Glengarry Glen Ross Analysis

Vocabulary Words:

* Dreck: worthless trash; junk

* Polacks: a highly offensive term for a Polish person or somebody of Polish descent

* Supercilious: displaying arrogant pride, scorn, or indifference

* Thrall: domination; somebody whose life is controlled

* Amassing: gathering together

* Inured: hardened to somebody or something

* Wogs: a highly offensive term for a member of any people who have dark skin

Overall, I found this first half of the play to be very interesting. Neither of my parents have jobs in sales nor I have not taken any business classes so far at Clemson so this world is fairly foreign to me. One of the things that stood out most to me while reading was the repetition of the “f” word. It even had a numbing effect from being used so frequently. Mamet uses this repetition in order to convey to the reader the stress of the lives of the characters and show just how much the leads mean to them.

In the first scene, Levene is trying to persuade Williamson to give him a good lead. He says, “Do I want charity? Do I want pity? I want sits. I want leads don’t come right out of a phone book. Give me a lead hotter than that, I’ll go in and close it. Give me a chance. That’s all I want.” Part of me felt like Levene was being manipulative in trying to convince Williamson to break the rules and give him a good lead but another part of me was really able to empathize with Levene. The “board” of good sellers just sets the stage for a difficult cycle. If you don’t sell, you don’t get on the board, and if you don’t get on the board, you don’t get the good leads, which means it is even less likely that you will be able to make good sales. This system reminded me in a way of something we are talking about in my sociology class called stratification. There are different types of stratification but in particular we studied the Caste system in India, where people find themselves stuck in the class that they are born into; class mobility is extremely limited. Like someone in the Caste system, Levene finds himself stuck, and he feels as if his only option is to break the rules.

In the second scene, Moss is trying to manipulate Aaronow into robbing the office and stealing the good leads. Manipulation proves to be an important theme in the play, although Moss’ manipulation is portrayed to the reader as being more immoral that Levene’s. Moss expresses his frustration with the system, “you find yourself in thrall to someone else. And we enslave ourselves. To please.” He is unhappy with being the “lower man on the totem pole,” so to speak, and he desires upward mobility. Really, his desires are essentially the same as Levene’s, but instead of trying to reason with another employee like Levene did, he threatened Aaronow into robbing the office to fulfill his own selfish wishes.

Mamet presents a contrast in the third scene with Roma when George asks him what he should tell the police. Roma replies, “The truth, George. Always tell the truth. It’s the easiest thing to remember.” After two scenes of manipulation, Mamet finally introduces truth. This definitely stuck out to me about Roma and I am interested to see how his character develops in the remainder of the play.

At the intersection of the past and future: The Same River Twice Analysis Part 2

Building on my first blog, where I discussed Offutt’s use of the theme “nothing lasts forever,” in this part of the novel, Offutt continues to show the reader that his youth is coming to an end. Fatherhood is often associated with maturity, and responsibility. It is also associated with selflessness; a father works to provide for his family, and takes little for himself. Offutt expresses his reluctance to see his “free” days end, “I envy its reckless lifestyle-the solitary animal seeking fun like the romanticized single man, perpetual bachelor, the lone-wolf cowboy of books and film. The beauty of the coyote is its inability to ponder the past. It is happy in a pack or on its own, honoring the moon, the cycle of women. Very soon my freedom will end. No one is perfect but fathers are expected to be.” During his single days, he was free to explore the world, to be with whomever he wanted.

Rita’s pregnancy has not only made him realize that these days are over, but it has also taken the attention off of him. He says, “Rita is the focus of our lives, her belly the pinpoint. I feel the futility of a laid-off worker, the fading sense of being useful.” Offutt uses the switching between the scenes with Shadrack and the scenes with Rita to contrast his “old life” with his new life, and the life that awaits him after his child is born. His days with Shadrack were carefree, and his new life requires him to assume responsibility and leadership. Although Offutt wishes for a son, he says, “a daughter makes more sense because I’m liable to do more damage to a son.” His sense of not feeling needed during Rita’s pregnancy, and his belief that all of the attention is focused on her has left his feeling inadequate. He says, “The seminal stage of family is already pushing me aside.”

When he thinks about the chance that something could go wrong with the birth, he says, “I don’t know which would be worse-losing my mate or raising a child alone. The obvious answer pummels me with shame. My concerns for Rita’s mortality have little to do with her. I want her alive to make life easier for me.” These are the lines that stuck out most to me while reading this part of the novel because they are simply so shocking. Offutt is not a bad person, but rather he is reflecting on his circumstances and he feels as if he is trapped. All of his thinking about his younger days and the fact that he knows that the baby is coming, whether he wants it or not has gotten him worried, and wondering if he has done everything he wanted to do during his “free” days before they are over.

Vocabulary Words:

Incessant: unceasing

Proffering: hold something out; propose something

Renegade: traitor; rebel

Surreptitiously: trying to avoid being noticed

Incredulity: disbelief

"The Same River Twice" Analysis Part 1

One thing that I noticed while reading the first part of this novel is that Chris Offutt uses an underlying fleeting theme to convey to the reader his belief that nothing lasts forever. The first time he introduces this theme is early on, when he describes life on the Iowa River. He says, “people owned their homes but not the land.” While they did partake in ownership, because the land was prone to floods, there was a sense that Mother Nature could destroy the homes unexpectedly. He also describes how Iowa is one of the top agricultural states in the nation. He goes on to say, “Farmers have used the land so long that the richest soil in the nation is just old dirt.” Even though the soil is the best in the nation, even it is not able to sustain crops forever.

While he first describes nature as fleeting with the flood plains and the tired soil, he transitions to discuss how time itself, and the events and relationships one experiences in their life, are also fleeting. He describes his job, “what began as an adherence to freedom became an inability to hold a job.” Jobs can be difficult to keep, due to different demands, both mental and physical, and the degree to which we are able to continue meeting these demands. In this case, while he moved, which can be associated with freedom, he was not able to hold his job. While reflecting back on his past, he says, “My youth was behind me, not misspent exactly, but squandered to a certain extent.” Although he is not unhappy with the way his youth way spent, there is no question that it is over. Youth, like other things, may be described as being “fleeting.” Lastly, Offutt uses contrast though Jahi’s dialogue…“Write down everything I say,” she said. “Make me live forever.” Jahi knows that nothing lasts forever, but she, like many tries to fight it. We often try to fight signs of aging, make the most of our time, and to preserve earth we live on. Jahi hopes that if she is written about in the journal, then it will allow her to be remembered.

Vocabulary Words:

1. Squandered: use something wastefully

2. Intangible: something unquantifiable

3. Impediment: impairment; obstacle

4. Saboteur: somebody who sabotages

5. Guttural: gruff-sounding

6. Labyrinth: confusing network; something very complicated

7. Matriculate: somebody enrolled; student

8. Recalcitrant: resisting authority

Emergency by Denis Johnson Analysis

Vocab Words:

Orderly: assistant in the hospital

Gurney: wheeled hospital stretcher

Austere: plain and without luxury

Saplings: small trees

Johnson uses irony in “Emergency” through his portrayal of the health care professionals. A doctor is the highest rank achievable in the medical field. However, in this story, the doctor acts very unprofessional. Instead of tending to the patient, he calls on Georgie, (who he knows is on drugs) to tend to the patient, and says, “I dialed the hospital operator and told her to get me the eye man and the brain man and the gas man.” He does not use correct terminology and he puts his work off on other people. There is a contrast in that Georgie, the one who lack professional training and who is high on drugs, is the one who removes the knife from the man’s head. Johnson confirms this role reversal in the last line of the story, when Hardee asked Georgie, “What do you do for a job?” and Georgie said, “I save lives.”

Johnson also uses drugs as a major theme in the story. He uses this theme to portray drugs in both positive and negative lights. Drugs cause Georgie to think about deep and moral matters, such as church and worship. The story reads, “”I want to go to church,” Georgie said. “Let’s go to the country fair.” “I’d like to worship. I would.” “They have these injured hawks and eagles there. From the Humane Society,” I said. “I need a quiet chapel about now.” The drugs bring out a deeper and more pensive side of Georgie. On the other hand, they also cause him to be more primal, as with the rabbit example…“A jackrabbit scurried in front of us, and we hit it….He threw the truck in reverse and zigzagged back toward the rabbit. “Where’s my hunting knife?” He almost ran over the poor animal a second time….In a minute he was standing at the edge of the fields, cutting the scrawny little thing up, tossing away its organs.” Through this example, Johnson reveals the negative side of drugs; that they can cause you to do things that you would regret and find repulsive while sober.

Lastly, there is a transition that exists in the last page of the story involving the narrator. The majority of the story, the narrator is not participating; he is observing the doctor and nurse in the hospital, he is observing Georgie clean the floors, and then he agrees to go on the adventure with Georgie, but he lets Georgie take the lead. He is present, but he is not really involved in life. In the last page, however, he picks up Hardee and the reader catches a brief glimpse into their relationship. In the final line, Hardee asks Georgie what he does for a job and Georgie says, “I save lives.” interpreted this line to mean that Georgie was also going to “save” the narrator’s life in that he would help him to stop simply observing life and start really living it.