Critical Review of A Streetcar Named Desire, and A Supermarket in California - Book Report/Review Example

Tennessee Williams juxtaposes conflicts and complexities, throws open a debate favoring an individual’s singled-out madness as an option for survival in the new order of America.
The story weaves around two central characters at odds with each other - Blanche Du Bois, a Mississippi schoolteacher, ostracized a defunct upper crust, owing to her unscrupulous behavior and Stanley Kowalski, an auto parts supplier and Blanche’s brother in law who, towards the beginning of the play comes across as a staunch egalitarian hero, later unfolds as a crude man having animalistic instincts and towards the end of the story as a committed and loving husband.
The series of events in Blanche Du Boi’s life- her arrival at her sister Stella’s house, a brief disdainful stay at New Orleans, denial from her suitor Mitch, followed by Stanley’s cruel act of raping her, her state of madness, then the resort to start a second life with her doctor is rightly summarized in her metaphoric statement, “They told me to take a streetcar named desire, and transfer to one called cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at Elysian Field”.
This thought-provoking play, A streetcar named desire stands leaves us with a sense of pity for the protagonist and creates in our minds a scuffle between false notions and naked reality, the search for an ideal. Blanche’s escapism from reality becomes our inherent desire and inhibition. And we are left to wonder whether we must accept crude realities or live in our world of whimsy.
A supermarket in California is probably Ginsberg’s response to Whitman’s poem “I Hear America Singing”. In his metaphorical overtone, the poet shows his disapproval of commercialism in 20th century America. The ‘neon fruit supermarket’ is symbolic of America’s commercialization and growing apathy towards nature.
In the poem, he addresses Naturalist poets, Whitman, and Garcia Lorca, and reminisces about the natural beauty America once enjoyed. Feeling sorry about Whitman’s American dream falling apart, he calls him a solitary man, an old grubber, as people no longer subscribe to the old obsolete ways. They feel that Whitman has nothing to offer to them.
As Ginsberg takes a stroll in the supermarket, he observes the aisles full of husbands, wives in avocados, and babies in tomatoes. This is a figurative remark about the fact the modern world is indifferent to humans and treats them as mere produce.
Ginsberg sympathizes with Whitman and shows respect for him. He refers to Whitman as his courage teacher. Perhaps he draws inspiration from the great naturalist to struggle for his existence and individualism.
Towards the end, Ginsberg insists that the two will go for a stroll, dreaming their great American dream- of a happy classless society. He dreams of an America which offers equal opportunity for all inhabitants and where an individual has the freedom to opt for a lifestyle that is a natural being.