The American Dream

Setting: The American Dream is written in the theatre of the absurd style. The majority of the play takes place inside Mommy and Daddy’s 1950s apartment, where Grandma also lives.

Style: The American Dream is a play where Ablee is extremely critical of the superficial idea of the American Dream. Mommy and Daddy are both symbols and demonstrate how chasing after trivial things such as money has little to no meaning in life. Albee uses a lot of imagery in the novel to contribute to Mommy and Daddy’s naïve nature. An example is the first scene in which Mommy is convinced to buy a hat that is the same color as the one she just bought.

Characters: Mommy likes to micromanage everything and is the dominate one in the relationship. She and Daddy do not have a good relationship and it is implied many times throughout the play they are no longer sleeping together. Daddy is very subservient to Mommy and she suggests that he is not a man. Young man is basically what the American Dream entails. He has no emotion, no meaning, no heart, nothing on the inside of his body. However on the outside he is very handsome.

Plot: The American Dream is about Mommy and Daddy’s quest to be the perfect, ideal American couple. They are very focused on their image and what the rest of the world thinks of them. This is very apparent after the first scene where Mommy buys a hat after she was told it was a different color, but it was actually the same color. Daddy often has little to no impute on discussions, and when he does he just repeats what Mommy initially said.

Theme: Because Mommy and Daddy are so focuses on money and appearance, Albee is trying to show how superficial the American Dream is through symbolic characters.

Quotes:

“While everybody’s got what he wants…or everybody’s got what he thinks he wants”

            -This summarizes the whole play very nicely. Throughout the duration of the play Mommy and Daddy are searching for what they want, and at the end they finally believe they found it in the Young Man.

“They wanted satisfaction. They wanted their money back. That’s all they wanted”

            -This quote really drives home the point that all satisfaction is is money.

Death of a Salesman

Setting: Willy’s home in a large city in the post world war two era.

Style: There is a lot of symbolism in the book that relate to Willy’s increasing failure to take care of his family. The primary symbol is Linda’s stockings that he gives to other women. There is also a lot of imagery such as Willy planting seeds in the back yard during the night that all relate to Willy’s increasing level of insanity.

Characters: Willy is stuck in the past and as a result struggles in the present. He cheats on his wife, decides his kids’ jobs for them, is extremely controlling. However, he truly does care about his family and wants what’s best for them. Unfortunately, what he thinks is best for them they do not think is best for themselves. Linda is a very caring and lovable wife. She does everything in her power to keep the family together, which is extremely hard because of Willy’s personality. She is loyal to Willy throughout her whole life. Biff is an athlete and Willy’s favorite child. Willy wants Biff to follow in his footsteps as a salesman, but Biff does not want to. This causes a lot of tension in the house. Happy is Willy and Linda’s other child. He is largely ignored by them. All Happy wants is his parents attention and for them to recognize his existence.

Plot: Willy is trying to provide for his family but with age begins to fall out of his salesman prime. As a result he turns to cheating on his wife with secretaries so he can get business deals. When his son Biff discovers this, Biff is completely torn that his father is cheating on his wife. Willy wants his son Biff to follow in his footsteps, but Biff wants to go another direction. As a result, there is a lot of fighting in the Loman household. Eventually Willy takes his own life to help his family finish the mortgage on the house.

Theme: The capitalist world has forced men to struggle and act in irrational ways to put food on the table for their families. Men are then so focused on providing for their families they lose sight of what is actually important in life.

Quotes:

"Isn't that - isn't that remarkable? Biff - he likes me!"

            -Willy says this after a fight between him and Biff. This quote does a great job of summarizing how awful Willy and Biff’s relationship is because Willy is surprised that his own son likes him.

“Nobody dast blame this man. You don’t understand: Willy was a salesman, there is no rock bottom to the life. He don’t put a bolt to a nut, he don’t tell you the law or give you medicine. He’s a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine.”

            -This quote does a good job of explaining what Willy was going through. He was out in a huge world by himself, searching desperately for a way to survive and provide.

Ceremony

Setting: Laguna-Pueblo reservation in the American southwest after World War II.

Style: Ceremony is written in an extremely unique way that incorporates the native’s culture. It is written like a web that Spider Women spun. Tayo is trying to untangle his life, so the story becomes clearer as it progresses. At the start of the novel, it jumps to significant events all throughout Tayo’s life that are years apart. At the end, it follows his life day by day in a very clear manner.

Characters: The main character in Ceremony is Tayo. Tayo is part Native American, and struggles to be part of one culture throughout the whole novel. After World War II, where he experienced being accepted, he returns to the reservation where life is the same. His life is in pieces and he spends the duration of the novel sorting it out. Emo is the primary antagonist in Ceremony. He is a raging alcoholic that dislikes Tayo, mainly because Tayo is still connected to the Native American society and is a voice of reason. Betonie is a medicine man that guides Tayo throughout the Ceremony and helps him get is life back on track.

Plot: Tayo and his friends are torn between two cultures which causes a lot of tension in Ceremony. Tayo struggles with alcohol and post dramatic stress syndrome after World War II. Ceremony is about Tayo untangling his life and getting it back on track with the guidance of Betonie, the medicine man.

Theme: The Western European idea of Manifest Destiny caused a number of consequences and hardships in the Native American community, the least of which is a loss of land. Natives had to deal with tremendous pressures to assimilate to the Western European cultures and the effects of the forced conformity. Silko is advocating for the acceptance of both cultures.

Quotes:

“She sighed, and laid her head back on the chair. ‘It seems like I already heard these stories before—only thing is, the names sound different.”

            -This quote does a good job of showing Tayo’s slow transformation and his life becoming clearer. The same things happen throughout time, it is just how you interpret them that make a significant difference.

“But after the white people came, elements in the world began to shift; and it became necessary to create new ceremonies. I have made changes in the rituals. The people mistrust this greatly, but only this growth keeps the ceremonies strong”

            -This quote does a good job of describing only a small portion of the impact of the Western Europeans on the Native American Culture.

Pride and Prejudice

Setting: England in the early 1800’s.

Style: Pride and Prejudiced in written in 3^rd person in old American English. It is a love story after all, so the tone is romantic.

Characters: The main characters in the story are Elizabeth and Darcy. Elizabeth is a very proud woman and knows what she wants in life. She refuses to follow the societal norm of getting married just for money, but rather wants to marry a man that she loves. Darcy is a very wealthy man that is very stuck up initially and does not like to socialize. At first, this turns Elizabeth away from him, but eventually they fall in love. Mrs. Bennet’s sole focus in life is to get all of her daughters married. This could be considered foolish and bad parenting, or good parenting. Depends at how you look at it. Mr. Bennet supports his daughters’ decisions no matter if they are good or bad. Jane Bennet is the prettiest of the sisters.

Plot: Pride and Prejudice is about the notion that women have to get married for money, not for love. The main character, Elizabeth Bennet refuses to marry for any other reason than she loves the person. This causes some tension between her and her mother, but her dad is very supportive.  In the end, she finds a man that she initially disliked because she thought he was a stuck up jerk.

Theme: Austen is criticizing marriage in the 1800 society because people often got married for the soul purpose of money instead of love. She is trying to show through Elizabeth that it is possible to stick to your morals and find someone who will love you in return, it may just take longer; but in the end you’ll be happier.

Quotes:

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife”

            -This quote does a good job of summarizing the whole thought process of society in the 1800s. Men with a lot of money want to get married to a good wife.

“She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me”.

            -This quote does a good job of showing Darcy’s initially prejudice and how is very focused on the looks of a woman rather than her personality.

Hamlet

Setting: Denmark in the medieval ages.

Style: The play does not have a narrator. It is written in a very dark, eerie style. Denmark is at war, the king has mysteriously been murdered and his wife quickly remarried. It is a time of great confusion and uncertainty in Denmark.

Characters: The main character is Hamlet. Hamlet spends the whole play planning out how he is going to revenge his fathers’ death. People often debate whether Hamlet is actually insane or is just acting insane throughout the play. Hamlet’s uncle is the main antagonist in the play. He murders Old Hamlet and is out to get Hamlet as the play progresses. He is your typical power-loving, self centered king. Hamlet’s mother is corrupt because she marries Claudius only a few months after the death of her husband.

Plot: After the death of his father and hasty remarriage of his mother, Hamlet is lost in a world that is very unclear. After talking to his fathers ghost and learning how his father died, Hamlet spends the rest of the play out for revenge. Many argue whether or not Hamlet is actually insane, but he at least acts insane. He spends a lot of time alone and thinking and often goes on long, wordy rampages. 

Theme: Shakespeare uses symbols, dialogue between characters and their actions to show that the royalty is corrupt from bottom to top and the consequences of that corruption.

Quotes:

“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”

            -A very famous line from Hamlet. This quote does a good job of introducing the corruption and its extent in the Denmark Royalty.

“To be or not to be. That is the question.”

            -Another famous line from Hamlet, this quote puts Hamlet’s thought process throughout the whole play into one line. Hamlet is so indecisive that it causes some problems for him. 


Fifth Business 
Setting: Late 1960's in Deptford Canada.

Style: The novel has a very interesting format; the narrator is writing to the headmaster of a school trying to justify his life. There is also a lot of symbolism in the novel, and the main character himself is "Fifth Business."

      Characters: Dunstan Ramsay- Dunstan is the narrator of the whole novel. He is trying to justify it to the headmaster. He is “Fifth Business.”  Mary Dempster- Who the main character is in love with. Percy Staunton- Dunstan’s childhood friend.  Liesl Vitzlipützli- Liesl labels  Dunstan as a “Fifth Business”.

Plot: The whole entire novel is a retelling of the main characters life in a letter to the head master trying to justify his life and decisions. In the very beginning of the book Percy hits Mrs. Demptster with a snowball that causes her to have her baby prematurely. This causes a lot of guilt Dunstan later goes to war. He later joins the magic show. Dunstan is called “Fifth Business,” or a character that is just a supporting character; never plays any important rolls. 

Theme: There is already a set story written for your life and you cannot control or alter that story. Accept your roll in life and make the best of it.
Quotes: 

"Percy had been throwing snowballs at me, from time to time, and I had ducked them all; I had a boy's sense of when a snowball was coming, and I knew Percy. I was sure that he would try to land one last, insulting snowball between my shoulders before I ducked into our house."

            -This quote basically lays out the whole entire story ahead. This is right before all the guilt due to the snowball causing a premature labor.

“By himself, by the woman he knew, by the woman he did not know, by the man who granted his wish, and by the inevitable fifth, who was the keeper of his conscience and the keeper of the stone.”

            -This is one of the most important questions of the novel, who killed Boy?

Open Prompt Revisions

1990. Choose a novel or play that depicts a conflict between a parent (or a parental figure) and a son or daughter. Write an essay in which you analyze the sources of the conflict and explain how the conflict contributes to the meaning of the work. Avoid plot summary

It is not uncommon for teenagers and their parents to get into arguments frequently. Teenagers believe that they are right and have a lot of knowledge that their parents do not. That role is reversed in Death of a Salesman. Willy, the father of Biff, thinks that he has Biff's life planned out and knows what Biff desires. The source of conflict in Death of a Salesman is Willy's deteriorating life and health as well as his personality. 

Willy was an successful businessman in his prime, but that is because of actions many would consider to be immoral. Willy would have affairs with the secretaries and give them stockings for his business. When Willy began to get older, his business goes down hill. As result, his already fragile relationship with his sons takes a turn for the worse. There are a lot of similarities between Willy and Biff in Death of a Salesman. He and Linda ignore their other son. Willy tries to "relive the glory days" through his son. He attempts to get him to become a businessman and follow in his own footsteps. Biff, however, has already decided the path and it is quite different than what Willy imagined. The source for the relationship problems with Willy and his son, Biff, are that Willy's life and business are degrading and he tries to live his life through Biff. 

The struggle between Willy and Biff is the source of the main idea and meaning of this book. Death of Salesmen is about the struggle to find who you are and going against the grain. During this time period, after World War II, was the age of conformity. Everyone was buying, driving, wearing, saying, doing etc... the same thing. Biff goes against the mold and walks down a different path than his father. Willy and Happy represent the American Dream and conformity, while Biff represents the free west and being an individual.

1995. Writers often highlight the values of a culture or a society by using characters who are alienated from that culture or society because of gender, race, class, or creed. Choose a novel or a play in which such a character plays a significant role and show how that character's alienation reveals the surrounding society's assumptions or moral values.

            The “American dream” is often criticized by people across the globe. Many argue that the American dream is fake because people get caught up in satisfaction and what they want. In the play “The American Dream” by Albee, Ablee highlights the flaws of the American dream by portraying a typical American couple while also showing another character, Grandma, as a sane human. This contrast and alienation of Grandma reveals Mommy and Daddy’s flaws and the overall flaws of the American Dream.

            Mommy and Daddy represent the American family who is trying to achieve the American Dream. All they want is satisfaction from each other and other people. As a result they are naive to many things and lack traits. Daddy succumbs to Mommy’s command and does not have a voice for himself. He often repeats what Mommy says just to reinforce it. Daddy also often forgets things told to him seconds before. This strange habit of Daddy shows the audience and reader that he only hears what he wants to hear and ignores others and has a auto response.

            Much like Daddy, Mommy is focused on herself and what others think of her. At the beginning of the play she returns the hat just to buy the same hat so people are satisfied. Mommy also controls Daddy and is the dominate one in the relationship.

            Grandma is the only voice of reason. It is through Grandma that we fully understand how insecure Mommy and Daddy are. This is clearly show at the end of the play when Grandma breaks the forth wall and tells the audience the play is over. Grandma ends the play because everyone has what they think they want. This is significant because Grandma is telling us that Mommy and Daddy think they are satisfied with the Young Man, while Grandma knows that the only reason they are satisfied is because he is empty on the inside but looks stunning on the outside.  Because Mommy and Daddy represent the American couple, Grandma is indirectly saying that the American dream is peoples desire to look good and be accepted.



1973. An effective literary work does not merely stop or cease; it concludes. In the view of some critics, a work that does not provide the pleasure of significant closure has terminated with an artistic fault. A satisfactory ending is not, however, always conclusive in every sense; significant closure may require the reader to abide with or adjust to ambiguity and uncertainty. In an essay, discuss the ending of a novel or play of acknowledged literary merit. Explain precisely how and why the ending appropriately or inappropriately concludes the work. Do not merely summarize the plot.

There are numerous plays, movies, novels, and poems on the idea of the "American dream.” The play uses theater of the absurd elements to make it harder to understand and it tests your comprehension.
"The American Dream" ends when Grandma speaks to the audience. She says that everyone in the play thinks they have what they want and it would be a good place to end the play. This is an appropriate ending because the play is about getting satisfaction. Mommy and Daddy make many hins throughout the play that they are not satisfied with their lives, often relating it to the idea that you cannot do anything to change your satisfaction.

Grandma ends the play when the Young Man comes to Mommy and Daddy's house. This was a perfect time to end the play because the Young Man has no feelings, but he looks gorgeous and on the outside appears to be the perfect child. Grandma stops the play now because she realizes that the Young Man is the child that Mommy and Daddy wanted from the beginning. They finally get the satisfaction they have wanted the entire play. Grandma even says everyone has what they wanted, or has what they think they wanted. 
Grandma wraps up the play at the ideal time because everyone in the play thinks they are satisfied, something Mommy and Daddy have been looking for most of their lives. It is a unusual for a character in play to tell the audience that the play is over. What is extremely strange is that Grandma is able to break the fourth wall; that is to be on stage without Mommy and Daddy seeing her. The significance of this could possibly mean that Grandma is acting as the director in this play. She controls who enters, the Young Man looking for work, and when the play finally ends.


2002. Morally ambiguous characters -- characters whose behavior discourages readers from identifying them as purely evil or purely good -- are at the heart of many works of literature. Choose a novel or play in which a morally ambiguous character plays a pivotal role. Then write an essay in which you explain how the character can be viewed as morally ambiguous and why his or her moral ambiguity is significant to the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.

            When you are a hobbit blinding walking through the land of middle earth while trying to reach a destination quickly, a guide would be extremely helpful. That is exactly what Gollum is to Frodo Baggins and his best friend Sam. Despite Gollum’s intentions, he does guide the two hobbits to their destination quite well. Gollum is a morally ambiguous character because while he does guide the two protagonists to the land of Sauron, his ultimate goal is to still get the ring for himself.

            Depending on how you look at it, Frodo and Sam stumbling upon Gollum can be considered a fortune or yet another creature that they must conqueror. Gollum is not purely evil. Hundreds of years ago he was a hobbit called Sméagol. Hobbits are a genuinely nice race that enjoys their peaceful, rural life. Gollum was tortured for days by Sauron in attempt to find out the current location of the ring. And finally Sméagol, despite his intentions, did lead Frodo to Sauron’s kingdom where he ended up destroying the one ring. It is not unreasonable to come to the conclusion that Frodo would have not achieved his goal without Gollum’s and Sam’s guide.

           Gollum is also extremely far from being purely good. His greed and desire for the ring led him to transform from a hobbit to a hideous creature. In fact, after one of his friends found the ring while they were fishing on Sméagol’s birthday, Sméagol ending up strangulating his friend to death because of his desire for the ring. Sméagol also plots to turn Frodo on Sam. Numerous times throughout the story he attempts to frame Sam for various things that would upset Frodo; one example is Sméagol made it appear like Sam had eaten the rest of the already scarce food in the middle of the night. And finally, right before Frodo is going to destroy the right, Gollum jumps in and tries to murder Sam and Frodo and steal the ring.

            Gollum plays an extremely important role in the Lord of the Rings series because he adds another plot line to the already tangled plot. Without Gollum, Sam and Frodo would have never reached Mordor. At the same time however, he is yet another task the two hobbits must overcome. He tries to manipulate Frodo into turning against Sam. Gollum represents how greed and an unhealthy desire for power can lead to a transformation of a personality. Gollum is also an example of how evil and powerful Sauron truly is.

Synthesis of Course Material

Synthesis of Course Material

            #1: One of the main components of AP Literature so far is writing essays. One type of essay we have been practicing writing is the open prompt. For open prompts, you do not have a specific piece of work in front of you that you are analyzing. Rather, the prompt asks a sophisticated question and you have to use you knowledge of books we have read to try and answer your question. Throughout the year, we have been studying ways to best tackle the prompt and get as many points as possible. Before we even start writing, there are many things that need to be done with the prompt to help our essay formulate in our head that will most accurately answer the question. There are four main things in the prompt that we must find and highlight immediately; goals, techniques, effects and meaning. Often, the prompt will exclude meaning, which is why it is referred to as the “hidden meaning question.” It is essential to answer the hidden meaning in the essay to achieve a good score. When you finally are able to start writing, we have learned that it is essential that your thesis answers the prompt, or TAP. “If the whole entire essay was removed besides the thesis, the prompt would still be answered.”

 The second type of essay we have been spending a lot of time on is the closed prompt. A closed prompt is different from an open prompt because you are analyzing a piece of literature that is in front of you. One of the first things we learned this year in AP Lit was D.I.D.L.S., or diction, imagery, details, language, and syntax. D.I.D.L.S are all components of literature that you can analyze is any piece of work. When writing a closed prompt, we were taught that you should at least analyze three of them. Similar to the open prompt, it is essential to relate D.I.D.L.S to the overall meaning of the work and how D.I.D.L.S enhances it.

#2: The majority of our AP class has been spent on reading novels and plays and annotating them. We also dedicate a significant amount of class time to discussions on the books. While Ms. Holmes does try to pose some questions for us to consider, the discussions are mostly lead by the class. I think this is a great way to have class because it forces students to look deeper into the novels and not have their hand held and pointed in the right direction.

            So far in class we have read The American Dream, Death of a Salesman, Ceremony, Pride and Prejudice and Hamlet. Each piece of literature has been very unique and challenged us to think in a particular manner. The American Dream was my first introduction to the theatre of the absurd. It is a very abstract concept that challenged me to think a little more outside the box and think like a playwright. Many things that I previously took for granted in a play, such as stage directions and how the stage was set up, now seemed much more important and meaningful. To me, Death of a Salesman seemed much more like a mainstream play from the post-war era. The play focused on this idea of the American dream and what people will do for their family. The main character of the story, Willy, goes to extreme limits to put food on the table and provide for his family. Ceremony really challenged me to think from a different cultures perspective. The novel focused on a Native American struggling after returning from World War II. Ceremony also focuses a lot on the assimilation of Native Americans into Western European culture. The only novel that we have read so far that I really disliked is Pride and Prejudiced. I could be completely missing something, but I did not really pull anything special from it and it seemed like a middle school drama more than a sophisticated novel. Finally, we just finished Hamlet. Like most of Shakespeare’s plays, Hamlet is extremely sophisticated.  The play has really challenged me to focus on what I previously thought to be minute details. One that particular that stands out is the play starting off with a question. Before Ms. Holmes even brought that to my attention, I thought absolutely nothing of it.

#3: Specifically before the final, we spent a lot of time on vocabulary. Vocabulary is vital for many reasons, not just doing well on a final in an AP Lit class or an AP Exam. Having a larger vocabulary can help us better understand a piece of work and what it is trying to convey. It gives more tools to help us unravel meanings in literary works.

There were seven categories of vocabulary totaling about 100 words that we had to learn. The seven categories were basic-level review, comedy terms, terms related to the novel, poetry terms, drama terms, rhetoric terms and miscellaneous advanced terms.

#4: AP Lit is an AP class after all. Therefore, we must focus some on the multiple choice portion of the test. Earlier in the year we spent a couple weeks practicing multiple choice questions. We even wrote some questions ourselves and had other groups in the class try to answer them. There are five types of questions; style, context, tone, rhetorical and antecedent. I am sure we will be spending more time with these questions later in the class when the AP exam is closer. We have spent the smallest amount of time on this section compared to the other three, but the other three contribute and aid us with the multiple choice portion of the exam.