Language A: literature Internal Assessment

Student outline form

Global issue:
The impact that past relationships have on forging new identities
in unfamiliar environments.

Works chosen
Work in translation:
Signs Preceding the
End of the World by
Yuri Herrera

Work in language A:
A Streetcar Named
Desire by Tennessee
Williams

Notes for the oral (maximum of 10 bullet points) :

 In the Novella Sings Preceding the End of the World and the Play A Streetcar named desire, Yuri
Herrera, and Tennessee Williams employ the motifs of relationships and culture to highlight the impact
that past relationships have on forging new identities in unfamiliar environments.
 In lines 23-33 Herrera writes, “She’d witnessed other ways to love … and now they Were
acting just the same. She felt slightly let down But then she said to herself, what did she
know. It must Be, she thought, that they know other marriages, good Ones where people don’t
split up, where fathers don’t Leave and they each keep speaking to the other. That Must be
why they’re so happy, and don’t mind imitating People who’ve always despised them. Or
perhaps they just want the papers, she said to herself, any kind of papers Even it if’s only to fit
in: maybe being different Gets old after a while.
 Bolded = crushed tone and submissive diction highlight Makina’s surprise at the eagerness to fit in, sets
a tone for the rest of the novel, Makina is a very unique person even in her hometown and doesn’t
understand assimilation Makina must assimilate
 Lines 25-28 => past relationships => revolutionary diction, bad marriages, reference machismo (being
brought up around this causes her perspective to change about western culture and realize how many
people are accepted which are not accepted in her own culture), => realizes ironical situation that many
people are accepted in western culture, but as an immigrant her culture won’t be accepted and she must
assimilate, foreshadows eventual loss of identity in ch.9 when she gets new papers
 Contextualize streetcar excerpt => Allan = symbol of gentility and innocence  lines 4-6 to prove his
innocence
 Carefully chosen words in 4-6 emphasize Allan’s importance in Blanche’s life
 Lines 31-32 inflammatory diction means Allan is the death of purity, gentility and innocence which
Blanche blames herself for, but tries to embody these traits in elysian fields
 Repeated use of the word “boy” in describing him conveys Allan’s innocence which implies that
homosexuality were the actions of misguided youth caused by Blanche not being a good enough wife =
Blanche is both long and short term causes of his death  Blanche sees his homosexuality as being a
bad wife and rejection of her being desirable which causes her to seek external male validation which
shape he whole worldview, goals, and way of forming relationships. Blanche’s past relationship with
Allan and derivative relationships with other men affect her when trying to form a relationship with
Mitch
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