How I learned to Drive

Paula Vogel's How I Learned to Drive jumps around in time with a great deal of purpose. The play has several mainstays, one of which is the "Men, Sex and Woman" conversations. The conversations about women, sex and men with the Female and Teenage Greek choruses, who portray her very unhelpful mother and grandmother, tell the audience the kind of "advice" that Li'l Bit has been given on these subjects. Clearly her relationship with her uncle, and all the intimacy and abuse that it included, isn't the only thing that warped her views on relationships between men and women. The conversations also tell the audience that abuse isn't the only vicious cycle that appears in this play.

Li'l Bit is being talked to by two generations of women who are told that any sexual abuse is their fault, and help will not be available when they need it. In part II, mother confronts grandmother, yelling that if she had been given any useful advice about sex, she wouldn't have had to marry Li'l Bit's horrible father. "You could have helped me! You could have told me something about the facts of life!" And the male Greek chorus, as grandfather, answers "You made your bed, now lie on it." The conversations also indicate that Li'l Bit has been taught to not have the highest opinion of men. She has a grandfather who stole her grandmother away at fifteen, and a grandmother who describes men as "big bulls" and thinks that orgasm is a myth. And she has a mother who thinks that "men are like children" and that "they'd still be crouched on their haunches over a fire in a cave if we hadn't cleaned them up." The last "On Men, Sex and Women" conversation is a conclusion of all the messages on sex in the other conversations while also analyzing why she doesn't hate Peck and commenting on Peck's affection for Playboy.

Fences

Fences explores the life and relationships of the Maxson family.
At the beginning of the script, August Wilson makes certain to mention an important prop placement. A baseball bat leans against the tree. A ball of rags is tied to a branch. Both Troy and his teenage son Cory  practice swinging at the ball. Later on in the play, when the father and son argue, the bat will be turned on Troy - though Troy will ultimately win in that confrontation. Troy Maxson was a great baseball player, at least according to his friend Bono. Although he played brilliantly for the "Negro Leagues," he was not allowed to on the "white" teams, unlike Jackie Robinson. The success of Robinson and other black players is a sore subject for Troy.Baseball serves as Troy's main way of explaining his actions. When he talks about facing death, he uses baseball terminology, comparing a face-off with the grim reaper to a duel between a pitcher and a batter. When he bullies his son Cory, he warns him: "You swung and you missed. That's strike one. Don't you strike out"

 Another conflict in the novel is the conflict between being a Loving Father and being a Providing Father. In the eyes of Troy he feels no need to be a loving father as long as he provides for his children. Troy's kids constantly seek to be approved by him and to see his emotions to assure that he loves them. This reflection on society is another generational commentary in that the older generation saw more value in providing and teaching while the younger generation saw more value in emotional connections.

More Spooool- Krapp's Last Tape Continued...

As I was confused with what to blog for this week, I decided to write more explanation about Krapp's Last Tape. The play itself becomes more meaningful as one reads it for the second time. When I read the play for the first time last week, I was confused with the opening scenes of the play. This time, the play seemed more meaningful even with the words that did not make sense in the first place. The most astounding thing one notices about Krapp's Last Tape is the manner in which the three Krapps relate to each other. It is quite right to note that the three Krapps are entirely separate from one another, enough so that they become wholly separate entities. The young, middle-aged, and old Krapp are, at least while listening to the tapes, entirely separate people. It is not incorrect to note that, while the actions of the younger two Krapps directly influence the state of the eldest Krapp, while isolated via the tapes, each Krapp is, at least apparently, an entirely different person.

What one learns from Krapp's Last Tape applies to the self, and to everyone, it is a commentary on memory itself. When it is realized that, in memory, each and every event, each person that is thought of or imagined, is entirely separate from any related event, person, or imagining thereof. Krapp demonstrates that a person is a unique and separate individual at every point in time. Beckett seems to be showing that it is not enough to simply thing of an individual by name, but also by time and action. It is not enough to simply name a person, as that person may be entirely different depending on the time of reference. If one was to talk about "Krapp," the question arises: which Krapp? The young Krapp? The elder Krapp? A Krapp that you did not hear on the tape? Only through careful consideration can this be resolved. Besides looking at the lecture notes, I also decided to see this clip which was helpful to see the emotion that Beckett portrayed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOUf5etSTRo

Krapp's Last Tape

Krapp's Last Tape captures the past and present of the only character, Krapp, who is listening to a recording made thirty years earlier. The play was required us to imagine most of the stories that might have happened with Krapp and it must have been a unique experience for audiences who actually went to see the play. Unlike other plays, Krapp's Last Tape did not have a strong plotline, rather had flashbacks of events that were included within text. It was somewhat confusing to understand the play and the purpose of it on a broader scale. I think that Samuel Beckett wrote the play to emphasize the importance of small events in our lives and how each decision that we make have a huge impact on our future. As I was reading the play, I was thinking that anyone can be in Krapp's position of looking back at the past and regretting about the things that we have done wrong. As we grow older, our perspective of things change and we look back thinking if we made a better choice how different our lives would be. Krapp seems to be a character that lives a solitary life while reminiscing a lot about his old years.  The younger Krapp’s hope of sacrificing his life to become a successful writer has not been realized. The older Krapp’s attention is visibly occupied in trying to recapture an experience, heard from the taped voice, of lovemaking in a punt on a lake. This incident of Krapp attempting to savor his past experiences contrasts severely with his decision to remain alone to pursue his work. I think someone like Krapp probably tries to keep a distance from the attachments of relationship as he lets the situation taking control of his life. This can be exemplified when he was talking about his mother’s death and how was playing with the black ball gave the ball away to the dog even though he could keep it. The lines that specifically alludes to the submissive nature of Krapp are, “A small, old, black, hard, solid rubber ball……I might have kept it…But I gave it to the dog.”

The Cherry Orchard

The Cherry Orchard is very different from any other play; it is certainly not a type of comedy. On the same note, the play is not a tragedy either since it does not contain certain of its important characteristics, namely death. But we do not necessarily require death to call the play a tragedy. Marriage might have compelled us to call the play a comedy, but this too does not happen, although there are floating proposals around the place. On the other hand, some characters beg us to empathize with them, which is an indication of tragedy. To an extent, the character of Firs, Gaev and Tofimov can be called comic since they help add a sense of light-hearted humour to the play. As a result, Lyubov’s comedy is diminished as she is the only character, besides Lopakhin, who really shows genuine concern about the cherry orchard. There is undoubtedly an emotional attachment that works at the psychological level between the family members and the cherry orchard. Mrs. Ranevsky in particular cannot come to terms with her reality and refuses to accept her son’s death. Referring the orchard to as a ‘nursery’ serves to maintain this gloomy sentimentality in Mrs. Ranevsky’s mind. In the end, we are justified in calling The Cherry Orchard a mixture of tragedy and comedy, as it contains prominent elements of both.