Open Prompt Revision #3

Revision from December 9, Open Prompt post #4

2007. In many works of literature, past events can affect, positively or negatively, the present activities, attitudes, or values of a character. Choose a novel or play in which a character must contend with some aspect of the past, either personal or societal. Then write an essay in which you show how the character's relationship to the past contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.

In Death of a Salesman, the often seamless blending of both past and present into one narrative causes interaction of characters with the past to be an important part of the play. This is especially evident with Willy who often relives past events at the same time as he is interacting with people in the present. He is unable to let go of the past and causes it to become a distorted reality of the present, unable to accept the sometimes harsh realities of life.

This distorted reality is embodied in Willy's relationship with his son, Biff. Willy had seen Biff as an extremely promising young man with boundless potential until he failed to graduate from high school, something that has haunted Willy ever since. He decided not to pursue his degree after he walked in on Willy having an affair in a Boston hotel and went between dead-end jobs for fourteen years after that. Because Willy was driven by a desire to be "number-one man" and his passion was to make it big as a salesman, he was crushed by Biff's decision not to follow in his father's footsteps seemingly solely because of the affair that he witnessed. Willy believes that Biff ruined his life "to spite [Willy]," and he makes this clear throughout the play. This conflict of one life goal with another is one of the key themes of the play, with Willy going the route of a capitalistic salesman and Biff taking another which he doesn't seem to be quite sure of, but it is doing whatever makes him happy.

Willy is affected so significantly by Biff's failure in high school because he believed that Biff truly had a chance to be everything that he himself had hoped to be. He puts the pressure of his hopes and dreams on Biff and expects him to succeed in everything that Biff had failed in, as some parents try to live through their children. A football star with the opportunity to go to a fantastic school on scholarships in U of V, Biff seemed to be going places to his father despite the fact that he was "failing math" according to Bernard. While blowing off school, Biff worked to become "well-liked" as Bernard worked hard to acquire skills that would help him succeed in the real world. The turning point in their relationship occurs when Biff returns from Boston and burns his U of V sneakers, making it clear to Bernard that he had "given up." They switch places as adults, and Bernard's role as a foil to Biff is clear when Willy finds that Bernard is arguing a case before the Supreme Court as Biff fails to find a job. This shows very clearly that the relationship to the past plays a large part in the lives of the Lomans.

One of the most noticeable times that the mixing of past and present occurs is whenever Ben is present, as Willy's focus alternates between what "Ben," or his mind's perception of Ben, and the people he is really interacting with. In scenes with Charlie and with his family in their yard, Willy often returns to the times that Ben visited his house and offered him what seems to him now an opportunity to make it big. In the climactic scene where Willy ends up killing himself, this mysterious figure from his past (of his brother) influences Willy to do what his family dreads. He represents the desire to earn money at all costs and Willy subscribes to this ends-justify-means approach by killing himself for insurance money. His son Happy then goes on to commit to the same ideals as his father, and the cycle of self-destructive work as salesmen vying to be successful continues in the Loman family, making the relationship between past and present of this particular character cyclical and continuous throughout the family.

Through the mixing of past and present, Miller creates a relationship between Willy and his past in which his mind is caught somewhere between the two. He is unable to forget the past and is especially caught up on when Biff's supposed failure as a kid many years ago. This inability to let go creates an alternate reality for Willy in which he refuses to accept a reality where his son is a failure. The combination of his relationship to the past and Happy's taking up his mantle create a sense that this will continue to happen in future generations of the Loman family, and that the only way out of this pattern is one that Biff took.

Response to Course Material #7

During the past few weeks, we have been mostly working on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, with some AP writing practice, and we just started Ceremony this week with an in-class group reading and cultural education session.
To be honest, I was not at all interested in reading R&G, and didn't really enjoy it at all. After a while I warmed up to it and was fascinated by the discussion of destiny in the play, but it really just isn't my type of literature. I did learn to appreciate the sense of humor that Stoppard possesses and the work obviously has literary merit, but it was quite a slow read for me.
The AP writing practice, the most recent on a passage from Shakespeare's Henry VII in which Cardinal Wolsey laments his dismissal from the king's court, has shown me how much more I still need to improve. My skills at analyzing literature quickly and developing a good argument that I can present in a good essay are really not the greatest, but I've known that it would be something for me that takes practice. Hopefully before the end of the year I'll be able to improve a lot.
Ceremony has been great so far. I read a lot this weekend, as I drove to and from Cleveland to visit my family and had about 8 hours in the car with nothing better to do (except maybe sleep). I can't wait to find out what happens at the end of the book, and I think I've done a pretty good job of understanding what has happened up until this point. I look forward to our class discussions on this book.

Open Prompt Revision #2

Revision from Sunday, October 14, 2012 

2007. In many works of literature, past events can affect, positively or negatively, the present activities, attitudes, or values of a character. Choose a novel or play in which a character must contend with some aspect of the past, either personal or societal. Then write an essay in which you show how the character's relationship to the past contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.

               

In Edward Albee’s The American Dream, the Young Man must cope with the brutal mutilation of his twin brother 20 years ago. This event leaves him a shell of what he appears, devoid of desire and passion, literally unable to feel due to the actions of Mommy. He loses all internal elements of what makes someone a person, having a sort of empty inside while his appearance makes him seem perfect. Through the relationship of the Young Man to his past, Albee emphasizes the condemnation of the "American Dream" and its influence on society that are the focus of the work as a whole.

When the Young Man was just a child, he had a twin brother who lived at an adoption center with him. Grandma reveals that Mommy and Daddy “bought” this twin brother, but they grew dissatisfied with it and accordingly they got rid of him, but not before punishing him through physical abuse. When he wouldn’t show Mommy the love she wanted, she gouged out his eyes, just one of many body parts that were cut off. Every time a part of the twin was cut off, the Young Man lost feeling in that area, and as a grown up man he cannot feel anything but passively lets others love him and enjoy the perfect image that they see in his appearance. This is how the mutilation causes the Young Man’s present to be different.

Another aspect of the adopted baby that is very important to mention is that in the story, he is always referred to as an object without gender. He is called a “bumble,” and referred to as “the bumble” or “it.” This has huge significance for the meaning of the play. A baby, usually a symbol of innocence and love, is turned into a commodity and used as a means for Mommy and Daddy to experience pleasure. By doing this, Albee is warning that we shouldn’t treat people like objects that we can use to fulfill our desires and then discard when they no longer serve that purpose. Relationships between parents and a child should not be about the best interests of the child or the adult, but about love between the two, and the materialism of modern society has threatened this.

The way the Albee chooses to address the American Dream is also through the use of the Young Man and his twin brother. The Young Man is called “the American Dream” by Grandma three times, and he represents the “new” American Dream as people saw it in Albee’s time. The new American Dream values things like money and the ability to earn it, as the Young Man shows when he is very interested in all things related to money. It doesn’t place any value on empathy or any sort of feeling at all, but instead allows people to love it and attribute whatever they want to it. The old American Dream, represented by Grandma, is willingly replaced by the new one before the end of the play. There is a stark contrast between the two: the Young Man’s appearance is flawless, and on the outside he contains all of the qualities that people see as positive. Grandma, on the other hand, is old, wise, and has many positive qualities on the inside that aren’t shown by her appearance. It isn’t even possible to tell if she is a man or a woman, as she implies that she really isn’t either, but possesses qualities of both. The new American Dream certainly seems better, and after everyone meets the Young Man their thoughts about Grandma are completely forgotten and replaced by this new American Dream.

In his character the Young Man, Albee created a mechanism through which he could convey his thoughts on the old versus new American Dreams, and also how the materialism in society was wrong and could lead to very disconcerting situations.

Response to Course Material #6

Since the last response to course material, we have wrapped up our discussion on Shakespeare's Hamlet, seen a ton of movies and begun our work with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.
 
I think that I understand a couple of the themes of Hamlet really well, but that it would take a couple more reads to be satisfied with how well I know Hamlet overall. I'm certain that I would also notice many other little techniques and ambiguities that Shakespeare put into his work and that my opinions on what the truth is for each of these ambiguities would take shape (e.g: was Ophelia really insane, or was her suicide a calculated political move?
 
The film interpretations of Hamlet that we watched were interesting, some trying to be very faithful to the original and others taking on new and widely varying settings or other elements. My favorite was the 19th(ish?) century interpretation filmed in a castle, where at the end of the play Elsinore was invaded by Fortinbras as the entire castle was preoccupied with the infighting of the royalty. It seemed to fit a movie interpretation well, allowing the director to mostly stay faithful to Shakespeare while changing major details in the time period. The most modern, independent film-type version (where Polonius is a woman) was extremely odd, and didn't really help me understand Hamlet any better, but it was quite entertaining.
 
From our in-class reading of  Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, I'm not sure whether I am going to like this play. It's very different from Hamlet, but it seems to share a similar theme in the discussion of fate and destiny. As Ms. Holmes warned us, I feel like a bunch of what Stoppard is trying to say totally went over my head, but I hope I will pick up more of it as we continue working on this play.

Hamlet Summary Analysis post

HAMLET

Hamlet is a play set in Denmark in the middle ages (old enough that England was under the control of Denmark). Hamlet is a revenge tragedy in which a Danish prince (Hamlet) is trying to avenge his father (also called Hamlet) by killing his uncle (Claudius) who murdered the first Hamlet. Hamlet finds this all out through a ghost of his father, which sets the scene for Hamlet to kill Claudius, but it takes the entire length of the play for him to do it.

Other important plot lines of Hamlet:
Claudius and Gertrude: their "incestuous" marriage that closely followed Hamlet's death, the motives for the marriage

Ophelia and Hamlet's romance: Ophelia, Polonius' daughter and Laertes' sister, had a relationship with Hamlet and it is implied that they had sex, but Polonius (Claudius' adviser and a man with much power) orders her not to talk to Hamlet, which she actually does. Hamlet pretends to be insane after he decides to kill Claudius to throw everyone off, and it is misunderstood as him having gone mad due to his love for Ophelia. Hamlet eventually drives Ophelia mad and she kills herself towards the end of the play.

Fortinbras' and Hamlets' war/feud: Norway and Denmark have been intermittently fighting for an indefinite amount of time (at least 30 years, since Hamlet killed the old king Fortinbras) and Denmark controls some land that Norway used to control. They are constantly on alert for an attack from the other, and Fortinbras is said to be a foil to Hamlet (uncle who is king, father murdered while king, young prince who is rightful heir to kingdom) although he isn't present until late in the last scene of the play. Fortinbras takes control of Denmark during the chaos at the end of the play after passing through the kingdom on the pretense of attacking Poland.

Hamlet's relationship with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern: His childhood friends are summoned by the Queen and King to spy on him and see if he is actually mad. Hamlet realizes this quickly and severs his ties to them, eventually sending them to their deaths after he evaded his own, making a forged letter to the English royalty. 

Hamlet and Horatio: Hamlet's friend from college, Horatio, is extremely loyal to him and Hamlet trusts him with any and all information. Horatio is also trusted by pretty much everyone else that he meets and doesn't break anyone's trust. It was suggested that Hamlet and Horatio could be having a relationship or are romantically interested in each other, although Hamlet doesn't really seem to be treating Horatio very well if that is the case as their friendship is very one-sided.

• They briefly describe the narrative voice and offer some commentary on the author’s style, including at a minimum a discussion of point of view, tone, imagery, and symbolism, (you are not limited to these topics—you may include anything else that you believe is a significant component of narrative voice or authorial style)

Shakespeare is obviously very skilled at dialogue, but also often uses soliloquies to expand upon important ideas, as he does many times with Hamlet in this play.

Quotes:

"Not a whit, we defy augury: there's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all."

This quote shows that Hamlet has accepted that he is unable to determine his fate and that he accepts whatever it will be. 

"There's something rotten in the state of Denmark."

This is a quote that can be interpreted to refer to many of the different themes in Hamlet. Refers to Claudius' murder of Hamlet.

"My thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth."

This quote can be used in discussing that Hamlet's dilemma of action/inaction was a central part of the play, and at this point he commits himself to action.

• They contain a labeled, clear, one-sentence statement of theme and, distinctly separated from this claim about theme, offer a brief discussion of how elements such as setting, plot, the work’s title, narrative voice, the author’s style, tone, imagery, and symbolism support this theme.

Edited Open Prompt-November 11

2005, Form B. One of the strongest human drives seems to be a desire for power. Write an essay in which you discuss how a character in a novel or a drama struggles to free himself or herself from the power of others or seeks to gain power over others. Be sure to demonstrate in your essay how the author uses this power struggle to enhance the meaning of the work.

_______________________________
Bernard Marx, a character of Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World, is ultimately driven to destruction by his desire for power. Through his use of foils and symbols, Huxley sends the message that power is at odds with the ability to know the "truth."
In the vastly different society of Brave New World, based in the twenty-sixth century, Bernard struggles to fit into the social structure that is engineered by the government to create a "happier" society. He doesn't fit into the caste he was decanted (artificially born) into, and is a social outcast for much of his life in a world where solitude is dreaded and even regarded as immoral.
Huxley uses Helmholtz, another high-caste and intelligent man, as a foil to Bernard. Helmholtz is a very popular man who fits in extremely well but he grows discontented with all of the low pleasures that others in society value. He enjoys conversing with Bernard, or rather speaking to him without much response, and is everything that Bernard wishes he could be.
After going through the misery of not being accepted by the world and developing a relationship with Helmholtz, Bernard takes a trip into the Savage Reservation and finds a very peculiar young man who was born of a "civilized" mother, a character referred to as "the Savage" by almost all of the characters but someone who is well versed in Shakespeare. Upon returning to London society, Bernard gains status and power through the desire of everyone else to meet "the Savage," or John as Helmholtz properly calls him. Bernard uses this power to sleep with many women and to gain influential contacts and he lords his new-found power over Helmholtz's head, although Helmholtz seems entirely disinterested. This contrast is accentuated in the conclusion, in which both Helmholtz and Bernard are exiled to far away islands to live with others who have dissented from the utopia-like vision that the World Controllers implement in their society. When all of his dreams come crashing down, Bernard turns to drugs to try to regain happiness, while Helmholtz is delighted and accepts his exile excitedly. It is made clear that true happiness is only found through the pursuit of truth, while Bernard finds only despair in the pursuit of power.

Symbols are everywhere in Brave New World, from the obvious in the replacement of "Lord" with "Ford" in all instances to the soma (drugs) that people consider to be essential to psychological well-being. The symbol which seems to me to best represent Bernard’s desire for power is the sex that he obsesses over. After gaining an elevated social position through his enforced possession of John, Bernard uses this to get with many women like he had seen Helmholtz and others of his caste doing previously. He not only lusts after the women but also the feeling of power over them that he gets when he knows he “could have any woman he wants.” He is invited to high-class dinners and other events and begins behaving like one of the normal members of society’s elite, but it all crashes down when John refuses to be paraded around in front of all Bernard’s friends after a while of putting up with it. He swiftly goes from one of the most well-known members of London’s elite to a nobody and is threatened with being sent to Iceland, where people are exiled to if they disobey the laws of the new world. At this point, Bernard turns to soma to try to become happy, but is unable to find happiness in Huxley’s version of the opiate of the masses as he has just lost all of the power he lusts after.

Another symbol that features in the story is Shakespeare’s works. John has a copy of Shakespeare from the reservation that was passed down over the years and enters a state of rapture whenever he reads it. His reaction to Shakespeare, which represents the high culture that has been destroyed in the new world, juxtaposes Bernard’s despair as his life falls apart and his drug addiction that follows.

In Brave New World, Huxley provides a critique of the power-hungry and mourns the value of happiness over knowledge. He sends these messages through the use of foils and satire involving the central characters of Bernard and John.

Course Response #5

Over the past few weeks of class, we have been spending almost all of our time on Hamlet. After we finished up the reading before break, we watched scenes from a few different movies and discussed how the directors interpreted the play. I liked the last Hamlet (new BBC) the best so for, although we haven't seen much of it yet, with the much more modern depiction and the video cameras that can't see Hamlet's ghost. The first one (old BBC) seemed to be the most faithful to the original play, but it didn't really captivate my attention at all. I found it especially difficult to concentrate on the movie (and stay awake) after going to morning practice, as everyone in our class noticed (including Ms. Holmes).... I think that the movies have helped me to synthesize my thoughts about the play as I can see everything quickly and the first scenes are still fresh in my mind when I reach the last ones.

The exercises which we did with Hamlet were also pretty helpful, the one about his relationship with words in particular. I hadn't really thought much about that concept beforehand but it really got me thinking and when I was annotating I developed my thoughts much more. I think that it could be an interesting idea to explore that Hamlet's reluctance to act and reliance on words (and love for theater) could be Shakespeare trying to reveal his own reluctance to act and how he speaks through his plays rather than acting, among the numerous other themes/motifs that we have discussed in Hamlet.

The essay which we got back from chapter 4 (I think?) was also something that stood out to me. I didn't do as well as I had hoped, and I hope to improve before the AP exam because I know that essay writing is probably my weakest area for the exam. Hopefully the blog posts will help me to develop my skills, but as we near the exam I'll probably focus more on that in the time I spend studying for it.