Six Degrees of Separation Defines Freedom in America

¶ … Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche Dubois goes to seek refuge at her sister's house. At first it seems decent enough- even though she has to bear with Stella's less than gentleman husband, Stanley Kowalski, she starts to disintegrate into madness when her once value beauty cannot get her the freedom and independence she craves. As some would say, beauty gets you far, for Blanche, nearing the age of 30, without hardly any money and losing her home and position as a high school teacher, her aging face is a far cry from her once flawless form. She was considered the "bell of the ball." She had money, she had worth suitors, and she had a good family name. Of course none of that mattered as her attempts to gain independence from her newly found poverty through being with men ended in a psychotic break that ruined any future chances of Blanche ever having a life outside of her own imaginings.

Freedom for Blanche is having money, stability, a home, nice clothes, and an ability to travel and be in good company. For Stella that freedom comes from hard work and having your own home, much like Stanley, she's simple and wishes for simple things, whereas Blanche wants grand things and feels the only way she could get it is by marrying a decent suitor so that he may take care of her. Stella, when she attempts to escape the hits and mistreatment of Stanley, seeks refuge at her neighbor, Eunice's. In a way her friend's apartment is freedom for her as it protects her from the fits of her maniacal and brutish husband. And when she had left her family, after they had fallen into hard times that was a way for her to seek freedom away from her family, by working and earning her own money.

Since Stanley is the man of the house, in a way he is free to do what he wants. He certainly did so by raping Blanche. But there were other instances in which he show his desire for freedom. When he drinks and hits Stella, that's his way of breaking the hold Stella's upbringing has over him. It's his way to deal with his feeling on being called a "Polack." "I am not a Polack. People from Poland are Poles, not Polacks. But what I am is a one hundred percent American, born and raised in the greatest country on earth and proud as hell of it, so don't ever call me a Polack." (Bloom 60)

Blanche had freedom when she was a high school teacher. She also had freedom due to her family's money and estate. When that was left to ruin, she had to leave and go to her sister's. In doing so, she met Mitch and decided he would be her way to freedom. Even when she was taken away by a doctor two the insane asylum after she was raped, she saw a man as a means to freedom.

When looking at the way Blanche believes on could achieve freedom in America, it would be through what many women believe they could achieve independence and freedom, through looking good and using their bodies. An important scene in the book when Blanche was talking to Mitch, she used candlelight to hide her flaws, in order to seduce Mitch into falling for her, using cheap, but showy clothes, meant to make her seem more fragile and precious than she really is, she uses her physical attraction to acquire the means to freedom. Sadly much of her seedy past revolves around this.

Blanche drinks a lot and has been known in the place she left from, to have slept with many men. In a way, she gave away of her body, of her flesh, in order to get freedom. What kind of freedom varies? Some of it could be freedom from poverty as she wanted to find a suitor that could financially take care of her. Another could be freedom of depression and low self-esteem as she used the attention from men to make her feel whole, better. All these things are what make up her desire to gain freedom within her world, within America.

Stella, Blanche's sister was a little but more different. She didn't rely on her looks to get by. When she left her family home, she got by through working, and working hard. Although her relationship to Stanley stifles her and prevents her from having much freedom (no longer working, staying at home), in a way she gained freedom by having her own home and not being in the same state as her sister. Her sister, when she was put into the insane asylum, lost all her freedom. Stella is still able to live her life, even though she is a mother and wife.