Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

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Porter 1 Aaron Porter Mrs. Godwin AP English IV August 4, 2013 Insult to Injury In Tennessee Williams', Cat on A Hot Tin Roof, Brick hides feelings of bitterness, nostalgia, and respect toward his terrible discovery of Skipper’s sexuality preference, being used to effectively demonstrate the importance of facing personal conflicts and moving on with life. Brick demonstrates the negative consequences of holding emotions bottled inside instead of talking to a friend about them. Williams’ use of the “click” to symbolically help the reader discover and understand Brick’s apparent hatred toward his wife, Maggie. Brick tries to hide behind alcohol so he does not have to deal with his problems. Brick’s bitterness provides a camouflage for his desire to recapture the past. His attempt on returning his life back to happy times when he played sports, only makes him more miserable. While jumping hurdles on the field late one night, drunk, Brick breaks his leg, symbolically representing his failure to cope with reality and his problems. What he used to be strong at now ironically weakens him. He becomes unable to deal with these obstacles and problems by himself but also pushes away anyone who tries to help. Maggie tries to help but repeatedly gets shut out by Brick. “I don’t want to lean on your shoulder.” Maggie’s persistent attempts foreshadows her future attempt to help Brick face his problems. “Yes!- I left out a long distance call which I had from Skipper, in which he made a drunken confession to me and on which I hung up!- last time we spoke to each other in our lives” When Brick hangs up on Skipper, that “click” forever remains on Brick’s mind. This leads him into a terrific trip of guilt the likes of which few have ever experienced. Brick feels he let Skipper down by not accepting his sexuality and blames himself for Skipper’s Porter 2 death, although

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