Prompt #1975 Edit

      In the play The American Dream, Edward Albee uses foil characters and devices in the dialogue such as repetition and insulting language to show the relationship between Mommy and Daddy as well as compare and contrast Grandma to the Young man. Albee establishes these relationships in order to tell readers that the old American Dream has been replaced with a new Dream that embodies only physical appearances and consumerism.
      Mommy and Daddy have switched traditional gender roles to the point where Mommy is completely in charge while Daddy is reduced to feminine and almost a childlike state. From the start, Mommy is the only member who has anything to say, while Daddy only repeats or agrees with what Mommy said. When Daddy tries to stand up to Mommy by not answering the door, she convinces him to do so by saying "...you were masculine and decisive." another time he opened the door. Daddy and Mommy both show the audience that they think masculinity is a positive trait, which implies that femininity is negative. However, when Daddy finally refuses to open the door, Mommy insults him by telling him "...you're indecisive; you're a woman." This statement confirms that being womanly is a bad thing. Another thing this exchange shows about Daddy is that he thinks that she can take away his masculinity right on the spot, even though it was gone long ago from the time he started to become subordinate to Mommy. In fact, this idea becomes literal when it is revealed that Daddy had a surgery where "the doctors took out something that was there and put in something that wasn't there." suggesting that Daddy is physically a woman with a vagina instead of a penis. Mommy has literally become the man of the house. The two of them cannot have sex anymore not only because Daddy is a woman, but because Mommy is too manly. This is why Mommy is rude to Mrs. Barker after Daddy giggles over her with no clothes on. She cannot provide that kind of pleasure for him anymore. Mommy's manly role and abuse of Daddy show how Mommy is greedy and uses anyone to get what she wants, which include wealth, an aspect of the new American Dream, as well as the "bumble of joy," the baby that the couple dismembered in order to try and get satisfaction. This is less hard to believe once we learn what a cruel person Mommy is.
      Albee uses Grandma and the Young Man as foils to show the differences between the old American Dream and the New American Dream. For one thing, Albee made the character's appearances reflect which ideals they represent. Grandma describes herself as "...gnarled and sagged and twisted into the shape of a complaint." while the Young Man has a"Good profile, straight nose, honest eyes, wonderful smile..." to appeal to the common American. Grandma's ideals of hard work and equality are outdated like her body, while the Young Man looks fresh like his ideals of consumerism and competition in the workforce. However, on the inside, the Young Man can't feel anything. He himself simply states "I can feel nothing. I can feel nothing." since his heart was ripped out when his twin died. His outside looks like all the things a person could dream for, but these goals aren't full of emotion and don't give you the satisfaction that all of the characters strive for. Grandma, on the other hand, is the only character in the play who has any true emotion. Every time she speaks, she uses verbal irony to show just how twisted the other characters are. For example, when Grandma describes the incident with the "bumble" to Mrs. Barker, she uses a matter of fact tone to point out just how twisted the situation is. She says they "smiled and cried and bit their fingers, and said some more intimate things, which were totally irrelevant..." Of course normal people would be genuinely exited about the event, but Mommy and Daddy don't have real feelings and just went through the motions. In the end, since no one can feel like Grandma does, she leaves the scene all together while the Young Man, the new dream, takes her place. She then joins the same level as the audience and speaks directly to them, as if to warn us not to end up this way. This shows how these ideas aren't just in the play, and that the dream Grandma believes in isn't dead.
      The relationships between the characters in The American Dream show how the New American Dream has consumed the minds of Americans, while the old Dream is almost forgotten. All of the strange connections and reactions of the characters serve as a warning not to become consumed by consumerism and to remember what true dreams are.

Didn't do a ton of editing, but I mostly changed the 1st body paragraph from before http://juliawapenglish.blogspot.com/2012/10/prompt-1975.html#comment-form

Response to Course Material

So, after the final, which I was very glad was performing, we haven't been concentrating on a new book until this week, when we started Ros and Guil are Dead. But before I talk about what I have been thinking about that play, I want to mention the multiple choice practice. We never finished going over it, and I kind of want to know the other answers so I can improve, since I am bad at the multiple choice. I almost want to take a practice test in class so I get a feel for how the ap will go down. Anyways, R and G is very confusing right now, but the parts I do understand I like. The play seems really deep, but I haven't grasped it yet. Maybe things will become clearer after we read more of the play. I look forward to how the themes of R and G are Dead and Hamlet are related, even if they are written in very different ways. What if the two plays are trying to convey the same message? I also wonder if this play will share some similarites with The American Dream since they  both have unclear storylines and characters who forget everything. We will have to wait and see I suppose.