ended. (635)

In this scene, you can see how Blanche is constantly seeking affirmation and love, while continually shutting her sister out. The moment Stella tries to speak up about how she has felt in their relationship, Blanche simply laughs it off and changes the subject back to herself. I cannot imagine being in a relationship, especially one with my sister, where it was constantly about her—making her feel good and loved and supported, while I simply played doctor, never having my wounds and needs addressed.

In this play, the poetic words of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry sadly ring a horrible tune. These characters lives have become tangled and ruined by the relationships they find themselves in and, it appears that none of them can find a way to get out of the twisted mess they are left with.

In the Pursuit Of ...

“Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see” (193).


After finishing “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston, I found myself deeply disappointed. I felt like Hurston’s poetic and beautiful beginning had failed to bring us to such an end. In a way, I felt similar to how I did after completing Douglass’ biography; like the whole story was building up to a central point, but upon reaching it, the author did not bring us into her realm of knowledge, but instead only gave us a fleeting glimpse. I wanted to hear, feel, and see that Janie had finally found what she was looking for! I wanted to believe that her lifelong search had finally led her to a place of peace and happiness. I wanted it so badly. Instead, I felt as though I was left to walk away with a bittersweet taste in my mouth; content with the fact that the lines read that Janie was happy, but they did not illustrate it.

We were supposed to believe that Janie went through these life changing experiences (she went through a devastating hurricane and had to shoot her one true love in the span of, at most, a few weeks!) and had somehow come out happy and satisfied. We were supposed to believe that she was now content to live with her now fairly empty life, and all with a carefree attitude. I was not convinced.

The first half of Hurston’s novel explores the deepest realms of Janie’s heart; her curiosity about life and love, her desire to live a life in synch with nature’s rich symphony, and her ultimate longing to reach the horizon. Hurston builds up in our minds this character that is desperately in pursuit of a dream. But by the time you are a third of the way from finishing the novel, you begin to pick up on the subtle changes that are weaving there way into Janie’s story.

The biggest overall change I noticed was that Hurston was no longer taking the time to use poetic imagery to create in our minds an actual sense of all that was happening in Janie’s life; instead she seemed to brush through things in a pretty straightforward manner. I so enjoyed dissecting Hurston’s beautiful, and sometimes confusing, lines in the beginning of the novel, so I could not help but be let down by this change. In addition to this, it was impossible to ignore changes in the main characters of Tea Cake and even Janie herself.

When we are first introduced to Tea Cake, we see him as the antithesis of all the other men in Janie’s life; he is fun, loving, and treats her more like an equal, rather than a showpiece. He seems like the most caring man, that would not dream of wronging Janie in any way, shape, or form. But then out of nowhere, we find him flirting with a random girl in a field and slapping Janie around! This seems in direct conflict with all we have come to know about Tea Cake.

Then there are the changes in the way Hurston portrays Janie. Gone is the dreamer, constantly looking towards the horizon. Janie becomes a two-dimensional character, who just barely fleshes out the spirit we have grown to know.

In finally concluding the novel, I was simply left wondering why Hurston would make such dramatic shifts. So I picked up the novel again a few days later and reread portions that I was confused about. And I think that the thing that I have concluded is that perhaps, Hurston was using these changes in her style of writing and descriptions of characters to further develop the changes that Janie’s life took throughout the course of events in the novel. In the beginning, Janie was a young girl, full of thoughts and hopes and dreams. But as she grew and actually experienced life, perhaps she realized that her initial dreams were not what she really wanted from life. Perhaps she found that the pear tree and the bees’ music was not the entire symphony, but rather it was just a part of the orchestra that had to play in harmony with the rest of the music that nature contributed in order to create a masterpiece. And upon that note, I find some measure of solace.

The Perversion of Love

“Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly” (1).


The dream is the truth. As I was reading the first five chapters in “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston, I kept coming back to this line. For such a small, ambiguous opening, I felt it held some serious weight in the context of Janie’s life story and her unending search for love.

At the innocent age of sixteen, Janie’s eyes, and more importantly her heart, became awakened to the lure of love. As she was sitting under a pear tree, watching it blossom and burst forth, beckoning the bees to come to her, she observed, “So this was a marriage!” (11). To Janie, this beautiful song and dance between the female tree and the male bees, created a perfect harmony; it was the very essence of love. And in her mind, there was no other way for love to be; it was a captivating, sweeping romance. It was a beautiful symphony, with all of the natural beauty of the world sweetly playing its strings.

With all of this unassuming grandeur built up in her mind, Janie found herself being swept away in the music. The bees and the trees were calling to each other, and she felt herself being summoned by some unknown. The trees were the answer for the bees; who was she an answer to? This was the beginning of Janie’s truth coming alive. This dream of how love must be stirred up so powerfully in her mind and her heart that it became her truth. And ultimately, led her to the unhappy life she leads.

Quickly after coming to this revelation of love, Janie finds herself awakened to be living in a nightmare. Janie innocently gives in to her infatuation with love and kisses a boy that is passing by. But what she saw as part of the symphony of love, her Nanny saw as the beginning of a dangerous cycle of lust. Nanny concludes that the only way to avoid this pitfall is to marry Janie off to an older, wealthy man. Janie puts up a fight, but ultimately does as Nanny wishes, even though she does not love Logan Killicks, her intended.

When Janie enters the marriage, she is still clinging to her dream of the pear tree and the bees; hoping that soon she will partake of the grand song and dance. When she does not, she finds herself completely confused. Where is the love that she dreams of? This marriage is not love; this is not her truth. And so eventually, she acts accordingly. Janie leaves Logan behind to marry a man who seems to be promising her a life full of magic and music; a life where she can blossom under his love.

But by the end of chapter five, already this romance is going stale for Janie. She is still caught up in her dream of what love is. And we see clearly, that this is no longer merely a dream for Janie. It is her truth. And she will not be happy unit she has found what her heart has told her head is true love. So far, all she has found is disillusionment with a perverted sort of love, where the air is stale and silent, shutting out all sounds of music and blocking the sun, leaving her a withered blossom begging for life.