I believe that "Lyin' Eyes" by the Eagles characterizes Blanche perfectly. The song is so calm and relaxing, exactly as Blanche attempts to be in front of the others -- but the lyrics are quite the opposite, depicting the frustration she must feel growing throughout the story, though she keeps struggling to hide it with her lies.

The song opens with the lyrics "City girls just seem to find out early / How to open doors with just a smile." Blanche might not be a city girl, but instead, a "southern belle." All the same, she gets by on her looks alone -- which is why it's such a problem that she's aging, and is losing those looks. The next lines are "A rich old man, and she won't have to worry / She'll dress up autumn lace, and go in style." Blanche's entire goal throughout the story is to find a man -- preferrably a well-off man. Love isn't what matters ("It breaks her heart to think her love is only / Given to a man with hands as cold as ice"), as long as she has money and a reputation. It's obvious it bothers her that this is how it is, but she's accepted it as simply the way the world works.

The next verse is "So she tells him she must go out for the evening / To comfort an old friend who's feeling down / But he knows where she's going as she's leaving / She's headed for the cheatin' side of town." Blanche isn't married any longer, so her lustful behavior isn't necessarily considered "cheating," but it is still not acceptable. Also, just like in the song, Blanche lies about the things she does -- such as telling them that the boy is the one at fault.

"My, oh my, you sure know how to arrange things / You set it up so well, so carefully." Blanche spends the entire story trying to create an alibi for herself, so that the others see her as someone that she is not. The arranges lies carefully to make herself look better.

"Ain't it funny how your new life didn't change things / You're still the same old girl you used to be." Despite all of her lies and stories, she's still the same person -- a shallow, manipulative girl who hopes to rely on her looks to find a man, so that she can make sure she remains not only well-off, but socially accepted by the others around her.

Finally, the chorus ties it all together:

"You can't hide your lyin' eyes.
And your smile is a thin disguise.
I thought by now, you'd realize
There ain't no way to hide your lyin' eyes."

The chorus describes her character perfectly. The entire story, she tells lies and stories, trying to disguise her true self. In the end, though, she can't hide behind her lies anymore, because, as it turns out, no one actually believed her lies in the first place. Still, even when Stanley exposed her for who she truly was, she continued to try and salvage her reputation, as if she didn't realize that it was the end.

Funny enough, it looks like someone actually made a video about the song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A08F86ohIBU

Blog #2: Modernism & Postmodernism Character

While several of the characters in the works we have studied so far were enlightening, the judge from "The Obsolete Man" best depicted the difference between modernism and postmodernism. The reason that he shows it best is because he displays contradictory beliefs; he actually displays the behavior of both a modernist and a postmodernist!
At the beginning of the video, he showed the personality of an extreme modernist: just like all of the other judges of the "state," he believed in one thing. In fact, the state believed that their ideas were the only true ones, so that they actually killed those who believed otherwise!
Still, though he says his beliefs include the thought that he, an individual, is not as important as the state, he later shows panic in the face of death. In fact, he even shows a completely opposite view of what he displayed in the trial, when he says, "In the name of God, let me out!" While this isn't completely a postmodernist view, it does show a difference in his beliefs: displaying that no human can know for sure the facts on any situation.
Rod Serling used this character to display both a modernist and postmodernist point of view. He started out by displaying the character as a modernist. Later, he showed slight postmodernism by giving the character a contradictory set of behavior.

Blog #1: About Me

Hi, I'm Anthony McDougle, and this is a short biography about myself. I was born in Colorado, but I've lived all over the country -- California, Texas, and most recently, North Carolina. As of September 12, 2001 (the day after 9/11), my family and I have been living in Charlotte, North Carolina.

I like to play sports, and grew up playing rec baseball and basketball. In high school, I played football, and I played rugby for Clemson my freshman and sophomore years. I love to watch football, as well as college basketball. I'm also interested in computers, which is why I major in computer science.

Other than that, I just got a new puppy -- a German Shepherd named Layla.