Main Fictional Texts Read to Date Related to the American Experience
The American Dream
-Daddy, Mommy, Grandma, Young Man, Mrs. Barker
-Mommy- dominates the household, absolutely ridiculous
-Daddy- emasculated, literally and figuratively, caught up in Mommy's false ideals
-Grandma- the old Dream, what it used to represent, witty and feigns senility
-Mrs. Barker - "the man", represents the institutions of society
-Young Man - twin of their old child who was killed, experienced pain and suffering, the old dream, grandma's protege
Death of A Salesman
-Willie - self worshiping, narcissistic, sensitive, deluded, lost in the past, suffers from actual mental problems
-Linda- Loves Willie and her boys, hates to see them in their constant battle with their father
-Hap - the son who Willie largely ignores, craves to have the attention of his Dad, does exactly what Willie wants Biff to do yet receives no attention
-Biff- once a follower of Willy's philosophy, now focuses on rebelling against his father's wishes, truly lost in the, can't find comfort in a world after being raised on such a belief system
Ceremony- Completely different set of symbols, themes, writing style than any other text read in this class
Symbols include colors, directions, dust
-Tayo- Native American Vet, suffering from a mix of post traumatic stress disorder, the loss of his best Rocky and his Uncle Josiah. Blames himself for the death of Josiah, only by forgiving himself and fixing the drought and dire situation of the Native Americans of his tribe is he able to be healed, a mix of the two cultures, only he can traverse this void and bring about a ceremony that will save both white and native peoples
-Betonie- modern day Shaman, embraces the changes to the world to create a ceremony for Tayo that will work in the modern world
-Emo- Tayo's sworn enemy, a fellow vet who is a destroyer, symbolizes the evil and destruction so prevalent in the world, arguably worse than any white person encountered in the book
-Josiah and Rocky- Tayo's closet friends, he is destroyed by losing them, taught Tayo all he knows
-Auntie- christian valued woman, focused only on the impression of the family to the community, wants to be seen as a martyr for raising Tayo
Loved how you explained each of the characters from the novels/plays we have read. You could add a section of Hamlet now that we have finished reading it to add even more good study material. With each book you could add a short summary of the plot and explain how it is different from the others. All these texts are very different and give very different messages and vibes to readers and you could talk about how they are similar or different.
ReplyDeleteGreat job summeriziong the characters, but how do thses characters contributes to the work of asa whole. If i hadd included the books we read, I woud have included a brif anlysis of summary of the themes, symbols, meanings, etc. similiar wiht what you did for Ceremony, but perhaps a little more in- depth.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that you realize that Ceremony is a deeply AMERICAN book--I'm through 2/3 of the blogs at this point and so far every single one of them stresses how different and non-Western this text is. Not one connects Ceremony to the American Dream or the quest to define the American identity. *sigh*
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