Andre's Mother (Extra Credit)

In Terrence McNally's, "Andre's Mother", the play focuses on 4 people. The scene is a convesation between the people of Andre's death and his mother holding balloons in his memory. They reminice about Andre and how important he was. Cal, is Andre's partner and Andre has died. He was never really accepted into society as being gay, not even his mother has fully accepted him. In reading the play, Andre's mother is quiet and has no comment. Not one comment about anything that Cal is saying about her son. She is left there holding her balloon that she will have to eventually let go, listening to how good her son is. She is there miserable and trying to keep herself strong, but on the inside she is slowly breaking down. She is shocked and is left with regret for not accepting her son and not spending time in getting to know who her son really is. She hasnt given the chance to allow her son to live and express who he really is regardless of his sexual orientation. She is there not knowing how to react or feel, she feels sorrow and complete lonliness of the fact that if only she knew and accepted her gay son, he could have died knowing that he was accepted by the one person that he admired. Her body language, leaves it to the climax of the play. Throughout the whole time, she is left still and quiet and the audience is waiting for her to explode or break down in crying. But she continues to hold it together while the audience listens to Cal, on how Andre was a good person. They watch her very carefully even more so, as she is being still to see how she is breaking down on the inside. A sympolic spectacle in the play are the balloons. The 4 white balloons are held by each person. Each person lets go of their balloon one by one, as sign of accepting Andre as  human being for who he is and saying goodbye, and letting go. Cal and Andre's mother are left alone at the end holding their balloons saying their goodbyes. Cal can let Andre go, letting his balloon go, knowing that he accepted his partner as who he is and was loved by a special person. He knows he can die freely knowing that he was free with Cal. Andre's mother has a hard time letting go of her balloon, because she has to live the rest of her life knowing that she never accepted her gay son while he was alive. The white balloons represent their acceptance to Andre. The theme of this play is acceptance. Each person freely accepted Andre for the person he is and his sexual orientation. Andre's mother is left alone in life not being to get the second chance to accept her son and realizing it when it was already too late. The protagonist of the play is Cal. Cal constantly reminds Andre's mom how good of a person he is and is the only character out of the 4 present, that took the time to accept Andre, live a life knowing Andre, and saved Andre in a sense that he accepted him more than his own mom. The antagonist would be Andre's mom. Never knowing who her son's identity is, she is left to a relationship with her son that is missing acceptance and love. Her son wanted her to know who he really is but the fear of being rejected caused Andre's mother to never get to live a life knowing her gay son. She hindered her son from being who he truly is around her. In reading this story, it is a life lesson about acceptance and to live life to the fullest. Fear is only an obstacle but should never remain even in death. Acceptance is an important issue in today's society. And we are given the freedom to be. So lets take the chance to be free and to accept before it is too late.

Latinologues

In reading Rick Najera's dramas, one is able to see and feel the scene as you flip the pages and read the spanish diction in each of his plays. In reading, " Captured by Feministas" and "You Know How to Whistle, Don't You?", the audience is able to capture a message from this hispanic author and see a play right before their eyes.
   In "Captured by Feministas", the whole story was well put together that the audience can easily envision how the author wanted to play this scene. In reading this drama, it can be said that the genre is tragicomedy. In reading the conversation that the captured man had with the feministas, there was so much action involved but there was lightness to his words that added comedy to the situation. In reading the story and analyzing the characters, it can be seen from two different points of views. In reading through it once, it can be said that the captured man is the antagonist. He is seen as the villian, the man who puts women or underestimates women and sees them as below men or even below mankind. The women are then seen as protagonists, taking control of the situation and standing up for womens rights, saving the day, and making sure they are seen as humans and equals. In another point of view, the women are like men, capturing the man and treating him like a victim. The women are seen as men, with guns all tough and inhuman wanting to kill the man, so it can be said that the women are antagonists and the man is the protagonists.  Diction also plays another important part in reading this drama for the audience to envision this scene. In reading it, the names of each of the characters are hispanic names, and the different spelling of cetain words. For example the captured man makes a point that he would want to spell "women" as "womyn" with a "y" and asks the question to the women " who needs men?" In reading the whole scene, the captured man is convincing the feministas to let him go by praising women and seeing them as idols or as their equals. His fear and his diction adds comedy to the story which lightens the mood but also makes women laugh at the man who is vulnerable to the situation against a group of women. The theme is clearly expressed in the title and in this play. Feminism. It is all about women being free and being humans and seen as mens equals. It is all about seeing women as capable of doing what women can and seeing then as individuals as well.  In reading the play, I truly enjoyed it. The words and the way it was written, catched the audiences attention word by word. The opening scene makes you wonder what happened and in reading the dialogue you are forced to be in between a conversation between a helpless man and strong women. It was humorous and full of life and description that it was clear to what the author wanted his audience to envision and what he wanted his audience to learn in the end.
   In reading, "You Know How to Whistle, Don't You?", this was a different play that had a different message in the way it was written with the characters, imagery, and diction. In reading this I believe the genre is tragedy. In seeing the converstation and how each line for each character was said in a specific way. The author clearly wrote in paranthesis to the audience how each line was read, whether it was read plainly, angrily, threatening of if one of the characters weeped. The story was full of anger and depression against the rage of not being to be free in ones homeland. There is so much hate for Fidel castro that the characters want to be free. In reading this from the play, Castro is seen as the antagonist, causing injury or problem to the characters. He is seen as a villian to the characters, a man and a woman, who want to be free to live and marry, and these two are seen as the protagonists In fact, America is seen as the hero. The characters want to escape to California and start a new life there, so in order to escape being enslaved in cuba, they turn to America as their savior. In reading this play, it can be easily read since the author clearly puts how each line should be read. In choosing specific spanish words, or a sentence in spanish, it shows or represents the spanish pride and what this story is all about. In how the author is describing each line, it can be easily read and the audience can imagine the scene in their minds. In reading this play, the audience can easily see the theme in the repeating diction or line "Cuba Libre". This means, Free Cuba. In seeing the repetition in words, the theme is about freedom. National freedom. The couple wants to live, love and breathe freely but are imprisoned in their own country by a dictator. They can no longer be who they are or live a life freely in the home country that they were born in and love, they have to turn away in order to live. In reading this play, I can feel the tension of the characters as they are fearful for their lives and how escaping is only their option. In reading this play, I imagine myself fleeing america to another foreign country because of being enslaved by my own country there is no other choice but to live. It gives me a chance to be thankful and respect what I have. The play gives the audience insight into what people in other countries are suffering from, and to never take advantage of what we have.

To be or not to be.....

William Shakespeare is famous for his writings. There are many hallmark cards and quotes used in papers or in every day language that is from his writing. One of his famous works is the soliloquy in Hamlet when Hamlet is left alone thinking and talking to himself on what is to be or not to be. This famous line is known around the world but the message is never conveyed directly. Hamlet asks the famous question, "to be or not to be?". What he is addressing is the real question of "to live or to die?". He goes on describing what life is about and what death is too. What the purpose of life is. He compares both sides to living and dying. He asks himself if it is nobler to live and suffer throughout life with many troubles and sufferings ahead or is it better to live, since it is almost like sleeping. Hamlet then goes into deep thought and thinks maybe it is better to die because when you sleep you dream. So it would be like living in a dream where you can not suffer. But then the dream can become a nightmare.  A nightmare one that can not forget and one that can escape. He also values and views life as a beauty. He sees life as a world of exploration and wonder where you can explore ones curiosity with no limit. Hamlet is burdened with the sides of living and dying and what it is like to be or not to be.
    The reason why this soliliquy is famous is because of the diction itsself. William Shakespeare is a famous writer because of not just the story he presents to his audience but the message itself and how he portrays each message. The way he describes thoughts and feelings and scenes is described with lyrical words that it can be seen and pictured not just read. In this famous soliloquy, Hamlet goes in depth in his thought. He is lost in his conversation and his own debate of life and death. What makes this so famous, is how we, humans, can relate to that, and this is one of life's mystery that we can not solve. With our intellect, we have discovered science, math, and have gone to the ends of the earth to unbury lost treasures. But this is a treasure that we can not bury. This question of life versus death is one that is planted in our mind but is left to be unquestioned for the human mind to ponder and make what they believe life is. This is a question that we can not solve and is only a mystery that only as humans, can solve for ourselves. But it is a mystery that does not require a common measurement or common language. It is what we make of it and how we view life. We can either see life as worth living or worth dying for. I can truly identity with this soliloquy especially in my day and age. In college as a young student, I am still trying to find what life is all about. I am still growing and learnign everyday and even when I am to the point where I find that I have found what I am looking for, there is always more to life that leads me to wonder and question where I am at and who I am. There is always room for questioning, wondering and living. Are we all living a life or living a dream? Is life worth it or is it worth dying for? As a young woman in todays world, I want to see the world and experience it in my own skin. In order to do so, I choose to live and I choose to make a life that is worth living for. Life is what we make it. And it is up to us. To be or not to be. That is the question.

"Hills Like White Elephants"

Part 1:
         Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants", is a story written as a conversation between a couple. In reading the short story, you can see what the story and setting is about based on the conversation between the man and a woman in Spain, waiting for a train. The couple is sitting in a train station in Spain waiting to go to Madrid on a hot warm day where they sit and talk over a drink of beer. When the couple sits and waits, they see the hills of the valley of Ebro. The hills as it is describes is  "long and white", which is signifant to the story's title. The story begins with the description of where the couple is and throughout the conversation between the couple, the audience can see the how the setting relates to the title of the story. The woman sees how the valley is long and white just like, White Elepants, which is the title of the story. The way the land and the hills are described are symbolic to what is actually being talked about in the story. The woman is actually pregnant and the way the  hills are describe to reflect to what the woman sees the baby as. White can mean purity as a baby is seen. It can symbolize innocence and a breathe of fresh air as babies come into the world taking their first breathe of fresh air. Elephants in many cultures are seen as good luck. In the story, it can be said that the woman wants to keep the child thinking that it will change her world and will be good for the couple. She sees the hills and the baby as a sign of good luck and fortune into her life and so in sitting and waiting for the train, she is seeing what the baby represents to her. The whole story is a converstation between the man and the woman, and the story is told in third person form. It is told in third person in a way of a conversation where we actually see the two ideas of each character blend together to see the whole story right before our eyes. Ernest Hemingway's style in writing this story is symbolic, vivid, picturesque and to the point. He tells the story by letting his characters tell his story and also creates setting and descriptions to symbolize hidden meanings and what the story really means.

Part 2:
     Ernest Hemingway was born in July 21, 1899, Illinois to a physician and musician. He was raised in a well educated  conservative family in the suburbs as the first born son. Growing up he loved sports and played boxing, track and field, water polo but he was smart as well and excelled in English in school. He loved to write he began writing for his high school newspaper. He continued to write after high school and took interest as a career he worked for The Kansas City Star as a cub reporter. At a young age, Hemingway participated in World War II, D-Day, the Spanish Civil War, and the liberation of Paris. Hemingway was married 4 times and had three sons. Hemingway has lived in Key West, Florida, the Caribbean and in Cuba througout his life, traveling from war to war and marrying over and over. Throughout his time in the war and with his experiences of marriages and children, Hemingway would write his novels that are related to his life. Hemingway finally resided in Idaho, where he committed suicide, just like his father had. Heminway was a heavy drinker and with being addicted to alcohol, he was narcisstic and bipolar as well. He died on July 2, 1961 in Ketchum, Idaho.
    It has been known that writers write what they know. Throughout Hemingway's life, he did write what he knew, which made him an exceptional writer that we still admire his work till today. Hemingway has experienced war, trauma, education and falling in love. In his novels, he based his stories on what he knows. For example, Hemingway, wrote A Farewell to Arms which is a story that takes place during a war but is a story of a man who loved a woman as well. Heminway experienced both these details in his own life, that he knew how to write, describe and make the audience see and feel what he experienced. In seein the style, in the way he writes, I can see how he was a journalist before he was a writer. In writing in High School and as  Cub Reporter, he created a style of writing, as in writing short phrases. In reading some of his stories and the "Hills Like White Elephants" is an example of his style. Hemingway likes writing short sentences that are direct and to the point. Even though he is a writer, one can tell he was a journalist in his choppy way of writing but he has evolved into a Nobel Prize Writer, by his stories, symbolism, and making the audience experience what he experienced throughout this life. We not only get to read a story about Ernest Hemingway, but we get to read Ernest Hemingway as a person through every page and every word in his stories.

Works Cited:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Hemingway
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1954/hemingway-bio.html

"Everyday Use" with "The Lottery"

Mother and daughter relationships are always hard to maintain. In Alice Walker's "Everyday Use", the mother tells her story of her two diverse daughters. She describes the difference of Dee, the older daughter in collge and Maggie, the daughter who is still living in the "nest". She tells the story of her two daughteres while waiting for Dee's arrival from college. She describes how different they are and in their story telling, you can tell their differences. Dee has broken away from her family and has adopted a life on her own, even having a boyfriend by the name of Hakeem-a-barber and changing her name to Wangero, even though she was named after her Aunt Dee. Dee forgot about her heritage and wants the family quilts for the having it as part of the trend. Maggie wants the quilts because she treasures the quilts as something that is part of her and makes her who she is. The quilts are clothes of the women in her family and have been sown together. Maggie sees it as part of her and her family and sees it as something sacred. Mama sees that is is part of her hertitage as well and wants the quilts to belong to her daugthers, that she loves so much. But she would want the quilts to belong to one person that would treasure and value the quilts as much as she did and the rest of her ancestors did. Alice Walker illustrates the differing views and wants the audience to see how much the quit means and how much heritage and family should mean to an individual whether they have "left the nest" or not. Alice Walker wants the audience to side with Maggie and Mama as the two value their family and the family heirloom that Dee (Wangero) only sees as a fashion statement or a new trend in her generation. The title, "Everyday Use", is significant to the story as to how the quilts are seen for the characters and how Alice Walker wants the audience to see it as well. The quilts are seen as an item for "everyday use" but the use and value of it is different for the differing sisters. To maggie, she values the quilt as an "everyday use" because to her it represents her family and who she is and so it is used as an everyday heirloom to remind her where she came from and who she is. To Dee (Wnagero), she uses it on an  "everyday use" because she uses it as fashion trend. It is a trend in her collge and her generation of having african clothes or items and to her she will use it everyday to be part of the generation and to be popular. To Mama she uses everyday as comfort and for something to remind her as well as to where she came from.  Alice Walker uses the title "everyday use" as a double meaning. An item can be on item but it can mean so many things and can be used for so many things. A quilt is a quilt but it has so many more meanings. It can just be a quilt for comfort, it can be a ratty old thing, it can be used for a fashion statement or a family heirloom. Alice Walker is demonstrating the meaning of what an item can mean to someone and how meanings can change by differing people, time, and how people change views and lifestyles.  What was ironic about the story is how Dee changed her name to Wangero, a name that may be embraced in the Islam and African World. Dee is not embracing where she truly comes from by changing her name to a name that she was named after her Aunt. What is ironic is that she chooses a name that may be related to her family's heritage. She neglects her beautiful name and family for one that she ignorant of. The story is told in a beautiful way through the eyes of the mother of the two sisters. If the story was told by Maggie, it would be told with a sense of jealousy and anger towards her sister but with so much passion for her family and her heritage. If Dee were to tell the story, the story would be seen completely different, while we see what most of our generation sees. We see fashion trends but not family. We would see what we all have adopted to and we would never see the signifance of an "everyday use" of a quilt, that means so much more than just a quilt. It's family. It is heritage.

    "The Lottery" comes across as a short story and starts off in a warm bright setting. Shirley Jackson truly made a set up for her audience to see the perfect twist of her story at the end, one that no one will ever expect. The story starts of as a small town is gathering for the lottery and the lottery is scene as a spectacle that no one should miss. It seems like the lottery is like winning the lottery of our time and day, of winning money. But it's not. Instead, Shirley Jackson willl shows lottery as a different way, than money. She illustrates that the lottery is greed and that in the end it can kill you. The lottery for the town is stoning the person that wins. In reality, the person who wins it all, looses it all and in the story it is one's life. People want to win even for the worse reason. People believe that in winning, they can wiin it all, but Jackson's message is that winning it all is winning nothing at all because in the end, they win nothing.

"Araby"

     In James Joyce's, "Araby", the use of light and dark imagery is used to set the tone, or attitude of the story. Joyce simply uses light and darkness to describe the imagery and plot of the beginning of the story. For example, Joyce writes, "When the short days of winter came, dusk fell before we had well eaten our dinners". The season of winter and the time of the day describes the setting of the story which helps the audience illustrate what is going on. The colors of dusk helps then understand that darkness is approaching and Joyce continues to describe the North Richmond Street as dark and only certain "light from the kitchen windows had filled the areas". The whole light and darkness concept of the story is a vital part being that the narrarator of the story is blind. This gives the audience the ability to "see" what the blind can "see", which is seeing darkness and sensing light. It takes the readers back into following the characters footsteps and hiding "in the shadow" as the characters did. Light and darkness used in the story also highlights certain characters and feelings. While the setting is set in a dark street, the writer wants to put a "spotlight" to the characters he is describing. For example, Mangan's sister is described as, " she was waiting for us, her figured defined by the light from the half-opened door". With this use of imagery, the audience can picture a street of complete darkness but picture a girl with the light shining on her. Another example is highlighting the feeling of one person. The narrator of the story is falling in love with Mangan's sister and his adoration for is described as "some distant lamp or lighted window gleamed below me". This describes how he was in total darkness but when his feelings left him feeling in love, the light gleamed on him to show how much passion is beaming from him to express his feelings for this girl.

     This story is filled with symbolism from page to page. The bazaar is an important symbolism to the narrarator. It can symbolize many things. First it can symbolize freedom. The narrator is living with his aunt and uncle and I believe he wants a chance to escape the darkness that he is living in, since darkness is all that he can sense and see. He wants a place and a chance to see light and to him the light is in bazaar which is freedom from the darkness. Bazaar can also symbolize love or meer infatuation. It has been the narrators' dream to go to bazaar but when he meets the girl of his dreams, the more he is encouraged to go since he promises to go and bring her something. His instant infatuation blinds this narrator even more so, that he wants to leave for a girl he barely knows, instead of his own happiness and reasoning. He goes but as it turns out, his visit is not up to his expectations, which is how most infatuations result in. He is faced with reality.

     The story starts in North Richmond street and uses imagery to set the plot of the story. The use of light and darkness is used to set up the plot of the story and who the characters are and the tone within the story. As the story continues, love takes place and a certain rising action is when he finally talks to the girl of his dreams and falls madly in love with her that you can feel how is feeling by the light that gleams on him and how his "body was like a harp" and the girl's "words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires". Another rising action is when he is ready to leave for bazaar but waits for his uncle to return to let him go and give him money and the story falls back when his uncle does not return and meerly forgets about his nephew leaving. The ultimate climax is when he finally gets to bazaar and the story is rising to the point where he is walking around and steals the two pennies in one of the stalls. The story continues with suspense the gallery is filled with darnkess since the light goes out. And the climax is left at the end for the audience to figure out as the narrator is lef with his eyes burning "with anguish and anger". This climax ends with symbolism as the whole story is almost like a journey of the main character. He takes us on a journey of where he lives, to falling in love for the first time and having his dreams met and when he finally reaches his dreams, it crashes into a reality as he sees his dreams crushed right before his eyes. He dreamed of bazaar and as he walked around, his dream and imagination were completely opposite from what he expected that he learns that his dreams were only an infatuation and unreal that reality finally sinks in and he starts to see what the real world is. He starts from seeing darkness and finally seeing the light, and left with finally seeing reality.

"The Tell-Tale Heart"

     Edgar Allan Poe's, "The Tell-Tale Heart", is a story about an insane man who kills an innocent man staying at his home. When he finally kills the man, he finds that karma has found him immediately and has driven him more mad than he already is. This story depicts two main characters- the old man with pale blue eyes and the man who murders this innocent man. But this story has a hero and a villian. The villian or the antagonist is the man who murders the pale blue-eyed man and the protagonists are the police officers who seek to investigate any wrong doing in the neighborhood. The police officers get a complaint from one of the neighbors about signs of stuggle from the murderers house and because of their presence and their investigation, the antagonist goes mad and he is forced to confess his wrongful actions to the police officers.

     Murder, is what creates the plot in Edgar Allan Poe's story. There is much conflict in the story and within the characters. The first conflict is the man wanting to kill the innocent pale blue-eyed man. The eye drives him mad, that even with no harm done, he murders the innocent poor man and burries him under the floor boards. Another conflict, is the conflict that the murder must go through within himself. He does not find himself insane, yet he kills a man, by planning his strategy out carefully and watches the old man sleep every night. He consumes all his energy into killing the man and the pale blue-eye consumes his mind. He becomes obsessed and he does not realize the conflict within himself. After he kills the man, he thought he was free, but only left to know that the heart of the man is driving him wild. The old man is dead and burried under the floor boards of the home, yet even when the deed is done, he finds his mind comsumed with the old man, except this time, it isn't his eye, but his heart. The beating of the heart is all that he hears and it drives him wild. This conflict is the conflict he has with himself and with his mind. His mind takes control of what he does which makes him insane, and an uncontrollable conflict that he can not fix.

     Poe's short story is a unique and timeless story that always leaves with me chills everytime I read 
"The Tell-Tale Heart". Besides his descriptions and imagery, the diction of the writer sets up the plot of the story. And with the clever uses of imagery and the choices of words, the writer is able to successful create a rising action that builds to the story's climax. But the story, has 2 climax. The first climax is Day 8, the night of the murder. The author sets up his audience and starts the story with the two main characters and sets up the audience to picture that this man has been stalking the victim for 7 days which leaves the last day of the murder, when the murderer is like a predator after its prey. The murder occurs and this is what the audience is set up to read and imagine about. The second climax is towards the end. This story is truley timeless because how the story is left at the end. Although the climax of the story already occurred in the beginning of the story, the audience is set up to read more while the story rises up towards the end. When the Police officers come to investigate and search the house, the murderer is left feeling uneasy and looking pale as he goes mad when he hears a sound that follows him. This climax occurs when he can not keep his secret to himself but reveals to the police officers who suspected nothing, that he indeed kill the man and showed where the victim's remains are left. This climax not only occurs at the end and lets the audience read, hanging on to every last word of the story, but leaves the audience having read the story with 2 climax that only will leave them with no questions but with words that leave with images of the story in their minds. Towards the end, the audience gets their revenge by having the "villian" of the story get their revenge by revealing his murderous deeds to the police, when in fact the dead  man was the one that got his revenge and can now rest in peace.