Sex and Death in A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams :: A Streetcar Named Desire Essays

It’s just a little after sun set as Blanche Dubois sets foot off a train in New Orleans. She is visiting her sister, Stella, & brother-in law, Stanley. Well she is actually moving in, because she has lost their family’s homestead, Belle Reve, and as well as her job, as a high school English teacher. Her husband shoots himself after she told him that he disgusted her, because he was homosexual. Blanche is so afraid of her past that she does her best to lead the life of an elegant lady and does her best to keep up appearances. She is an alcoholic, but tries to hide it from everyone. Blanche takes a liking to Stanley’s friend, Mitch. He evenly finds about her past and wants nothing more to do with her. Then Blanche wants Stella to leave Stanley and go with her to leave with a rich â€Å"man† named, Step Huntleigh, who turns out to someone she made up. Stanley rapes Blanche during the time Stella was at the hospital having their baby. She tells Stella about th e rape, but she does not believe her. Blanche becomes deeply disturbed, so they decide to put her in an insane asylum (Williams). Blanche Dubois is a mid-age high school English teacher. She is very naà ¯ve and thinks highly of herself. She has became very promiscuous since her husbands death, which she caused by telling him that he disgusted her because he is homosexual. She puts on the airs of a woman who has never known indignity, even though she has had many lovers and strong sexual urges. She was forced to leave Laurel, Mississippi because of her affair with a young student. Soon after Blanche arrives in New Orleans at the Kowalski apartment and eventually reveals that she is completely destitute. She avoids reality, preferring to live in her own imagination. As the play progresses, Blanche’s instability grows along with her misfortune. Stanley sees through Blanche and finds out the details of her past, destroying her relationship with his friend Mitch. Stanley also destroys what’s left of Blanche by raping her and then having her committed to an insane asylum (Williams). Stella Kowalski is Blanche’s younger sister, about twenty-five years old. Stella left Laurel, Mississippi in her late teens and moved to New Orleans. She then met and married Stanley Kowalski, who is lower-class, but she loves and cares for him dearly.

Genetically Modified Foods: Their Benefits and Drawbacks

Dear Senator Cornyn, As a United States Senator representing the state of Texas, you know that representing the best interests of your constituents is a full time job. Perhaps one of the most important items in the lives of Texans is how and where their supply of food is produced. While normal agricultural techniques do provide many of the food in the market today, genetically modified foods, or GM foods are quickly becoming an integral part of America's food system. This letter is being submitted to offer you a brief summary of what genetically modified foods are, their benefits, and their drawbacks. It is our hope that you will use this information to make informed decisions concerning this controversial subject. Specifically speaking, genetic modification is a special set of technologies that alter genetic makeup of organisms such as animals, plants, or bacteria. It is a form of biotechnology in which specific gene sequences are inserted into a specific plant or animal so that the trait exhibited by the gene is manifested in the plant or animal. By allowing specific genes to be re-combined, the value of the recipient organism can be greatly increased. The potential risks attributed to such a genetically engineered crop can also be increased. Based on the available information, there are quite a number of tangible benefits to genetically modified plants. Crops can be genetically engineered to be more resistant to pests, either plant or animal. By making such plants as corn, soybeans or even alfalfa more resistant, the resultant crop yields are larger, and the need for environmentally dangerous pesticides or herbicides are decreased greatly. Other crops, such as rice, have been genetically modified to include iron and Vitamin A to increase their health benefits. There are some risks involved with using genetically modified crops. One of the most far reaching is the possibility of the genetically modified foods harming other organisms. A recent study of Cornell University indicated that a gene for a bacterial toxin inserted into corn was poisonous to monarch butterfly larvae. It is a prime example of the far reaching affects of such alteration in the food system. Another risk inherent in this type of modification is uncontrolled cross-pollination. Once a modified gene is placed within a plant, it is extremely difficult to prevent it spreading to the rest of the crop. There is a strong possibility of a once desirable modification becoming an undesirable trait in another plant. Finally, the modified plants that have an increased resistance to pests and weeds can in time promote the evolution of more resilient weeds and pests through cross breeding or selective evolution. At the time, no medical harm to humans has been traced to ingesting genetically modified foods. It should be remembered, that is not the same as proving that genetically modified organisms pose no potential dangers. It is our hope that this letter will provide you with a very brief overview of the many benefits and potential drawbacks of genetically modified foods. Please feel free to contact us or other industry experts if you require further or more detailed information.

Analysis Of John Stuart Mill s The Republic Essay

The basic and most expedient definition of Morality is to know the distinction of right from wrong. The old clichà ©, â€Å"let your conscience be your guide† have enabled men to make the ethical decisions. The following story illustrates how manipulation, deceitfulness, and lies were used to for one’s personal advantage. One little girl underhandedly uses her sister’s innocence to elude punishment. The seven year old victim learns an important lesson in betrayal. One philosopher believes one possesses moral values if his decisions produces desirable results, not only for personal benefit but for attaining universal happiness as well. Another supposes that morality should be an â€Å"act of duty,† attesting it is our responsibility to abide by the moral laws and that the â€Å"will is good if the intentions are good† (Nance, Michael. These men have somehow set the tone that facilitated how man comport himself in civilization. Without Kant’s Categorical Imperative, John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianisms, or even Plato’s The Republic, society may not have cultivated to the refined people we have become. The Great Betrayal I do not claim to be perfect or that I have never told a lie. To make such claims would prove immoral to say the least. Yet, I may have extended my lunch hour and attributed the inconvenience to a brazen captain at the front gate or claimed the girl at the register was new and in training, thereby, thwarting my chances of returning to my duties in time. Surely, such pettyShow MoreRelatedWhat Have Theorists Meant by Liberty? Essay example1589 Words   |  7 Pagesmore liberty when compared with many of the less developed Arab nations. Theorists have studied the concept of liberty for centuries and there have been a number of different definitions, from people like Machiavelli to more modern theorists like Mill. It is the fundamental value that allows people to make decisions for themselves in civilised society. Without liberty, people would live in a situation where every last detail of their lives is dictated to them by government or society. We wouldRead MoreSpeech On The Freed om Of Speech3338 Words   |  14 Pages  Freedom of speech is the right to communicate one s opinions and ideas. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used. Governments restrict speech with varying limitations. Common limitations on speech relate to libel, slander, obscenity, pornography, sedition, hate speech, incitement, fighting words, classified information, copyright violation, trade secrets, non-disclosureRead MoreThucydide vs Plato on The Good Life Essay1927 Words   |  8 Pagesprescribe justice over self-interest. Crito visits Socrates in jail and tries to get him to evade death by leaving Athens. Socrates staunchly refuses because he thinks it would be hypocritical to circumvent the Athenian legal system. Later, in The Republic, arguably Platos most prodigious philosophical work, Socrates asks logical questions to elicit answers from sophists, thereby getting them to eliminate their own hypotheses, thus proving his own points. In the end, Socrates anecdotes show thatRead MoreConstitutional Issues And The Scope And Character Of U.s. Government3303 Words   |  14 PagesConstitutional Issues and the Scope and Character of U .S. Government 3 was barely the case. The British government handled the ones supporting the freedom of expression and speech with iron hands for a long time. John Milton raised his voice against this. Unlike him, his colleague John Locke did not have the same broad-minded idea. He missed the whole point of this law. He was against some particular groups, like atheists having this right. The colonies of England, like when America was under BritishRead MoreConstitutional Right to Privacy and the Us Patriot Act Essay example4869 Words   |  20 Pages Freedom. To have the ultimate freedom is what many past and modern philosophers call the State of Nature. In this state we are completely alone, and therefore have the will to do as we please, in a sense the ultimate freedom. Under this freedom John Locke says we have three unalienable rights that cannot be taken away by a just man, these include life, liberty, and property. Life is of coarse our ability to survive, and in the State of Nature survival is base upon our own will. Liberty is ourRead MorePorn and Censorship15240 Words   |  61 Pagesgreat to justify legal restrictions in the case of speech and more generally. This will depend on the outcome of a complex process of carefully weighing and balancing the strength and nature of the harm and the competing interests at stake, and an analysis of the costs and benefits of alternative policies, that needs to be undertaken on a case by case basis. However, when it comes to legislation that interferes with free speech, the liberal presumption against legislation is especially high. For liberalsRead MoreBranches of Philosophy8343 Words   |  34 Pagesreconciling the diversity and change of the natural universe, with the possibility of obtaining fixed and certain knowledge about it; questions about things which cannot be perceived by the senses, such as numbers, elements, universals, and gods; the analysis of patterns of reasoning and argument; the nature of the good life and the importance of understanding and knowledge in order to pursue it; the explication of the concept of justice, and its relation to various political systems[8]. In this periodRead MoreRethinking Mercantalism Essay15042 Words   |  61 PagesRethinking Mercantilism: Political Economy, the British Empire, and the Atlantic World in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries Author(s): Steve Pincus Reviewed work(s): Source: The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 69, No. 1 (January 2012), pp. 3-34 Published by: Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5309/willmaryquar.69.1.0003 . Accessed: 06/09/2012 12:18 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the TermsRead MoreEssay on the Role of Women in Ancient Greece14417 Words   |  58 PagesEcon Gov (2009) 10:221–245 DOI 10.1007/s10101-009-0059-x ORIGINAL PAPER â€Å"Rulers ruled by women†: an economic analysis of the rise and fall of women’s rights in ancient Sparta Robert K. Fleck  · F. Andrew Hanssen Received: 10 January 2008 / Accepted: 27 May 2008 / Published online: 20 March 2009  © Springer-Verlag 2009 Abstract Until modern times, most women possessed relatively few formal rights. The women of ancient Sparta were a striking exception. Although they could not vote, SpartanRead MoreThe Impact of Derivatives on Cash Market21543 Words   |  87 Pagesmovements) by buying and storing grain in periods when they forecast a shortage.2 John Stuart Mill (1871) elaborated on this idea, explicitly observing that speculators play an important role in stabilizing prices.3 Because they buy when prices are low and sell when prices are high, speculators improve the intertemporal allocation of resources and have a dampening eï ¬â‚¬ect on seasonal price ï ¬â€šuctuations. Similarly, Mill observed, local price ï ¬â€šuctuations are reduced as 2 3 Book IV, Chapter 5. Book