Summary and Analysis of "The American Dream"

"The American Dream" is quite a unique play set in the 1960s. The author, Edward Albee attempts to put an interesting point across in his play, and he uses the ideas of materialism, consumerism, and sexuality to define his play. There is a family consisting of Mommy, Daddy, and Grandma. Mommy acts as though she is a self-centered child, but she also, shows a need for superiority. Daddy just puts up with Mommy, and he seems to have feminine qualities rather than masculine. Then there is Grandma. Grandma is the only sincere and kind character in the play; she has a realistic view on life, unlike Mommy and Daddy. Also, there is Mrs. Barker; she plays the role of the controlling woman who is head of multiple organizations. This, in itself, is significant because stereotypically women did not have opportunities like this in the 60s. Finally, there is the Young Man. He represents the new American Dream.

In general, Albee is making fun of American ideas by reversing the stereotypical roles in society in his characters. For instance, Mommy acts as the "head of the household"and Daddy does not. Also, Albee uses Mommy to portray the materialistic side of America because she says, "I can always go shopping."  which supposedly makes everything better (62). Daddy represents the sexual part of the play because he is emasculated, and he has feminine qualities which is not ideal for the American male.

Albee uses a unique style within his writing. He uses a great amount of repetition during the play, which, I believe, helps him get his point across. One line that is significant because of its repetition is Grandma saying, "The American Dream!" about the Young Man (108). Grandma is trying to get the family to see the new, fresh, young "American Dream". Grandma, herself, represented the "old American Dream", but she knows that it is time for a new dream to take place.

Edward Albee's sarcastic tone, repetition, and symbolism is significant throughout the play. The play seems slightly absurd at the first read, but when you dig deeper into the meaning, you can see Albee's intentions come across the page.

Close Reading Oct. 21

Clearly, there is a major debate going on about who is going to be the better President for our country for the next 4 years. The editorial titled, "Twisting the Facts about Health Care, discusses Mitt Romney's and Barack Obama's plan for United States health care. This is an important issue because the health of the citizens of our country depends on the governmental plans made to assist us. It seems that this article is based upon supporting Obama and questioning Romney's ideas.

The author is definitely taking the "Obamacare" side. He states that Mr. Romney plans to replace Obama's plan, but he never specified "what he would replace it with". The context of such a statement means that the author is persuading the audience in a certain direction; this is the use of syntax. The writing makes Romney's actions seen unclear and unimportant, and therefore, they will be unsuccessful.

According to the article, "Mr. Romney never quite answered and made some egregious misstatements along the way", and the diction used in this statement is significant because it creates better meaning to the article. It is implying that Romney does not know what he is really supporting, in the author's opinion. Diction is important during debates because it provides specific ideas that the politicians are supporting.

This article uses imagery by using a lack of imagery. Because the author is so against Romney, he has provided little detail about Romney's plans; therefore, making it impossible to imagine what Romney is trying to do for our country. The author claims that Romney laid out "a lengthy description" of his plan, but apparently, it is just a bunch of irrelevant detail that avoids answering the most important question, "who will be paying?" The lack of imagery physically displays the author's opinion of Romney's ideas because no one can actually put a picture to the plan.

The use of syntax, diction, and imagery (or lack thereof) is important while creating an article that has a strong voice. The author is highly opinionated and he needed to provide these techniques to make a successful article.

www.nytimes.com/2012/10/21/opinion/sunday/the-republican-ticket-twists-the-facts-about-health-care.html?src=me&ref=general

Prompt #2 1971.

1971. The significance of a title such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is so easy to discover. However, in other works (for example, Measure for Measure) the full significance of the title becomes apparent to the reader only gradually. Choose two works and show how the significance of their respective titles is developed through the authors' use of devices such as contrast, repetition, allusion, and point of view.

It is true that some titles portray the inner context in a quite obvious manner. What is "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" about? Oh, some boy named Huckleberry Finn goes on some adventures; it is clear. However, titles such as "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" or "Brave New World" do not explain the anything about the plot when one looks at the cover of the book.

"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is actually about patients within a mental ward, and they are not treated with respect a lot of the time. The protagonist, Randle McMurphy, is entered into the ward because he was diagnosed as a psychopath after he was sentenced to serve time in prison. McMurphy is the "one" who flies over the cuckoo's nest. This is not apparent in the title, and the "cuckoo's nest" is the ward, itself. A reader needs to piece these elements together in order to understand the title of the book. Throughout the novel, things change throughout the ward the moment McMurphy enters. He helps and hurts those around him, but he is a major impact over all. Basically, the novel develops themes of independence and confidence. There are many, many symbols that create the image of the title, and McMurphy's impact is a major one.

"A Brave New World" uses personification in its title, and that makes it an engaging and creative title; however, it is not simple to guess what goes on during the text of the novel. The idea of a "Brave New World" is created in the novel by a society that is fully dependent on the work of the government. The government controls every aspect of the society, and they place people in different classes based on the development that is forced upon them at birth. This is a perfect example of a dystopian society in which everything seems to run smoothly and VERY controlled, but at the same time, there are many flaws in the system. The idea of "brave" that is portrayed, has to do with the fact that the society was able to survive amongst the all-powerful government. It is a world that one would not here of today; it is a new world, a brave one. 

Both of these titles take some thinking and studying to truly see the themes that they are portraying, but the hidden message inside of the titles are quite prominent. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Brave New World" are classic pieces of literature with very different ideas but the same idea in the structure of their titles.

Course Material #2 DIDLS

Now that the year has slightly progressed, I find myself having difficulty pinpointing topics to write about. Honestly, it may be because I have connected much of the material and it seems to all flow together. Ideas that are seen in close readings are the ideas of DIDLS, which we have gone deep in to. A majority of class time has been spent on expanding our recognition of diction, imagery, details, language, and syntax. Out of all the course material we have so far, DIDLS is used and important.

Before we dove into reading "The American Dream" by Edward Albee, we read numerous articles and examined them analytically. I sense that this was to prepare us to read this novel with a higher level of expertise than we would have without this practice. In groups and individually, I was able to annotate and point out important words, phrases, and structure in many different articles. These articles had topics from comedy to "The American Dream" itself. All of this work with DIDLS reminds me a lot of the work we did with "The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing" and Foster's "How to Read Literature like a Professor". This is because both novels were able to expand my capability of examining and understanding literature. Granted, I am far from a professional, but I can feel myself improving.

So far, I have been struggling with grasping the vocabulary that has been thrown at us, and a lot of times it is over my head. The vocabulary test we had at the beginning of the year really threw me off; however, with all of the close reading, responding, and annotating that we have practiced with the words are becoming more and more familiar to me. I still need a lot of practice with all of them, but by doing multiple activities to improve i am sure I will get better.

I am attempting to bring every lesson we are learning into one major lesson. I am trying to do this because it will help me connect the dots and comprehend the ideas that are being thrown out there.