Hello everyone, nice forum you have here. I have a research paper due tomorrow and I have always had problems with punctuation and mechanics.
I was wondering if anyone would be so kind as to proofread it. Also, I have a works cited list, but I dont know where exactly to put the citations if multiple paragraphs are from the same source. Anywways, heres the paper:
Writing is known to be a very therapeutic process and many authors have utilized this quality throughout history. When writing reflects the authors’ thoughts and experiences, the work becomes all the more meaningful and realistic. This brings about a quality that many people can relate to. Death, sadness, the desire to escape real life and, and hard times in general are recurring themes in literature. Themes such as this, although depressing, make up the basis of some of the best writing today.
These motifs make up the mold for the works of Tennessee Williams and Kate Chopin. Tennessee Williams is best known for two of his plays, The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire. Both plays are heavily, heavily influenced by the tragic events of his life. Kate Chopin grew up in the Creoles of Louisiana, which had a lot of influence on her writing. Her most famous work, The Awakening, was banned for a few decades due to controversial content. She is also known for her short stories, Desiree’s Baby, The Storm, and The Story of an Hour.
In order to understand the meanings behind the words, it is necessary to first understand how these authors grew up. Without background knowledge, it would be hard for one to understand the times and troubles that the authors went through. Without knowing anything about their lives, it is not possible to make even educated guesses as to the meanings.
Kate Chopin was born February 8th, 1850 as Katherine O'Flaherty. Having grown up in Louisiana, she is considered one of the southern forerunners for feminism in the 20th century. Much of her work was based around her life's events.
Thomas O’Flaherty, her father, was a founder of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. When Kate was five years old, Thomas was one of twenty nine people who died in a bridge collapse over the Gasconade River. That same year, she entered into the Sacred Heart Academy in St. Louis. She ended up being very close to her mother and great grand-mother. In 1962, tragedy struck. Her brother George, a confederate soldier, died as a prisoner of war, and her great grand-mother passed away of old age. Following these deaths, Kate left Sacred Heart and immersed herself in reading. In 1865, she returned to her studies at Sacred Heart.
At nineteen years of age, she married a cotton farmer, Oscar Chopin. They proceeded to have 6 kids over the course of nine years. Oscar’s cotton business wasn’t working out, so they moved to a small Louisiana town, Cloutierville. There, Oscar worked and managed a few plantations as well as a general store. Meanwhile, Kate had become involved in the community, diving headfirst into the Creole culture.
Oscar died in 1882 of Malaria, leaving Kate in a lot of debt. She tried to keep up work at the plantations and general store, but it was not working. At her mother’s request, she moved her family back to St. Louis. In the depressed state she was in, her doctor told her to start writing because he thought it would be therapeutic for her. He said, “He understood that writing could be a focus for her extraordinary energy, as well as a source of income." Kate Chopin died in 1904 of a brain hemorrhage.
Like Kate Chopin, Tennessee Williams suffered from many family problems. Tennessee Williams was born March 26, 1911 as Thomas Williams, but was dubbed Tennessee when he joined the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity at the University of Missouri. When he was five years old, both of his legs became paralyzed completely. Luckily, this was only for two years. During that time, his mother pushed him to make up stories and read a lot. Even when his legs were better, he continued writing stories. His mother gave him a typewriter when he was thirteen years old.
His father, Cornelius was a traveling salesman who became quite abusive over the years. He always favored Tennessee’s brother, Dakin. At one point during the Great Depression, Cornelius forced Tennessee to leave the University of Missouri to work in a shoe factory. He soon went back to school at Washington University in St. Louis, but finally graduated at the University of Iowa in 1938.
Rose Williams, Tennessee’s sister, was a beautiful girl, diagnosed with Schizophrenia at a young age. Tennessee Williams loved his sister with all his heart, some even suggest in a way beyond sibling love. When Tennessee was at college in 1937, her parents gave permission to the doctors for a lobotomy, which went very wrong and incapacitated her for the rest of her life. Tennessee took this very badly and never forgave his parents.
Williams had been in a homosexual relationship with Frank Merlo for almost twenty years until 1963 when he died of cancer. Merlo had given Williams an arm to lean on for his depression and drug problems. When he died, Williams really went over the edge. Williams had alcohol and drug problems, with dependence on different Amphetamines and downers such as Barbiturates. These were prescribed by the infamous Dr. Max “Feelgood” Jacobson, who prescribed dangerous and addictive drugs to people such as John F. Kennedy, Truman Capote, Anthony Quinn and Eddie Fisher.
In regards to autobiographical elements in plays, it does not get more pronounced than in Williams’ The Glass Menagerie. The entire play is basically an autobiography of Williams’ problems. In the play, Laura Wingfield is a pretty, hermetic girl, with an undisclosed mental problem. She is a mirror image of Rose Williams, and her problem with Schizophrenia. Amanda Wingfield plays the part of Tom’s mother and fits the description of Williams’ mother. Mr. Wingfield, although absent in the play, has a great presence. In The Glass Menagerie, Mr. Wingfield was a telephone salesman who “fell in love with long distances.” Cornelius Williams, in reality as well, was hardly around as he was a traveling salesman. When he was around, he was typically abusive. The narrator and character Tom Wingfield is almost a mirror image of Williams in terms of personal strife. In the play, Mr. Wingfield has forced Tom to work in a shoe factory, where he secretly writes poetry. In real life, Cornelius Williams took Tennessee out of college to work at a shoe factory.
Chopin wrote with similar themes, using much of her life’s experiences. In her short story, The Storm, Calixta is somewhat of a worrier. But when an old lover comes on horseback, she almost immediately give off a youthful persona. When Chopin’s husband died in real life, she was left to run the store, where she flirted nonstop and even had an adulterous affair with a married farmer.
Unlike Williams, much of Chopin’s writing had a lot of Creole influence. She was also a very big fan of Guy de Maupassant. Scholars say that her short story, Desiree’s Baby, was based completely around De Maupassant’s The Story of a Farm Girl. One aspect of De Maupassant’s writing that one can easily find in Chopin’s writing are the ironic conclusions. Desiree’s Baby has heavy Creole, shown by Armand’s anger and shame towards the skin color of the baby. Although Armand was the one who was part black, he wouldn’t bring himself to believing it, and made Desiree leave. Desiree proceeds to kill herself and her baby by walking into a bayou and never returning.
In conclusion, Kate Chopin and Tennessee Williams write using the same process for ideas. They both turn to reality for inspiration. Yet, their writings styles and influences are quite different.
Thanks for any help in advance.