Oedipus and Brighton Beach Memoirs

In the play Brighton Beach Memoirs, the eldest son, Stanley reminds me a lot of Oedipus himself in the play Oedipus by Sophocles. In the story, Stanley seems to subtly think he is invincible by the few situations he gets himself into throughout the play. First off, he gets fired from his job, and refuses to write the apology letter to his boss that was requested in order to keep his job. On page 27, his brother Eugene asks, "...Are you going to write the letter?" to where Stanley responds, "...No!(Simon27). Stanley seems to think, although he is able to fix the situation that he created, he is almost too good to do so, giving off a sort of cocky feel to Stanley's personality. Another thing he gets himself into later on in the play, is his gambling issue. Although his intentions were good, and his heart was in the right place, Stanley lost his 17 dollars to gambling. "In a poker game. I lost it gambling(Simon82)." His reasoning was that he wanted to be able to get more money, and since he seemed to be good at it when he did it on lunch and earned pennies, dimes, etc, he thought he could earn some extra cash to help the family since his father, Jack, had just recently had a heart attack, and was not able to take as good care as he used to. All of those pennies, dimes, and quarters Stanley won seemed to create a boastfulness in Stanley, thinking he could win more to help his family. Stanley reminds me of Oedipus because when things like this seem to go wrong, even though Oedipus' situation is significantly worse, they both just up and left. Oedipus stabbed his eyes out and ran away from his mother, and wife who was now dead, and Stanley ran away from his family as well. They both have very cocky personalities, but also seem to not be able to deal with the consequences of that very well. When something goes wrong in life, running away, keeping quiet, or lying about it is the wrong way to take care of the situation, but for Oedipus and Stanley it seemed to be the best route for them, lucky for Stanley, he had a family to come back to who were willing to take him back in, despite the loss of money due to gambling, Oedipus, on the other hand, was not so lucky.

Changing Elements in Brighton Beach Memoirs

In the story, the Jerome family was to be expecting more of their family to come stay with them. On page 129, Jack, the man of the household "It's a letter from London. My cousin Sholem got out...(Simon129)" The family is Jewish, and it is close to World War II. Jack tells his family that his family is out of Poland, and they are coming to live with them. In this play, what would have changed it if the family had not had a happy ending? What if Jack found out his family has not escaped from Poland before the war? Personally, I think it would have cause Stanley to later join the army as he was once going to do before he came back home. I feel like her would have felt like her needed to take some sort of charge in honor of his family. I also feel like if Stanley had not told his mother about losing his money from gambling, "I gambled it! I lost it playing poker!(Simon 95)" the argument between the sisters, Kate and Blanche would not have occurred the night it did, but possibly would have still occurred later on in the play. Th anger, I feel, is what triggered Kate to get upset at Blanche, and start an argument with the sister she seemed to have a good relationship with, considering her and her daughters were living in the house with Kate and her family. I feel as though in life, even though it seems to be a domino effect; certain events occur after another certain chain of events occurs, but life is driven by the fate we are given from birth. Even though some of small events may not occur in life, the bigger picture they lead up to will. For instance, after Kate and Blanche had their fight, Blanche decided she thought it was time to move out, and felt her whole life she had been very dependent on other people. So what if Kate had never found out about Stanley's gambling mishap? The fight between Kate and Blanche may have never happened, but that doesn't necessarily mean Blanche wouldn't have found another motive to move out and begin taking care of herself like she felt she never did. In life, certain things can change small aspects, but in the end, you can't fight with the fate you were dealt.

Untold Story of Brighton Beach Memoirs

For a lot of books and movies, often they don't focus on real life situations. When theres a conflict in a movie, book, or show, it often leads up to something more, and doesn't really show very deep and realistic situations. In the play Brighton Beach Memoirs by Neil Simon, it goes really in depth with the untold story of real life. So many people in the world fail to understand that no matter how rich, how happy, or how privileged, people go through hard times, and people struggle. No one is safe from the dark side of life, and many people forget that. In this play, Simon goes into depth with problems like family fights, puberty, and internal issues, as well as world issues. While reading this, I got a very real-life vibe from this play. On page 115, mother and daughter are in the middle of an argument. It seems Blanche's daughter, Nora is growing up and is kind of going on her own and doing her own things, causing her mother to be upset she didn't wait for her to say goodbye before her mom was going to go to her date. While talking, Nora reveals she is jealous of her sister, Laurie because her mother seems to pay more attention to her because of her sickness. This hurts Blanche because she is not aware of Nora having these types of feelings, but comes back with, "I'm not going to let you hurt me, Nora. I am not going to let you tell me that I don't love you, or I haven't tried to give you as much as I gave Laurie...(Simon115)" For me, this mini-speech Blanche gave to her daughter was very real. While reading this play, I didn't imagine some silly movie, or show going on in my mind, I imagined a real family going through real things, and it almost reminded me of conversations I have had with my own mother. At times mothers often feel betrayed because their children are growing up, and sometimes do things that seem selfish and hurtful causing their mother to feel hurt and confused because they have always done everything they could for their child, but all the sudden it seems they don't need them anymore. This is just part of an untold story of life that is portrayed in this play. Another part would be on page 54 when Eugene explains to his brother, Stanley, about his dream he had of Nora, his cousin. Often in life, there is a hidden part that we all go through, but many don't want to talk much about. "...We were really kissing hard and rubbing up against each other...(Simon54)" Young kids going through puberty can often have weird crushes on people they are close to, like relatives, or teachers, and think about them in strange ways. They get new feelings in their bodies that they don't quite understand yet, and where the boundaries of this feeling should be held. Although it is a strange and awkward, we often feel things while going through puberty that we should not, and it is often not talked about in an open way. This play really shows the untold story of the situations in life that should not be untold.

Innonecnt Until Proven Guilty

In this text, it is so much more than just a story. This is the reality in the world; that whites are treated so much better than blacks, and whites have more money, etc. Of course it is not always the case, though. I feel that even if a black family had more money than their white neighbors, they still would be mistreated. But for this story lets stick with the sterotype it portrays; that blacks are poor, and white own nicer things. In the text Kaffir Boy Mark Mathabane, he writes, "...milky-white arm had a wristwatch  on it. It suddenly struck me that we didn't even own a clock; we had to rely on roosters for time." That clearly shows how the whites in this story have it way better than the blacks. In this story it is clear the whites are seen as being above the blacks, and that is such a sad reality we still have going on today. But for me, I just don't understand. What does skin color have to do with who the person is on the inside? Why does skin color mean they weren't capable of doing that job you didn't hire them for? Why does skin color mean they must be criminals, and not have a job, a family, and things they enjoy doing? Why isn't skin color just as simple as it really is; color of our skin. We are all so beautifully different, and our skin color has nothing to do with what we become on the inside. A lot of the times what we become on the inside has so much to do with how people think we are suppposed to be. Blacks and other minorities deserves just as much peace, appreciation, happiness, and love as whites do. As a young white person, of course I don't undertand how blacks feel, but as a girl, I understand the pressure of living up to societies standards. Blacks, I feel have a lot of pressure to prove that they're good, but what happened to the saying 'innoncent until proven guilty?'

Stolen Self-esteem

In "The Stolen Party" by Liliana Heker we see something we don't often think about. A lot of the time when we hear a Spanish name, or think about Spanish people, we think about maids, or people who work outside. That's a big sterotype that I think most of us are guilty of. In this story that's not the case. A woman named Senora Ines, which is clearly a very Spanish name, is actually the opposite of what the sterotype is for Spanish people; she's very rich. Rich enough to "invite" Rosaura to the party to have her work, and pay her afterwards. It's not so obvious at first, but towards the end when the author writes, "In her hand appeared two bills... 'Thank you for all your help, my pet.'" Which is very obviousy indicating that, just like her mother, Ro was working for Senora Ines. This shows social class because Senora Ines is obviously on a higher level than Ro and her mother, probably thinking she's better than them as well. In this text we see a pretty popular sterotype which is that all rich people are snotty. In the text the author writes, "...'I'm her cousin and I know all her friends. And I don't know you.'" Kind of indicating that Ro and Luciana aren't really friends, and she's just there. I feel like in this text the author shows loss of self. Thinking you are friends with someone and being invited to their party, only to find out you are working for them has to hurt, and cause self esteem to drop. Thinking you ust aren't good enough because of the amount of money you have, clothes you where, or something as simple as your last name has to be very distructive to a person.

Gender Roles

For as long as we can all remember, women, men, and children have all had roles in this world. Children were made to go to school, help around the house, men were made to go to work and make money to pay the bills for the house, and women were meant to cook, clean, and please their men. The text "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid shows the gender roles situation of woman. It explains all the things girls should do in order to be the perfect woman, and then men will want to make them their wives. In the text, it says "...you mean to say that after all that you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker wont let near the bread?" This is showing how once you do everything to be the perfect women, men will be bound to wife a woman. But do why do women need to work towards becoming a wife, and pleasing her man? Why do women have to do all the stuff around the house; cook, clean, etc. Why can't women be the ones to work, and bring home the money, and the men be the ones to cook and clean? Or best of all, why can't both parties take part in both? Women have always been expected to be the perfect mother, and house wife for men. They have always been expected to settle down, and wear nice long dresses that go pasted their knees. But some women just aren't about that. Some women want to go out and party, and don't ever want kids, or to even be married. So why are gender roles a thing? We only have one life, and it would be wasted going by what other people expect people to be.