How did I contribute to the cage?

After seeing the film Cat on a Hot Tin Roof just recently, and reading the play about twice, I finally got an understanding of the themes and characteristics at our last group meeting (9/11/08). I helped structure our group meeting/presentation in a form of three sub-groups, along with Pip’s advice on using three clips from modern films in pop culture. I mostly thought this would be a wise choice because Professor Wexler stressed the idea of not presenting a lecture, and films such as American Beauty, War of The Roses and Brokeback Mountain still possess the value of entertainment to keep our class engaged, entertained and inspired to participate. After all, we are in a Popular Cultures course, so comparing our class read to relevant films can possibly create a ripple for that tsunami. Plus, it works for the Professor, so why not emulate his discussions?
In my sub-group, I concentrated on keeping the “cage” theme alive, by contrasting the film American Beauty with similar characteristics of family structure and success from Tennessee’s book. I feel in most ways, a marriage/family is a cage in itself; a manifestation of a cage. The family is a social construct, dependent on affection, attention, money and security and there are many parallels between a modern suburban American family and that of the vast farmland in the south. The “Beauty” from the title suggests how we create ideals and expectations of the family, and how each person has their own perspective on what beauty really is, whether it is on the surface or beneath.