Sunday, October 23, 2011
Response to Course Material
I really appreciate the historical background info that Holmes is providing. I think an important part of this play is knowing what's comedy and what isn't, and knowing how Albee is deviating from social norm for the sake of comedy is impossible without knowing what the social norms were. Mommy and Daddy present a very interesting situation, in which they are completely average and iconic to that time period, but also appallingly atypical in their fixations and mutilation of the baby. Satisfaction in this play is unattainable, just as it is in real life. Albee is trying to make a point here, I think, that the American Dream is unattianable because the dream is about getting satisfaction, and while Mommy claims she can get satisfaction, really she's in the same satisfaction-less boat with the rest of us. I think we're making very good progress in class as far as digging deeper into the play, but I would like to know more about the 'big picture' themes and ideas.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hey,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point about the social norms. A lot of the things I thought were extremely weird and not socially acceptable were actually the norms back then, but many of them were not! To be able to put the novel in context really helped a lot.
Our class had a long discussion about the whole satisfaction thing, and I personally felt that the American Dream is different for many people- such as Grandma, Mommy, and the Young Man- and depending on what their dream was, it was either unattainable of attainable. It was pretty subjective, since Grandma's "American Dream" was completely different from Mommy and Daddy's!
Great job!
Erin
Even now that we're "done" with American Dream, I still don't think I know enough about the big ideas. I also like the historical background, although some it seems a little excessive. Knowing that it's not normal to take your dress off seems obvious to me.
ReplyDeleteI agree that I wish I knew more about the big ideas from Albee's play. Some of it still seems a bit odd to me and I would like to straighten all those odd bits out.
ReplyDelete