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.

The Crying of Lot 49 Chapter 5 Analysis

There was a significant transition with respect to Oedipa in chapter 5; Pynchon really showed the tables turning on her. Prior to her being named executrix, Oedipa was portrayed as carefree and easygoing. Although it was only a small part of the first page that describes her prior actions, it says, “One summer afternoon Mrs. Oedipa Maas came home from a Tupper-ware party whose hostess had put perhaps too much kirsch in the fondue…” Even in this one sentence, the fact that it is summertime, she is at a tupper-ware party, and there was alcohol in the fondue gives the reader the perception that Oedipa is likely is a housewife that does not have a lot to worry about.

In the progression of the novel, through a series of actions such as having an affair with Metzger, leaving her home, and just in general being irresponsible, Oedipa is portrayed as acting without giving thought to consequence. It is in Chapter 5, however, that Oedipa begins to see a more serious side of life. It is in this chapter that she is really presented with the issue of decrypting the muted post horn and the play, her husband has gotten into heavy drug use, and her doctor has also gone crazy. She has never really been confronted with these types of problems before and Pynchon uses these series of events to develop her into a more dynamic character.

I also thought it was interesting how the references to drugs and altered mental states continued. When you are on drugs, things are not as they appear and Pynchon uses drugs in this novel to introduce the contrast of appearance vs. reality. For Oedipa, life is not always as it seems, as the reader learns from the progression of the novel. One of the questions that the reader continues to have at the end of the fifth chapter is what was Pierce’s true motive in leaving Oedipa as the executrix of his estate? I find their dynamic to be very interesting because most men in her life don’t seem to have a lot of respect for her… “As with Mucho when she’s left Kinneret, Metzger did not seem desperate at her going.” However, even if Pierce had left the estate for her to sort because he thought she needed to grow up and he knew it would be a difficult job, it still shows that he saw a deeper side of her and believed that she had greater capabilities that she often demonstrated.

The Crying of Lot 49 Chapter 1 Commentary

Right off the bat, this chapter had some very interesting actions and descriptions. When Oedipa first learns that she has been named the "executrix" of Pierce Inverarity's estate, Pynchon launches into a description of her response..."Oedipa stood in the living room, stared at by the greenish dead eye of the TV tube, spoke the name of God, tried to feel as drunk as possible. But this did not work." I think Pynchon is creating a bridge of shared features with the reader through this description because it is very relatable. Although the reader does not yet know what kind of relationship the pair shared, they are able to imagine themselves in a similar situation, and the responses they have when something shocks them. It took me a few times of reading the first page to really understand the background, but once I was able to I found it to be interesting. The imagery of the "greenish dead eye of the TV tube" alludes to a darker, mysterious side of their relationship and leaves the reader wondering how Pierce died and why he left his estate to the trust of Oedipa. As the chapter continues on, some of these questions are answered, but additional questions are also formed. I began to question the dynamic of Oedipa and Mucho, and how the estate might affect their relationship. There is an interesting contrast brought up between Pierce and Mucho in relation to their social status. While Pierce had a good deal of money, he died early and he lost Oedipa. Mucho, on the other hand, does not have a great job but he is still alive and is married (although his wife does seem to have connections with other men). In addition, there is a large focus on altered mental states, through references to drugs and alcohol which I am interested to see if it will continue throughout the rest of the plot.

The Glass Menagerie Analysis Part 2

It was during the second half of the play that the symbolism of Laura’s glass menagerie began to really come together. I think that Williams intended the glass menagerie to symbolize life. Glass is very breakable, and like life, you can try to keep it safe and perfect but sometimes things happen that are out of your control. Laura keeps her collection pristine, as she does her own life. She plays it safe, is very shy, reserved, and remains to herself and within the confines of the apartment. Jim, however, has a different relationship with life. He was the one that by dancing broke a piece of the glass menagerie. He also is the one to break the mold socially; he is outgoing, and seeks to take advantage of all that he can in life. Even though he is still stuck on the “glory days” of high school, he is working on making progress. He pursues a better career through taking public speaking classes. He also pursues the girl he loves. It is an interesting contrast between the two males in the story, and for that matter, there is also a contrast between the two females. As I said, Jim knows what he wants out of life, and he goes after what he wants. Tom, on the other hand, does not know what he wants out of his life and instead, he simply tries to escape his own reality by going on adventures and to the “movies.” As for the women of the play, Amanda knows what she wants out of life. Like Jim, she is the social butterfly, and knows the ways of the world. She knows how to put on a show and how to entertain. Laura, on the other hand, is more closely related to Tom. She does not know what she wants from her life other than her glass collection and her infatuation with Jim. Even though all of the characters in the play have hard lives due to the aftermath of the Great Depression, Laura is the most sympathetic character. Not only was she born slightly crippled and very shy, but during the play, she is teased by getting a glimpse of how happy she would be with Jim and then having it taken away from her in an instant. The characters in the play have an interesting dynamic and the ending leaves the reader to think about how the lives of each of the characters continue.