Summary and Analysis of The American Dream

·         Edward Albee was born in Virginia, adopted, and raised in New York. He was part of a wealthy family, however eventually left home for good. He was expelled from multiple schools. He is gay, and still living. He is 84 and is a professor at the University of Houston.

·         The setting of the play is in the 1950s/1960s and it’s right at the time when consumerism set in. The actual place of the play is in the living room of Mommy and Daddy’s apartment.

·         The plot of the story is that Mommy and Daddy are waiting for a person to come to their apartment, that person turns out to be Mrs. Barker. The three of them, and Grandma, make small talk while they try to remember why Mrs. Barker is there. Eventually a Young Man comes in looking for work. Then the story spills out, that Mommy and Daddy had adopted a baby and had mutilated it and killed it because it wasn’t their idea of perfect, so they had called Mrs. Barker to fix it, because they had adopted the baby from her. Grandma arranges the solution, so that she ends up leaving the house, Mrs. Barker looks like she knows what’s she doing, and the Young Man looking for a job, gets one, as being the perfect son for this family. The Young Man is actually the twin of the young boy that they had adopted and killed earlier, and all that they had done physically to the baby, the Young Man had too, but emotionally. In the end, everyone is happy, Mrs. Barker “fixes” the problem, the Young Man gets a job, Grandma gets to leave, and Mommy and Daddy get the perfect son.

·         The significant characters are Mrs. Barker, Mommy, Daddy, Grandma, and the Young Man. Mrs. Barker is a professional woman and we think that she is a stripper. Mommy is a powerful woman, shown in a not so good light, and she emasculates Daddy. Daddy is passive and shown to be feminine. Grandma is outspoken and represents the old American Dream, when values were important. The Young Man represents the new American Dream, which ends up kicking out the old American Dream.

·         The play is a piece of writing from the “theatre of the absurd.” Albee uses lots of repetition, so often times it’s frustrating to the reader, because something that could be said in one line, takes half of the page to say. This is to show the lack of movement in the story. However, I think this is a characteristic of the literary movement in general, and not Albee himself.

·         The tone of the play is almost monotonous because none of the characters express emotion. Instead, they say their emotion such as Daddy when he says “I’m going to blush and giggle” to show that he’s nervous or embarrassed (19).

·         Since this is a play, the author’s style isn’t so evident, because each character has their own style of speaking. For instance, Grandma has a sharp, sarcastic tone most of the time and says one-line quirks a lot. The Young Man barely says anything, and when he does, he’s so passive, he just agrees with what was said. Daddy is passive as well, so he doesn’t say much. Mommy is a rambler and likes to talk a lot, giving emphasis to details that aren’t really relevant. The only thing in common with the characters’ speeches is that they all pause a lot. I can’t tell if that’s just Albee’s mockery of how people in the real world talk, or just how he decided to write the play.

·         For imagery, it’s not so evident here because since it’s a play, most of the time the characters are talking to one another and they don’t describe the setting or anything out loud.

·         “…I no longer have the capacity to feel anything. I have no emotions, I have been drained; torn asunder… disemboweled. I have, now, only my person… my body…my face. I use what I have…I let people love me…I accept the syntax around me, for, while I know I cannot relate… I know I must be related to” (36). This quote is from the Young Man and in describing himself, he is actually describing some qualities of the new American Dream and consumerism. About how things are about money now and not values and morals as much, how superficial things are.

·         “She’s a dreadful woman, you don’t know her; she has dreadful taste, two dreadful children, a dreadful house, and an absolutely adorable husband who sits in a wheelchair all the time. You don’t know him. You don’t know anybody, do you? She’s just a dreadful woman, but she is chairman of our women’s club, so naturally, I’m terribly fond of her,” (10). This quote demonstrates the new American Dream again, the superficiality. Mommy seems to hate this woman, but then she mentions that the woman has some power, so then she says she loves her, because of her position, not the woman herself. Also, it’s a good example of a writing technique, because the author repeats the word “dreadful” multiple times, but at the end says adorable, which makes the husband stick out more than everything else.

·         I believe the theme is that even though the something may seem like it’s gone, there’s always a way for it to live on, in this case, the old American Dream.

·         Symbolism supports this because at the end of the story, instead of killing Grandma off, who was the old American Dream, she’s still there, which shows that even though there’s the new American Dream, the old one hasn’t entirely left. She’s just hiding for the moment.

·         The tone shows this because one of the only times that emotion is shown in this story is when Grandma leaves and Mommy is very upset and wants to get her back, so it shows that Grandma, the old American Dream will be missed, if only for a minute.

·         The setting works into the theme because the story takes place in the 1950s/1960s so that was the time when people where switching from the idea of values and morals to the idea of consumerism, and the theme shows that just because overall the switch was happening, that doesn’t mean that there wasn’t some trace of the old American Dream left.  

Close Reading #2

The name of this article is called “The Other Missing Man” and it’s by Timothy Egan. It’s a political article that talks about the 2^nd presidential debate that took place a few days ago. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/18/the-other-missing-man/

            There are 2 types of political articles, those that try to stay unbiased and those that completely favor one opponent over the other. In this article, the latter is the case. The title of “The Other Missing Man” is referring to the “missing” men in the first debate. The two missing men, according to Egan, were “forward-looking, crisp-thinking, quick on his feet” Obama and the “petulant, unlikable and bullying corporate” Romney. He says this because Obama clearly didn’t speak as well as he normally does, in the first debate, and Romney shed his “normal” persona in favor of one that appeals to more Americans. Egan shows examples of Romney’s “bullying corporate” persona by showing examples of it in the 2^nd debate where it was present. In doing so, Egan uses multiples methods of rhetoric to get his point across, such as diction, imagery, and syntax.

            Egan chooses specific words with a negative connotation to emphasize his view of Romney. Words such as “squabbling” and “whining” portray an image of an annoying child, and put the readers in that mindset of dealing with an impatient, difficult child. That way, while reading about Romney, the readers feel the same way about him. Other examples of diction with negative connotation are “feigned” and “arrogance,” both of which bring about the idea of a bad person due to lies and superiority.

            As for imagery, Egan makes sure to uses phrases that will paint a picture for the reader about Romney’s supposedly true personality. Sentences and phrases such as “Romney was the very picture of a C.E.O. used to getting his way” and “‘looks like that guy that fires you’” both are used to describe Romney. In painting Romney in this unflattering light, Egan is attempting to persuade Americans to think of Romney in this way as well. Other phrases Egan uses are “Romney went full boss-in-a-snit mode” and  “Insulated, seldom-challenged C.E.O.s who live in a bubble — in this case, the fact-challenged world of Fox News and right-wing radio — also die in that bubble.” In both instances, Egan again compares Romney’s attitude to that of a stuck up, too-powerful boss, because that’s a common type that people in American are familiar with, and in general don’t like. In comparing Romney with this type of image, it appeals to many Americans because many of them have some form of an over-powering boss in their life. His imagery, along with his diction both create a negative image for Romney.

            One of Egan’s sentence structures that caught my eye was the one where he uses a dash. This lets the reader pause for a moment to think about what they just read, and creates more emphasis on what the next part of the sentence is going to be. For instance, in the sentence “Except his business was a very predatory form of venture capital — no way to run a country.” The ending comment of “no way to run a country” sticks out in the reader’s mind because it’s somewhat more separated from the rest of the sentence. This occurs throughout the article and it works well for the Egan.

            In general, Egan makes it very clear that he is on the democratic side of the election, and does so by pointing out flaws in Romney’s debate last Tuesday. In doing so, Egan uses specific words, images, and sentence structure to help get across his point, to great effect. 

Open Prompt #2

2005, Form B. One of the strongest human drives seems to be a desire for power. Write an essay in which you discuss how a character in a novel or a drama struggles to free himself or herself from the power of others or seeks to gain power over others. Be sure to demonstrate in your essay how the author uses this power struggle to enhance the meaning of the work.

            A power struggle is a common reoccurring event in literature, whether it be a character trying to escape someone else’s power, gain power for themselves, or both. Macbeth from Shakespeare’s play Macbeth is one such character. Macbeth’s struggle to gain power is the main focus of the play and the event that defines his character.

            The first instance when Macbeth shows his intention for power is when he and his wife plot to kill the present King of Scotland, King Duncan, so that Macbeth can be king. They invite the King to their house and Macbeth stabs him to death that night and frames the servants, who he then also kills to make sure his bloody acts aren’t found out.  Now that he is King and has gained all the power, one would think that he would stop the murder acts. However, now that he has power, he is so paranoid about losing it, that he continues with the murdering.

            In order to maintain his power, he wants to kill everyone who could potentially take his thrown away from him. The power has gone to his head so much that he orders his best friend Banquo and Banquo’s son Fleance to be killed. He doesn’t stop there, he finds out that Macduff, a Scottish noble, is against him, and orders him and his entire family to be killed. Macduff is gone when the hitmen arrive, so his entire family is killed. Now, he’s committing cruel acts that don’t have anything to do with maintaining power. For instance, there was no need to kill Macduff’s family, but Macbeth goes through with it anyway, to show his power.

            This constant struggle for Macbeth’s power enhances the meaning of the work, because every time Macbeth commits an act that has to do with guarding his power or getting more power, we can see the effect it has on him and his wife. The entire play is based on the how the effects of his greed lead to his downfall. The cruel acts cause his wife, Lady Macbeth, to go insane and kill herself, and cause Macbeth to go insane as well and be defeated and beheaded in the end.

            Overall, Macbeth’s struggle for power is what defines his character and leads to his eventual death. Since this was the main focus of the play, it seems to show that nothing good can come of greed for power. 

Response to Course Material 10/7/12

Over the course of the last few weeks, much of the time was spent learning about the different literary periods, critical lenses, and the Bible and mythology. While it involved a lot of note taking, I really appreciated it, especially the part about the Bible. I never really understood the allusions to the Bible in the literature we read in the past years, like in Macbeth or Beowulf, because I was unclear of the stories in the Bible, so covering that really helped clear the stories up and now I think I can understand many more allusions, especially since many of the novels and pieces of literature contain allusions that are related to the Bible in one way or the other. I also really found the mythology information very relevant because much of the older literature such as works from the classical era have characters that are Greek and Roman Gods, and I was unfamiliar with their story and characterization, so therefore sometimes it was hard to keep up with parts of the story. Now, with all this information to reference, I feel like I can analyze the literature much better for allusions and understanding in general.

            Last week we finished reading The American Dream and initially I thought the play seemed pretty plain, with no sort of rhyme or reason to it. It seemed pointless, which essentially was the point of the works written in that period of “the theatre of the absurd.” However, after reading the handouts we received about the play and analyzing the play on a closer level, I’ve realized that the play is actually an allegory of “The American Dream” and it portrays the shift from the old American dream (represented by Grandma) to the new American Dream (represented by the Young Man). Reading this play helped me practice the skills for analyzing literature and helped me realize that while sometimes something may not seem important, looking closer, it might have a deeper meaning.