Imaginative Explorations of the Abstracted Nature of American Identity: A Streetcar Named Desire, Blue Jasmine, and Gone Girl Julian Zogg 11th Grade

Composers creatively explore the intangible nature of the American identity reflecting the flawed values of American exceptionalism and capitalism. Tennessee Williams’ symbolist play, A Streetcar Named Desire, 1947, inspects the destabilisation of the American identity within the context of a post-WWII economic boom. Williams positions the American Dream based on meritocracy as a fallacy. Woody Allen’s tragicomedy, Blue Jasmine, 2013, refracts this in an appropriation of A Streetcar Named Desire, employing a temporal dislocation of plot and cinematic realism. Blue Jasmine focuses on the anti-heroine’s loss of public identity, a crisis faced with self-delusion, alcoholism and mental illness, framed by values of rampant consumerism and conspicuous consumption. David Fincher’s adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s novel, Gone Girl, 2013, a psychological thriller set in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis, dissects the conflict between our private and public selves in one of the key institutions of the American identity, marriage. All three composers successfully provide a cautionary tale of the inevitable failure of individuals to achieve the unrealistic expectations of the elusive American ideal.

Through the lens of social realism, A...