In the opening scene of the movie, Rear Window, the camera pans from right to left showing the audience an apartment complex and its inhabitants before ending at the inside of Jeffries’ apartment. As the camera then proceeds to pan around Jeffries’ apartment, the audience learns that Jeffries leads an adventurous and dangerous lifestyle explaining the cast on his currently broken leg. This adventurous and dangerous lifestyle that Jeffries leads becomes somewhat ironic as we find out that Jeffries has fears and reservations about something as simple as getting married and settling down. Never in the movie is it explicitly stated that Jeffries is intimidated by the idea of marriage. Instead, a look into the lives of each of Jeffries’ neighbors showcases all the different reasons behind his hesitations to get serious with his love interest, Lisa.
One of the apartments across the way from Jeffries is that of a young woman’s referred to as “Ms. Torso”. Ms. Torso is a beautiful young woman that all the men seem to be after. Despite the fact that Ms. Torso appears to lead a happy life filled with excitement, fun, and gentlemen callers, something bothers her beyond what we see of the superficial layering of parties and dancing. While she keeps the company of men, she turns down any man that shows too much interest in her. Jeffries and the audience both probably assume that this is because she is waiting on somebody better, richer, or more debonair. Just as the audience and Jeffries concludes that none of the men that have attempted to win her over throughout the movie could possibly be good enough for her, her reason for remaining untouched appears. Her boyfriend, fiancé, or husband, Stanley, comes home from the army. He is nothing like the image of the rich and charming man the audience or Jeffries would have expected Ms. Torso to end up with. Instead, he is short, homely, and leads a less than glamorous life in the army. Lisa relates well to Ms. Torso in that while she is a beautiful young woman leading a life of glamour and fashion and she has many men showing interest in her that would adapt well to her lifestyle, she wants no part of any of them and is intent on having Jeffries in her life instead. When Jeffries and Lisa see Ms. Torso across the way with all the men in her apartment, Lisa tells Jeffries that she understands Ms. Torso and knows that Ms. Torso doesn’t actually love any of those men. Jeffries is like Ms. Torso’s Stanley. He leads a life of adventure and is not exactly the kind of man that others would expect Lisa to fall for, and yet she does.
Jeffries’ newlywed neighbors are the perfect of example of everything Jeffries detests about marriage. When the couple enters their apartment for the first time, they are elated to be there together and the man carries his wife over the threshold. Their love is new and exciting. As the movie progresses, the audience and Jeffries only catches glimpses of the husband as he tries to catch a breath of fresh air. Every time he attempts to do this, his turned nagging wife manages to drag him back in. Jeffries sort of smirks every time he sees this happen because he views this man as a fool for having gotten married in the first place and because he feels that he has dodged a bullet by not putting himself in any similar situations. To Jeffries, marriage is a trap with no escape, which the newlyweds seem to illustrate perfectly.
Next is Ms. Lonelyhearts. Ms. Lonelyhearts is a middle-aged woman leading a lonely life. She is depressed and suicidal. In an attempt to ease the pain of her own loneliness she has an imaginary lover that accompanies her in a romantic dinner the first time the audience and Jeffries sees her. As we see more of her, we realize that Ms. Lonelyhearts is lonely because she is afraid to let anyone into her life. When she goes out of the apartment she has to have some drinks first to loosen her up. Then, when she does have a date come to her apartment, he tries to smother and attack her. Ms. Lonelyhearts is a representation of what Jeffries may eventually turn into if he does not get over his fear of commitment. I think he realizes this too. Jeffries sympathizes with her and toasts her from across the apartment complex as she toasts her imaginary date.
The composer, who is composing the majority of the music throughout the play, seems to be composing a song that is representative of the relationship between Lisa and Jeffries. The song is complicated. It takes a lot of work and at times the composer isn’t sure that continuing this piece of work is worth it at all. Then, when Lisa is in Mr. Thorwald’s apartment and Jeffries falls completely in love with her, the song seems to fully come together in a complex yet beautiful piece of art that we then find out is entitled, “Lisa”.
Last is the Thorwald’s apartment. In the beginning Jeffries seems to sympathize with Mr. Thorwald as he watches him come home everyday to a nagging wife. He even makes a comment at one point that he could not imagine himself coming home everyday to a nagging wife such as Ms. Thorwald. Ms. Thorwald also seems to represent an oppression of her husband’s manhood as she attempts to keep him in check, does not allow him to lead the life he wants, and prevents him from seeing other women freely. She has become an anchor weighing her husband down that Mr. Thorwald eventually decides must be eliminated. While Jeffries looks on in horror as he realizes what has happened, he is looking into another man’s situation that he has feared for himself the most.

Masculinity in Glengarry Glen Ross

Each character in this play is living through strife and frustration in their own lives, with themselves and in their own efforts to get by in society. Everything in this play appears to be a competition. It is a competition of manly hood. Whoever sells the most, gets the most respect, drives the fanciest car, and gets better sales in the future. Blake (Alec Baldwin’s character) even goes so far as to hold up a set of brass balls in the meeting so as to emphasize the amount of testosterone it takes to be a good salesman. He compares his annual earnings to the other men in the room in order to emasculate them. He belittles them, puts them down, and basically tells them that he could do their job better than any of them any day. The constant profanity throughout the movie is the male expression of frustration and attempted intimidation. Characters in the play are constantly putting one another down in order to build themselves up. Insults such as fairy are thrown around to question other’s manly hoods. Levine tells Williamson that a man is his job. If this is the case, then all of the men working at this sales organization are in a constant struggle not only with their positions of work but with their positions as men. The ability to provide also seems to be a major component of manly hood. Levine ultimately resorts to criminal activity to be able to support his daughter. When Lingk is unable to provide Roma with his compliance with the final sale, he admits that he has let him down. As the saying goes “money is power” and in this play that idea is fully illustrated. Each of these men are struggling with the lack of authority they have over their own lives. They blame their inability to sell on their placement on the board. As a former sales associate, I have heard the saying “there are no bad sales, only bad salespeople”. The characters in this play have a difficult time coming to terms with the fact that their poor placement on the board is a result of any fault of their own. They are in such denial, it seems, because their placement on the board is symbolic of their placement as a man.

In the beginning of the play, King Lear has developed all the same symptoms of an only child. He has been spoiled beyond belief materialistically as well as egotistically. As King he has never been denied anything he desires or wants and has the full respect of all of his followers. It is no wonder then that he does not see the danger in giving up his estate as King. He has come to trust those (Regan and Goneril) who have entertained his need for superfluous praise and failed to appreciate the simplicity of his daughter Cordelia’s affection for him. King Lear’s pride, his ego, and his power are the things that he holds most dear, not unlike many men. It could seem that when King Lear disowns Cordelia that it is because he is sensitive to his daughter’s remarks as a father. In actuality, his pride and ego are hurt as a king and as a man, which is something he is unaccustomed to and not willing to tolerate. It is because of this that I tend to believe that King Lear views his roles as King and as father as one and the same, at least in the beginning of the play. He has not learned to differentiate between those who are milking him for all he is worth and those who truly respect and love him as a person.
After seeing and living life as a truly poor man, King Lear begins to experience emotions such as empathy, sympathy, understanding and humility (possibly for the first time in his life). In turn, his pride and ego seem to fade away. I find it interesting, especially since this play is from a time when women had little importance in society that he needs to feel as a woman might have frequently in the society of that day: undermined, disrespected, and humiliated before he can find the strength to reveal his more emotional self and in turn further empower himself as a person and as a father. It is unknown where the mother of his three daughters is but none-the-less she is absent. This leaves King Lear with the responsibility of acting not only as father but as mother as well. He has not acted as such or even realized this necessity on his part to fulfill these two roles until he feels the same emotions that a mother might feel in his situation. He begins to go into a state of hysteria that he refers to as “the mother” where he feels remorse for banning his daughter Cordelia, feels betrayed by his other two daughters, and feels exposed for this first time in his life. He begins to not only feel, but admit to what he feels, which is a big step for a man of such high standing and power.

Regardless of what country one is in, it seems considerably simplistic for Marji’s father or for anybody to make the statement that, “politics and sentiment don’t mix”. For the two variables in question here to be completely unrelated would be the absolute quintessential model of a perfectly functioning world. However, with episodes in history such as slavery, women’s suffrage, numerous wars, etc, all in which the politics at the time had detrimental effects on individuals, families, and entire groups of people, how is it possible to completely disentangle one from the other? I have doubts as to whether or not Marjane’s father even believes in his comments on this matter since he himself seems unable to keep the two separated. For example, when the Iranian national anthem emits from the family’s television for the first time in over a year, everybody in the family, including Marji’s father is overcome with emotion. If Eby were truly solid in his belief that politics and sentiment do not mix, then the presence or absence of something like the nation’s anthem would have had no affect on him. It seems that this remark to Marji is made more in an attempt to aid her rather than to educate her as she grows up all too fast in a time of political and social upheaval.

I don’t believe that Marji’s mother or grandmother would agree with Eby’s statement. I do believe, however, that they would urge Marji to remain unmoved by the tumultuous and corrupt government surrounding her. At one point in the book, Marji’s grandmother tells her that, “In life you’ll meet a lot of jerks. If they hurt you, tell yourself that it’s because they’re stupid, that will help keep you from reacting to their cruelty. Because there is nothing worse than bitterness and vengeance… Always keep your dignity and be true to yourself.” In this instance, her grandmother may be referring to actual jerks Marji may encounter, but I believe she is also referring to the government they have had to endure and giving Marji advice regarding her reactions to the injustice that has become a part of their everyday lives.

In the United States, we pride ourselves in the knowledge that we have the political freedom to be as opinionated and as outspoken on our views as we please. At the age of eighteen, we acquire the ability to vote on matters affecting us the most such as abortion, same-sex marriage, immigration, healthcare, etc. To grow up in a time such as the Iranian Revolution, where having no opinion is safest, is something I can hardly wrap my head around. I can only imagine, though, that it must have been a task more easily done with a certain amount of detachment, callousness, and/or self-inflicted ignorance. I don’t think this is the way he would have wanted his daughter to view the world under more ideal circumstances, but the circumstances being as they were, Eby felt Marji was safest being emotionally disengaged from the political state of affairs. While Marjane is truly like her parents in that she has the propensity to be outspoken, it is sometimes discouraged by both her mother and father. When the principal at Marji’s school calls home to inform her parents that she “told off her religion teacher”, her mother scolds her reminding her of her uncle’s execution. It is not that her parents are not proud of Marji for having a mind of her own, they just feel that it is a hazard for her to reveal it in Iran, which is why they ultimately send her off to Austria.

The way The Great Gatsby ends leaves Nick’s story unresolved. While the reader is privy to the fact that Nick is leaving New York to head back to the Middle West and that he cuts ties with everyone he has met in West Egg, what he does when he arrives at his later destination and what happens to him is uncertain. Fitzgerald has concluded the novel in this inconclusive manner because after all that Nick has experienced in West Egg, inconclusive is probably the best way to describe the life plan that Nick has for himself as he sits on the beach in the last scene of the novel. Being exposed to the careless social elite lifestyle of the West and being witness to the demise of the Great Gatsby has largely diminished his once strong faith in people, goals, and his own aspirations.
Jay Gatsby was a man of dreams. He dreamed up a dream house and dream lifestyle to attract his dream girl, who he foolishly let get away in his youth. Everything that he did in his life after Daisy slipped away was to somehow bring her back to him again. While patiently waiting and planning had brought Daisy back into his life, the dream of her had become overly glorified in comparison to his actual reunion with her. Just as Gatsby hypes up Daisy in his mind, it seems that the American dream has become so enshrined that once it is achieved, those who are in possession of it either do not know what to do with it or are still unsatisfied because it is not all they had thought it up to be. In addition to being over-estimated, the American dream appears to be just barely out of reach at all times. In Gatsby’s case, he spent his whole life working to obtain the dream. Once he had the last variable of his American dream within reach (Daisy), the whole operation fell to pieces. In the case of Tom and Daisy, they seemed to have it all from the outsider’s perspective. Upon closer speculation, however, it became evident that their lives were less than perfect. Though Nick is the main character in the novel, he plays the role of observer more than partaker in his own story. Through all of his observations, he comes to the realization that the pursuit of the American dream is fruitless. Not because there is no such thing as the American dream, but because there is such a thing as men. While Nick says that Gatsby turned out all right in the end, he then goes on to say that "it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men". The foul dust or the corruption of men had thwarted Gatsby from achieving what he had worked for all his life. Realizing that though this foul dust is more prominent in the city, it is present everywhere, Nick seems to be discouraged in his own life. Nick goes on to say in the end, “to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther….And one fine morning—“. This incomplete thought is a representation of Gatsby’s incomplete life and Nick’s newfound outlook on the life of men and the American dream.