Fifth Business Synthesis and Analysis

Fifth Business by Robertson Davies

• Author: Robertson Davies

·        Setting: Various places in Canada, Europe, and in Mexico City, from early 1900s to late1960s.

• Plot:
• On his way home from sledding with Percy Dunstable dodges a snowball and it hits Mrs. Dempster, causing her to fall and go into labor.  Paul is born early and unfit for the world, but he survives.
• As a boy Dunny becomes interested in saints and magic.  He also becomes friends with Mary Dempster as he often is doing chores in their house.
• Dunny is kicked out of the Dempster house for corrupting Paul by teaching him about the saints (Mr. Dempster is a Baptist minister) and for teaching him magic.
• The incident where Mary Dempster is found with the tramp then follows, this causes the town to think she is truly crazy and for people to call her a whore.  Her husband ties a rope harness to her and she cannot leave the house, but Dunny sneaks in and visits her.
• One day Willie, having been very ill, and he died.  So Dunny went running and fetched Mary, who comes back with him and prays for him and revives him.
• After this everyone thinks Dunny is crazy too, so he eventually goes off and enlists in the army to fight in World War I.
• During his time in war Dunstable earns the Victoria Cross award for bravery in an act that ended in him seeing a statue of the Virgin Mary that had Mary Dempster’s face.
• After the war Dunny is in a hospital because he lost consciousness, he also had his leg amputated.  Here he meets Diana who brings him into the world sexually.  He avoids getting married to her, but she does rename him Dunstan instead of Dunstable.
• Dunstan returns home after this and is welcomed, he learns that Percy and Leola are engaged, that his parents died in the flu epidemic, that Paul ran away with the circus, and that Mary Dempster no longer lives there since she went crazy after Paul left and Mr. Dempster died.
• Dunstan goes to college and earns a degree in history.  He stays friends with Percy, now Boy, Staunton and Leola, who get married.  After he graduates Dunstan takes a job as a teacher at the college and goes on vacation to Europe to look at saints and find the statue again.
• He does not find the statue on this trip, but he gains the hobby of hagiography while traveling.
• Dunstan continues teaching and in the process meets the tramp from Deptford again, he hears this man’s story and decides that Mary Dempster is a saint and tries to find her three miracles.  Dunstan is told that Mary Dempster is a fool-saint, not a real saint, but he locates her anyway, and becomes her new friend.
• Boy keeps Dunstan out of the Great Depression, and Dunstan goes back to Europe where he meets Paul who is a small and untalented circus.
• After this when Dunstan is back in Canada the book turns back to the relationship with Boy and Leola.  Leola can’t keep up with Boy’s social life.  Soon their first child is born.
• Dunstan becomes Mary Dempster’s caretaker and he puts her in a hospital for the insane where he visits her every week.
• Dunstan visits Europe again after he gains a reputation in the hagiography field after an article of his.  While there he meets Padre Blazon who helps him understand there is more to a saint than their miracles, they had an earthly side too.
• The Stauntons are falling apart; Leola finds out about Boy’s affairs and tries to kill herself after she tries to turn to Dunstan for comfort but receives none.  She doesn’t manage it though, and she continues to live weakly.
• Leola dies of pneumonia later, and Dunstan has to handle the funeral.  He is named the headmaster of the college during World War II but is kicked out of the position after the war ends.  So he takes six months off and goes to Mexico City.
• In Mexico City he again is looking at saint related things but meets Paul at his new magic show.  Soon after this he meets Liesl the brains of the show, he ghost-writes the autobiography of Magnus Eisengrim and helps bring in new acts, like the Brazen Head.
• Dunstan thinks he has fallen in love with Faustina, but once he sees her kissing Liesl, no longer thinks so.  Liesl comes in that night to try and seduce him but instead he attacks her, which was what she had wanted him to do, to release his pent up anger.
• Liesl tells Dunstan that he is Fifth Business, as is seen in the way he hasn’t really lived his own life.
• Dunstan tells Mary Dempster that he has found Paul, once he returns, but this turns him into a villain in her eyes and he can no longer talk to her.
• Boy makes a little appearance in politics and gets married again to a woman who seemed to arrange it all herself.
• Mrs. Dempster dies and Dunstan takes care of all the arrangements.
• While on another of his trips to Europe Dunstan again meets Padre Blazon and he finds the Madonna statue again.
• When he returns to Canada the story jumps to Boy’s death.  Dunstan explains this as probably the aftermath of the conversation between Boy, Dunstan, and Paul that occurred after the magic show had traveled to Toronto.  The conversation was full of accusations where Dunstan tells Boy he threw the rock-filled snowball that inevitably made Paul’s mother crazy.
• Once everyone leaves Dunstan realizes the rock is missing.  The next day Boy is dead.
• At the last performance of the magic show the Brazen Head is asked who killed Boy, and it replies vaguely implicating five different people.  When the question was asked Dunstan had his heart attack.
• Dunstan finally ends his letter to the headmaster.
• Main Characters:

o       Dunstan (Dunstable) Ramsay – Dunstan is a man who knows he is the important character, but not the hero in other people’s stories, he is fifth business.  Dunstan is very stubborn, he will not give up on his hunt for saints, and he will not give up on Mary Dempster.

o       Percy Boyd “Boy” Staunton – Boy is a character who always wanted to be loved, that was all he wanted to have, so he developed himself into the public figure that everyone could like in the good times.

o       Paul Dempster aka Magnus Eisengrim – Paul is really the main character of the story even though Dunstan seems to point to Boy as the main character.  Paul is the magician who wants his respect to come from fear, so he chooses the name that is related to a wolf.

o       Mary Dempster – Mary is the saint Dunstan has been following for his whole life.  She is not crazy as Dunstan sees her, but the rest of the world sees her as crazy.

o       Liesl – Liesl is the “High Priestess” of the group, she has the mysterious powers, the intellect, and the skills to make a magic show.  Even more, she understands Dunstan and helps him see himself.

·        Narrative Voice:  The narrative voice in this novel is interesting because the structure is that of a memoir of Dunstan’s that the editorializing and the voice that delivers the bulk of the information is that of the main character.

• Author’s Style:
• Point of View: The point of view that Davies brings to this novel is one concerned with the archetypes found in Jungian psychology.  This point of view adds a tremendous amount of strength to the characters, like Liesl who is essentially the High Priestess, which is shown in her power and how mysterious her motives are.
• Tone:  The tone in Fifth Business is reflective and somewhat defensive as most of the novel is written in the form of a memoir that is supposed to prove that Dunstan’s life has purpose.
• Imagery:  The imagery in the book was used to show the town very clearly at the beginning.  This was to emphasize the small, rural background of three of the greatest men in the world for their time.
• Symbolism:  Symbolism can be found in this book in the synchronicity of the events, how coincidence after coincidence occurs, and in the archetypes that Davies is writing into the story.
• Quotes:
• “And you must have Fifth Business because he is the one who knows the secret of the hero’s birth, or comes to the assistance of the heroine when she thinks all is lost, or keeps the hermitess in her cell, or may even be the cause of somebody’s death if that is part of the plot” (231). 
• This is a description of the kind of things Fifth Business does in a play, and many of them are things that Dunstan does.

·        Theme:  Depending on what perspective you look at someone from they could have completely different roles in the story.

• Dunstan chooses not to be the hero of his own story but the Fifth Business of others.
• From Dunstan’s point of view the hero is Boy, bur really Paul is the main character that Dunstan is the Fifth Business to.

Hamlet Synthesis and Analysis

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

• Author: William Shakespeare
• Setting:  Denmark, in the 1200s (really England in Elizabethan times)
• Plot:
• The Ghost of Old Hamlet appears to the watchmen, they decide to tell young Hamlet this news.
• Claudius sends a letter back to Norway to stop the advancement of Fortinbras against Denmark.
• The watchmen, including Horatio tell Hamlet of the Ghost.
• Laertes says goodbye to Ophelia and warns her about her relationship with Hamlet.  Polonius then forbids Ophelia from seeing or speaking to Hamlet.
• Hamlet goes and speaks with the Ghost, it tells him to take revenge on Claudius who killed Old Hamlet.
• Ophelia reports to Polonius that Hamlet has just come and acted as though he was mad when finding her, so Polonius decides that Hamlet is mad because of his love of Ophelia.
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern arrive to spy on Hamlet as the King and Queen requested.
• The Players arrive and Hamlet arranges for them to play a show with a few of his own lines thrown in so he can see the King’s reaction.
• Polonius proposes his theory on Hamlet’s madness and arranges a meeting.
• The meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia is staged and overheard by Polonius and Claudius, this is the “Get thee to a nunnery” speech, and Claudius is not thrilled with the results.
• The play that includes Hamlet’s mousetrap scene is put on, Horatio and Hamlet are watching for the King’s reaction.  When the scene comes the King is angry and leaves at once, confirming the guilt, so Hamlet decides to kill him.
• Claudius is attempting to pray and Hamlet almost takes the opportunity to kill him, but decides that it would be a reward and not a punishment, so he doesn’t kill him at that time.
• Hamlet goes to his mother’s chamber, and thinking Polonius is Claudius, kills him when Polonius cried out. 
• Hamlet convinces his mother to stop helping Claudius and to stop with the incest, and tells her what Claudius really did.
• The Ghost appears and tells Hamlet to get on with the revenge.
• Gertrude reports to Claudius that Hamlet killed Polonius.
• Hamlet won’t just give the body back he makes them follow him around to find it.
• The King orders that Hamlet be sent to England and be killed, but the killed part was a secret.
• Hamlet sees Fortinbras in passing and decides to take action.
• Ophelia has gone crazy since Hamlet killed Polonius, and Laertes returns to get revenge with the whole city roused up to make him king.
• Hamlet escapes the trip to England and tells Horatio all about it.
• Claudius and Laertes hear that Hamlet has returned and form a plan to kill him in a fencing match with poison.
• Gertrude announces that Ophelia drowned.
• Hamlet sees that Ophelia is being buried and a fight between Hamlet and Laertes ensues in the grave, over who loved her more.
• The duel between Laertes and Hamlet is proposed, Hamlet accepts.
• During the match the Queen drinks from the poisoned cup and dies.
• Laertes wounds Hamlet with the poisoned sword, and Hamlet wounds him back also with the poisoned sword.
• Laertes tells Hamlet it was the King’s idea, then dies.
• Hamlet stabs the King with the poisoned sword, the King dies.
• Hamlet dies after saying the throne should go to Fortinbras who was just passing through again.
• Main Characters:

o       Hamlet – Hamlet is a very thoughtful character, he does not act quickly, in fact most of the play is Hamlet debating whether or not he should listen to the Ghost and kill Claudius or to not kill Claudius.

o       Claudius – Claudius is a selfish character, killing his brother to gain his wife and crown.  Even after that Claudius always worries first about how to keep the bad news from making himself look bad, like when Polonius died, and when Ophelia died.

o       Gertrude – Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, is a character that is kind of hard to tell where her loyalties lie, she agrees with Hamlet in one scene and in the very next she agrees with Claudius again.  It is difficult to say about Gertrude’s definitive character.

o       Ophelia – Ophelia is Hamlet’s love interest and the daughter of Polonius, she is what appears to be an honest and virtuous girl, but the implications in Hamlet’s “Get thee to a nunnery” speech, as well as how she drowned herself may indicate otherwise.

o       Polonius – Polonius is a jerk who thinks only of himself.  Polonius must make sure his position as the King’s counselor is safe before he can allow for any other actions, so he ordered Ophelia not to talk to Hamlet to make sure he wouldn’t be fired.

• Narrative Voice:  This play does not have a narrative voice.
• Author’s Style:

o       Point of View: Shakespeare wrote this play, even though it was set in Denmark a few hundred years earlier than his own time, as if it were his own time.  The succession of the throne storyline is based more on the Elizabethan England royal throne than on that of Denmark’s monarch system in the 1200s.

o       Tone – The tone in Hamlet is one that is somewhat oppressive and disapproving of the actions going on at Elsinore. Shakespeare does not approve of the actions that are going on in the royal house, but fixes this problem with the destruction of the entire royal house at the end of the play.

o       Imagery – The imagery in the play is seen sometimes, like when Ophelia is mad and she comes into the room and sings fragments of songs, the imagery of madness is clear.

o       Symbolism – One of the instances of symbolism in the play is when Ophelia is mad and she begins to go around handing out flowers to people.  She gives rue to both the Queen and herself, but the rue for herself she wears in a different manner, this could symbolize the fact that Ophelia could be pregnant.

• Quotes:
• “To be, or not to be, that is the question” (3.1.64)
• This is an important quote to include because it shows how important thought is to Hamlet, even as the middle of the play is reached.
• “Oh, from this time forth my thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth” (4.4.67-68).
• This is a quote to include to show how actions are what counts and when Hamlet sees a man determined with action he realizes what he should do.  He should stop wasting his time debating with himself and just get on with it.

·        Theme:  Although thought may be useful for decisions, it is ultimately action that decides your course.

Pride and Prejudice Synthesis and Analysis

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

• Author: Jane Austen
• Setting:  England in the late 1700s to early 1800s
• Plot:
• The rumor reaches Mrs. Bennet at Longbourn that Mr. Bingley, a wealthy young man is renting the nearby Netherfield Park, causing excitement in the house for all the girls: Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia.
• There is a ball and Mr. Bingley attends with his friend Mr. Darcy who refuses to dance with Elizabeth and dislikes the ball entirely, gaining him the reputation of an arrogant wealthy man.
• As the weeks go by Darcy finds himself liking Elizabeth more and more, meanwhile Jane and Bingley are falling in love while Jane is stuck at Netherfield because she is gets sick on the ride over.
• After Jane and Lizzy return from Netherfield (Lizzy was helping her sister), Mr. Collins, to whom the estate will go after Mr. Bennet dies, visits the family.  Mrs. Bennet tries to set up Lizzy and Mr. Collins, but Lizzy won’t have it.
• Elizabeth and the other girls meet Wickham, and Lizzy is attracted to him quickly.  Soon she learns about the history between Wickham and Darcy from Wickham’s point of view.
• The Bennet family is disappointed not long after these events when the party at Netherfield leaves for London and Mr. Collins gets engaged to Charlotte instead of one of the Bennet girls.  During this Winter Jane goes to London to visit some of their relatives, but is disappointed when she does not see Bingley at all.
• In the following Spring Lizzy visits Charlotte and meets Darcy at the estate of the patroness Mr. Collins works for.  Over the course of her visit Lizzy sees Darcy often, and near the end of the visit Darcy proposes.  Lizzy immediately refuses him, he then writes a letter explaining about the accusations Lizzy made in her refusal and delivers it to her. 
• Lizzy reevaluates her feelings about Darcy as she goes home.  When she arrives she is no longer close friends with Wickham, but Lydia is still chasing the officers around.  Lizzy tries to warn her father that this could be dangerous, but he doesn’t listen.
• Lizzy goes on a vacation with her aunt and uncle on which she goes and sees Pemberley and hears of how kind Darcy actually is.  She actually meets Darcy and has a pleasant time visiting with him and his sister.
• On this vacation Lizzy receives news that Lydia has run off to marry Wickham, this causes a huge hunt for them to save the family from the disgrace that could come from the situation.
• Through the giant search eventually Lydia is found by Darcy, but Darcy makes the uncle seem like the one who found them and arranged for the couple to be married, saving the family.
• Darcy and Bingley arrive back at Netherfield and reevaluate the Jane/Bingley relationship, Bingley proposes to Jane soon after returning.  By this time Lizzy is in love with Darcy, but he does not propose to her.
• On a night following this Lady Catherine, Darcy’s aunt, comes and tries to get Lizzy to promise to never marry Darcy.  Lizzy won’t do it.  The next day Darcy arrives and Darcy and Lizzy take a walk and Darcy proposes, Lizzy accepts.
• The book ends with a quick overview of where all the Bennet daughters are: Lizzy and Jane are both happily married; Lydia is married, but not happily; and Mary and Kitty are at home still behaving better with Lydia gone.
• Main Characters:

o       Elizabeth – Elizabeth is a young woman who is living on the edge of acceptable societal behavior.  She continually is bouncing back and forth from being impertinent and rude to just being insightful.  Lizzy is a strong character, and somewhat stubborn, if she is opposed to something, like marrying Mr. Collins, she will not be forced into it.

o       Darcy – Darcy begins the novel as a stuck up, arrogant man who couldn’t be bothered by the people of the small town of Meryton. As he interacts with Lizzy and as Lizzy begins to understand him, Darcy softens until he is the loving character he is at the end of the novel.

o       Mr. Bennet – Mr. Bennet is a strange man, he keeps aloof from his family throughout most of the novel (but this is somewhat understandable from his wife’s actions).

o       Mrs. Bennet – Mrs. Bennet is an extremely annoying character, she is obsessed with marrying off her daughters, but really has their futures in mind as she does all these embarrassing things.

o       Jane – Jane is a quiet, shy, loving person.  She is so much of an optimist that it takes a man she loves leaving without speaking to her or giving her any explanation to start to make her outlook on the situations around her change.

o       Bingley – Bingley is a trusting man, who is also an optimist like Jane.  He is basically a little more outspoken version of Jane.

·        Narrative Voice:  The narrative voice in this novel is very strong and opinionated, sounding like a mix of the characters of Lizzy and Mr. Bennet.

• Author’s Style:

o       Point of View: Jane Austen’s point of view for this novel is one that is pushing the limits of what is socially acceptable in the time period.  This kind of view makes for a novel that even today readers love and relate to.

o       Tone:  The tone in Pride and Prejudice is one that is somewhat mocking of the times but not entirely happy, as seen in the tone of the narrator with the opening quote.  This tone makes the novel interesting through the way the narrator uses this tone and carries it through the novel.

o       Imagery:  Imagery in Pride and Prejudice is beautiful when describing scenes like Pemberley, but it also shows the direness of the situation when Lydia runs away, showing how the house is so distracted and cannot function normally at all.

o       Symbolism:  The symbolism in Austen’s novel is not very noticeable or significant in the story, but one example of it is Pemberley as a symbol for its master Darcy.

• Quotes:
• “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” (1).
• This quote is one to use because it really shows the tone of the novel and the strength of the narrative voice that continues through the book.
• “With more quickness of observation and less pliancy of temper than her sister, and with a judgment too unassailed by any attention to herself, she was very little disposed to approve them” (13).
• Include this quote because it shows just how important first impressions are in this book.
• “Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure” (328).
• This is a part of Lizzy’s philosophy that is a good thing you could use to show that first impressions can be forgotten.
• Theme:  First impressions are not always the best criteria to make judgments on.

Ceremony Synthesis and Analysis

Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

• Author: Leslie Marmon Silko
• Setting:
• The Laguna Pueblo Reservation in the American Southwest.
• Sometime not long after the end of World War II.
• Plot:
• Tayo returns from the war and must recover in a veteran’s hospital after his mental breakdown from seeing his Uncle Josiah’s face as they killed Japanese prisoners.
• Tayo is finally released from the hospital and sent home to the reservation where he lives with Auntie, but he is still unwell.
• The reservation is having a severe drought which Tayo attributes to his prayers for it to stop raining which he prayed as he watched Rocky, his cousin, die in the war.
• Tayo joins his friends who also fought in the war, Harley, Emo, Pinkie, and Leroy in their version of medication, which is drinking and telling stories from the war.
• Old Grandma attempts to help Tayo by calling the medicine man, but that is only the beginning of his healing process, and it doesn’t work very well.
• Tayo remembers his childhood now, about how Auntie had tried to keep Rocky and himself separate but still they were pretty good friends, and how Josiah had helped raise him.  The most important part of the recollection is his encounter with Night Swan when he went to deliver a note from Josiah.
• After this recollection Tayo is sent to see Betonie, the medicine man who combines the new things with the old ceremonies and uses them to make a ceremony for Tayo that will heal him and stop the world destruction that is happening because of witchery.
• Tayo goes home and must complete his ceremony, so he must find Josiah’s cattle, in doing so he meets Ts’eh and the mountain lion.  His encounter with Ts’eh is one that helped heal him, but must continue to get the complete effects.
• After returning with the cattle Tayo goes and spends the summer with Ts’eh in the desert by the ranch.  This time really heals most of Tayo’s problems.
• Emo and the police come looking for Tayo, but Tayo avoids them thanks to the directions of Ts’eh.  He is almost captured by Harley and Leroy while on the run, but manages to escape them too.
• Tayo reaches the final part of his ceremony when he runs to the abandoned Uranium mine, where he has to stay and keep himself from killing Emo when Emo and his gang show up and torture Harley.
• After he manages to finish the ceremony he returns to the elders of the Laguna and they determine that the completion of Tayo’s ceremony is the blessing that will end the drought, because Ts’eh was actually the Land.
• Main Characters:

o       Tayo – Tayo is an enduring and persevering character, he manages to endure and suffer through all of his mental sickness and then his ceremony, which healed the whole area, not just himself.  

o       Josiah – Josiah was very kind and not easily manipulated by the thoughts or disapproval of others, like in his relationship with Nigh Swan.  Josiah is basically the man who raised Tayo, he taught Tayo how to understand his childhood, and he was the one Tayo saw die in World War II even though he was not present in the war.

o       Ts’eh – Ts’eh is the woman who brings healing to Tayo’s life, she is the Land, and through his relationship with this woman who is so wise, knowledgeable, and wholesome Tayo becomes whole.

o       Betonie – Betonie is a wise old medicine man who knows that the old rituals cannot completely heal the wounds that are made by the new, so he combines the new thing and old rituals to help Tayo and begin his ceremony.

o       Emo – Emo is pretty much purely evil from what we see and from Tayo’s point of view.  Emo is manipulating, unkind, cares only for himself; he doesn’t care about the land, and is always voicing the bad side of things.

·        Narrative Voice:  The narrative voice of this novel is very interesting; it combines these poem-like stories in the middle of the prose sections, creating an odd flow of Tayo’s story and a similar one from Native American folk tale ideas.  This narrative structure and voice is unique as far as I know, and shows another side to the story if you realize they are the same thing.

• Author’s Style:

o       Point of View:  Silko’s point of view as a Native American gives this novel strength, her knowledge of the culture is so important to the novel because it brings in a new way to look at the same idea.  One example of this is the fact that Tayo sees the draught as his fault, but he is able to cure it through this ceremony he goes through.  In other cultures the solution to a draught may be similar, praying or other options, but the ceremony is healing and only really seen from the Native American perspective.

o       Tone:  The tone of Silko’s novel is bitter in the beginning of the novel but changes to hopeful by the end.  When Tayo is first struggling with his illness the novel sounds bitter in all the actions that are happening and some of the words seem to make it dark and bitter.  By the end of the novel though, the actions and the details of the story are looking more hopeful and even the diction of the later parts seems more hope filled than the early, darker words.

o       Imagery:  The imagery that Silko includes is impeccable; the descriptions of the landscapes and the settings are amazing and this puts more meaning in the story because the colors included bring some meaning of their own into the meaning of the scene.

o       Symbolism:  Ceremony is filled with symbols, circles, directions, and colors all have meanings beyond what they seem.  The colors in Silko’s novel sometimes have different meanings than we are used to, because at one point in the novel the color green, one we associate with life, was a suffocating color, one associated with death.  This is just one example of the different meanings the colors bring.

• Quotes:
• “She had always loved him, she had never left him; she had always been there” (255).
• This is an important quote to include showing how Ts’eh has healed Tayo through her presence and how she is healing the community too by being with Tayo.
• “’It seems like I already heard these stories before… only thing is, the names sound different” (260).
• This quote is important because it explains the nature of the Native American stories, which Silko even shows when she includes the poem-stories in between the prose sections of Tayo’s story.

·        Theme:  The stories repeat themselves over and over again, but the meaning remains, the land is healing and we are connected to it.

• The symbolism of the circles in this novel really emphasizes this theme throughout Ceremony, but also the imagery of the land illustrates how healing and connected to it we are.

Death of a Salesman Synthesis and Analysis

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

• Author: Arthur Miller
• Setting:
• Late 1940s or early 1950s.
• Willy’s house in New York, a few other places he visits in the city, and a few scenes are in Boston.
• Plot:
• Willy returns home after a sales trip that failed again, after setting the scene for the current household, Miller begins to divulge Willy’s past.
• Willy has a flashback about the years when Biff and Happy were younger and it reveals many of the hopes Willy had for their futures, with being popular, that is “well liked,” as the important part.
• Another flashback ensues where Willy is meeting with his mistress, The Woman.  This flashback fades and the prior flashback remains, Willy is angry with Linda and Bernard (the neighbor boy) for criticizing Biff and the flashback fades away.
• Willy regrets to himself about how he did not go with Ben, his brother, to Alaska and strike it rich there, and he marvels at Ben’s magnificence.
• Linda confronts Biff and Happy about their lack of engagement with their father and tells them that Willy is suicidal, they promise to be more active in his life and make a plan to go into business together.
• The morning begins with Willy in a good mood, but it is dampened by all the bills they must pay and the appliances and cars that keep breaking.  Before he leaves for work Linda tells Willy that Biff and Happy are taking him out for dinner that night and this brightens his mood again.
• At work Willy tries to switch his position from a traveling salesman to something where he can work in the city, but instead is basically fired from his job.
• Willy descends into a flashback again and speaks with Ben about his prospects, then sees Biff’s exciting moment as the big football game is approaching, but comes back to reality in Charley’s office seeing the present day successful Bernard in front of him.
• Willy asks if it was all his fault that Biff didn’t turn out to be successful, but then tells Bernard not to blame him for Biff’s lack of success and ambition.  Charley gives Willy the money he needs after learning Willy was fired, and Willy leaves saying Charley is his only friend.
• At the dinner Biff tries to tell Willy that the business plan didn’t work, but Willy cannot hear it and says Biff is trying to spite him, then falls into a flashback of the time when Biff discovered Willy’s affair.
• Once everyone arrives home Linda scolds the boys for their actions and Biff tries to say goodbye to Willy who had been planting seeds in the garden and talking to Ben again.
• Willy again gets angry at Biff’s continual failure and says Biff is trying to spite him, but Biff, in his frustration ends up crying.  This makes Willy realize that Biff actually does love him.
• After this conversation everyone goes to bed except Willy who ends up driving away and killing himself.
• At Willy’s funeral only Biff, Happy, Linda, Charley, and Bernard attend.  Biff says Willy always had the wrong dreams, but Happy says he will prove that Willy didn’t die in vain.  Linda is shocked at what Willy did, and ends the play sobbing “We’re free.”
• Main Characters:

o       Willy – Willy is a stubborn, but broken down man.  He wants to be well-liked, which is why he became a salesman.

o       Linda – Linda is the rock the family is built on, she is the strong one who holds them all together.

o       Biff – Biff is the most sensible character as he actually understands the world, but he is lost because he is still trying to find himself, something he hasn’t managed with Willy’s inflated ideas about Biff’s life.

o       Happy – Happy is the son who is always craving attention, even when Willy dies he is determined to win his favor and he says that he will prove Willy did not die in vain.

·        Narrative Voice: There is not really a narrative voice in this piece as there is no narrator in this play.

• Author’s Style:

o       Point of View: Miller writes this play as one that really points out tragedy, in another of his works “Tragedy and the Common Man” Miller defines tragedy.  Willy Loman is the definition of tragedy according to Miller; this shows what Miller thinks of society because it created this broken man who is the epitome of a tragedy.

o       Tone:  Miller’s tone in this piece is depressing in the nonmedical sense of the word.  He writes about the failures of the members of this family and they all impact the family so greatly that the anger and sadness that arises from these actions feels depressing.

o       Imagery:  The imagery Miller includes in this piece is interesting with the way the flashbacks are shown, the setting changes, and this changes the atmosphere so much.  The imagery also included in the dialogue of the play is saddening, when Biff, Happy, and Linda are discussing Willy and his suicidal tendencies the images created show Willy as a broken man.

o       Symbolism:  One of the most interesting symbolism examples I saw in Miller’s play was that of geography, Ben goes to the jungle in Africa and strikes it rich, but the Africa seems to symbolize Hell while Alaska, where Ben also makes a profit and offers Willy a chance to do so also, seems to represent Heaven.

• Quotes:
• “Walked into the jungle, and comes out, the age of twenty-one, and he’s rich!” (41).
• This is an important quote to use to show the ease with which Ben gains the American Dream, it shows the American Dream Willy wants but cannot reach.
• “Never fight fair with a stranger, boy.  You’ll never get out of the jungle that way” (49).
• This quote is important to show the means you actually must use to obtain the American Dream, but Willy is unable and unwilling to use them.
• “You cannot eat the orange and throw the peel away – a man is not a piece of fruit!” (82).
• This quote is an important one to use to show how Willy is a tragic character who is broken by his dreams.
• Theme:  The American Dream is destructive and unattainable.
• As seen in the Author’s Style section there is much symbolism and imagery that supports this theme, the symbolism shows how you must go to death or something near it to reach the American Dream.  The imagery shows how destructive it can be on the people seeking it, and even the tone of the play shows how this attempt to reach the American Dream has failed and is only depressing to see.

The American Dream Synthesis and Analysis

The American Dream by Edward Albee

• Author: Edward Albee
• Late in the Theater of the Absurd movement of literature.
• Setting:
• Late 1950s or early 1960s.
• A living room in an apartment where Mommy, Daddy, and Grandma live.
• Plot:
• Mommy and Daddy are sitting in the living room, talking about Mommy’s debate over the color of her hat (Beige or Wheat), while alluding to their sexual frustration.
• Grandma packs up her stuff into the boxes.  This includes her T.V., the Pekinese, her Sunday teeth, her room, the water, and everything else that is essential to life.
• Mrs. Barker arrives but no one understands why she is there, then they remember about the bumble.
• Grandma tells Mrs. Barker the story of the bumble’s actions that caused Mommy and Daddy to mutilate it so much.
• The Young Man arrives, Grandma talks about the American Dream with him, he is mutilated like the bumble, but psychologically and emotionally, not physically.
• Grandma leaves and the Young Man replaces her.
• The play ends with the implication of incest as Mommy slides closer to the Young Man.
• Grandma steps out and breaks the fourth wall and talks directly to the audience saying, “Let’s leave things as they are right now… while everybody’s happy… while everybody’s got what he wants… or everybody’s got what he thinks he wants.  Good night, dears” (127).
• Main Characters:
• Mommy 
• Mommy is a manipulating and emasculating woman; she pushes Daddy around and tries to maintain complete control of him.
• Mommy is also very childlike in her manner of arguing continually with Grandma, Daddy, and even Mrs. Barker. 
• Another characteristic of Mommy is that she is very materialistic, wanting a new hat and caring more about getting the satisfaction of having the salespeople bring her the same hat again but call it a different color.
• Daddy
• Daddy is a powerless man; Mommy is always controlling him and emasculating him.  Mommy manipulates him so much to do whatever she wants that Daddy doesn’t have much of a choice for anything, he just agrees with Mommy.
• Grandma
• Grandma is the only wise character in the play, at one point she is supposed to sound like an owl, “Who? Who? ... Who? Who?” (71)  She understands what is going on during the play like no other character does, but she acts dumb around Mommy and Daddy, “I’ve got to go into my act, now” (117).
• Young Man
• The Young Man is another character who knows himself, he is aware of himself as he describes his emotional and psychological mutilations.  He is the twin of the bumble that Mommy and Daddy mutilated, and his emotional and psychological damages clearly show this connection.
• Narrative Voice: None, the play did not have a narrative voice.
• Author’s Style:

o       Point of View:  Albee’s point of view when writing The American Dream was one that is an absurdist’s point of view.  Albee writes his play and it is quite hard to tell if it an absurdist play in which we are supposed to take everything at face value and see things as they are and not more.  Or if it is a play with meaning disguised as an absurdist play.

o       Tone:  The tone Albee uses in this play is very light and humorous for the content being discussed, but it is still uneasy for the reader or audience member.  In this play Albee writes about mutilation and murder of a baby, incest, other sexual actions, and even more, but still his play is filled with jokes and a light not accusatory tone.

o       Imagery:  The imagery Albee uses in The American Dream is somewhat disturbing at times, like when the bumble is described and all the mutilation is recalled. 

o       Symbolism:  In The American Dream there are many examples of symbolism but the most important is the use of Grandma and the Young Man to symbolize the American Dream.  Grandma symbolizes the old American Dream, that of being a pioneer and moving west to settle new lands.  The Young Man on the other hand symbolizes the new American Dream, where materialism is the goal; he is handsome and pleasing on the outside but not filling to the soul.

• Quotes:
• “DADDY: ’What does it have to do with why what’s-her-name is here?’ / MOMMY: ‘They’re here because we asked them’” (87).
• This is a significant quote because it shows the facelessness of authority.  Mommy and Daddy were talking about Mrs. Barker, but Daddy can never remember her name and Mommy refers to her as “them.”  In this quote Albee is showing how the authority in America is so faceless and indefinite.
• “You are the American Dream” (108).
• As Grandma says this when she first meets the Young Man Albee is establishing the connection between the Young Man, Grandma, and the American Dream.
• “Well, I guess that jus about wraps things up.  I mean, for better or worse, this is a comedy, and I don’t think we’d better go any further.  No, definitely not.  So, let’s leave things as they are right now … while everybody’s happy… while everybody’s got what he wants… or everybody’s got what he thinks he wants.  Good night, dears” (127).
• This quote is significant because it shows how much of the director Grandma has been throughout the whole play, she has been pulling the strings even while acting.  This helps explain how she is the only wise and truly understanding character in the play.
• Theme:  The American dream is an empty shell compared to the wholesome thing it used to be.
• Albee’s theme in The American Dream is that the American Dream is not what it used to be, it is only an empty shell can be seen first in the title of the work: The American Dream, is not just a title for an absurdist’s play, Albee is telling his audience about the American Dream and what he thinks of it.
• As seen in the Author’s Style section Albee uses his tone to keep the work from becoming depressing as he chastises the society for its change in values to bring the American Dream around to something so unsatisfying.  The imagery to show how mutilated the dream has become, and the symbolism to really strike the point that this new American Dream is replacing an old one that was much better for society.

Practice Identifying Meaning (Synthesis Post)

            Now is the time to show the practice we have done in analyzing literature this year.

The American Dream – In his play Albee makes his meaning apparent, the new American dream is just a shell, a shiny exterior that is only empty inside, unlike the old American dream which was sturdy and dependable.  Albee shows this by including details of the Young Man’s character, he cannot love, feel, or empathize with anyone.  The Young Man is the new American dream coming to replace Grandma, the old American dream, who is described as “from pioneer stock” and is compared to nature.  Albee makes the point that society is choosing a new American dream, but it is much worse than the old one.

Death of a Salesman – Miller writes his play to make his point that the American dream is unobtainable and destructive.  Throughout his play Miller writes of the conflicts among the Loman family as Willy tries to obtain the American dream.  The American dream is so destructive that in Willy’s pursuit of it he tears his family apart, he wants to be well-liked and he fakes his popularity and achievements, when Biff realizes this it tears him away from his father.  Willy also spends most of his time remembering times in his past, dwelling on important decisions; this takes away from his desire to live in the present and creates problems in his life.  Willy can never obtain the American dream, but that is all he can imagine for himself, in his pursuit of the American dream he tears his family apart.

Ceremony – Silko’s novel shows an interesting meaning of how connected to the world we are, and how the land can be healing.  Tayo’s journey and relationship with Ts’eh are the focus of the novel and through them the land where the Laguna live is healed.  Tayo brings healing to the community by having a relationship with Ts’eh (the land), he gains Ts’eh’s love and she returns it, in human form and as nature bringing back the rain after the drought.

Plain Style Revison of Open Prompt December 2

1975 Also. Unlike the novelist, the writer of a play does not use his own voice and only rarely uses a narrator's voice to guide the audience's responses to character and action. Select a play you have read and write an essay in which you explain the techniques the playwright uses to guide his audience's responses to the central characters and the action. You might consider the effect on the audience of things like setting, the use of comparable and contrasting characters, and the characters' responses to each other. Support your argument with specific references to the play. Do not give a plot summary.

               The job of an author differs depending on the medium they use.  Plays might be more difficult since they do not often have a narrator; in order to guide the audience in the direction the author intends they must use other means instead of an overhead monologue.  In Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, Miller uses the conflicting relationships and unstable mind of his main character, Willy, to guide the responses of the audience, making them wonder what has caused such a dysfunctional family.

                 The conflicting relationships in Death of a Salesman are best seen in Willy and Biff’s relationship.  Biff, Willy’s son, has been wandering around the country trying to find himself, when he returns home the conflicts between himself and Willy flare up again, drawing the audience’s attention.  The relationship was once a positive one, when Biff looked up to Willy,  and Willy was always proud of Biff; but this relationship changed it was soured when Biff went to Boston to ask for Willy’s help in a problem and Biff catches Willy cheating. At this point Biff realizes that Willy has been a fake, all along Willy has been faking many of his achievements and his popularity too.  Biff can never see Willy in the same light again, and this confrontation helps the audience understand why Miller has been showing all the disagreements between the two in the present.  Miller used this confrontational relationship between Biff and Willy to catch the audience’s attention and then keep it until he explained what had actually happened between the two.

                The mental instability of the main character Willy also catches and guides the responses of the audience, the audience must wonder what has happened to this man that he has gone crazy.  Willy has frequent flashbacks and he talks to himself, he has flashbacks to important moments in his life, choices he could have made differently, things he thinks would have given him a different life.  One of these flashbacks includes a discussion with Willy’s older brother Ben, Ben offers him the opportunity to go to Alaska to make a life, but Willy declines it.  This is one of those decisions that continue to haunt Willy, one that makes the audience wonder what else has happened to him.

                All the confrontational relationships and the unstable mind of the main character make the audience follow the central characters and they guide the audience’s responses by making them wonder what has happened to cause such dysfunction in one family.

Plain Style Revision of Open Prompt October 28

1987. Some novels and plays seem to advocate changes in social or political attitudes or in traditions. Choose such a novel or play and note briefly the particular attitudes or traditions that the author apparently wishes to modify. Then analyze the techniques the author uses to influence the reader's or audience's views. Avoid plot summary.

            “Remember; remember the Fifth of November the Gunpowder Treason and plot.  I know of no reason why the Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot.”  When people watch V for Vendetta and some can even quote that line, they are watching a dystopian story play out in London, the author wants the audience to know something is wrong and needs to change or else the world could end up like this.  Another author who successfully writes a dystopian novel is George Orwell; in 1984 this is very apparent.  Orwell warns that if we do not stop this habit of war and the societal structures we set up to keep such wars going the world will end up in a state much like this dystopia, the world Orwell sets up through imagery and details gives the reader a clear idea of what Orwell is saying will come to exist.

            The world Orwell created in 1984 showed readers a terrifying glimpse of a possible future for the real world.  When the book was written the world was full of tension from the Cold War, this sterile environment that 1984 showed was a real threat.  The government could take over and become like Big Brother with telescreens, always watching you and controlling your actions.  This warns against the actions the governments were leaning towards at that time.  The imagery is clear in the descriptions: the elevator is broken and always has been, there aren’t any colors in the city, it is an unpleasant world to live in.  Orwell tells us, this is our future, let’s change it, and change it fast, let’s end this war to stop our government’s chances at pulling a change like this on us.

            The societal structures that George Orwell creates are disturbing to the readers.  The fact that there are two separate levels with the proles, the lower class, and the upper classes does not sit well with most people.  The details that show the main character’s attempts to escape that system for the entire book bring the reader’s attention to how horrible it is. 

            Orwell creates a novel that shows the future for his world, one full of unhappy lives where the government watches everyone, and the country is perpetually at war.  The country is split into two separate social classes and the world is displeasing.  1984 challenges the reader so that when the year 1984 came and passed people could rejoice and say things like “Ha look at that George, the world’s not as bad as you said it would be.”  But we must be careful to not let down our guard because if we get lazy we will be in an even more vulnerable position to let our governments become the atrocities seen in Orwell’s book.  Hopefully the novel 1984 will continue to stand as a warning to all future generations, be on your guard, it may seem extreme but only a few steps away is Big Brother and a telescreen in your home.

Plain Style Revision of Open Prompt September 30

1978. Choose an implausible or strikingly unrealistic incident or character in a work of fiction or drama of recognized literary merit. Write an essay that explains how the incident or character is related to the more realistic of plausible elements in the rest of the work. Avoid plot summary.

            There has always been the age old battle over whether humans can control their actions or not, it is present in literature as well as religion.  Shakespeare often uses the theme fate versus free will in his plays.  In Shakespeare’s Macbeth he uses an encounter with the three witches at the beginning of the play to introduce a theme of the play, whether Macbeth has free will to choose to fulfill the prophesy or to stop, or if Macbeth is fated to do so and has no choice.

            Shakespeare uses the opening scene of Macbeth to introduce the witches for his play, and then after meeting Macbeth and foretelling to him that he will be king, they are not seen again in the play.  This encounter with the witches then affects the rest of the play, it creates the conflicts that later occur, the murders Macbeth commits to fulfill this prophesy, like King Duncan, and the others he has carried out for him.  All these things stem from that first encounter with the witches, before this Macbeth had been honorable and good man, the diction used to describe him when he meets the King shows Macbeth was the glorious warrior.  But following the encounter Macbeth begins to plan and plot the downfall of King Duncan, becoming a traitor himself, he descends into his own mind and becomes obsessed.  He cannot fail in his plan to become King.  Macbeth even has his friends killed to reach this position, and their children.

            The reason for all this bloodshed is called into question, is Macbeth responsible for all of this, does he have a choice to kill his friends, the King, and all who stand in his way? When Macbeth met the witches and they told him what he would become, did that mean that Macbeth had to fulfill this prophesy or did he still have free will to choose whether or not to kill his friends and those he was loyal to? Since we live in this day and age when free will is so widely accepted, I think that Macbeth did have a choice in his bloody path to kingship and he could have stopped in his plot and avoided the death he brought on himself.  In the time Shakespeare wrote the play in, however, there was not as much free will and so there could have been more stress on the fate side of this conflict.

            Shakespeare uses the encounter with the witches in the beginning of Macbeth to influence the rest of the play, Macbeth takes his prophesy to heart and struggles to fulfill it, killing friends and acquaintances left and right. The encounter with the witches causes all this bloodshed and creates a theme for the play, does Macbeth have free will or is he fated and he has no choice to fulfill this prophesy and kill those in his way as he does so? Shakespeare, such a master of his craft, used two scenes to affect and create a whole play.

Plain Style Revision of Open Prompt September 16

1986. Some works of literature use the element of time in a distinct way. The chronological sequence of events may be altered, or time may be suspended or accelerated. Choose a novel, an epic, or a play of recognized literary merit and show how the author's manipulation of time contributes to the effectiveness of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.

            There are simpler ways of time manipulation than traveling back in time like what happens in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, such as rearranging the order of events to disrupt the chronological order; Vergil chose this technique for The Aenied.  He begins the story in the middle of a storm on the open seas while Aeneas is on his journey from Troy to Italy.  The manipulation of time in The Aeneid is used to create a more epic poem, Vergil begins in the middle of things and then arranges to have Aeneas tell his story later to bring the readers back to the present, in doing so he grabs the reader’s attention in the beginning but still tells the complete story.  Vergil’s use of time manipulation creates a more complete and epic poem that draws the readers in and creates an atmosphere distinctive of an epic.

                Vergil uses the manipulation of time to create a more epic poem; he adjusts the beginning time to be in the middle of the action of the story, where Aeneas is struggling to survive, a characteristic of an epic poem.  He uses imagery to describe the action and suddenness of the scene by saying “the waves reach the sky and the troughs allowed the boats to touch the sand on the bottom,” to describe the storm whipping up the seas that Vergil uses for the beginning of his story. The time manipulation also brings diction with it, since Vergil is trying to create an epic poem, he uses the time manipulation to create the in medias res which is a characteristic of the epic, but he also uses epic language, the level of formality of the diction is higher than the common speech of that time.  When Aeneas arrives in Carthage he recounts his tale and describes the events leading up to his arrival with the language used to tell an epic story, one full of hardships and war, death and near escapes.  This elevated language and diction helps to create an atmosphere, a feel that readers associate with epic poems and stories.

                Using time manipulation is a handy tool for authors, it helps to create an atmosphere that readers are pulled into, and it creates an epic.  Vergil uses time manipulation in The Aeneid and this poem is indeed an epic, not only an imitation of older epics like The Odyssey or The Iliad.

The Way We See Stories (Synthesis Post)

            There are many different ways we see stories, this is the basis of literary criticism.  We are learning how to see a work from many different points of view, which helps us create a better picture of what the author may mean from the work.  Some of the many types of criticism are:

• New Criticism – the structure and form of the piece: Is it a poem or prose?  Are there similes? Are there other techniques the author uses to shape the form and do they affect the meaning of the piece?
• Psychoanalytical – the psychological state of the author, the characters, and the audience: Why did the author write this piece this way?  Are the characters in a certain psychological state for a reason?  What is the psychological state of the audience and how will the work influence them?
• New Historicist – the historical context of the piece: How does the work fit into that society and historical time period?
• Marxist – the power structure of the society: How are the people divided into classes?  What are the power struggles and relations in the work?
• Feminist – the way the work relates to women: How does the work portray women?  Is there a statement being made about women? How are women treated?
• Post Colonial – the role imperialism has played in the work: Is there a conquering group in the piece? How are minorities treated in the work?
• Archetypal/Mythological – the archetype the work fits: Is the work a tragedy? What about a comedy? Or a romance or irony?

These are some of the types of criticism, but there are even more that cover other ways to look at literature too.

The Way Stories Work (Synthesis Post)

            Another important concept we have learned in class, is how stories work, the archetypes of stories.  Thanks to Northrup Frye we have some clearly defined concepts of the different types of stories you can have.  The four main types of stories are:

·         Tragedies – a hero who falls

·         Comedies – a hero who rises

·         Romances – a hero who falls and rises again

·         Ironies – a low person who rises to a point and then falls back to his original state or lower

These are the basic archetypes of plots according to Frye, but not all critics agree with these definitions.  Comedy and tragedy have many different definitions, and there are many different types of comedy and tragedy too.  The different types of comedy include: farce, burlesque, travesty, lampoon, parody, and satire.  The definitions of tragedy have changed too, from Aristotle’s definition of “an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude” that is written to accomplish katharsis to Miller’s definition of a common man who refuses to give up his dignity or place in society even though it is hopeless.  The definitions might not be the same, but there are reoccurring ways plots behave that are the archetypes of literature.