Literature that creates controversy

Another one of the stories that I enjoyed reading during this class was Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire. To read about Blanche and the challenges she faced throughout her life and then to see her try to escape her past by moving in with her sister Stella, this made for interesting reading. To see how Stanley interacted with Stella and Blanche and to see how he did not believe what Blanche told them, this story was full of the male versus female controversies. One thing that was clear in this story was how poor Stanley treated Stella and how poor he viewed women including Blanche. With alcohol in the mix, the verbal and mental abuses of Stanley were sad examples for men in this piece. To see a character such as Mitch come along who in such a positive way interacted with Blanche, it seemed that it may be possible for Blanche to put her past behind her and to start anew with a good man who would love her for who she was. Sadly, this was not to happen as Stanley again revealed who Blanche really was. Stanley not only was a verbal, and mental abuser but it was in this story that he raped Blanche only to weaken her self image and further destroy her psyche. It was sad to see that Stella could not see what Stanley really was and that she could not even believe her sister when told what Stanley had done. This story was full of the mental, physical dominations of an evil man and it was this story that generated controversies within the reader. In a class, discussion post when it was asked if Blanche was responsible for her past or if she was a victim, it was interesting to see that some felt that Blanche was a victim of the circumstances she was a part of. My view was that Blanch just as any other human, had to make decisions and therefore had to be responsible for the repercussions of what she had done. I certainly do not agree with how Blanche, Stella were treated and I thought it was so sad that Stanley violated Blanche and then treated her as if she was the person who had done wrong. This literary piece is another strong example of how a good writing can generated controversy between the various readers (male, female, etc). I enjoyed reading this story and it was interesting to observe the reactions of those who read this story in this class.