A Streetcar Named Desire – Mehreen Bhatti

A Streetcar Named Desire – Mehreen Bhatti
Journal Entry #1: As I began to read A Streetcar Named Desire, I realized certain things about the scene of the story and the characters in it. New Orleans is not like any typical place in the United States throughout history. The religion is not like usual states in the south, they are catholic. Also, people of different ethnicities get along and all negative things are forgotten when something bad happens like a big fight. An example is how Stanley and Stella are attracted to each other in scene one despite their social class differences. Blanche caught my attention because she has lost a lot and is not very happy. Everything she has gone through is likely to affect her in the long run. I do not really like the fact that Stanley is using Stella for her inheritances and believes that everything she has belongs to him also. I can connect to Blanche in a way; I take many baths to rid myself of any anger or to calm myself down like Blanche does. I feel bad for Blanche because she is naïve. She thinks that she is strong enough not to let Stanley hurt her in any way but I feel like he knows her well enough to recognize her strengths and weaknesses. I feel as is Stella is too blinded by love. Stanley is a beast and does not treat her very well. I wish she would follow the right instincts and realize that her sister is the one who wants the best for her. In scene four, Stella finds one of Stanley’s violent acts “thrilling”. This made me think that Stella is a masochist because she is attracted to Stanley’s violent characteristics.

Journal Entry #2: Blanche is very closed up. I don’t understand how she cannot open up to her own sister. A sister is supposed to be a best friend aside from being a sister. If Blanche was able to open up to her sister about her past I am sure that Stella would have been able to give her sister the best advice for her to understand that Mitch is the man she needs to pull her away from everything negative in her past. Blanche does not even open up even when it is obvious that there is something she is hiding when Stanley questions her. It shows that Blanche is desperate to find an answer to her problems and before she actually reveals something she seduces the newspaper boy. This action exposed something of her past which was that she practices fornication. I think she needs to hurry up and open up to Mitch because he is the one who can illuminate her life again before it is too late. In scene seven, Blanche is exposed by Stanley and I felt bad as I read this scene because I was hoping that Blanche would come out to Mitch herself about her past. I think that if it was her to tell him, he would have helped her. His view of her has been completely changed now. I liked to see Stella take a stand for once in scene eight although he got the power back once she asked him to take her to the hospital because he was the only person she could turn to when vulnerable.


Journal Entry #3: I feel sorry for Blanche now that Mitch has confronted her and they have broken up. Marriage was the only thing she thought could save her and after that break up she felt like there was no light left in her life. Stanley’s encounter with Blanche when he physically acts on her completely destroys her. It symbolizes the end to her made up world. I did not like Stanley from the beginning because of his animalistic character but this last act of his made me dislike him even more. How could he do something like that to Stella who is about to give birth to his child? Blanche ended up suffering more instead of progressing. Stella also suffered; when she cries at the end of scene eleven, she was crying for her sister Blanche because she couldn’t believe the story and she could not deny it either. She knew there was some truth in it but she felt as if she had to stay with Stanley. It just comes to show that women in this time and in the South are vulnerable when it comes to family and stability no matter what the cost.