Summaries and Analysis of Reading: The American Dream 10/22/2102

            The play The American Dream by Edward Albee opens with characters Mommy, Daddy, and Grandma anxiously awaiting the arrival of Mrs. Barker. They seem to be in a dazed, confused state. They keep asking each other when "they" are coming. The refer to Mrs. Barker in a plural tense throughout the play, probably to give a hint to the reader that Mrs. Barker represents many women.
             Unfortunately, the family is dissatisfied with the baby that was previously given to them from Mrs. Barker. It had eyes only for Daddy, and touched itself. This lead to them to mutilate the baby by cutting off its arms, gouging out its eyes, and cutting off its penis. Mrs. Barker arrives. She is initially very kind to those in the family and Mommy reciprocates these feelings. There is a strange tension that arises when Daddy "gets wet and sticky" from Mrs. Barker taking off her dress. This shows the competitive nature of both women. Grandma has boxes the whole play, and it is later revealed that the boxes hold very average items that Grandma has carried throughout her life, like a blind pekinese.
            After this, a man enters the room. He is referred to as "Young Man" throughout the play, but is called "The American Dream" by Grandma. He represents the American dream because he is good looking on the outside, but is reduced to a hurt shell of a man due to the pain he experienced from his twin brother's mutilation. He says that he is willing to do anything for money, which can be a message about the American Dream that Albee has tried to portray. By people like Mommy who pursue consumerism and the superficial values, the become willing to do anything for money. Ironically, the Young Man takes the place of his twin brother, which was mutilated by his new parents.
            Mrs. Barker plays the role of Mommy's idol. In the beginning of the play, Mommy tries to impress Mrs. Barker and imitate her in dress and language. This, along with the way Mommy describes the color of her hat, shows the superficial side of American culture. Mommy's story about how she purchased her hat also shows the sad importance of consumerism in American culture. Mommy states that she gets most of her pleasure from shopping. After she "purchases" the Young Man from Mrs. Barker, Grandma closes the play, saying "Now everyone has what they want, or at least what they think they want...". The idea that people can purchase their happiness is a false idea that Albee tries to highlight throughout the play.
              Throughout the play, Albee uses elements of syntax, details, and diction to show to ridiculous emphasis of consumerism and absurdity throughout the play. The way that Albee plays with repetition creates the sense that the language in the play is somewhat useless. It takes out the direct meaning and tends to beat around the bush when conveying the message of the words. For example, one can easily find an epizeuxis sentence. Like of page 101, Mrs. Barker simply says, "My, my, my", and repeats herself as Grandma interjects. There are many details throughout the play that are highly unnecessary, yet exist to show insight on the characters. An example of this could be Mrs. Barker talking about her brother. The audience does not need to know about the fact that he works for The Village Idiot or that he was interviewed by a psychiatric magazine. Yet, Albee includes this to show the audience that Mrs. Barker is not very intelligent and that her family is also very strange. The diction tends to be quite colloquial. Some language seems to have connotations to what the audience may be thinking. For example, after Mrs. Barker tells Mommy and Daddy about her brother, Grandma tries to say something, when Mommy tells her to be quiet. Grandma replies with "Nuts!", which has a slang definition that the people are nuts, or crazy.
             The play uses these methods of story to show the reader that the American dream is too focused on superficial and commercial ideals. Albee uses details about Mommy buying the hat and mutilation of the baby to show how trivial yet bizarre culture has become these days.

Close Readings 10/21/2012

The Truth About iPhone Factory Workers
By Mike Elgan
http://www.cultofmac.com/197050/the-truth-about-iphone-factory-workers/

            The article "The Truth About iPhone Factory Workers" by Mike Elgan targets the controversies that arise from American Companies sending labor to other countries, specifically China. By using literary techniques such as diction, language, and details, he is able to push his message across that displacing potential work into other countries is unwise. The effective use of these techniques allows the rhetorics of his situation to be seen and be used effectively. Elgan tries to use an argumentive rhetorical situation because he presents a firm position and belief that contrasts the rest of society.
             Elgan uses carefully chosen diction to show that the idea that sending jobs overseas to China has negative effects on Chinese working conditions or wages is unrealistic. He calls the idea "moronic", "a brain-dead caricature", and "ludicrous". By using words such as "cramped", "harsh", and "brutal" to describe the life of a poverty-stricken Chinese person, he is able to contrast this with the way their life will be improved after these struggles. He shows that by presenting them with more factory jobs, they are actually able to improve their life, contrary to belief that it creates more jobs with poor conditions.
He also uses language to support his argument as well. He uses colloquial language to support his argument. He uses these to his advantage because most people who state that factory jobs should stay in America most likely don't know the facts or are uninformed. By using colloquial language, he is able to persuade more people, especially those who are unable to get real facts. He is more influential this way. Additionally, he is far more approachable. However, his tone does sound slightly superior. He speaks in a way that makes those who think that labor in other countries is bad are unintelligent. This makes him appear more knowledgable, but also rude.
            Details are effectively used throughout the article to support Elgan's stance that jobs overseas are not necessarily a bad thing. He uses details of the presidential debate to support the idea that politicians disagree.  He uses the emotions that most people hold for politicians -distrust- and uses it to push people to distrust the idea that jobs overseas are bad. Details, language, and diction in the article push readers to agree with Elgan's stance.

Prompt 10/14/12

1979. Choose a complex and important character in a novel or a play of recognized literary merit who might on the basis of the character's actions alone be considered evil or immoral. In a well-organized essay, explain both how and why the full presentation of the character in the work makes us react more sympathetically than we otherwise might. Avoid plot summary.

            Throughout John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, George Milton proves to be a character who may be classified as evil or immoral on the basis of his actions, such as being selfish in his dream of owning a farm, using his friend Lennie to his advantage, and shooting and killing his best friend. However, as Steinbeck portrays George as one who is caring unconditionally for his friend and hopeful about the future, readers are more inclined to react more sympathetically towards him. 

            George Milton is one who is selfish and individualistic. In the intro of the novel, we see George telling Lennie his dream of owning his own farm. This dream sounds to be a bit selfish as he thinks of owning the farm himself and being his own boss with Lennie. At no point does he mention sharing pay or living happily with Lennie because he likes Lennie. This shows how he is only thinking of himself which daydreaming of this future. Concurrently, the portrayal of George being an idealist pushes the reader to think of George in a more sympathetic light as we know that he has endured much hardship, yet maintains his faith and hope. It is clear that George is willing to work hard for his dream and doesn't expect it to be handed to him. The reader cannot keep from rooting for the unlikely hero in the hopes that those who try hard will get what they want in the end, despite his selfish ways.

            George uses Lennie throughout the book to his advantage. Lennie's mental disability allows George to manipulate him to his advantage. George says that Lennie can stay with him when he buys his own farm because otherwise George would get bored. In addition, Lennie's strength will prove to be useful in the future. This shows that he is using Lennie, not as a friend, but as a person to be there to talk to and do manual labor. George reveals in a conversation that he at one point had made fun of Lennie. Lennie also used as a guard. When Curly is upset and Lennie, George orders Lennie to fight Curly back. It can be inferred that this action was partially due to George's strong distaste of Curly. By using Lennie's physical strength to his advantage, the reader gets a sense that George is manipulative. However, Steinbeck shows that George is also caring about his friend, showing that he will always stick with Lennie, even when he got them kicked out of the old town they were in, Weed. This unconditional bond that the two share is highlighted throughout the book and seems to be the driving force for the both of them. The reader understands George and sees that he is willing to sacrifice his time and effort to support the one person who has stayed by his side the whole time. This leads the reader to care more about George and see that he is truly a good person.

The ultimate immoral act that George commits in the novel is the murder of his best friend. As the reader learns more of the deep connection between the friends, we are shocked by the novel's finale as George shoots Lennie in the back of the head. The murder of anyone can be considered immoral, but one of a best friend is unthinkable. At the same time, the reader is able to understand that it is George's love for Lennie that pushes him to kill him. He wants to put Lennie out of the way of Curly and his gang. By even telling the story of their dream before shooting him, he allows Lennie to go in a happy state. Readers are more inclined to be sympathetic toward George by this sweet, yet tragic ending to the novel. 

Elapsed time: 40 minutes

Response to Course Material 10/7/12

            This past month in AP Literature has been productive and beneficial. Class time has been quick with a lot of new notes and handouts. I was introduced to a lot of new things this month. For example, I wasn't aware of the Theater of the Absurd, the types of comedy, and all the different terms that comedy could have. For some reason, comedy always seemed to be a simple, feel-good type of play. Terms like lampoon and Travesty were strange to me. To learn all the different parts of it was unexpected, yet informative.
The comedy terms and the Theater of the Absurd seem to be related because they can both be types of plays. A comedy seems to be a much broader type of play because it can have many types within it, such as low/high comedies, burlesques, farces, and parodies. The Theater of the Absurd seemed to contain many plays that were related in that they used the meaningless of human nature to use in their plays. I felt that the plays used comedy techniques in order to send the messages of their plays, but didn't necessarily follow the pattern of a traditional comedy.
            The Theater of the Absurd reminded me strongly of a show that I have heard of called Adventure Time. Although I haven't personally watched it, I've heard from friends who have that it is strange and doesn't seem to make any sense. It is puzzling and strange, and for those reasons, it grabs your attention. I relate Adventure Time to the Theater of the Absurd, where the strangeness of it is different and bold. It uses these methods to send clear messages to the reader.
Learning about critical lenses were a review for me. I found critical lenses to be funny because I can't really picture people sticking to one category or critical lense. I think it would be much more logical for someone to review literature with influences from multiple critical lenses in mind. Sticking to one seems to be too much work to me.
            We learned about allusions in class as well. As we were creating the presentations and observing them, I kept thinking of how Foster had stated in his book that almost all stories have allusions from others. It was a strange feeling to be able to connect the idea of Foster's book to the actual project. I really appreciate reading Foster's book because it has proven to be extremely helpful.
We have also learned about the literary time periods during class. I knew about the time periods like Medieval, Classical, and Romantic from British Literature, but I wasn't familiar with post modernism. I hope we can review and go over the literary time periods more thoroughly throughout the rest of the year.