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.
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.
The conflicting relationships in Death of a Salesman are most easily seen with 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 never sees Willy in the same light again, and this confrontation helps the audience understand because Miller has been leading up to this point with many disagreements in the present and then he jumps back to this major confrontation in the past. 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 so 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.
Open Prompt – November 11
2008, Form B. In some works of literature, childhood and adolescence are portrayed as times graced by innocence and a sense of wonder; in other works, they are depicted as times of tribulation and terror. Focusing on a single novel or play, explain how its representation of childhood or adolescence shapes the meaning of the work as a whole.
Childhood is a very formative experience for people, when authors include this important time in a character’s life is shows a topic the author wants to emphasize. In The American Dream by Edward Albee there are a few conversations in which the characters discuss the horrors that have been done to a child, and the Young Man’s childhood, these show Albee’s important topic that needs to be discussed. Albee uses the childhood of the bumble and the Young Man to make a comment on the American society which helps to enhance Albee’s meaning in the whole work because it helps to describe the new American dream in comparison with the old one.
In his The American Dream, Edward Albee creates a conversation between Grandma and Mrs. Barker that details the horrific childhood of “the bumble” Mommy and Daddy tried to raise. Mommy and Daddy, despite their names, are not the best parents. In this conversation Grandma explains to Mrs. Barker that Mommy and Daddy had raised the bumble, but whenever it did something they didn’t like they had to take action, as a result they cut off its hands, gouged out its eyes, and cut off its “you know what,” just to name a few. If that isn’t a terrifying childhood, then I don’t know one that is, to top off all this mutilation, the bumble dies, which aggravates Mommy even further. The results of all this mutilation are felt by the Young Man, who was the twin of the bumble and felt all this pain. The Young Man can no longer love, he cannot touch people and feel love, he is no more than a beautiful outer shell that is hollow inside. When Mommy meets the Young Man she gets what she has wanted, only a shell of a person, nothing real on the inside. Albee uses this to make a comment on American society, he criticizes the new American dream, he shows how the exact thing Mommy wants is exactly what she has created, a mutilated person, a hollow shell of a dream, it has no substance. Edward Albee clearly criticizes the American society about their desires through his descriptions of the bumble and the Young Man.
Albee uses this depiction of the Young Man and the bumble’s childhood to bring meaning into The American Dream, in this play Albee uses the characters of Grandma and the Young Man to portray the American dreams of the time, Grandma – the old dream, and the Young Man – the new dream. As can be seen throughout the play, Grandma is a whole character, she is thoughtful and sensible and the character the audience can connect to most in this play. Albee makes her everything the old American dream was, the dream from just after the Constitution was signed, she is “from pioneer stock,” is “rural”, she reads Mommy’s book club selections, and is philosophical; in essence she is a solid and sturdy dream. The new American dream, the Young Man, is hollow and empty, as Albee shows in his descriptions of the Young Man’s childhood. All those descriptions help to show that the new American dream is not all American society had cracked it up to be; it is only a hollow shell of all the materialistic things people want, compared to the down-to-earth, solid, and dependable old American dream that Grandma portrays.
In the end of The American Dream the Young Man replaces Grandma in Mommy and Daddy’s apartment, showing Albee’s thoughts on the American society’s actions, choosing the new, materialistic dream over the old, sturdy dream. Albee uses the depictions of the bumble and the Young Man’s childhoods to bring meaning into the play to show that the Young Man, the new American dream, is empty and hollow, compared to the solid and fulfilling Grandma, the old American dream.
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 this kind of 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 so precisely was a real threat. The government could possibly take over and become like Big Brother with telescreens, always watching you and basically controlling your actions. This warns against the actions the governments were leaning towards at that time anyway. The imagery is very clear in the descriptions, the elevator is broken and always has been, there aren’t really any colors in the city, it is an unpleasant world to live in. Orwell tells us plainly, 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 also disturbing to the readers. The fact that there are two separate levels with the proles who are distinctly lower than the class Winston is in and the upper classes of which Winston is a part but does not feel connected to as we learn from the details Orwell includes 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 really 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 generally 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.
Open Prompt – October 14
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.
Everyone has events in their past that haunt them, that create an unpleasant reminder of something they could have or should have done. In The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien, Aragorn is faced with events from the past, not his own, but the choices his ancestors made. The task Aragorn is forced to meet with face to face, becoming king despite his ancestors’ shortcomings, helps to show how evils can be contended with and eventually conquered.
The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien provides a good example of the need to face one’s past to accomplish the goals one is currently facing. Aragorn is the prime example of this. In The Return of the King Tolkien makes Aragorn face the life he has been avoiding for years, becoming the King of Gondor. Aragorn does not want to be king because he does not trust himself, his ancestor Isildur had taken Sauron’s Ring of Power and was the reason Sauron could still survive, if the Ring had been destroyed Sauron would have been killed completely and unable to return. This past, one that allows the most evil being to have ever ruled Middle Earth to come back to power, makes Aragorn ashamed of himself and his blood, he doesn’t trust himself to be a good leader or ruler. This can be seen in the way Aragorn carries himself in The Fellowship of the Ring, the details and imagery Tolkien includes about how Aragorn dresses and how he makes himself a ranger instead of living extravagantly as he could if he claimed the throne show how good of a character he is, Tolkien even includes a poem with Aragorn’s description. It is also the way Aragorn is reluctant to take the throne in The Return of the King that shows how evil can be defeated, Aragorn does not want to take the throne because he still doesn’t fully trust himself, but in the process he helps to bring about the destruction of the forces attacking Gondor.
Aragorn must face his past in order for Gondor to survive and the possibility of Sauron’s downfall to even exist. He must confront his fears that he will be an unjust and power hungry king like his ancestor Isildur, and he does so, becoming an amazing king who helps destroy the most evil being to have held power on Middle Earth, helping Tolkien’s meaning along by showing how facing the past helps defeat evil.
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 themes like fate versus free will in his plays, do the characters really have a choice in what they are doing or would the situations unfold to the same outcomes if they had chosen differently? 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; Macbeth was the glorious warrior who had slain the traitor. 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 so 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 and 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 period Shakespeare wrote the play in, however, there was not nearly so 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. This bloodshed is all caused by the encounter with the witches 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.
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.
Time manipulation is a convenient tool in constructing a piece of literature, authors of all sorts of different genres use it, it appears in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, using it to go back in time, while other authors use time manipulation to slow time down so an entire novel could take place in a matter of minutes. There are simpler ways of time manipulation though, such as rearranging the order of events to disrupt the chronological order; this technique was the one used by Vergil in writing The Aenied. Vergil’s use of disrupting the chronological order of events is to create for his epic poem a beginning that is in medias res, a characteristic of epics; 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 Aenied is used to create a more epic story in his poem, he 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 story for his 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 much 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 of many genres, it helps to create an atmosphere that readers are pulled into, and it creates an epic. Vergil successfully 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.
