What kind of a name is ... - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) Discussion

[–] budikavlan 15 years ago

The kind of names they are: nicknames. The whole family has nicknames, except we aren't told what the men's real names are. Someone has posted here on IMDb that Big Daddy's name is Harvey and Gooper's is Cooper, but there's no mention of them in the film, and I don't remember any mention in the play, either, though my copy is packed away somewhere. The women are all named in the text, but the men only referred to by nickname.

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[–] mariahfan-1 15 years ago

Goopers real name is Cooper the only main male Charecter we're not told his real name is Brick

"why are you married to him then if you can't work with him how do you live with him?"

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[–] dakotasdad 15 years ago

Brick may have been a last name in the family. It was common in the south to keep a family name going by using it as a first name. Nelson, Madison and Cooper etc. are last names used as first names.

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[–] mariahfan-1 15 years ago

yeah exactally Like Kennedy is in my family so I promised my mom I'd name one of my future daughters Kennedy Rose after her mother

"why are you married to him then if you can't work with him how do you live with him?"

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[–] toshguy 15 years ago

How about calling Gooper's wife "Sister Woman"? What the hell was up with that?

I'm here, Mr. Man, I can not tell no lie and I'll be right here 'till the day I die

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[–] mariahfan-1 15 years ago

so they didn't have to use her real name every time they adressed her

"why are you married to him then if you can't work with him how do you live with him?"

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[–] toshguy 15 years ago

I knew what the purpsoe of calling her that was, but I just found it to be a very weird Southern expression that I hadn't heard before and haven't since.

I'm here, Mr. Man, I can not tell no lie and I'll be right here 'till the day I die

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[–] RuthlessGoat 15 years ago

Brick means that you have the most beautiful wife in the world, but you are gay.

Gooper means you married a homely *beep* of a baby machine who can't keep her mouth shut.

Nifto is slang for being an Idiot. Any other questions?

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[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] bradford-1 15 years ago

Folks here don't seem to have much familiarity with old-school Southern (or rural) customs. People were practically never referred to by their given names, even by outsiders. You might have had more than one nickname, hence "Gooper" and "Brother Man." My father was known by his two nicknames, not his given name. A family joke is that at his wedding to my mother, the preacher had to ask him his real name right before the ceremony. And the guy had known my old man since he was a baby! I had a coupla great-aunts whose given names I'm still not sure about.

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