Response to Course Materials #2

Last time I posted one of these, we left off with the American Dream. After our initial read, we took a break and annotated HTRLLAP and then went back and annotated The American Dream and had a second discussion. Our discussion of HTRLLAP wasn't great, lots of side stories and irrelevant details, but The American Dream was much better. I think this was because we had already discussed the play so we knew which parts to go back to and discuss. We also had a goal when discussing The American Dream which was to find all the motifs and put them together into a theme. This was new to me because although we discussed motifs all the time with The Great Gatsby and The Crucible, we had never tried to find a theme that embodied all of them. Annotating the play after discussing it in class made it much easier for me to catch important details and words, and reading it again allowed me to find evidence for all the motifs found in class.
Next we read Nuts and Bolts of College Literature. This book was incredibly helpful for class and also for college essays, seeing as it focused on all the mistakes I commonly make. I write in passive voice by mistake often and with NBOCL, I am trying to stop. In class we wrote our first AP writing practice and then used the Nuts and Bolts rules to correct it a few days later. This showed me how much my writing could be improved by being made more clear and concise.
At the beginning of each class we have been doing an exercise with a particular passage. We generally have to identify how form follows function and then model a sentence after it. It has been a lot harder than I would have imagined, but as a class we are getting better at it. We especially have have problems with modeling the sentence, which is odd because you would think that would be the easiest part.
For the last few days we have been watching Death of a Salesman. I think watching it helped a lot with comprehension because there were constant flashbacks that would be difficult to understand without actually seeing them. This play is incredibly sad and reminds me of The American Dream mainly in its criticisms of society.

The American Dream Close Reading

author: Edward Albee, one act play, first performed in 1961, adopted very young and his parents (especially mother) extremely strict.

setting: America in the 1960’s, well furnished apartment that looks expensive.

plot. The American Dream starts out with Mommy and Daddy discussing that their visitors are late. Neither mentions who “they” are, and this turns into a discussion about how achieving satisfaction is impossible these days. Mommy then takes the lead and gives an example of this by explaining her trip to buy a hat, a beige hat to be specific. She sees the Chairman of the Women’s committee who then claims the hat is beige, and Mommy is forced to take the hat back and throw a tantrum until the people in the shop find her a new hat that they swear its beige. Daddy then makes an interesting comment about it being the same hat as before, and Mommy says it most certainly was. The conversation about satisfaction continues with Daddy listing all the things that are broken in the house, and then Grandma arrives. She has a large pile of neatly wrapped boxes which she places in the room. Mommy tells a story about her poor childhood, when Grandma would wrap Mommy’s lunch up neatly but Mommy would never eat it because she wanted to take it home for Grandma. Several conversations take place about Grandma being old and then Grandma gets angry at Mommy and says she always said she would marry a rich man to live off of. The doorbell finally wrings but Daddy doesn’t want to answer it anymore and Mommy has to persuade him by telling him how manly he is. Mrs. Barker comes in and a very odd sequence of social niceties occur: Daddy asks if she might want to cross her legs and Mommy asks her to take her dress off. Daddy talks about having qualms right where the stitches are. Mrs. Barker talks about the many committees she is part of and Mommy cannot find the water. Grandma begins to tell Mrs. Barker why she is here: Twenty years ago Mommy and Daddy adopted a “bumble of joy” but it misbehaved and they were forced to chop it apart until it died. They have invited Mrs. Barker here so they can get satisfaction. Next, Grandma meets the young man who tells her his life story. He had a twin but he was separated from it and now he cannot love or feel anything and will do anything for money. Grandma takes him upstairs and is now offstage and narrating. Mommy is upset because she thinks Grandma has been taken away with the van man, who she says she never called. The play ends with Grandma saying that the play must end now because everyone has what they want, or what they think they want.

Significant characters

Mommy: Daughter of Grandma, controlling, was poor and married Daddy for money

Mrs. Barker: sickeningly sweet, professional women, power struggle with Mommy, Chairman of woman's committee, husband in a wheelchair, only one with a name, embodies femininity

Young Man: twin of baby Mommy and Daddy mutilated, representation of American Dream, hollow attractive shell, no substance, plans to kill Mommy and Daddy

Grandma: old American Dream, has substance, gender neutral, knows she is playing a role

Daddy: had sex change, emasculated, controlled by Mommy, rich, never says anything important.

All the women in this play are controlling and manipulative, while the men are pathetic. This could be because Albee had a controlling adoptive mother. This play was also written at an extremely tense and changing time in American history. The Civil Rights movement was going on, and Albee may not have thought that woman should have more power because he believed they would abuse it. Albees tone throughout the play is mocking and condescending towards American values and culture, especially the false politeness. 

Symbolism: The Young Man symbolizes the superficial new American Dream while Grandma represents the old one. The boxes represent substance.  Mommy and Daddy cannot find anything because they have no substance. The competition that Grandma wins with the day-old cake symbolized Yankee ingenuity and relates to the day old cake Mommy used to save for Grandma in her lunch box. Her nicely wrapped lunch box represents illusions and the boxes that Grandma wraps now.

THEME: Consumerism is corrupting American societal structures and values.

TITLE: The American Dream references the ideals of society and what people are striving towards. It is used mockingly because Albee views the American dream as superficial and a threat to America. The Young Man embodies the new American Dream because he is beautiful on the outside, but empty on the inside. Grandma is the foil to him as the old American Dream, and although she is nowhere near perfect, she does have substance.

QUOTES: " I have, now, only my person, my body, my face" This is a quote from the Young Man that shows the motif of superficiality and also how he embodies the empty American Dream. He goes on to say that he lets people use him, and will do anything for money because he is empty inside.

 "I can't quite remember anyone very much like Mommy and Daddy coming to see me about buying a bundle." This quote shows Mrs. Barkers stupidity because she cannot connect what Grandma is saying to her experiences twenty years ago. Albee wanted to show how fake the "professional woman" was, and how she is lost and confused just like Mommy and Daddy. The destruction of language is also shown by the word "bumble" instead of bundle of joy, because it turns something human into something not human. 

Close Reading #2

This article, fittingly called Vote Yes on Proposition 47, argues for a proposition in California that will reduce the number the number of people being put in jails for nonviolent crimes. The money saved by doing this will be spent on things that will help prevent the inmates from committing crimes again, such as: substance abuse and mental health treatment and reentry support. This article uses detail, syntax, and diction to persuade readers to vote on a proposal to reduce jail time for petty crimes, and help former criminals get their lives back. 
This article makes no effort at all to be subtle, and this shows in the diction. Only words with good connotations are used in relationship with the proposal and these words are used to make it seem cost efficient, humane, like the most reasonable thing to do. It does this to appeal to both the people who are interested in the social side, or the economic side. In the first paragraph alone, the words "good" and "timely". It also states that Times "strongly recommends" voting yes to this proposal. Times uses this language to push people into agreeing with this proposal because Times has such a solid opinion on it. When Times talks about the counter argument, that waves of criminals will be released, in an offhand, condescending way. The words "baseless" and "ominous" are used to describe the warnings given by the "fear-mongering" opponents. They are depicted in an extremely negative light, as if the opponants argument has no base in fact at all. 
Vote Yes on Proposal 47 uses syntax to emphasis their points, and discard and hide the opinions of people who do not want Proposal 47 to be passed. One example of this is in paragraph three, which discusses why people do not want the proposal to be passed. Instead of being split into multiple sentences, colons are used to create a wordy sentence that is easy to get lost in. This makes the arguments much less poignant, and leads to emphasis being placed on the shorter sentences in the paragraphs above and below it. In the next paragraph, the article is back to talking about why the proposition should be passed and the first two sentences are much shorter. The reader is much more likely to remember these than the cluttered and jumbled sentence before. 
This article does a wonderful job of explaining what Proposal 47 is and what the benefits are of passing it. Details are used abundantly to make the reader feel like they know everything there is to know about it. If the reader feels like the Proposal is explained sufficiently in this, they are likely to agree that it is a good idea to pass it without reading other sources that may have a different bias. Especially in the second paragraph the three parts of this bill are explained clearly and deliberately with a positive light. Specific examples are used to lend credibility. 
Vote Yes on Proposal 47 is an informative piece with an agenda. It uses a detailed description of  the proposal along with many positive words describing it, plus emphases on the positive aspects to show its opinion and push others to vote yes.