American Dream Summary and Analysis

Author: The play was written by Edward Albee, a famous American playwrite, who wrote other well known works such as The Zoo Story, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 


Setting: The story takes place in an apartment, but the time period is never specified. We can infer that the play takes place around the time it was written, but we don't know exactly what year.


Plot: Mommy and Daddy are in their armchairs, complaining that they (Mrs. Barker as we find out later), is late, and that people "just can't get satisfaction these days". Mommy tells Daddy about her experience at the hat store, and makes sure he pays attention. Nobody can remember why Mrs. Barker is coming, not even her. Grandma enters and brings down neatly wrapped boxes. Grandma offers short cynical observations about old people (how they act, how they're treated), and they also discuss Mommy and Grandma's life together before Daddy. Mrs. Barker shows up, and they have conversation about Daddy's ambitions and engage in polite small talk. Sexual tension. Mommy and Daddy leave the room and grandma tells Mrs. Barker the story of a family "much like this one", who adopted a bumble and eventually killed it. This turns out to be the twin of the "young man" Mommy and Daddy are adopting now. Mrs. Barker is the head of the Bye Bye adoption service. The Young Man comes to the door and Grandma invites him in. Grandma leave with her boxes and tells the Young man he will find work here. Mommy implies that she will get "satisfaction" that night, with the Young Man. Grandma tells the audience to leave things the way they are while people think they have what they want, then tells the audience goodnight.

Characters:

Mommy: Very controlling throughout the play, values consumerism and social status. Manipulative and self centered, Mommy likes to be in control of the people around her.

Daddy: Very feminine, not very bright, and easily manipulated. Acts like a young child who needs to be punished. Controlled entirely by Mommy. Daddy cannot give Mommy satisfaction.

Mrs. Barker: Many jobs, a "professional woman", also not very intelligent, and isn't quite aware of what is going on around her.

Grandma: Mommy's mother. Ironic and funny, Grandma mocks the other characters, particularly Mommy and Daddy, and makes it clear that she is not the senile old woman that Mommy and Daddy think she is.

Young Man: The "American Dream". Shows up towards the end of the play. He is very good look, but explains that he feels nothing , due to the loss of his twin, Mommy and Daddy's first child.



Style: The play is written in an absurdist style. It lacks very much action, but has great meaning. Seemingly insignificant conversations take place that are used to develop the character's voices. Comedy is present, both in the form of low humor, like sexual jokes, and also irony, very often from Grandma.

Voice: The voice is not apparent through the conversations between characters that is mostly devoted to absurdist style, like repetition. Albee does use Grandma to get he voice across.

Point Of View: Grandma has a more moral, humanistic point of view, that we can interpret as Albee's as well. Mrs. Barker, Mommy, and Daddy, are all more selfish.

Tone: The tone is more negative almost mocking, as Albee makes it clear that Mommy and Daddy's consumer driven opinions are different than his own.

Imagery: There is not much imagery in a lot of the play, which allows us to focus on the characters interactions. The imagery that is offered mostly has to do with the mutilation of the "bumble". This is to stress the horrific act that is extremely important to plot and meaning.

Symbolism:

Boxes- Mommy and Daddy only care about the exterior of the boxes...the way the look, not at all what is on the inside
Hat- the idea that things are bought not for personal or practical value, but to impress people, and raise social status
Bumble: the idea that everything has been turned into something that can be bought and sold, and thrown out if it isn't "right"

Quotes:

Mommy: What a masculine Daddy! Isn't he a masculine Daddy?
....
Grandma: When you get old, you can't talk to people because people snap at you. That's why you become deaf, so you won't be able to hear people talking to you that way That's why old people die, eventually. People talk to them that way.
.....
Young Man: 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.


Theme:


Two major themes of the work are the commodification of all things, and the role of masculinity in marriage.

Emasculation: Gender roles are reversed in the play, with a Daddy who doesn't know best, but instead bows down to Mommy who holds his masculinity like a treat right in front of his face, saying, cmon, cmon, do you want it, huh, huh, thats right.... She praises him, but with one wrong move by daddy, she rips the treat from his hands and the mood changes completely. Daddy has "tracks where he used to have tubes". Mommy is the overbearing ruler of the household who simply cannot get satisfaction from Daddy, so she most get it elsewhere. 

commodification: The play makes the point that things that should not be commodities are becoming them. They treat adopting a child like buying a car, and when it doesn't behave the way they want it to, the rip off parts of it one by one. When the bumble "only had eyes for daddy", Mommy ripped out it's eyes. The baby is treated like a commodity, as though children are things bought and sold, and replaced when they are broken.

Close Reading #2

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/01/for-teenage-smokers-removing-the-allure-of-the-pack/



        For my close reading, I've chosen a piece entitled "For Teenage Smokers, Removing the Allure of the Pack", by Tina Rosenburg at the New York Times. Rosenburg argues that the American people are not doing enough to discourage high school students from beginning a lifelong habit of smoking cigarettes. Rosenburg utilizes good persuasive techniques and uses imagery, details, and syntax, while effectively keeping the readers attention throughout her argument.
         The strongest part of Rosenburgs argument stems from her generous use of detail. Her well researched argument is chock full of good examples and astonishing statistics. Much of her argument is based on the "cool factor," because she believes that "kids take up smoking to be cool, to impress their friends with their recklessness and defiance of adults." Rosenburg attributes much of the fault to advertising as well as smoking scenes in movies. She says, "Leonardo DiCaprio’s smoking in 'The Titanic' movie will kill far more people than the 1500 who died in the ship accident." She provides this opinion, then follows up with a real life example to prove her point. She further discuses something called the Truth Campaign, a campaign that "took the teenage desire for rebellion and turned it against the tobacco companies." She follows this up with the statistic that "when Florida started the Truth campaign, 27.4 percent of its high school students were smokers. Just two years later, that figure had fallen to 22.6 percent." These details are well thought out, aren't repetitive, and are effective in persuading the reader.
        Rosenburg uses specific imagery to help explain her many alternative strategies to keeping kids away from smoking. She argues that by making "all cigarette packs look alike — a generic olive-green, with big health warnings and the brand name written in small, standardized lettering," teenagers will be less inclined to buy them, for it erases this so called cool factor of pulling a flashy pack out of your purse.
        A question is not always an effective way to start out a piece of writing--even an editorial--but in this case, it's just right. Rosenburg asks the question, "Remember teenage smoking?" in this blunt, almost sarcastic kind of way. She goes on to compare our efforts to reduce teenage obesity that may be interfering with, in her opinion, an even more important issue: teenage smoking. Rosenburg keeps a casual conversation, continually asking the reader questions, and often answering them herself. She states, "Since 1997, we’ve learned a lot about how to prevent teenage smoking. The best strategy? Make smoking uncool." When compared with something like "the best strategy to prevent teenage smoking is to make smoking uncool," the difference is obvious. One is a casual, but strongly opinionated phrase, and the other is a boring sentence you're going to forget about by the time you're done reading the article, if you haven't gotten so bored that you've already stopped reading completely.
        Rosenburg has created a fresh take on a old and increasingly popular opinion: the teenage smoking rate in this country. She uses all of that detail and imagery and structures the piece in a way that is beneficial to her argument and effective in her persuasion techniques.




      

Open Prompt # 1973

1973. An effective literary work does not merely stop or cease; it concludes. In the view of some critics, a work that does not provide the pleasure of significant closure has terminated with an artistic fault. A satisfactory ending is not, however, always conclusive in every sense; significant closure may require the reader to abide with or adjust to ambiguity and uncertainty. In an essay, discuss the ending of a novel or play of acknowledged literary merit. Explain precisely how and why the ending appropriately or inappropriately concludes the work. Do not merely summarize the plot.

        The relationship between the opening and closing of Stienbecks, "Of Mice and Men" is one of the most symbolic and beautifully crafted parts of the book. The final scene brings the book full circle and appropriately leaves the reader with a sense of closure, and plenty of food for thought.
        The novel opens up to a serene clearing in the woods as Stienbeck describes the scene in long graceful phrases that create a quiet peaceful tone for the reader, reminiscent of the very first page of the book. This last scene has the same setting as the first, but its mood is completely different. Instead of a a beautiful, innocent meadow, the setting is described with a much harsher tone. Lenny watches as "a motionless heron that stood in the shallows...lanced down and plucked it [a water snake] out by the head"(Stienbeck). We also see that a "a pleasant shade had fallen", unlike the water from before that had "slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight".
        Lenny, an innocent man just short of being killed for his ignorance, watches that innocent snake get eaten by the heron. Both creatures of nature who for some reason got the short end of the stick when nature chose who will survive. Death comes quickly to both who are very unaware of their fate, even right up to the very end.
        Just before Lenny's murder, George assures him that everything is fine, and forces himself to talk with his best friend one last time about their dream. This one last touch on the theme of everlasting friendship before a bitter ending wraps up the book into a heart wrenching but satisfying novel due to Steinbeck's beautiful description of nature and his ability to bring the book full circle.

Response to Course Material #2 10/7/12

        We spent a lot of time on the literary periods which was a good refresher from last year. Mrs. Huntley was big on history and literary periods though, so some of it stuck with me. Although I don't relish a nice hour of note taking I do think it's kind of cool how literature changes between these periods. When we read books in class last year we always thought about how it related to it's literary period and I do that now whenever I read older books.
        The was really glad we did the mythology and bible stories last week. I know very little about the bible and there is so much mythology that it gets confusing, so it was very helpful. The only thing I didn't like was all that note taking...it was so fast paced and looking back I think my time would have been better spent just listening and paying close attention. We were all so caught up in the note taking that we didn't have time to process the information. I don't think all those names in mythology were that important. Maybe I'm wrong but isn't the general story line the important part for literary allusions we will be looking for in the future?
        I really liked The American Dream especially towards the end when I just wanted to know what was going to happen! It definitely made me (and the rest of the class) laugh at points which is so nice to see. It just sucks that this happens in AP lit when all of us already like reading! Maybe Lit Comp 9 should be reading some funny pieces like this! Aside from the humor, I was so glad we had a chance to read that handout written on it. They had so many interesting points and it really tied up the loose ends that were confusing me, and brought the whole play together. I liked what he said about it not being COMPLETELY absurd, but sort of in between. I'm not sure I would like one that makes absolutely no sense at all. There was definitely a lot to talk about with this play.