Fifth Business

Excuse the length of this piece; it’s shorter because I have yet to develop a finite interpretation of the novel.

Fifth Business by Robertson Davis is a novel about the life of a man, Dunstan Ramsay, who deals with the guilt created by a friend/enemy in his childhood. He spends his life trying to console this guilt, struggling with the idea of religion, specifically saints and fool saints.

Since it’s written as a letter, the point of view is limited omniscient. Ramsay explicticly states he’s going to try to take on a third person point of view on the events of his life as her recollects so this letter does lack that reminiscent quality found in most letters. However, there are moments in his writing in which he strays from his objective personality. Personally, the objectiveness he puts out is distancing, both appealing and unappealing at the same time. It offers insight into her personality too since he tries to seem all great by writing objectively but to be objective during an emotional or traumatic event makes him look cold and aloof, as if he’s trying to prove to everyone that he’s above it all. (Like a saint)

Symbols

Mary Dempster: is a saint/foolsaint, representative of the Virgin Mary or the failure of one, depending on how you look at it.

Stone in the snowball: It’s used as a paperweight but it’s actually Boyd’s conscious.

Quotes

““My lifelong involvement with Mrs Dempster began at 5:58 o'clock p.m. on 27 December 1908, at which time I was ten years and seven months old.”

Okay. I wants to call this pure and utter blastphemy at the fact that he remembers this. It’s almost got this ‘look at me, I know the moment that the would fell apart’. However, considering the trauma from his experience, maybe it is possible that he does. Still, the fact that Ramsay states it outright shows insight to his “holier than thou” personality.

Theme

The role of Fifth Business can be applied to any one person in life, depending on what point of view you look at the situation on. Davie’s point is that whether you’re the super important ‘fifth business’ or not, no matter how you look at it, you have a place in the world and a role to fill. 




Holy piece of flying cows. The summary analysis is over 8000 words long. Totals 18 pages not double spaced. D: 

Hamlet

Hamlet by The Bard/Shakespeare/TheGodofLit. I’m not even going to give info about Le Bard himself ‘cause if you don’t have a gasp of what the man does and his style, you just shouldn’t be in AP lit.

The play starts on a dark night where an apparition appears. It’s the third time that it’s appeared and the two guards who have spotted before bring Horatio, in hopes that it will talk to him. It doesn’t and disappears as the cock crows. Cut to Hamlet, Claudius, Gertrude and the royal court. Hamlet is mourning the recent death of his father and the more recent marriage of his mother to his father. There, Horatio, Hamlet’s friend, tells him that he’s seen his father’s ghost and Hamlet resolves to speak to it. He visits the spot where the ghost has been seen at night and it does appear, bidding him to come and speak. Horatio is against it but Hamlet goes anyways. Alone, the ghost affirms that it is the ghost of Hamlet the king and tells his son that it was Claudius that poisoned him. Hamlet promises revenge and the ghost disappears.

Meanwhile, Hamlet’s girlfriend, Ophelia talks to her brother, Laertes about Hamlet and he warns her not to have sex with him. Laertes leaves and Polonius, their father, finds out about Ophelia and Hamlet. He tells her to avoid him and she obeys. However, it’s news that Hamlet has gone mad and Polonius concludes that it must be because of his love for Ophelia. Claudius and Polonius spies on a conversation between Ophelia and Hamlet but he denies having any feelings for her while spewing out double meanings.

After, Hamlet meets a group of traveling actors and asks them to preform a specific scene that parallels the death of his father by Claudius. He plans for it to be preformed infront of the new King and if he reacts to the scene then he will know that Claudius is guilty. Indeed he is and when the moment arrives, Claudius gets out of the room. Hamlet finds him praying and decides that killing him now will send him to heaven and he deserves worse so he spares Claudius. Claudius is suspicious and decides to send Hamlet to England to die.

Hamlet confronts his mother about her recent marriage and convinces her not to go into bed with Claudius anymore, she agrees. He ends up killing Polonius who was spying on them thinking it was Claudius and plays hide and go seek with the man’s body. This gives Claudius more reason to send him to England immediately and he does so, with a letter telling England to kill Hamlet.  

After her father’s death, Ophelia goes crazy and starts singing songs of losing her v-card without the promise of marriage and gives flowers to everyone. Afterwards, she “accidentally” suicides. Laertes, returns home from France and finds out the death of sister and father and Claudius convinces him that it was all Hamlet’s fault. Hamlet, no doubt, has not been killed and actually survived because of pirates. He returns home just in time to Ophelia’s funeral and is overwhelmed with grief. Claudius convinces Laertes to have a duel with Hamlet, which they do. Hamlet is aware of the plan but goes anyways, where he is wounded by Laertes’ poisoned sword, Laertes is wounded by his sword by Hamlet, Gertrude drinks Hamlet’s cup which was poisoned by Claudius and Hamlet kills Claudius before dying. (That sounds like a really wicked love triangle).

His body is carried off for like a soldier by Fortinbras, the prince of Norway.

Characters

Hamlet- The flip floppy prince of Denmark, he loves and hates Denmark and has trouble actually identifying himself and who he really is. It also seems as if he’s on a philosophical/spiritual quest as well.

Claudius- The current king, uncle of Hamlet and murdered Hamlet’s father. He’s smart and cunning, a master manipulator of people. He’s very convincing and thinks only of himself at the end of the day.

Ophelia- Hamlet’s girlfriend gone crazy because her daddy died and her boyfriend pretty much disowned her and called her a prostitute.

Laertes- Ophelia’s brother, when he’s clear headed, he hands out good advice but with the death of his father and daughter, was manipulated by Claudius. He seems like the only genuinely decent character caught in the crossfire of the royal court.

Gertrude- Mother and queen, she can either be interpreted as a misguided mother or a very messed up person.

Horatio- Hamlet’s lover, I mean, best friend. The only person that doesn’t die in the bloodbath, he is the first to see the ghost and advises Hamlet and acts as his confidant. Interestingly, I think he’s also the only person from Wittenburg.

Narrative Voice

Has no point of view but there’s obviously a suspenseful, sometimes ominous, sometimes contemplative tone to the story through Shakespeare’s use of dialogue and the stage directions.

Symbols

Yorisk’s Skull: A symbol of death, the literal, decaying death that prompts Hamlet to make a decision on what to do with Claudius.

Ophelia’s Flowers: Each flower she hands out is meant for the emotions she wishes to convey

Quotes

“Frailty thy name is woman!”

Besides Hamlet’s misogyny, this quote also shows his ignorance towards the world and how misguided he is. This also explains why his only two relationships with woman fails as he does not believe in women at all and thinks that should go to nunneries.

“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”

This foreshadows just about everything that will happen in the book. But that’s not the reason why I picked it, other than it being short and easy to remember and use, theres an astounding level of parallelism at work here. Because, if Demark = King, then obviously, this is saying that the King has done something wrong. Also, Denmark = royal court, then the point of the play is to get rid of the rotten part, the royalties, which does happen in the last scene. Finally, Denmark = King = Hamlet, then it’s alluding to Hamlet’s internal crisis.

Theme

Hamlet is a play written by Willy Shakespeare, questions the reasons and cause for death, particularly murder, evaluating the capacity and certainty of a person’s identity and soul.

I try not to call Hamlet a Christ figure, because, honestly, I think we can be more specific than just that. I think Hamlet is the literal personification of our conscious (most of the time) he spends much of the novel going back and forth, asking himself “To be or not to be?” and this quote applies on multiple levels, to be a murderer, a son, a prince/king or a person and he struggles through this question. He also struggles with death, possibly because of his uncertainty towards himself, as York’s skull has proved.

Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

There’s news in two that a wealthy man named Bingley is in Netherfeild Park and the Bennett family in Longbourn gets excited, Mrs. Bennet is eager to hopefully marry one of her five daughters to the eligible and wealthy Bingley. After teasing them a little, Mr. Bennet reveals that he’s talked to Bingley and they’re all (minus him) going to a ball hosted by Bingley. There, Bingley dances twice with Jane, the Bennet’s eldest and prettiest. Elizabeth, the second oldest and clever one of the sisters is offended by Bingley’s close friend, Darcy after he insults her beauty and refuses to dance with her. Although later, it’s revealed that Darcy is actually attracted to Eliza’s sharp eyes. Weeks later, a letter arrived from Miss Bingley, Bingley’s sister, inviting Jane to Bingley’s place. Jane goes but catches a cold so Eliza comes to tend to her the next day. Darcy puts his attention to Eliza, much to Miss Bingley’s disdain and she rivals for his attention.

Jane eventually gets better and Eliza and Jane leaves Netherfeild and return to Longbourn. There, they find out that Mr. Collins is visiting, a foolish man in which the Bennet’s property is entailed to after Mr. Bennet’s death. He takes interest in Eliza after finding out Jane is taken with Bingley and promptly purposes to her. She declines his proposal. All the while, all the sisters excluding Jane take interest in some military officers in town, Eliza drawn especially to Wickham, a charming officer that also knows Darcy. Eliza grows to hate Darcy even more whenWickham tells her that he cheated him out of an inheritance.

Mrs. Bennet’s plans of hooking up her daughters go awry when winter arrives, the Netherfield group leaving to London and Mr. Collins has abruptly purposed to Charlotte, Eliza’s best friend, and she has accepted. They attend the wedding, Jane hoping to find Bingley but gets Miss Bingley instead, complete with her rudeness. She says that Bingley will most likely not revisit Netherfield. Spring arrives and Eliza visits Charlotte and Mr. Collins as well as his patron, Lady Catherin de Bourgh. It turns out she’s also Darcy’s aunt. They meet once at the Lady’s mansion and many more times at the Collin’s residence. Out of the blue, Darcy purposes to Eliza on the reasons that she’ll gain lots from him and it’s the best financial move she can make for her family. Offended for the last time, Eliza declines and reveals to him the knowledge she’s gained from Wickham and how she knows he’s the reason for Jane’s failed prospect in Bingley.

Darcy leaves but not before writing a letter telling her that he did in fact keep Bingley from marrying Jane because of Mrs. Bennet and her actions. He also reveals that Wickham is a liar and he refused him his inheritance because Wickham tried to marry his sister. Knowing this, Eliza returns to Longbourn and distances herself from Wickham. The militia leaves town but Lydia convinces Mr. Bennet is let her stay near the place where the militia will be stationed next. In the same time period, the Gardiners arrive, relatives of the Bennets. They take Eliza on a trip up north and to Pemberley, Darcy’s estate. Eliza is hesitant but agrees to visit because she thinks Darcy isn’t there. When Darcy arrives and treats her with great respect, introducing Eliza to his sister.

During the visit, Eliza gets news that Lydia has run away with Wickham. The Gardiners and Eliza promptly leave, fearing the disgrace Lydia will bring to the Bennet family’s name. Mr. Bennet and Mr. Gardiner leave Longbourn to search for Lydia. Mr. Gardiner eventually finds her and says that Wickham has agreed to marry Lydia if they pay him. Eliza finds out that it’s actually Darcy that tracked down and found Wickham and he is the one that paid for Wickham to marry Lydia.

Lydia and Wickham visits Longbourn but leaves because of Wickham’s job and Bingley comes back into town. He begins to charm Jane again and proposes to her. The family celebrates when Lady Catherine drops by for a visit, privately telling Eliza to decline a second marriage proposal by Darcy. Eliza refuses to do so, wanting to leave her options open. Darcy proposes to her a little later, she accepts.

Characters

Elizabeth Bennet- the main character of Pride and Prejudice. She’s judgmental but clever and quick witted with sharp eyes. This is what attracts Darcy. Unlike Jane, she isn’t gentle or easy with her words, speaking with her mind and enjoys to laugh.

Jane Bennet- Eliza’s sister, the prettiest out of all the sisters. She’s gentle and lady like in demeanor, although Eliza’s stated that she’s shy and does not display her emotions well.

Darcy- The charismatic, smart yet prideful man who eventually wins Eliza’s heart. He’s caustic and somewhat daunting, the town liking him at first glance but his manners so “awful” that it’s a deal breaker at the first ball. As it turns out, he’s softer and more loyal to those who are closer to him.

Bingley- Like Jane, he’s friendly and easy mannered, compatible with Jane. Unlike Darcy, he does not care for the class difference.

Mrs. Bennet- The sort of “classic” mother, she desperately wants her daughters to get married to wealthy men. She’s intensely hateful of Collins, the man who will entail their property until she learns that he plans on marrying Eliza. She causes shame upon Eliza because she’s very gossipy and comes off as desperate.

Mr. Bennet- The father of the five girls, it seems as if Eliza’s cleverness and playfulness comes from his genes. He’s sarcastic and looks out for the girl’s best interest, either out of love or because it’ll get them out of his hair or maybe both.

The Gardiners- The parental figures in the novel. They prove to be more attentive and action oriented than the actual parents, they even help to reunite Eliza with Darcy.

Narrative Voice

Much of P and P is narrative driven. Any imagery given is to inform the reader of the place and date, there’s no magnificent paragraph describing the details of something, the most Austen describes are the houses. Heck, we never actually get to know what makes Jane so pretty and the only detail we get about Eliza is the fact that she’s got nice sharp eyes. This is very typical of the Jane Austen style, making the plot driven by conversation and meetings of people. It’s written in third person omniscient, mostly to show Eliza’s thoughts and feelings. There isn’t a specific tone to the novel, much of it is written objectively.

Symbols

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL THIS IS JANE FREAKING AUSTEN. SYMBOLS. WHAT SYMBOLS.

No seriously. I don’t know any…..

Quotes

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

Ah. The starting quote for Jane Austen’s infamous novel. It’s a accurate glimpse in their society, a vastly different one from ours but still so, so true. (Unless he’s gay) It seems to be a fact of life or atleast an assumption that any goodlooking rich guy must want a lady. It’s clearly biased and mislead but this is the assumption that Mrs. Bennet and just about every single person with two X chromosomes thinks.

“Nine out of ten cases, a woman had better show more affection than she actually feels…When she is secure of him, there will be leisure for falling in love as much as she chooses”

Another insight to Jane Austen’s world, (in and out of universe), this shows the pressure that a woman is under when she is trying to find a husband. Along with that, it reveals the novel idea of falling in love after

marriage, one that Eliza fights with all through the novel.

Theme

Jane Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice is written to comment on the social standards of Austen’s time, particularly on the role of love in marriage and class differences.

The themes within Austen’s novel is shown through the character’s relationships, each one representing a different viewpoint. For example, Charlotte’s marriage to Collins is for comfort rather than love, the reason Eliza holds out for marriage. The reason there’s strain within the Darcy/Elizabeth is because of their differences in class. Contrastingly, Bingley is pretty much blind to Jane’s inferior statues. Austen’s novel lacks any significant tangiable symbols but what makes the novel a classic is the fact that she carries out these messages through relationships.

Ceremony by Silko

Sorry no cute gifs or meme for this one. It has yet to come to me.

Ceremony by Leslie Silko

Silko is an American-Native American, writer, similar to the story’s protagonist, Tayo who is half white, half inidian. The story’s narrative jumps from past to present to myth at strange times so excuse me if this gets a little confusing. I’ll try to keep things straight in the tangle of Tayo’s head/narrative.

The story starts with Tayo being bed ridden, sick from the trauma of war. He remembers his time at war, seeing the face of his dead uncle, Josiah, in a crowd of Jap soldiers that would be shot a second later. He remembers the death of Rocky, his brother figure, really cousin to Auntie, the woman that takes care of him now. He is guilt ridden, blaming himself for the things happening around him. Tayo notices he isn’t the only one lost, his friends are as well, soothing the pain he has with alcohol and stories of glory when they were in the Vietnam war. However, Tayo does not find comfort in alcohol the same way the rest of his friends do, hating the stories that they tell because it reminded him of the discrimination that Natives are treated with. Tayo’s frustration is so weld up and his hatred so deep that one day at the bar, Emo, an ruthless war vet, insults him and takes a broken beer bottle in the stomach from Tayo.

His grandmother brings in a medicine man that tells him a different set of stories, Native tales and he preforms a ceremony to try to cure Tayo. It helps but doesn’t cure him. Tayo slowly recovers, the memories not floating around as much anymore. He remembers back to Rocky, how Auntie would keep them together but treat them separately. He remembers Night Swan, a half blood like him, who Josiah had a sexual affair going on with, despite her age. He remembers Josiah, buying rough cattle during a drought. When it lets up, Josiah sends Tayo to give a note to Night Swan where they eventually sleep together for only one night.

Snap back to the present, the medicine man refers Tayo to another, more infamous medicine man in the town of Gallup. That’s where he meets Betonie, another half blood like him, where he learns that the problem within Tayo and Native Americans had to do with the contact with whites. He says that there are ceremonies for that, but the ceremonies have to change with the times, to accommodate themselves for the present situation in the same stories change yet essentially stay the same. He also reveals that it was Native American witches/evil people that invented white people, to try to stir up trouble and that only Tayo can perform this ceremony.

Tayo embarks on his ceremony, looking for clues that guide him, following the stars and cattle until he meets with a woman named Ts’eh. He spends a night with her and then leaves to find Josiah’s cattle. Just as he’s about to get to cattle, he’s caught by two patrolmen. However, they let him go in pursuit of a mountain lion. He follows his herd’s trail created by the snow and is led to a hunter/ranger that turns out to be Ts’eh’s (isn’t that just awkward, with two apostrophes?) hubby. It turns out that she’s managed to catch Tayo’s cattle and then hand them over to Robert when he comes to pick them up.

Tayo spends his summer with Ts’eh, bonding and doing lovely couple-y things like finding flowers together but when the summer draws to a close, Robert reports that Emo’s been spreading rumors about Tayo going crazy again. Ts’eh tells him how to avoid the police and then leaves. Tayo takes the advice and avoid the police. He hides in the crack of the earth in a uranium mine and realizes this is the last part of his ceremony that will complete him, the binding of his native and white self. Pinkie, Leroy and Emo are within earshot and he learns that they are torturing Harvey, trying to taunt him out to save him. Tayo is lured away, grabbing a screwdriver to kill Emo with but he is stopped just a moment from doing so, realizing that subcoming to their threats meant leaving the ceremony and risking exposure. He backs up and lets them kill Harvey.

He survives the night and returns to Betonie. The ceremony was a success, the drought has stopped and the impending destruction scared away. It ends with Grandma saying the stories are all the same and sunrise.

Characters:

Tayo- The half white and half native son of a prostitute. He grapples with his own existence and guilt throughout the novel, the ceremony finally curing that rift within himself created by the death of Rocky (his “white” side) and Josiah (his “native” side) and makes him realize the existence of life and death and the cycle in which he shouldn’t feel guilty for. He’s more aware and spiritual than his war friends.

Auntie- The mother of Rocky and aunt of Tayo, the sister to Tayo’s mom. She tries to fit in with the culture and prizes Rocky above anything else. She puts up with Tayo only because he’s her nephew and purposefully seperates him from Rocky. Is married to Robert. Also, Tayo seems to know her more than anyone else and they have some mutual understanding.

Ts’eh/ “Montana”- the literal personification of “Montain” or mystical goddess of nature of some sorts, Tayo falls in love with her and she presents him with crucial information for him.

Emo- The symbolic figure that represents the witches and witchery that they do. He was a star soldier in the Vietnam war and enjoys killing things. Has a beer bottle shoved into him by Tayo. Eventually (at the end) he disappears from the story, not killed off like Leroy or Harvey.

Leroy/Harvey- Friends of Tayo that are recovering for the war. They spend their time and money drinking away their sorrows and telling stories of the past rather than trying to move on.

Narrative Voice:

The narrative voice in this one works very well in confusing its reader. Which is great since that’s how Tayo feels and I’m pretty sure that’s what Silko was trying to get the reader to sense. The point of view is third person, limited omniscient, mostly from Tayo’s perspective although there are moments when the story breaks from this and evaluates the past or present from another person’s POV, like Helen Jean, Tayo’s mom and Night Swan. The purpose of this is so we can see and feel the thoughts of others in the Laguna community and learn the things that may be confusing if not stated explicitly. Because Tayo is lost in the dark and doesn’t know so much, it’s not only a nice break from his constant puking but allows the reader insight in the intentions of the other characters and how they react to whats going on in the story. Along with the segmented narratives, the story is paralleled with ‘poems’ interspersed throughout the story. It seems like these are old tales/ceremony told by the older generation and the story or narratives works as a reinterpretation of them.

 There are two different tones, while in the narrative, depending on the person, most of the time, it’s a very gritty reality, often times marred with frustration (Tayo), anger (Emo), passiveness (arguably Night Swan) and etc. In the poems, it’s often characterized with very simple, folklore-ish language that foreshadows or reflects whats happened in the narrative.

Symbols:

Emo’s bag of teeth: Symbolizes his witchcraft and the teeth inside functions to symbolize his need for death and destruction.

 Tayo’s puking: His inability to hold anything in shows that his body is just rejecting everything that he is because the two sides of him are at conflict. It symbolizes his awkwardness in his culture, as if even his body rejects who he’s trying to be. Finally, the fact that he can’t hold down the alcohol the same way the rest of his war buddies are able to implies that he needs a more spiritual method of dealing with the pain and guilt.

Drought: The evidence that something is running amuck in the Laguna/Native community. Tayo blames himself for the drought, and it may well be because of him since once he’s finished with the ceremony, it’s rained again but I think it more likely shows the health of the entire community, shows that everything’s dying because there’s something wrong/someone’s done something wrong like the people in the poems who did witchcraft.

MountainLion/Ts’eh: The mythical and the presence of a guiding force that acts to help Tayo.

Colors: I can’t even. No. I’m not even going to try to dissect this color thing. It plays an important role if you’ve picked up on the fact that yellow is good and alludes to the sun god and blue is for rain and etc but theres so much referencing that I’m not even going to get into it. Sorry.

Numbers: Four is good.  Five is bad. The end.

Quotes:

"It seems like I already heard these stories before—only thing is, the names sound different." The book begins and ends with sunrise and there’s multiple parallels between the poem and the novel and finally, at the end, Grandma, the oldest and probably wisest in the book, states the thing that Silko has been pounding on us since the beginning: all of this has happened before, there are differences but, the essential and core of a story doesn’t change, only the names and little details. It also alludes to the necessity of storytelling, a constant motif in the novel.

“I’m a half breed, I’ll be the first to say it.I’ll speak for both sides.” This is particularly powerful because the reader realizes that it is Tayo’s job to seek to fill the rift between natives and whites. It can only be him and those of mixed heritage because they possess the power to integrate both cultures together. That’s why no one else has been able to bring the drought to an end; they needed a Tayo, a combination of Rocky (white culture) with Josiah (native culture).

Theme:

Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko is a novel written to show the necessity of stories/knowledge and the need to continuously adapt traditional methods to keep up with changes in the present.

The ceremony in the book works to cure the rift between the two conflicting sides of Tayo. On the macro level though, the ceremony cures the rift between natives and whites. Ceremony is hardly a novel about a guy struggling with himself, guilt and death, it’s also a very political novel. Silko critiques on things like the atomic bomb and the discrimination against minorities to prostitution and nation of drunkards. Putting aside the native American culture, the novel is also about accepting death and the need to keep tradition alive with change without killing the core of it.

The Death of a Salesman

Excuse the length of this. I plan on using DOS on my open prompt so i took the liberty of rewriting pretty much the whole darn story as a refresher. :)

The play, Death of a Salesmen (DOS) by Arthur Miller takes place in mostly New York (once in Boston), probably in the mid 1900s. It revolves around Willy Loman, a salesmen and his family. The play goes back and forth between the present and Willy's memories as the audience finds out the event that destroyed Willy and his family.

The play starts with Willy, returning home from a failed sales trip, tired and worn. His faithful wife, Linda, suggests he ask his boss to get him a desk job in New York but  Willy insists he is needed elsewhere. The conversation moves to their son, Biff, who has not made of anything of himself and has returned home which sends Willy on a rant about how lazy be thinks Biff is. Meanwhile, Biff and his brother, Happy are upstairs in bed, talking about their failed dreams and they half heartedly agree to start a ranch together. Linda, trying to calm Willy down,  suggests him to get food and he begins to hallucinate/talk-to-himself/get-a-little-craycray/flashback/or-all-of-the-above to the time when Biff and his other son, Happy, were younger, in high school. In this memory, Biff is a football star, the family interacting affectionately with each other as they are approached by Bernard, their neighbor’s son who insists that Biff study for math. Willy says that will Bernard is smart, he isn’t “well-liked” and therefore, will be unsuccessful in the future. He also hears the laughter of a woman, not Linda, and gives her stockings. The woman disappears and Bernard comes in again, looking for Biff, telling Willy he’s been stealing and roughing with girls, unable to take it, Willy yells at Bernard and Linda and they leave, him coming back to reality. Happy comes down stairs at the commotion, trying to ease Willy. This only angers him more and he yells, stopping when Charley, Bernard’s father and their neighbor, enters as Happy leaves. They sit down to a game of cards and Willy enters another daydream about his brother, Ben, who struck it rich in Africa after traveling to Alaska. He asks for his secret to success but Ben tells him he needs to leave. Meanwhile, in reality, Willy has been talking outloud and has called Charley Ben, when Charley questions him, Willy yells at Charley and he leaves.  Willy reenters his daydream as he walks outside while young Linda and their sons talk about Willy and his ‘condition’. Linda tries to defend Willy as Biff calls him a fake, and tells the boys that their father has tried to commit suicide. Willy then comes inside and yells at Biff for being a failure, Happy sooths Willy with the idea of the brothers starting a sporting goods business together. They agree that Biff will ask for a loan from Biff’s old boss to start the business.

            Act II starts with breakfast at the Loman’s, Linda reminding Willy that the boys are taking him out tonight. Enthralled, Willy decides this is the day he asks for a job in New York from his boss, Howard. However, when Willy is at Howard’s office, Howard denies his request and this sends Willy on a tangent about his time spent at the company and why he dream of being a salesmen in the first place. Howard tells him to take some time off and sends him out of his office where Willy begins to hallucinate/daydream/I’m-never-sure-which-one-he’s-doing about Ben, Alaska, Linda and his sons, being well liked and Biff’s football game and Bernard. Eventually, he is brought out of his daydream by an older Bernard, successful and a lawyer. Disappointed, he wonders out loud how come Biff failed and Bernard alludes to Biff’s failure in his math course. Willy begins to get defensive and Charley enters to see Bernard. Willy asks for more money but Charley offers Willy a job (again) but Willy refuses. Charley then yells at Willy for always needing to be well liked but gives him the money.

            At the diner, the boys wait for their father to arrive and they flirt with girls. It’s revealed that Biff waited for six hours to talk to Bill Oliver and Bill didn’t even recognize him. When his father arrives, Biff tries to tell him the truth but Willy isn’t listening as he daydreams again. Finally, Biff explodes and yells at him the truth. Biff just stole a pen from Bill’s office and he’s realized that the salesmen life isn’t for him. Biff helps at distraught and crazy Willy into the restroom and leaves, Happy already gone with two girls.

            In the restroom, Willy remembers the time when he is in Boston, having an affair with a woman. Biff comes to him, after failing his math course and finds him in the affair, realizing what a fake Willy is, that the father he knew and looked up to wasn’t what he told him he was. A waiter helps Willy out of the restroom and he walks him, but not before buying seeds.

            The family reconvenes at home, Linda scolding her sons for leaving their father. Biff leaves to go find Willy and he does, outside in the garden, daydreaming, talking to Ben about a 20K proposition. Willy goes inside and he and Biff argue, when Biff begins to cry, Willy is taken aback, surprised that his son is crying over him. Everyone goes to bed except Willy who goes back to talking to Ben about the 20K proposition. The family hears Willy speed off in his car, presumably committing suicide.

            In the requiem, Charley and Willy’s family stand at his grave. Biff states he believed that Willy had the wrong dream, Charley thinks Willy was a salesman and died in the way all salesmen had. Happy hopes to continue Willy’s vision. It ends with Linda, saying that she paid the last mortgage payment that day.

______________________

Characters:

Willy Loman- The father and patriarch to the Loman family, Willy is an old man in his sixties. He lives on the hopes of a dream, to become a salesmen he had once met, one that was highly successful and “well liked”. He also has a brother who he admires that went off to Alaska and got rich and never really got to know his own father. He is, however, hard on his sons, especially Biff who conflicts with him often. Willy is also prideful, childish and prone to “dramatize” things. It’s funny, because his name is Low Man. Represents the average man trying to attain the American Dream.

Linda Loman- The wife of Willy and mother Biff and Happy, she is the dedicated and faithful wife. It seems like she either genuinely loves Willy to the deepest depths of her heart or (my personal interpretation of her) chooses to stay with him because she has no other place to go and really, she’s known about his affair all along and puts up with it. She’s the more realistic and morthers Willy.

Biff Loman- Argueably Willy’s favorite son, was a star football player in high school and failed a math course that eventually halted his career. He’s a kleptomaniac because of the pressure that Willy puts on him, constantly telling him what he has to be. After discovering that his father was a fake, Biff loses sight of his dreams and beliefs, working job to job. He also “likes to work with his hands” and while I’m tempted to make a dirty joke out of that, it’s more likely referring to Biff’s love of agriculture and ranching. He’s representative of the farmers/people that don’t try to achieve the American dream in America.

Happy Loman- Brother to Biff, he’s sort of like the second best/first loser. Was a lame-o in HS but then he whipped himself up and now he’s a total lady killer. He isn’t a success in terms of money either and this upsets Willy too but not to the same degree as Biff. He acts as a buffer between Willy and Biff, often trying to calm their arguments and compromising. After Willy’s death, he promises to carry out his father’s dreams and become a salesmen.

Charley- Willy’s successful neighbor that’s been loaning him money for quiet some time. He sees the world for what it is, unlike Willy, he often acts as a voice of reason to Willy’s insanity. (I’m tempted to call them foils but…) Willy seems jealous of him or what he has and seems to compete with him, all the while calling him his “only friend.”

Bernard- The successful son of Charley, he successes only because his father never pressured him and left him to grow by himself. While Willy’s delusions make him out to be a soft, wimpy, whiney boy, his own recollection (which I trust more than Willy’s) makes him out to be more of an equal to Biff than an underling.

Narrative Voice

Since DOS is a play, there really isn’t a point of view. The tone is definitely interesting, you get this ominous feeling that you’re waiting for the ball to drop (It is called Death of a Salesman after all), you feel Willy’s anxiety and the suspense created by his daydreams. I think that a major component to the tone is the flute that’s played, it works as symbolism to signal the start of Willy’s daydreams.

Symbols

Seeds/Flowers: Willy goes looking for seeds after Biff abandons him at the restaurant and he speaks of  flowers and how his neighborhood now does not have any. The lack of growth that surrounds Willy symbols the lack of growth within himself, his money or his sons. His need to go and buy seeds in the middle of the night shows his desperation to try and succeed in something.

Diamonds/Wealth like the radio: Symbolizes the American dream that Willy is trying to achieve yet never does.

Stockings: Willy’s guilt and his affair with the woman in the hotel.

Quotes:

“He’s a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine . . . A salesman is got to dream, boy.” This explains who Willy is and why is he the way he is, specifically the dream in which he is trying to achieve. It also highlights the gritty truth behind the job of a salesman, all he has is what’s in his hands and his hopes.

“A dime a dozen” In contrast with the quote above, Biff states that they’re just a dime in a dozen. Meaning that they’re not really that single special snowflake but in fact, many and plenty. This destroys Willy’s idea of being that salesman who walks in and is greeted and loved, Biff has realized this and that’s why he says that he’s “a nobody.”

Theme:

Miller uses the dysfunction of a family and the death of a salesman to critique the illusion of the American values and dreams.

(All the stuff mentioned above proves the theme so I won’t reference any specifics that’s already been mentioned) The problem that Miller is trying to address isn’t the American dream itself or even it’s failures so much as the idealism and mistaken perfection behind it. Willy’s American dream is that if you’re well like enough that you’ll get somewhere in life, that if people love you enough, the sales will make themselves whereas Charley and Bernard shows that it’s hardwork that proves to be a success in the American society. He’s also, at the same time critiquing the dysfunction of a family caused by the American society through Willy’s affair and his struggle with Biff and Happy.

Is This Hat Beige Enough?

Do you like the poster? :D Internet memes integrated into school and AP Lit! 

               

  Edward Albee was a writer in the 20^th century, known for his mastery on Theatre of the Absurd. His work, The American Dream is one of his works that contains the literary style. It is set in the American society, with no definite time (though we can presume it is some time in the 1900s) in the apartment of a dysfunctional family.

                The American Dream begins with Mommy and Daddy who are waiting for someone to come for some reason they can’t remember. They argue, waiting for the person to show up, Mommy telling Daddy about her beige or cream colored hat incident whilst emasculating him. Grandma appears with boxes, neatly wrapped, complaining about how old people are treated. The person that Mommy and Daddy are waiting finally arrives; it turns out to be Mrs. Barker, the chairwoman to Mommy’s club. They discuss why Mrs. Barker is here and her actual possession. The situation gets more and more confusing as no one seems to know who is Mrs. Barker or why is here, what Grandma is doing with the boxes or have any memory of the present. When Daddy and Mommy move out of the room to find water (Because Grandma’s manage to hide that too. Talented woman!) Grandma enlightens Mrs. Barker, about the past. Apparently, twenty years ago “someone just like” Mommy and Daddy adopted a son. But, the son wasn’t what they had expected, Mommy mutilating it for whatever qualities or actions it did that she didn’t like.

                Then, the Young Man shows up looking for a hob, seemingly someone who looked “like” a person Grandma had seen. We find out that he has lost all feelings and is an empty shell of a person, losing the ability to feel anything from any of the body parts Mommy had done to her baby. We also find out that he had a twin and that twin was presumably the son that Mommy and Daddy had.  Grandma also shares the fact that she had money from a baking contest she won and gives the Young Man a job; to be the van man. He takes the boxes away and Grandma leaves, as Mommy, Daddy and Mrs. Barker find out whilst drinking. Mommy is sad but goes back to celebrate as the Young Man replaces her son and Grandma.  Grandma breaks the fourth wall in the ending, saying that we (The audience) should leave whilst everyone is satisfied and happy.

Characters

                Mommy-An emasculating, deceitful figure that married Daddy for his money ,shown to be unsatisfied with her life, and caring for Grandma (just a tad) whilst silencing her at the same time. She seems to hate anything that breath and is often sarcastic and caustic in her remarks, though does not possess the ability to land them the way Grandma can. This also suggests a longstanding rivalry and bitterness between the two.

                Daddy- The figure of pity and humiliation in the play, Daddy is being openly used by Mommy for his money yet he does everything she asks him to. Whether it’s out of fear or sheer stupidity, or both, I’m not too sure. He also wants satisfaction and for Mommy to be satisfied, thus making him prone to be manipulated by Mommy (hence the “open the door Daddy”). He is the receiver (or masochist) to Mommy’s ‘punishments’ (she as the sadist). (They probably have s BSMD thing going on, handcuffs and whips in the basement lololololol)

               

                Grandma- She seems to be the closest thing to a voice of reason in the play. Grandma has some recollection of the past, whether or not she is playing dumb or really doesn’t remember that well isn’t clear, and can spit out epigrams and quips faster than an AK-47, constantly complaining about how old people are being treated by society. She’s clever and comes from a rural upbringing and she eventually finds a way to leave Mommy and Daddy’s apartment and finding a use for the Young Man, and she’s able to break the 4^th wall.  

               

                Mrs. Barker- The chairwoman whose a ‘professional woman’ (take that in however many ways you can think of) whose got her fingers “in so many little pies”. We also know that there’s a woman who looks like her that gave Mommy and Daddy their son. She’s presumably the same woman, which is why she’s back at the apartment.

               

                Young Man- The twin of the son of Mommy and Daddy, who feels all the things that Mommy and Daddy did to their son. In that sense, he’s a shell of a perfect person, looking good, having nice charms without being able to feel for anyone or thing. He becomes the son that Mommy has been looking for- a person with perfect form with gutted emotions.

 Narrative Voice/Style

The American Dream, lacks any narrative voice, I think this is Albee’s way of trying to make it seem realistic and self guided as possible. Its style is clearly Theater of the Absurd, the play is both comical and thought provoking, almost a high comedy.  For a while, I was pretty angry at the way the play went at things and honestly, I didn’t appreciate how unclear everything was due to the (what I like to call) black hole of a past (By that I mean the memories go in and are never able to come back out). Now, after thinking it over, I like the ideas and the unique and literal way Albee interpreted the American society.  

There isn’t much symbolism. The boxes, I think, are meant to represent something although Albee never reveals what exactly what they symbolize or the literal contents. Again, the bareness and lack of any beginning, climax and denumounte is Albee’s way of showing the gritty reality in a certainly absurd situation.

               

Quotes

“GRANDMA: Then it turned out it only had eyes for Daddy. MRS. BARKER: For its Daddy! Why, any self-respecting woman would have gouged those eyes right out of its head. GRANDMA: Well, she did. That's exactly what she did.”

                Well, ain’t that great! It’s sardonic and gross but then you realize that it’s actually true and sort of … very Nightmare Fuel-is. We get several things from this quote, one, that it’s totally ok in their society to be gorging out eyeballs. Two, that’s what Mommy did, characterization for her as well as Mrs. Barker. Three, Albee’s use of Threater of the Absurd/his style coming into view and etc. This quote works on so many levels and it’s very catchy because it’s so nerve wrecking.

“MOMMY: You can’t get satisfaction; just try. I can get satisfaction, but you can’t.”

                It’s actually really ironic because I’ve always seen The American Dream universe is one in which no one can get satisfaction and they’re still continuously trying to get it. Mommy is oblivious to this and yet she says it anyways, highlight the main theme of The American Dream; getting satisfied.

Theme

                In The American Dream by Edward Albee, Albee shows the pitfalls of the American dream and it’s connection to materialism and consumerism, showing that the dream is ultimately unreachable and devoid of any real emotions behind its appeal.

WHAT WAS THAT. I WISH I COULD SPOUT OUT SENTENCES LIKE THAT WHILE WRITING THE AP PROPMPTS.  For starters, actually, lets start at the end. We have Grandma, moving out, and Mommy, Daddy, Mrs. Barker and the Young Man celebrating. While we know that they are all happy, Grandma foreshadows that we ought to leave it there before they become unsatisfied (or were they ever satisfied at all?). It’s apparent that Mommy and Mrs. Barker is meant to represent the American public, Daddy, the enslaved government and the Young Man is the goal (the New American Dream) they’ve been searching for. Grandma is the old American dream, one that has withered away and is being silenced by the now-majority (aka Mommy). The young man highlights the materialism in the American society or Mommy (they’re interchangeable nouns) since all they want is for him to look good without having any real feelings or desires behind it.  

Revised Open Prompt 4

2002. Morally ambiguous characters -- characters whose behavior discourages readers from identifying them as purely evil or purely good -- are at the heart of many works of literature. Choose a novel or play in which a morally ambiguous character plays a pivotal role. Then write an essay in which you explain how the character can be viewed as morally ambiguous and why his or her moral ambiguity is significant to the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.

I once read that 'Only crazy people see things in black and white'; in that case, there has to be ambiguity in every character ever written, no matter how seemingly onesided the character may be. This seems to be the case in Edward Albee's play The American Dream, where a character named Mommy, whose major role in the play is to simply emasculate her husband and obsess over how 'well off' she is. Though, with all her bad qualities, the reader never identifies her as 'evil' nor 'good', because, through a litany of literary techniques, Albee was able to characterize Mommy so that she comes to life, where, in her, resides both the good and bad of humanity. Mommy in Albee's play functions as a contrasting figure representing the present state of society in comparison's to Grandma's traditional beliefs.

The American Dream showcases a classic dysfunctional American family, one where no one in the household can have satisfaction, where the past plays not role in the present and every moment could act independently from the moment before. 

Mommy acts as the present society, obsessed about what is posh and glamorous, going so far as to differentiate between a hat that is wheat and beiged color because a 'wheat' colored hat would not seem so very fashionable. The truth of the matter was was that the hats were the same and she was easily persuaded by someone of supposedly higher class. Furthermore, Mommy goes out of her way to control Daddy and almost everything around her, including her son whom she killed because "it had eyes only for Daddy". Through and through, we see Mommy's character portrayed very negatively yet the reader hesitates to truly call her "evil." I think in this case, Mommy is meant to represent society as well as human nature, to represent ourselves taken to an extreme and to call her evil would be misunderstanding Albee's point. Mommy is not 'evil' or 'good' but a product of her environment, she was simply bred that way.

Through his portrayal of Mommy, The American Dream is further heighten because it fits into the imagery the playwrite has created; Grandma as the old American Dream, the Young Man as the current American Dream and Mommy as the changing character who picks and chooses which dream she wants. Albee is showing the reader what could become because naturally, being humans, everyone is at one time or another, childish and hateful, kind yet resentful and hopeful, all of which Mommy displays at one point or another (in varying degrees).


The American Dream is a novel depicting the changing American values and Mommy plays a center role in communicating Albee's message of showcasing the distance American values are putting against tradition.