American Dream Summary

Author: Edward Albee

Setting: Living room- two armchairs, sofa, door, archway

Plot: Mommy and Daddy sit in their armchairs complaining that "they" are late. Mommy says that she can't ever get satisfaction and that no one ever can. Grandma comes in with her neatly wrapped boxes and throws them on the ground. She says that no one talks to old people because old people just get angry and no one respects them because they are falling apart. Mommy is rich because she married Daddy and she has earned the right to his money because they had sex. When the doorbell rings, Grandma asks if it is the van man; it's Mrs. Barker. Mommy offers her a drink, cigarette and chance to cross her legs. She then asks Mrs. Barker to remove her dress; she does so. Daddy gets "sticky wet". Grandma says that the boxes have nothing to do with Mrs. Barker, and Mommy calls her a liar. Daddy goes to break Grandma's TV, and Mommy goes to get water. Neither can find anything. Grandma explains how a couple like Mommy and Daddy came to Bye-Bye Adoption service to get a "bumble". The bumble had its arms, hands, tongue, penis cut off because it was misbehaving. Mrs. Barker doesn't understand so she leaves. The Young Man enters and Grandma is very interested. She calls him the American Dream. He says he'll do anything for money; Grandma says she's got a job for him. The Young Man escorts Grandma to the elevator. Mommy, Daddy, and Mrs. Barker celebrate on getting satisfaction. Grandma tells the audience to leave things they way they are while people think they think they want, then bids the audience goodnight.

Characters:

• Mommy
• Daddy
• Grandma
• Young Man
• Mrs. Barker

Narrative Voice: Mommy is rude most of the time to Grandma and Daddy. Only a few times in the play does she act feminine and let Daddy become a masculine husband. And only once does she care about Grandma, when Grandma finally leaves. Daddy is feminine and does as others say. He is confused and demasulinated. He also stands up for Grandma most of the play. Grandma is upset and angry with everyone who ignores her. She gets angered when she talks about old people. Mrs. Barker just kind of goes along with whatever is going along. She becomes confused whenever Grandma confronts her, but doesn't ever correct Mommy. Her and Mommy have a power struggle. Because the Young Man is only there for part of the play, he isn't really given a distinct voice. He just goes along with what Grandma has instructed him to do.

STYLE
1. Point of View: First person; all characters interact with each other; there is no outsider telling the story; because it is a play, there is no way to really tell if an outsider is looking in and telling the story

2. Tone: Mommy and Daddy are consumed by materialistic things and do not care about anything but what is front of their faces. Albee wants us to see that they are careless and what we look like as a community adopting the new dream. Grandma is trying to get them to be less materialistic and not let the old dream slip away. Albee wants us to see how the old dream is just slipping away without any care or mention of it. Mrs. Barker begins to side with Grandma but ends up siding with Mommy and Daddy in the end. We are supposed to notice how she moves from one dream to another. Albee wants us to like the Young Man because he is the materialistic dream. But he also wants us to notice the lack of value he has.

3. Imagery: 

• The hat scenario- creates a picture 
• all imagery adds detail to the story
• Mommy's banana shaped-head = dick head, masculine
• Daddy like an old house = falling apart, useless, feminine
• Grandma's pie contest. 

4. Symbolism: 

• Grandma - American Dream- has values
• Young Man- New Dream- materialistic, no values, 
• Mommy- masculine, role reversal (Daddy- feminine)
• Co-modification- sex, kids
• Boxes- old dream being replaced, Grandma's life
• Daddy- deformity, has women parts, feminine, doesn't know what is best

QUOTES:
1. " GRANDMA: When you get old, you can't talk to people because people snap at you. That's why you become deaf, so you won't be able to hear people talking to you that way That's why old people die, eventually. People talk to them that way." 
Importance: Old people are no longer seen as wise. Everyone just puts them in nursing homes, a place for old people to die. The American Dream is also this way. No one sees the importance and just let it slip away. Nobody cared. It just falls apart like an old person and get's discarded, like an old person would be out in a nursing home. Old people die because no one care. The American Dream died because no one cared.  

2. "MOMMY: WHAT a masculine Daddy! Isn't he a masculine Daddy?"
Importance: This is really the only time in the play where Mommy notices Daddy as a masculine figure. He is given power and becomes a real husband. It also the only time where we see sexual tension. And just as it hits its climax and we think things will happen, Grandma comes in a interrupts. Daddy then is emasculated. 

3. "GRANDMA: Then it turned out it only had eyes for Daddy. 
MRS. BARKER: For its Daddy! Why, any self-respecting woman would have gouged those eyes right out of its head. 
GRANDMA: Well, she did. That's exactly what she did."
Importance: This is an exaggeration of the co-modification that we have come to by adapting the materialistic dream. After adopting "the bumble" and it misbehaves, Mommy and Daddy cut off its limbs, gouge its eyes out, and cut of its penis. This is put in to show how we co-modify things that shouldn't be co-modified. We put labels on our children and they become objects instead of actual people.

Theme: One theme in The American Dream by Edward Albee is the American Dream itself and how we have come to adapt the new materialistic dream. While Grandma represents the old dream, the Young Man represents the new dream. Throughout the whole play Mommy and Daddy are uninterested and disrespect Grandma. Grandma always talks about how old people just aren't cared about and are always scolded for things they can't help. The Young Man comes to replace Grandma as as the new materialistic dream and no one cares or really even notices once Grandma leaves.

Close Reading- Number Two

Darkness and Death, No Magic to Help
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/27/books/book-review-the-casual-vacancy-by-j-k-rowling.html

     In this article there is great diction detail. Michiko Kakutani's use of diction really helps create the mood for the book review. Her word choice is wonderful and while she is saying that this isn't a good book, I am still sort of interested in reading it.
     Kakutani doesn't just come out right away and say this is an awful book, don't read it. She starts off with detail and compares The Casual Vacancy to Harry Potter. The comparisons made throughout this article help with adding detail and it isn't just a review saying "this is bad, don't read it." The comparisons give you a reason and something that says "J.K. Rowling can write better than this." In the second to last paragraph, Kakutani explains some of the characters in the book to show you how these characters have no past, nothing behind them to help you through the book. And in the last paragraph, she still compares The Casual Vacancy to Harry Potter and how much better Harry Potter was.
    Throughout this whole article, Kakutani's word choice brings you closer and closer to the idea that this isn't a good book. In the second paragraph she writes "Unfortunately, the real-life world she has limned in these pages is so willfully banal, so depressingly cliched that 'The Casual Vacancy' is not only disappointing -- it's dull." The word choice in this sentence alone captures the tone of this review. She uses not only the more sophisticated words, but the less sophisticated ones also. It's a good mixture.  The words and phrases such as "limned", "willfully banal", and "depressingly cliched"show Kakutani's dislike for this book, and it makes you dislike it as well, and you probably haven't even read the book.
     I could spend all day writing about how her diction brings this review together, and all about how great her word choice is. But I won't bore you with that. Read the article yourself and you will see the diction in this review. And how it affects your thoughts and feelings.

Prompt #2- 2008

2008. In a literary work, a minor character, often known as a foil, possesses traits that emphasize, by contrast or comparison, the distinctive characteristics and qualities of the main character. For example, the ideas or behavior of a minor character might be used to highlight the weaknesses or strengths of the main character. Choose a novel or play in which a minor character serves as a foil for the main character. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the relation between the minor character and the major character illuminates the meaning of the work.

      In The American Dream by Edward Albee, there are charcters that are foils of one another. They also play a large role into the the theme and main idea of the play as a whole. The main character of the play is Grandma, while the minor is Young Man. These two characters are what this play revolves around.
     Grandma is an old woman who lives with her daughter, Mommy, and her daughter's husband, Daddy. Grandma is ignore and seems to be useless and annoying to Mommy and Daddy. Mommy wants nothing to do with her and wants to have her carted off to a nursing home. Daddy doesn't seem to care either way, but he isn't opposed to having her carted off. Young Man is a young, materialistic, your stereotypical, perfect boy. He's attractive, masculine, and everything any girl would ever want.
     Grandma represents the old American dream, while Young Man represents the new American dream. Grandma is falling apart and decrepited. Young Man is every way complete, except he has no values. While Grandma has all these values, and seems to  know everything, and strives for what she wants, Young Man will do anything for money and doesn't care about anything other than materialisitc goods.
    With the two contrasting characters, Albee tries to show how the world is coming to become materialistic. He tries to get across the point that we only see what is right in front of our faces and we are never satisfied. While with the old dream, we had values and strived for what we wanted to be happy. The dream is no longer about what makes you happy and having a family, and the house and car. It has become something where no one is perfect and what color hat you have decides your social superiority.
     These two characters and their values and manner help show what Albee is trying to say about the old dream fading away. At the end of the play, Grandma finally gives up her role as the dream to Young Man and leaves. She then leaves it up to the audience to help the old American Dream live on and strive.

Response to Course Material: Number Two

     We have learned all about The American Dream by Edward Albee. We also learned different ways to critize literature. And we learned how to analyze a piece of poetry for the AP exam. Lastly, we learned about all of the literary movements. One more thing; we learned about allusions.
     Analyzizng the piece of poetry really helped me out. I am not the best at poetry and I was really concerned about having to write a paper about it on the test. While it took us a whole class period to learn how to do it, I am ready to learn how to do it faster. It really made me feel more confident in my ability to analyze poetry.
     When we learned about the literary movements, a lot of it was review. But because I only took American Literature, I didn't know anything about the Victorian time period. Learning about this really helped me. I know can use the literature movements I know, and the ones I didn't know before when categorizing literature.
     When learning about the critical lenses, most of it wasn't review. I had already learned all about them last year in American Lit. One that really  got me was post colonialism. It was a lot to learn. All of the terms really made it harder to get a grasp on, but I think it will help me out in the future.
     Once we went over all of the allusions, I realized I didn't know as much as I though I did. If we hadn't spent class time to go over them, I wouldn't been able to recognize allusions later on in the class, but most importantly for the test. All of the allusions are really going to help me out when trying to analyze literature. Before we learned them, I wouldn't have known what allusions to look for.
     The American Dream was an odd play. I was really lost and confused as to what was happeneing. Well more why, than what. I understood what was going on but all of it was so different, I wasn't ready for it. Once we started reading packets about the play, and how it was analyzed, things became so much more clear to me. The play made so much more sense and I understood why Edward Albee did what he did. What threw me the most was how Albee showed Grandma as the old american dream, and the Young Man as the new american dream. I am excited to learn more about the play because I still don't know how other characters fit into this play.