The American Dream -- Summary & Analysis

Edward Albee (1928-present): 

• American playwright, known for Zoo Story and other famous plays.
• According to Albee, his adoptive parents did not agree with his idea of becoming a writer
• believes that he is "a writer that happens to be gay, not a gay writer"
• wrote over 30 plays

Setting: 

• Living room of an apartment
• (daddy is rich according to mommy) probably not too small or ghetto in any way

Plot:
    As the play opens up, mommy and daddy are in the living room complaining about how their guest is late. While waiting, mommy talks about the terrible scene she made purchasing different hats. Grandma walks in with multiple boxes neatly wrapped, but no one cares what's inside them. Mommy neglects grandma and daddy remains submissive. Finally the Mrs. Barker arrives; grandma continues to act like a child, and nobody knows why she's here. Small conflicts arise between mommy and Mrs. Barker. Grandma makes fun of mommy while mommy continues to treat daddy and grandma as her possession  After much talking, mommy insists that she go and look for things that daddy obviously cannot find. Watching this, grandma decides to tell Mrs. Barker about the "bumble of joy" and why she's here. More about the past is revealed and soon, a Young Man appears at the doorstep. He has a perfect mid-western look and outward appearance. Young Man shares his story about his incompleteness, and grandma says he's the American Dream. Grandma leaves as the family meet the Young Man. The "bumble" that mommy and daddy mutilated is replaced with the Young Man. 

Characters: 

• Mommy
• controlling and manipulative
• masculine
• only cares about the appearance
• sees everything as her possession
• usually angry
• Daddy
• submissive towards mommy
• agrees to each character
• has feminine aspects
• Grandma
• witty (the only one who actually knows what's going on)
• acts childish in front of others
• "old America"
• mommy's mother
• avoids and fears the van man at first, but decides to leave at the end
• Mrs.Barker
• professional woman
• works for the adoption center
• doesn't remember the family, but grandma remembers her
• husband's status/illness is her weakness
• Young Man
• "new america"
• twin of the "bumble"
• emotionally incomplete
• perfect outward appearance
• only appears at the end of the play

Author's Style:

• SYMBOLISM
• neatly wrapped boxes- grandma's "old america" belongings. No one cares about the interior of the boxes and only see the outer appearance. 
• mommy's hat & mutilated baby- seen as possession and can be replaced at mommy's will-- consumerism/materialism
• POINT OF VIEW
• there is no narrative voice, but all characters are consumed of selfishness. They all care about what satisfies them at the moment. Women seem to be more controlling and masculine in this play. Everyone is lost and blind from reality; no one can find the obvious things in the small apartment and Mrs. Barker doesn't know why she's there.
• IMAGERY
• most vivid imagery is the setting and how mommy and daddy are sitting in the living room.
• the different colored hats between mommy and Mrs. Barker
• Baby mutilation
• TONE
• Albee uses sarcasm and witty remarks with grandma. 
• Hyperbole is shown between female characters' response.
• serious tone when Young Man talks about his emotional incompleteness 
• few shifts in tone

Theme:

• earning satisfaction at the moment - Albee's idea of the American Dream is much different from the past. People immigrated to America with hopes of better lives and knew their reasons. In this case, the American Dream is too materialistic and focused on satisfaction. No one knows what's going on and they see the covered up "best" of all things. Characters treat each other as possession and none of their emotion or logic is real. 

close reading numero dos

‘Leaf and Death’

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/12/leaf-and-death/

     In this fairly short and simple editorial by Jeff Scher, lies the story of autumn leaves after death. Throughout his writing, Scher uses literary techniques such as imagery, detail, and unique language to attract readers to what he has seen and felt. 

     Leaves are just leaves, and fall is usually the only time when leaves maybe start looking colorful and trendy. No one really thinks about it after they hit the ground until they have get raked and cleaned, but that's just my opinion. However, Scher uses expressive imagery to describe the beauties of the leaf and its death. He describes the leaves as "glowing embers" and the landscape covered in dead leaves an "agitated technicolor"... to him, they were "slow-motion fireworks" falling from the tree branches. I find his use of imagery very attractive. I can just see animated glowing leaves falling like fireworks in front of my eyes. I feel that I've had a fun conversation with him just through his imagery; it helps create a fanciful tone to his writing. 

     I used to view details and imagery closely related if not, the same. Only because it's hard to see vivid imagery without detail, but I found out that it's not the same for details; Details don't technically need to rely on imagery. This is showcased through Schers editorial when he uses uncommon words as adjectives and adverbs to make it stick to the reader. If I had to describe the sky in which I see every autumn, it wouldn't be anything like "the infinite blues of a chilly October sky," how more detailed can it get? The "electrical green... frosted glass.... crackling in flickering reds..." no material nor objects contribute to his detail, just words. Without his descriptive detail, the scene would be much dull and flat. 

     Last but not least, I would have to say that his language is what wraps the detail and imagery into a package of his fanciful voice. Scher has a sensuous language which helps his editorial to connect with the readers' emotions and senses. The way he concludes with "leaves caught on rhythm and pretty much animated itself" uses at least two of the five senses. I can hear the crackling leaves catching the rhythm, and see the leaves changing itself. 

     Even though Jeff Scher's editorial was simple and straight-forward, the use of abundant literary techniques created a distinct vibe to his voice. His descriptive detail and vivid imagery and a unique language that summed everything up has made me view the leaves in a different manner than before., and Not only did he focus on the three techniques, but in addition to those three, the tone was complete as well.  

Open Prompt 10/14/2012

1984. Select a line or so of poetry, or a moment or scene in a novel, epic poem, or play that you find especially memorable. Write an essay in which you identify the line or the passage, explain its relationship to the work in which it is found, and analyze the reasons for its effectiveness.

     "The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls" by Henry Longfellow is a brief but powerful poem which consists of several literary devices, such as repetition and symbolism in one line to support the complex meaning of "tide rises, the tide falls." 

     After giving it a couple reads, readers are able to catch on to the surface meaning of the  line "tide rise, the tide falls" symbolizing the interminable time that passes. Longfellow uses repetition of this line a total of four times. In between the repetitious lines, are examples of nature moving on despite the tide rising and falling. By this, one can see that no human being can interrupt a nature's continuity. The way Longfellow described the tides rising and falling relates to the poem as a whole; a symbol of life. For instance, the tide rising describes a new life, while the tide falling represents the end or death of life and how the pattern continues. 

     Going deep, one can see that Longfellow incorporates a brand new meaning to the same line. While the first two repetitive lines expressed the ongoing life-cycle of nature and human, the same line expresses the after-death in a different stanza. Once the tide rises again and falls, it reaches out and fades the footprints. In other words, a human's mark will eventually be forgotten after their death, and the tide will continue to rise and fall, connecting back to the surface meaning. 

     Another connection that can be made through this line reflects back to the beginning. As much as humans cannot interrupt the sequence of nature, they cannot try to overcome or oppose it either. When the man hastened toward the town, it shows that he is trying to overcome the time. No matter how much he tries, he eventually cannot come back (referring to death).

      As a reader, one can see the effectiveness of the line "the tide rises, the tide falls" has on the poem. Unlike the light, rain, or any other nature effects, a tide is something that will recur as long as the earth exists. It marks the beginning and end; it symbolizes time. Longfellow does a phenomenal representation of an on-going cycle, death, and time with a line of poetry. 

Response to Course Material numero dos

     I blink my eyes, and suddenly a month of school has flown by. I can't even describe how busy and hectic it has been. Not only that, but luckily I felt like a sponge with all the new material plus review that has been slowly soaking in.

     As of the first course material response, we came across the difference between analyzing a poem, story, or a play by reading 100 pages in our textbook; we reviewed the different critical lenses in addition with the new ones;  we covered literary movements through different eras; most recently, we discussed even more allusions and comical plays+ terms. Looking back at this list, I really don't think that it will ever leave the AP Lit subject-- that's how important these were. 

     When we were given 100 pages to read in a time span of approximately two weeks, it wasn't as bad as I thought-- not until that quia quiz. I learned that poetry was not even close to everything I knew about poetry. Poetry itself has genres... for instance, elegy is the type of poem that is mournful or of the dead. Moreover, Poems have a reason why they don't have periods at the end of each line; those run-on sentences are called enjambment and are used to emphasize a syntactic point. It's suppose to flow with the iambic meter of the poem. I also learned that when a prompt asks me to analyze an excerpt I just read, the prompt is not only asking for that, but much more. More like, what symbols do I notice? What kind of literary techniques do the authors use to deliver a certain message, and how do they fulfill this? (This is when I yell out DIDLS). Theater art/ plays must focus on tone, props, and setting, rather than the story line. I never understood why plays looked much more dramatic than the story should be-- but I now understand. The purpose is to make it appeal to the eyes before the ears because they have a slight disadvantage of not using texts. There were all these reasons to analyzing each type of literature, I was just not aware of them because new things are unusual and unusual things aren't as comfortable. 

     Critical lens has recently been upgraded in my system as of the day we took rapid notes like no other. Aside from feminist, Marxist, psychoanalytic... etc. lens, there was a day in class where we jotted down about 10 new words with their definition-- soon to find out, they were even more literary lens. Ranging from mimicry to alienation (they were too creative) which each had distinct definitions. These new lenses were branched from post-colonial criticism and they all contain power and authority. Before, I was limited to only certain types of lens. Now, I have a wide spectrum to connect literature with.

     Along with critical lens, literary time periods were also review. Then again, I learned even more; the classical era was all about heroes and that's where Achilles, Odyssey, and all that jazz comes to play. The eras I was always confused about were the medieval, renaissance, and romanticism. I got them all pin pointed down now; medieval era was the christian dominated era while the renaissance sparked the beginning of the modern world. Lastly, the romanticism definitely had nothing to do with romantic--it focused on one's imagination and nature. 
     Allusions, allusions, and even more allusions is what I said. I personally thought I was done with allusions after the Foster presentation, but reviewing it through Greek mythology, or biblical reference greased me back up. I used to think that these allusions were offensive at times, but I learned that that's not usually the case. It's just a reference or representation to literary work just like how stories are formed from other stories. Only sometimes is it meant to be taken satirical. 
     I always seem to say this, but I don't think anyone is ever over-educated. The response to course material is a good way to reflect and review on what I learned even though it's only couple weeks back. The works we read from the American Dream to everyday DIDLS- exercises, I feel like it's sticking to me. Slowly but surely i'll have everything stored for the AP exam. (: