Connection+to+Streetcar

"Self Portrait," by May Robert Mapplethorpe, looks a lot like what I would imagine Blanche in __A Streetcar Named Desire__ looks like. The woman in this picture seems a little arrogant and definitely privileged. She is draped in fur - something Blanche loves - and is looking straight at the camera as if she is not scared at all. This is the kind of front that I saw Blanche put on all throughout the pay - she pretended to have it all under control and not to be scared of Stanley and his different ways, but we can see that with Blanche, the face in this picture is just a facade, and she is really just a very messed up girl.

"Untitled" by Scott Mutter also reminds me a lot of __A Streetcar Named Desire__. Throughout the book, Blanche seems to be waiting for her very own knight in shining armor to come and save her. This picture is like an embodiment of who she would have wanted to come to her. She was a little bit of a damsel in distress in the entire book, but we can see that her knight never came. Instead, she left with a doctor.

These two pictures also bring up American ideals and parts of the American character again. "Self Portrait" shows the consumer and beauty-driven side, again. Blanche seems to think, like this lady appears, that if she has these furs or looks a certain way, everything will be alright, no matter what situation she is in. She puts up a front that shows a different side than what is really going on inside her. Going along with this, "Untitled" represents that sort of American optimism - the idea that everything will be okay, that somehow we will all be saved and our situations can change in life. While for Blanche, she depends on a man to do this, for many, this sort of optimism rests on ourselves.

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