Blog #2

America’s financial crisis and the involvement of Wall Street, the Occupy Wall Street protesters, and every day Americans will be compared to Blanche, Stanley, and Stella. Illusion, denial, and displacement are all key components that tie these completely different subjects together. 

American politics have been dominated by displacement and denial for years especially with the whole issue of economic crisis. The Occupy Wall Street protesters have been trying to change that. They are trying to make Wall Street take the blame for what they are responsible for. Wall Street uses the defense mechanisms of denial and displacement to further keep their illusion that they were not the problem alive. Denial is the most basic of defense mechanisms they use to their advantage. The refusal to accept the external reality and their own personal reaction to reality. When they try to pretend millions are out of work because there is something wrong with them individually, rather than there being a problem with the economy as a whole. Displacement or blame shifting is something else they also use. Wall Street displaces the blame of the economic crisis onto other less powerful targets, instead of manning up and taking responsibility for their actions. There is also a group that is neither with the Wall Street or the protesters. Whether they believe either of the parties to be right is not the issue. They rather just go on living their lives the way they always do and do not want change of any kind. They do not want to be forced to face reality and deal with what really could be going on. 

Blanche represents Wall Street. She is in denial of what is really going on in her life. She has lost Belle Reve, has no money, no job, and is all alone. “Mr Graves is the high superintendent-he suggested I take a leave of absence” ( Blanche 1170). She knows she has been fired but still tries to protest she has a job. When the plantation is brought up in conversation, Blanche immediately pushes the blame on Stella. She says, “But you are the one that abandoned Belle Reve, not I! I stayed and fought for it, bled for it, almost died for it” (Blanche 1172). Stanley represents the protesters in how he wants to get past the distortion of the truth and have Blanche come to terms with reality. He never believed Blanche’s lies from the beginning. He tells Blanche, “I’ve been on to you from the start! Not once did you pull any wool over this boy’s eyes!” (Stanley 1129). Both Stanley and the protesters are raw brutes just trying to look past illusions and trying to get to the truth. Stella represents the people who know what is going on with the economy and Wall Street, but choose to just believe whatever makes their lives easier. By her saying, “I couldn't go on believing her story and live with Stanley" (Stella, 1232), she shows she would have to change her life if she believed Blanche. By her siding with Stanley her world does not change and she is not forced to face the reality of what really happened.