Kill or be Killed! (Film Noir Story)

CHAPTER ONE

It was about eleven at night when it happened. There was nothing anybody could do about it. It happened all too fast. There was no one around to see what had gone down, except for me and a young woman.

I was walking home. I had had a long day at work. When I was about a block away from my apartment, I noticed a car pulling out of the Duval’s driveway. It was a nice piece of work, a maroon 1949 Cadillac DeVille. There was a man in the driver’s seat that I presumed to be Frank Duval. His wife Miranda was at the front door watching him leave and waving to him. When he was about 50 feet down the road from the house, I noticed another figure pop up in the back seat. Bang! There was a white flash and the car swerved off the side of the road. The driver’s side door opened and an arm fell out, followed by the body of a man. The door slammed shut, and the car sped off into the distance.

I saw Miranda burst out of the front door and start charging for the man lying on the ground, dead! I rushed after her. We arrived at the site to see the man on the ground with a gun wound going from his right ear to his upper left forehead. Miranda dropped to the ground and erupted in tears.

“Mrs. Duval, don’t you worry, I’ll find out who did this. I’m here for you,” I said, and that was all. She cradled her head in my arms until the cops arrived.

————————————————————————————-

The next morning, I did my usual routine, shower, get dressed, eat breakfast, off to work. I was a detective and people usually came to me first to get them the answers they wanted. Miranda didn’t have to approach me on this one, I witnessed what happened and confronted her myself about finding her some answers.

I got to the office to see the shining face of my secretary, Patrice. “Anything new today Patrice?” I asked her halting before the door to my office.

“No. Nothing at all, Paul. You’re free until someone comes in asking for you,” she replied without looking up from her papers.

“Good, get me Richie, I got a case we can work on.”

She got up out of her desk and said, “Sure thing Paul.” She walked out the door and down the hall. About a minute later, she came back with Richie behind her. Richie Verazzanowasmy partner and has been for nearly ten years. With him at my side, we’ve solved some of th toughest cases around. I stepped over the threshold of my office and waited for Richie to enter so I could close the door. I took a my seat behind my desk and he sat in one of the two chairs i had in front of my desk.

“So what you got, Paul? Anything interesting?” Richie said in his corky accent.

“Oh, I got something for ya. I got something big! Last night, I was walking home, and I saw Mr. Duval leaving his house. A little bit after he left, another figure popped up in the car, shot him in the head, dumped him out of the car, and drove off,” I replied. Richie looked at me in shock.

“No way! Are you serious? I’ve known George Duval for nearly twenty years and never knew a man to hold a grudge against him. How could this happen? Who could do such a thing?”

“That’s exactly what we are here to find out. You should’ve seen his wife last night. She was a mess. She saw it too. She was waving to him from the front door as he left and saw him get killed.”

“Well, then its looks like we should start off with questioning Mrs. Duval first.”

“I was thinking the same thing. She most likely isn’t going to go to work today, so she should be home. Let’s go.” Richie and I left the office and headed outside to his car, a small blue Ford. Ten minutes later, we were in the driveway of Miranda Duval. I don’t know why, but as we stepped out of the car, chills ran down bothourbacks. We walked up to the front door and knocked. It took a little while, but the door eventually opened. Miranda opened the door and was completely a shambles. Her hair was all out of line. She still had the clothes on from the night before, and she still had mascara all over her face from crying. Usually, she was the quintessence of feminine beauty. She would normally be dressed in a wonderful skirt, with her blond, curly hair flowing in the wind, and the most beautiful face a man has ever laid his eyes on. But not today. She was still the wreck that I saw last night.

“Mornin’ Miranda. How have you been? If its all right with you, we’d like to ask you a few questions,” I said.

“No. I’m still a little shaken. I don’t mind answering your questions though. Please, come in,” Miranda replied sniffling a little bit.

“Are you sure you’re up for it Mrs. Duval?” Richie interjected.

“No, I don’t mind. Please, do come in. I don’t mind one bit. I’ll be fine.” Richie and I followed her into the house where she led us to the living room. We took a seat on the couch and Richie whipped out his pen and pad. He usually takes down the notes while I ask the questions.

“Okay, Miranda, to start off with, did you know anyone who could possibly have a grudge against your husband?” I asked. She looked at me with a dumb founded gaze on her face.

“No. I’m not sure. Wait. Yes, I do believe, no wait. Never mind. Um, oh yes, but no, not him. Hm. Yes. No. I don’t know!” She burst into tears and dug her face into her lap. Then in a mopey voice, bounced back up and said, “Oh my God. Who could’ve done such a thing. He was such a good man. He never harmed anyone. Why him? Why? Why?”

I went over to where she was sitting and began to comfort her. “It’s okay Miranda. It’s okay. Maybe we should come another time.”

“No. I’m fine, really. I’ll be okay.” She wiped the tears that were slithering down her face. “Okay. Let me think. Let me see if I can answer your question, Paul. Uh, I’m pretty sure there is one person who could absolutely not tolerate my husband. His name was Mike Carvelle. George got promoted over him and he didn’t seem to take it too well. Mike was furious and wouldn’t let it go for weeks. He even showed up at the house and threatened me and my husband.”

“Good. Good. Can you give me any more details on this Mike Carvelle, Miranda?”

“No, that’s all that I know. The only other thing is that he has the office next to George’s at his work. And I’m pretty sure Mike is there the same hours as George, so he should be there right now. George worked at the law firm across the street from the police station.”

“Thanks Miranda, I think that will suffice for now. We’re going to go pay a visit to this Mike Carvelle.” Richie and I got up and headed for the door. We looked back and Miranda was still wiping tears from her eyes. I opened the door and stepped outside, Richie right behind me.

CHAPTER TWO

On the way to George’s office, Richie could not figure out why someone would kill a man over losing a promotion. I was in the same situation. I thought that there had to be more to it. But for now, that was all I had to go off of. We reached the law firm pretty quickly, and entered without haste. There was a lady at the front desk who was staring down at a bunch of papers. I told her who I was looking for and she directed me to his office. I knocked on the door and entered the room, Richie not too far behind.

“Good morning, Mr. Carvelle. My name is Paul Greene, and this is my partner, Richie Verazzano. We’d like to ask you a few questions about the man in the office next to your’s, if you don’t mind,” I said looking straight into his eyes. He glared at me for a few seconds and then opened his mouth as if ready to speak.

“Uh–uh, okay, I guess. What would you like to know?” he replied. The first thing I noticed was how hesitant he was, and that he seemed to be a bit apprehensive.

“Okay then. I take it you are aware that George Duval is dead. Do you know anything about that, because it is to my understanding that you held a grudge against him for getting a promotion.”

“Yeah, I held a grudge. What’s it too ya? I got jealous, that’s all and nothing but.”

“So did you ever go to Mr. Duval’s home and threaten him and his wife?”

“No, I did nothing of the sort. All it was was a little jealousy. I would never threaten George. He’s been my best friend for almost 20 years.”

“Wait, what? You didn’t threaten them? And what do you mean best friend?” I was puzzled beyond belief. Miranda had told me Mike couldn’t stand her husband, but he was telling me otherwise. I didn’t know who to believe.

“No, I would never threaten him, he’s like a brother to me. And yes, best friend, he is my best friend. What’s so hard to understand about that?”

“This doesn’t make sense at all,” I whispered to myself, but Mike overheard.

“What, what doesn’t make any sense?”

“Miranda told us that you were the only one to ever hold a grudge against her husband. She told us that you were furious for weeks and that you came to their house and threatened them. But, you’re telling me that you and George have been best friends for a long time and that you would never do anything to harm him.”

“Well, I can answer that for you plain and simple. Miranda hated me. She never liked me, not since the day George and I became friends. I don’t know why she hated me exactly, but she did.”

“Interesting!” Richie looked at me and gave a little smirk, along with a raising of his eyebrows. I knew he was thinking exactly what I was. “Well, that should be enough for now. Thank you Mr. Carvelle.” Richie and I left the office and proceeded to his car.

“Back to Miranda’s, Paul.” Richie said in a knowing attitude.

“You got it!” I replied. Richie gave a little laugh and began to drive back toward the Duval home.

CHAPTER THREE

There were no life forms at all in the Duval home when we arrived. There were light skid marks trailing from the driveway. Mrs. Duval’s car was gone. By the skid marks, it seemed that she left in a hurry. The door to the house was left unlocked, so we walked in and began to look around. Up in her bedroom, there were clothes thrown around everywhere, and numerous empty clothes drawers. It started to look as if she was skipping town.

—–Back at Mr. Carvelle’s office…

There was no one in the office at this time but Mr. Carvelle. Everyone had left for their lunch break. Mr. Carvelle was one to bring his lunch and stay to eat it. There was nothing to be heard for a good while once everyone left. The next sound was the door of the building re-opening. There were a series of clicks on the floor, the sound that heels make. Carvelle looked up at his open door the whole time the footsteps were going on. The footsteps came to an abrupt stop outside his door and he could see the shadow of a small and thin woman. The woman took another step closer to the door but Carvelle could still only see a shadow. He began to get nervous and started to stutter, “Wh-wh-who is it? Who are you an-and why are you h-here?” The woman then stepped into the doorway, but Carvelle could not make out a face for her head was down to the floor. She raised her head revealing a woman with a threatening grimace upon her face. The woman was none other than Miranda Duval.

Miranda stormed up to Carvelle’s desk and slammed her hands down on it, thrusting her face close to his. “WHAT did you tell them?” she erupted.

“Tell wh-who?” he replied, starting to sweat a little.

“Don’t you give me that load of crap. I followed the investigators that were at my house this morning to your office. I know you spoke to them. WHAT did you tell them?”

“N-n-nothing, I swear. I told them nothing.”

She pulled out a 9mm and put it to Carvelle’sforehead. “I’m not going to play games here. Don’t mess with me, Mike. What do you know, WHAT DID YOU TELL THEM, DAMMIT?”

“Nothing, nothing, nothing. I told them nothing.” There was a small sense of worry in his voice when he spoke to her now. “All I told them was that you did not like me at all.”

“YOU IDIOT. You’ve screwed up everything.” She turned off the safety on the gun and was getting ready to pull the trigger. “You’ve ruined my whole plan. Now my cover story doesn’t fit! They’re going to come after me now and peck at me until they find out that I’m the one who put the hit on my husband!”

“You put the hit on your husband! Why?”

“Hm. I’m surprised he never told you, after all, you are his best friend.”

“Never told me what?”

“That I was cheating my boss out of his money when he wouldn’t give me a raise.  My boss has ties with the mafia and if he ever found out that he wasn’t getting all of his money, I’d be in the gutter.  My husband found out, and I don’t know how, but he did.  And if he blabbed, I would be screwed.  So, I had to take matters further and silence the issue ahead of me.”  She shut off the safety on the gun and put her finger on the trigger.  “Now say good night.  I’m not going to risk any of this getting out.  Goodbye Mike.”  She pulled the trigger and a bullet stuck into his forehead.  He fell to the floor where a pool of blood began to develop.  She stuffed the gun back into her overcoat and proceeded to walk out of his office.

—–The Duval residence…again…

“Hey Paul, come and look at this,” Richie called from the bedroom closet.  I walked over to where he was to see him holding a gun case and an empty pack of bullets.  “You said she watched him get shot, right?”

“Yeah, she was standing at the front door,” I replied, trying to figure out where he was going with this.

“Well, since she couldn’t have killed her husband, she must have been using it to go kill someone else.  Who do you think she could’ve left to go clip?  Think she went t-.”

I cut him off and said, “Mike!”  We bolted out of the house and back to Carvelle’s office.  We charged in to an empty office.  There was no one in it at all.  “She must’ve seen he wasn’t here and gone to his house to get him.  Richie, go check the rest of the building, just to make sure they’re not here.”  Richie left and proceeded to check the other offices in the building.  Just after he left, I noticed a moving red pool on the floor behind the corner of the desk.  I walked forward and saw Mike on the ground with a bullet in his head and a pool of blood surrounding him.  I looked at the desk and i saw fingerprints slammed on the edge of it.  They were of small, dainty hands revealing that it was a woman who shot him.  It had to be Miranda.  I heard footsteps coming down the hall and then looked up to see her, gun in hand, facing me!

CHAPTER FOUR

“Hello, Paul.  Nice to see you again,” Miranda stated.  “Get up!  On your feet.  C’mon, I don’t have all day!”

I slowly rose to an upright position, the gun following my face the whole way up.  “Miranda, put the gun down.  You don’t want to do this.  Put the gun down,” I said, trying not to show how frightened I was. 

“No!  I’m not going to let you ruin my life.  If I put the gun down, you’ll put me in jail, and then everything will come out in the open.”

“What are you talking about?  What will be out in the open?”

“Oh, wouldn’t you like to know!  Well, you’ll be dead soon anyways, so I might as well tell you.  I hi-.”  There was a click behind her.  Miranda turned her head and saw Richie standing there with his gun pointed at her. 

“Give me the gun Miranda.  Hand it over, and we can put this all behind us,” Richie stated in an effort to save me.  She started to move her hand towards Richie to give him the gun.  Just as he was about to take the gun from her, she whipped her hand up, pulled the trigger, and shot Richie in the shoulder.  Richie fell backwards onto the floor.  Miranda leaped over him and bolted for the exit.  I rushed over to Richie to check his wound.  “I’m okay, go get Miranda.”

“Okay.”  I reached for the phone and called for an ambulance.  I then rushed out of the room in pursuit of Miranda.  By the time I left the building, she was halfway down the street.  I got in the car and began to follow her.  Within a few minutes, I had caught up to her.  She began to make quick turns down side roads to try and lose me but I kept right with her.  I saw her hand reach down and grab something.  It rose back up and she turned her head for a few seconds to see her target.  She lifted her hand with the gun in it and began to shoot at me.  Three bullets shot through the windshield and then she turned back around.  I pushed down on the gas more and sped up, ramming her car in the rear.  She swerved a little and scraped along a few of the cars parked on the side of the road. 

Miranda turned around again and started shooting again.  She hit my windshield a few more times, making it so that I couldn’t see out of it easily.  I punched out the driver’s side windshield and got back on track.  There were no cars on the other side of the road, so I crossed over the line, and picked up speed to come up next to her.  After a little bit, I finally pulled up next to her.  She reached over with her gun again and started to shoot.  I slammed on the brakes to dodge the bullets and then hit the gas to catch up to her again.  I pulled up next to Miranda again, and before she could point the gun at me, I cut the wheel to the right and rammed into the side of her car.  Her car skidded off the road.  She opened her door and jumped out, right before the car smashed into a tree. 

I pulled over to the side, and ran over to her.  The gun was a few inches away from her hand.  I kicked the gun away and pulled out my gun, pointing it down at her.  I pulled out my handcuffs and cuffed her, then took her to the car.  “NO!  NO! NOOOOO!  You can’t do this to me.  If they find out, they’ll kill me!  NO!  Let go of me!”  Miranda began screaming at me.

“No one is going to kill you, Miranda.  Just get in the car,” I replied.  Miranda got wrestless when I tried to get her into the car.  When I opened the door and tried to put her in the car, she raised her legs and pressed her feet against the car so I could not get her in.  After about five minutes, I finally managed to get her in the car, and took her to the police station to be locked up, so we could uncover the full story.

CHAPTER FIVE 

I arrived at the police station where two officers escorted Miranda to one of the cell blocks.  She put up a big fuss the whole way to the cell, trying to keep from being imprisoned.  The two officers managed to get her into her cell after about 5 minutes.  From then on, nothing but her shouting and cursing at me was heard.  Before I began to question her, I went and called the hospital to see how Richie was doing.  He was doing fine; there was no serious damage done. 

I returned to Miranda’s cell to ask her questions.  As of right now, we had proof that she murdered Mike Carvelle, but the reason why was beyond us.  “So Miranda, why did you kill Mike?”  I asked hoping to get an answer as opposed to what had been coming out of her mouth previously.

“I thought he knew something that he didn’t, so I killed him.  Get over it.  He’s dead and there’s nothing that can change that,” she replied.

“What did you think he knew?”

“I’m not going to tell you!  If it gets out, I’m a dead woman.”

“A dead woman.  Why is that?  Even if whatever you are hiding gets out, you’d be safe here.”

“They have ways of getting to people, no matter where they are.  If they find out what I did, my life will go down the tube.”

“Okay, who is they?  And why would your life go down the tube?  You are perfectly safe here.  There is nothing to worry about.  What are you afraid of?”

“Because I cheated my boss out of a large portion of his money!  And if he ever found out, he’d have me killed!  HE’S PART OF THE MAFIA!”

“Wait!  So is this what you thought Carvelle knew about?”

“Yes, you idiot!  What else would I have thought he had known about?”

“Why did you think he knew about this?”

“He was my husband’s best friend.  I figured my husband would’ve told him seeing as they tell each other everything.”

“Hold on.  Your husband knew about this.  So, you killed your husband!  But that’s impossible!  I saw you at the door when he got shot in his car.  This doesn’t make sense.”

“OH MY GOD!  You nit wit.  I didn’t kill him, I hired someone to do it.  Can you ever fit all the pieces of the puzzle together or is that the perp’s job?”

“Okay.  So, you’re husband found out about your little secret.  Now, why have him killed over it?  Didn’t you trust him to keep it to himself?”

“Trust him!  Are you kidding me!  He would sell me out to a random homeless man he saw on the side of the street.  If I ever kept secrets from him, the minute he found out, it was known world wide.  If I didn’t have him killed, he would’ve gotten to my boss and I would’ve been done for.”

“But what if he already got to your boss before you had him killed?”

“Oh God!  I didn’t think of that.  NO!  I’m done for.  NO!”

“Calm down Miranda, you’re safe here.  And you’ll be even safer once you are moved to the prison house.”  I left the cell to go home.  I had unfolded the whole story.  I was ready for a good night’s rest.  We had our killer, case closed.

———————————————————————————–

 The next morning, I returned to the station, and proceeded to Miranda’s cell block.  I opened the door to the cell block hall to see the guard, unconscious on the floor.  Miranda cell block was wide open and she was gone.  When the guard came too, I asked him what had happened.

“Sh-she asked me to come over to her and feel her forehead.  She s-said she was feeling sick and wanted to know if she had a temperature.  I went over an opened the cell, then went to feel her forehead.  That’s when sh grabbed my gun, and beat me over the head.  I don’t remember anything after that,”  said the guard in reply to my question.

“Do you know which way she went?” I asked, not realizing that he probably didn’t know.

“I’m not sure, but I think she ran out the back door.”

“When did this happen?  When did she leave?”

“Not too long ago.  It was just this morning.”

I ran to the back door and out of the building.  There were footprints on the ground leaving the precinct, and going off into the woods.  I suspected them to be Miranda’s and followed them.  I followed the footprints for a good mile until I reached a river.  From there, I could see a small figure in the distance, running.  I jumped into the river and swam across, then shot for the moving figure.  It took a while but, buy the time I got close enough to see what it was, I could tell it was Miranda.  I fired a shot next to her to warn her.  She jumped a little and turned around to face, once againwith a gun in her hand.

“You always seem to have a gun in your hand, don’t you!” I said to her.

“Just for you, Paul,” she replied sneering at me.

“Miranda, put down the gun and come with me.  We’re going to keep you safe.  No one is going to hurt you.”

“You think getting killed is the only thing that has me flustered.  What person wants to go to jail.  This is where it ends.  I’m not going back there.  I’m leaving this goddamn place, to go where no one can findme, or get to me!”  She put her other hand on the gun and got ready to pull the trigger.  Her finger pulled back a little bit on the trigger.  There was a loud boom.  Miranda looked down and saw blood pouring out of her stomach and slowly fell to the ground.  Without even realizing it, I had pulled the trigger on her.  I rushed to her and cradled her in my arms.  I applied pressure to the wound to halt the bleeding, but in a matter of moments, she was gone.  It wasn’t the way I wanted it to happen, but it was the way it did happen.  She killed her husband so she wouldn’t die, but I ended up preventing her plan from working, and I will have to live with that for the rest of my life.

 

Long Day’s Journey into Night: One Big Open Ending

       Eugene O’Neill’s, Long Day’s Journey into Night, is essentially just one big open ending in itself.  Unlike most plays, there is not just an open ending at the end of each scene, but at the end of nearly every page.  So many questions are posed in this play that are never answered, whether they be projected through a character’s speech or just implied.  The largest part of the open ending is at the actual end of the play.  Mary is giving her speech about how religion affected her life, and that something had changed in her.  Her last lines are:

…I went to the shrine and prayed to the Blessed Virgin and found peace again because I knew she heard my prayer and would always love me and see no harm ever came to me so long as I never lost my faith in her.  That was in the winter of senior year.  Then in the spring, something happened to me  Yes, I remember.  I fell in love with James Tyrone and was so happy for a time.

Mary’s very last sentence is the biggest part of the open ending one can see in this play.  She fell in love with James and was happy for a time.  That opens the door to numerous questions.  What happened to make her happy feelings change?  When did this time of happiness end?  Did James cause her break away from happiness, or was it her, or even one of her children?  Did this change have anything to do with the premature death of her second son, and her later resentment for her eldest?  Numerous questions pop up as to why she became unhappy.  If one looks back in the play, Mary inconspicuously hints at why she has lost her happiness, but never reveals the exact reason. 

       Edmund’s state of health is also a potential reason for why Mary’s happiness disappears.  Mary finds out about Edmund’s health issues when he is a young lad, and always makes sure he is taken care of.  It is plausible that Edmund’s illness sparked her depression.  When he is older, Edmund hears from Doctor Hardy, to whom Mary loathes, that he may have to go to a sanatorium.  This makes Mary go ballistic:

Edmund:  Listen, Mama.  I’m going to tell you whether you want to hear or not.  I’ve got to go to a sanatorium.
Mary:  Go away?  No!  I won’t have it!  How dare Doctor Hardy advise such a thing without consulting me!  How dare your father allow him!  What right has he?  You are my baby!  Let him attend to Jamie!

Mary does not want to endure that Edmund may actually have to leave her.  The idea of Edmund leaving her has been bottled up inside her for many years; she tucks it away in the back of her mind because she does not want it to become a reality.  The reader questions whether this is the answer to why she is not happy.  Mary is certainly hinting at it that this is the reason, but the reader can never be sure.  The reader also wonders about other parts to the open ending that occur at this time.  Does Edmund end up going to the sanatorium?  If so, does Mary become even more unstable in Edmund’s absence?  Every corner of this play leads to a different open ending!

      Earlier, Mary reveals her disdain with the fact that she lost all  of her friends because of James.  Mary, in a rant with her husband, states, “and then, right after we married, there was the scandal of that woman  who had been your mistress, suing you.  From then on, all my old friends either pitied me or cut me dead.”  One would think that James is the reason for her unhappiness, that because of him, all her friends left her.  Although she reveals this upsetting matter due to James, she does not let on that it affected her much.  The reader is receiving mixed signals, did this occurrence affect her happiness or did it not?  Mary gets the reader to thinking it is the reason, but then changes her tone to as if she had never mentioned the situation.  On the next page, she shifts to her debaccle over Edmund:

I was so healthy before Edmund was born.  You remember, James.  There wasn’t a nerve in my body.  Even traveliing with you season after season, with week after week of one-night stands, in trains without Pullmans, in dirty rooms of filthy hotels, eating bad food, bearing children in hotel rooms, I still kept healthy.  But bearing Edmund was the last straw.  I was so sick afterwards, and that ignorant quack of a cheap hotel doctor-All he knew was I was in pain.  It was easy for him to stop the pain. 

Mary hints at Edmund being the source of her problems once again.  But, why did she grow ill after bearing Edmund?  And, was Edmund such a burden on her that she just lost it?  Even though Mary draws attention to other moments that could have eliminated her happiness, she always ends up going back to the subject of Edmund.  The reader thinks that Edmund really is the source of her problems, but Mary never truly clarifies this for the readers.

       Mary’s incessant whining about Edmund gets one to believe he is what drained Mary of her happiness, but the reader never finds out.  That is why the whole play is an open ending.  Mary drops hints everywhere as to why she is the way sh is, but never makes it known if any are the actual cause or causes.  For all the reader knows, Mary might not have even mentioned what truly ignited her depression.  Mary could have been leading the reader on to potential reason’s for why she was not happy, which makes the open ending even broader.  Did Mary even mention the actual cause of her unhappiness?  The reader can take this play through so many different possibilities, it is absolutely insane! 

The Glass Menagerie: Open Endings!!!

       Every family has issues, but no family has can match those of the family in Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie.  The reader can hardly ever tell what is going to happen next in the play because the characters can be so spontaneous.  The issues that arise with the Wingfield family are what allow for the open endings to occur.   In the ending scene, Tom leaves his family and starts to move on with his life.  In his ending dialogue, he states, “Oh, Laura, Laura, I tried to leave you behind me, but I am more faithful than I intended to be!”  Laura is Tom’s sister, who he loves dearly as if she were his soulmate.  The reader begins to wonder about what happens to Tom.  Questions such as, did Tom ever go back for Laura, and does Tom end up finding another love other than Laura, pop up.  Tom later states, “I speak to the nearest stranger- anything that can blow your candles out!”  Tom wants his sister out of his mind and wants to be able to move on.  This brings up more to how the story is open ended.  Does Tom eventually rid Laura of his mind?  Or does he live his life with his love for her bottled up inside him?  So many different scenarios are possible for this play, it is just ridiculous!
       Open endings are seen at the ending of nearly every scene in the play as well.  In the opening of the play, open endings are very minuscule, but they gradually expand as the play progresses.  At the end of scene one, Amanda, Tom and Laura’s incommodious mother, begins to ask about the arrival of the gentleman callers’ arrival.  Amanda and her daughter begin to converse about it leading into the play’s first open ending:

Amanda:  …-It’s almost time for our gentleman callers to start arriving.  How many do you suppose we’re going to entertain this afternoon?
Laura:  I don’t believe we’re going to receive any, Mother.
Amanda:  What?  No one- not one?  You must be joking!  Not one gentleman caller?  It can’t be true!  There must be a flood, there must have been a tornado!
Laura:  It isn’t a flood, it’s a tornado, Mother.  I’m just not popular like you were in Blue Mountain…

The reader begins to think about why isn’t Laura popular?  More questions pop up such as, who are these gentlemen callers to which Amanda speaks of?  Why are they expecting these men?  Will any of these gentlemen show up?  Although the first open ending of the play is minute, what will happen in the upcoming scene is still a mystery.  The open ending does not leave much room for one set prediction, but leaves room for many.
       Throughout the play, Tom expresses much hatred for his mother, which leads to a big open ending at the closing of scene three.  Tom totally erupts at his mother saying to her, “you ugly- babbling old- witch….”  Tom is in such a rage that he whips his overcoat at the wall, hitting Laura’s glass menagerie.  Laura shrieks and Amanda, still angry about the insult, says, “I won’t speak to you- until you apologize!”  Numerous scenarios pop up from this scene’s ending.  Tom could apologize for verbally bashing his mother, or he could storm out and go to the movies like he usually does.  The readers do not know if Tom will storm out or if he will elevate the fight even further.  And there is the question of where does Laura stand in all this?  Laura could scold Tom vigorously over nearly destroying her most prized possession, or she could refuse to speak to Tom as well just like her mother.  There are a plethora of possibilities of what could happen from this point.
       In my opinion, the best open ending is that at the end of scene four.  For one part of the ending, the reader actually wonders what is going to happen next, but the other part is just a fun time to think about how things will play out.  The scene ends, again, with Tom and Amanda shouting at each other: 

Amanda:  Down at the warehouse, aren’t there some- nice young men?
Tom:  No!
Amanda:  There must be- some… 
Tom:  Mother-
Amanda:  Find out one that’s clean-living- doesn’t drink and ask him out for sister!
Tom:  What?
Amanda:  For sister!  To meet!  Get acquainted!
Tom:  Oh, my go-osh!
Amanda:  Will you?  Will you?  Will you?  Will you, dear?
Tom:  Yes!  

Amanda keeps bugging Tom until he finally cracks and succumbs to her wants.  The readers take this part of the open ending seriously.  Will Tom actually give in to Amanda and proceed in doing what she asked?  If he does, will he succeed in finding someone for his sister?  Although this part of the open ending comes to a close in the next scene when Tom brings over a friend from his past, the reader can still formulate numerous possibilities to what will happen before he/she reads on.  In the following scene, both potential questions proposed, are answered.  
       The second art of the open ending, which is rather a funny part to ponder about what will happen, occurs when Amanda makes a phone call.  Amanda, in a rush to get Tom out of her mind, rushes to the phone and calls up her friend, Ella Cartwright.  The conversation is completely off set from what is happening in the scene, but Amanda needs to be rid of Tom, so a random conversation was the way to go:

Amanda:  Ella Cartwright?  This is Amanda Wingfield!  How are you, honey?  How is that kidney condition?– Well, I just now happened to notice in my little red book that your subscription to the Companion has just run out!  I knew that you wouldn’t want to miss out on the wonderful serial starting in this new issue.  It’s by Bessie Mae Hopper, the first thing she’s written since Honeymoon for Three….

So Amanda starts blabbing about a magazine subscription, to which she knows that this woman’s subscription has ended!  Anyone with an expired magazine subscription can be expecting a call from her; for sure, it is marked down in her little red book.  Now, does Ella renew her subscription?  And how about that kidney condition, how is it?  The reader also wonders if Amanda successfully escapes the fighting with Tom, by engaging is this totally ridiculous conversation over the phone.  Also, does Ella even get a chance to speak in between Amanda’s rantings?  This open ending is just amazing.  There are so many open endings that the play could be rewritten into numerous other plots. 

{on a side note- this website would be so much better if it had emoticons!!!  }                 
      

Desire Under the Elms!!

Eugene O’Neill’s Desire Under the Elms, is swarming with open endings. Open endings is the most evident modernist attribute seen in this play. At the very end of the play, Abbie and Eben are taken away by the sheriff for the murder of their child. Eben reveals he has no worries about where their life is going when he says, “I love ye, Abbie. Sun’s a-rizin’. Purty, h’aint it?” Eben is showing that he knows he will not be gone forever and that there is hope for him and Abbie. This gets the reader to wondering what is going to happen to them after they get out of jail, or what is going to happen to them while they are in jail? The ending lines reveal that Eben and Abbie are happy as long as they are together and that they will eventually get out of jail. The ending leaves room for a continuation in which what happens to the two of them after is pondered on. Another part of this ending that is open involves Cabot. Cabot is so disgusted with Eben and Abbie that he says, “T’ hell with the farm. I’m leavin’ it! I’ve turned the cows an’ stock loose. I’ve druv ‘em into the woods whar they kin be free! By freein’ ‘em, I’m freein’ myself! I’m quittin’ here today! I’ll set fire t’ house an’ barn an’ watch ‘em burn….” From this, the reader begins to wonder, upon the plays ending, if Cabot does actually burn the farm or if he decides to stay. And what will happen to Cabot?  Will he go out and get another wife like the first time he left? This ending has so much room for expantion; there are numerous possibilities to what could happen next.

Open endings are also seen at the end of the other two parts of the play. At the end of part 2, Eben tells his father, “Ay-eh! I’m bossin’ yew. Ha-ha-ha! See how ye like it! Ha-ha-ha! I’m the prize rooster o’ this roost. Ha-ha-ha!” This causes the audience to think about what might happen to Eben in the next part. Cabot has always controlled Eben and now Eben has flipped the table over. Questions like what will Cabot do to Eben and will Eben actually manage to get his way with his father begin to pop up. The same type of actions are seen in the open ending at the end of part 1. Eben is constantly cussing at his father, moaning about work, while Cabot is complaining about how Eben is not working. Eben explains that his brothers have departed from the farm and that he cannot work and does not intend to work the farm by himself. This ending reveals that Eben is possibly thinking about leaving the farm as well. Previously, he paid off his brothers to acquire their shares of the farm. Will Eben stick to his original plan to keep the entire farm or will he do waht his brothers did and try to escape his father by heading to California? There are numerous open endings in this play. There is one at the end of every scene that can be easily noticed and identified.

Even though open endings are seen the most in this play, another attribute that pops up a lot is the experience and structure of life from experimentation in form. In the last scene where Eben and Abbie tell each other that they love one another, the structure of life is seen there. When people truly love one another, nothing can break them apart and keep them from their love. Abbie states, “I got t’ take my punishment–t’ pay fur my sin.” Eben replies telling her that he wants to the share the punishment with her. Of course, since it was his idea, he is subject to punishment, but Eben really wanted to go with her because he loved her. Love conquers all. That is how love works in the structure of life, depending on how serious the love is, and in Eben and Abbie’s case, it is true love.

Experimentation in form reveals itself again in life experience when Abbie first enters the picture. Abbie arrives at the farm and lays her eyes on Eben, saying, “Be you–Eben? I’m Abbie–I mean, I’m yer new Maw.” Eben reveals his truculent attitude with his reply. This is an example of the classic experience of the effects of remarriage on a son and or daughter. When one person’s spouse dies, and they get remarried, the child of that person expresses much anger for the new spouse and does not want them in their life. Eben has the same situation. Abbie enters his life as his new mother and he can not come to terms that his mother is dead and his father has replaced her. In some cases, the son or daughter grow to like this new so called parent. Eben does this, but takes it to a whole new level by becoming Abbie’s lover. This act of affection sets the stage for the rest of the play which allows for the open endings to occur.

A Streetcar Named Desire

In A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams, Blanche is one of the most annoying characters anyone could meet. Blanche married at a very young age, and soon after, she caught her husband with another man. Blanche expressed her hatred for him, he could not take the pressure, and he killed himself. Sexuality is one of the structures of life that can truly destroy a person’s life. Blanche’s husband was one of those persons who just happened to cave. Numerous people keep their sexuality bottled up their entire life which leads them to a whole lot of stress and pressure, worrying if someone will find out. Not only is it devastating to the person if his or her sexuality is unintentionally leaked out, but it greatly affects those around them as well. Blanche seeing her husband express his homosexuality right in front of her, unintentionally, lead to his death and her psychosis. Blanche began to try and help “save” other men from their homosexuality in order to dissolve her husband’s death from her mind. She did not succeed. All she accomplished was the brandishing of her reputation.

Reputations also can help in making or breaking a person’s life. In this case, reputation destroyed Blanche. When Blanche first arrived at Stella’s home, she came off as a pleasant, well off girl who was very stable. Stanley’s drunkenness and his jealousy of Blanche’s beautiful things began to make a crack in Blanche’s mind. Blanche tried to patch the crack with lies and acting important, but Stanley saw through it and constantly attacked her. The attacks caused the crack to get bigger. One night, Blanche put on a $.50 costume dress claiming that she was going on a yacht with a rich gentleman. Stanley noticed a break in her story where she did not know what Stanley was talking about when he brought back the subject of the gentleman. This was where the crack begins to widen the most. Blanche threatens Stanley with a broken bottle, but Stanley takes control of Blanche and rapes her. Stanley’s actions totally destroyed Blanche mentally, leading to her being taken away the next day. Her true reputation being brought out by Stanley is what caused Blanche to completely lose it.

Stanley makes the connection that Blanche is trying to draw Stella away from him. He sees that Blanche is making him appear to be a mediocre and rabid being who will not listen to anyone else’s opinion but his own. Stanley’s drunkenness embellishes this trait proving Blanche right, and thus causing Stella to temporarily leave Stanley. This is where Stanley suddenly realizes the error of his ways and changes. He then gets in a fight with Eunice to get his wife to come back to him:

Stanley: Stell-lahhhhh!
Eunice: Quit that howling out there an’ go back to bed!
Stanley: I want my baby down here. Stella, Stella!…

[Stella slips down the rickety stairs in her robe.... They stare at each other. Then, they come together with low, animal moans. He falls to his knees on the steps and presses his face to her belly, curving a little with maternity....]

Change is one of the many things that form the structure of life. Without change, the world would be in a shambles with mass hysteria everywhere. Change is motivated by numerous things, one being that which influenced Stanley to change, love, and or the fear of losing the one who is most dear to him. Stanley overcame his drunkenness and went after Stella. His perseverance led to her returning to him. Blanche however cannot bring herself to change and thus, she descended down a path towards her own dissolution.

Blanche returns the next morning to speak Stella and constantly asks her, “How could you come back in this place last night?” The conversation goes deeper to further reveal Blanches disapproval of Stanley when she says, “In my opinion? You’re married to a madman!” Blanche absolutely abhors Stanley, and since she cannot see around his bad features, she is not able to avoid insanity. Blanche’s life experience has been all about changing the way the men she meets are, but when she enters Stella’s life again, she tries to change Stella. Blanche could not make the connections in life that if she just accepted people for who they are, then she would be able to live an affable life. However, for her to achieve this, Blanche would first have to learn to accept herself.

Blanche exhibits all throughout the play a state of denial. Although she tries hard not to reveal that she is in denial, she unknowingly hints at it when she reveals her denial through her words. Prior to Blanche’s arrival, she lost the family estate at Belle Reeve. Not to mention, she lost her husband at a young age. Blanche tries to perceive herself as rich, eloquent, and formal, when she is really not. Blanche’s denial shows itself at numerous occasions, the most prominent being the scene prior to Blanche’s rape.

Blanche is in what she is pretending to be, an expensive and elegant dress for a yacht party. Stanley knows that she is lying right through her teeth, about the dress and about her millionaire friend. Stanley bashes Blanche saying:

“As a matter of fact there wasn’t no wire at all!…There isn’t no millionaire! And Mitch didn’t come back with roses ’cause I know where he is-…There isn’t a goddam thing but imagination!…And lies and conceit and tricks!…And look at yourself! Take a look at yourself in that worn-out Mardi Gras outfit, rented for fifty cents from some rag-picker! And with the crazy crown on! What queen do you think you are?”

Stanley noticed Blanche’s denial and used it against her to ultimately destroy her. Her denial is one of the major factors that led to her life crumbling into pieces. Stanley was just the person who actually had the nerve to bring it out and expose her for who she really was. As Blanche leaves the next morning, she is still in denial and still cannot accept herself, keeping her from the life she wanted to live!

Another factor can be taken into account as well for why Blanche just totally lost it. Blanche spent a lot of her life searching for that someone special and trying to fix some guys’ homosexuality. While Blanche is a Stella’s humble abode, she makes the acquaintance of Mitch, one of Stanley’s poker buddies. She starts to fall in love with Mitch and gets the feeling that he might ask her to marry him. However, Stanley, being the controlling nuisance that he is, sees it necessary to keep Mitch from loving Blanche. He disrupts Blanche’s love feelings inconspicuously revealing in numerous situations that Mitch feels sorry for her and that he does not really lover her. On the night of the rape, he makes it clear that Mitch does not love her when he makes it noticed to her that Mitch has not come to see her. Blanche’s potential relationship was destroyed by Stanley and could have saved her from the life that she was living if Stanley had not stuck his head in on the situation. Stanley is the match that lights Blanche’s flame. Stanley is the cause for all of Blanche’s breakdowns while at Stella’s home. He is also the pale of water that put out Blanche’s flame when he destroys the relationship that Blanche was building with Mitch. Stanley is one of those people in life who only see people for their negative qualities. He is one of those people who try to bring out a person’s negativity to get them out of the picture. Stanley brought out the negative energy bottled up in Blanche which in the end led to her complete psychotic breakdown.

 

Ernie’s Killers

The Killers, by Ernest Hemingway, represents looking out for the well being of others. Every evening, a man by the name of Ole Anderson enters a diner to take in his supper. Two men wish to kill this man when he comes in for his dinner one night for reasons unknown to the audience. The people present in the diner are held hostage by the killers. When the killers leave the diner, Nick Adams, one of the hostages, decides to go warn Ole Anderson. Nick was doing the right thing in that he was looking out for others even though he has no relations with that person. This is a good representation of the structure of life.

Nick Adams’ actions reflect back on the parable of the good samaritan. A traveler was robbed and beaten half to death. The first two that saw him just kept on walking, but the third stopped and helped the man.

Nick Adams is the good samaritan of The Killers. He did not have to go and notify Ole Anderson of the intentions of the two killers. He risked getting himself hurt or killed in doing this. Nick represents that there really are people who would do the right thing at the risk of their own well being.

“They were going to kill Ole Anderson,” George said…
“I’ll go see him, ” Nick said to George….

Nick did not have to look out for someone who he had no relations with.  He believed in doing the right thing, and put the fact that he had no clue who this man was aside, and warned him that his life was in danger.  Not many people would have done that at the risk of getting involved to the point of death, but Nick is one of those people who believe everyone deserves a chance.  Ole Anderson was not phased by the news at all, revealing that he did not care where his life’s path dragged him.  Nick still thought it right to reveal to Ole Anderson what was coming.

Just as Prufrock, Ole Anderson is alone.  The reader can pull out the theory that Ole Anderson does not see need to go on just from the tone in his speech.

“George thought I better come to tell you about it,” said Nick.
“There isn’t anything I can do about it,” Ole Anderson said.
“I’ll tell you what they were like.”
“I don’t want to know what they were like….”
“Don’t you want me to go and see the police?”
“No,” Ole Anderson said.  “That wouldn’t do any good.”

Ole Anderson views his life as ending at any moment and shows that even though this boy is warning him about what is to come, it is not important at all.  Anderson’s tone and speech reveals that he could care less about what happens to his life.  Alas, the fact that Nick still took time out of his life to do something for this man reveals that the world is not just composed of uncaring, egotistical people. 

It is later made known that there was a possibility that Ole Anderson got mixed up in something in Chicago, and that that may be the reason for why the men are looking to kill him.  This ties in to happenings that occur today.  Ole Anderson possibly messed up his life by getting involved in the wrong things.  This relates to the young minds that roam the streets today.  They make one bad decision such as doing drugs or becoming a drunk, and they end up on the streets or in jail, screwing up the rest of their lives.  Decisions are what tie people to whether or not their life experience is going to be one to remember or a path that they will regret in their future.

Further Dissecting of the Life Experience of Prufrock

It was previously revealed that Prufrock had a sour love life to which he was marked as alone in life. It goes much deeper than that.

LET us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky; The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels;

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening;

And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!
Smoothed by long fingers,
Asleep … tired … or it malingers

Eliot makes it clear that the setting is of the evening. this presents a vision of darkness to the reader, yet at the same time, Eliot manages to work his words into a peaceful surrounding. Prufrock wishes to go with the night and the darkness giving a hint at his feelings. At the start, he is pleased and calm, but later grows into restlessness. He progresses with the night further into a mysterious feeling with the yellow smoke and then reverts to calmness.

This setting forms the structure of Prufrock’s life throughout many parts of the poem. The setting reveals that he believes himself to be living in a darkened world shrouded by shadows, but this world is peaceful. When Eliot talks about the yellow smoke against the windows, Prufrock’s world is covered further from everyone, placing him in a world full of seclusion. The smoke obstructs the people of his world from knowing of his existence, leaving him alone.

Would it have been worth while,
To have bitten off the matter with a smile…

Prufrock also enters a state of disbelief. When he states the lines above, he is emphasizing that his life is not worth living and his life experience has been all a waste. This ties in with connections of life. Many people put their life together to later come to a conclusion that their doings were for nothing. Prufrock is making the same connection, that there is no purpose to his makings. Prufrock in these lines, is drowning himself in a life of despair that was brought upon him by his disbelief.

In the line, “Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?,” Prufrock begins to question where his life is taking him and where he is heading. He does not know what to do with his life and and cannot make a decision. His failure to move forward results in him seeing that going on would be pointless. In the last line of the poem, “Till human voices wake us, and we drown.,”Eliot makes it clear that Prufrock killed himself. Prufrock’s incapability of creating a good future drove him to commit suicide. His life experiences in the shadows led him to disbelief and later to him thinking that he does not deserve to live.

At the beginning of the poem, there is an introduction written in Italian. The last three lines read:

Ma perciocche giammai di questo fondo
Non torno vivo alcun, s’i'odo il vero,
Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo.

There are many translations of these three lines. One translation reads :

But since never from this abyss
has anyone ever returned alive, if what I hear is true,
without fear of infamy I answer you.

This can be interpreted as upon entering the shadows, no one has returned alive, and Prufrock has no fear of entering the shadows. Prufrock is willing to enter the abyss and answer his true calling. Prufrock’s life choices led to his downfall, but he was not afraid of accepting what was in store for him in his future. Eliot’s poem emphasizes a lot about life and how it can have an impact on the mind. It reveals how planning one’s future can corrupt someone or prove helpful. The poem also shows how decisions can affect one’s mental state in whether or not what they are doing is worth it in the end.

Life Experience

The poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, by T. S. Eliot truly emphasizes experiences of life.  The character in this poem is describing his life experience of being alone and how dark and lonely his life can be.  Prufrock’s life experience that he shares with us is that one can be broken without love.  He lives his life one day at a time and is alone, believing that he will grow old with no one by his side.  For him, life is a joyous experience.  This can be directly related to life today as well.  When people get out of a long relationship, they are most of the time a wreck for a good while.  They live their life wondering how their world would go on if they had done something differently and waste their days away.  On the other hand, some people get over a lost love quickly and are back on their feet right away.  These people do not spend their days moping or unsatisfied if they are alone.  Love is a marvelous thing, but it should not be something to waste one’s life over.  One could go on without love and still be happy, they just have to put the factor of being “alone” behind them.  If you are alone, it is not the end of the world, just make life the way you want it to be, because you choose your own path. 

hola

So hi all, my names ben, but most people call me gemma. I plan to be exploring experimentation in form to present views on the experience of life.

Experimentation in form in order to present differently, afresh, the structure, the connections, and the experience of life (see next point); also, not necessarily in connection with the former, to create a sense of art as artifact, art as ‘other’ than diurnal reality (art is seen as ‘high’, as opposed to popular).

People have spent years trying to understand the meaning of life, but its not really important. To truly experience life, one needs to be able to enjoy themself and do what they love to do. Now some people do enjoy trying to figure out the meaning of life and I say go for it. But if searching your whole life gets you nowhere, then what is your purpose. We live in a world where what you do can make who you are.

We can be whoever we want to be. Our futures our up for us to decide. No one else can tell you what you must do to live life to the fullest. You decide your lifestyle. Life today requires hard work in order to be successful and survive, but that still does not mean that their is no room for fun. But, too much fun can get you trapped in a deep pit that is hard to get out of. My older sister ended up blowing most of her money made on material items instead of paying her bills, and now she is in that pit. Material items do not make life perfect all the time. And having fun can sometimes come at a cost when it comes to material items. But doing your best can ultimatley keep you at a good level.