Overview: Six Degrees of Separation by John Guare

1049 Words3 Pages

In the play, Six Degrees of Separation by John Guare, a young black man named Paul convinces wealthy New York families that he is the son of a famous black actor named Sidney Poitier. He also tells them that he goes to Harvard with their children so they would fully accept him and provide the shelter he needs, instead of stereotyping him as a black American who would called a criminal or drug addict. Behind his false identity Paul is a con man who has learned the ways to con wealthy New York families. His former lover Trent Conway is a former classmate of the wealthy families’ children. Trent taught Paul how to talk like a rich person, how to act like one, and all the information he needed to be accepted into their circle. Paul then uses the knowledge he has learned to create himself a new identity which will “take him into the real world” (34). Every encounter Paul has with someone he creates a new identity to bond and connect with them. Throughout the play, Paul creates multiple personas for himself. Paul loses control over his multiple personas which cause them to overlap with each other, He then becomes an empty vessel with only memories of his performances during his different personas. Paul who creates himself this other persona he has to be with Paul and Ousia Kittredge, based on Trent’s information allows him into their household with ease. In order to get into their homes and obtain help from Ouisa and Flan, Paul decides to stab himself so they would take him in and treat his wound. He then lies to them and tells them he is friends with their children and all the good things their children said about them to make them feel more delighted with his presence. Geoffrey who was there with the Kittredges’ talking about busines... ... middle of paper ... ...onas which cause him to overlap his personas making him overlap his names with his different personas. Paul who has now lost control feels powerless and obediently listens to Ousia about going to the police serving his time and then coming out of prison to live a happy life with her and Flan. Every encounter Paul has with someone he creates a new identity to bond and connect with them. Throughout the play Paul creates multiple personas for himself, he realizes that he is an empty vessel with no past and only memories of what he has done during his different personas. Paul loses control over his multiple personas which cause them to overlap with each other. Which causes him to feel lost and in search of help, when Ousia offers this help he gladly takes it which end up putting him in prison and never to be seen in New York. Works Cited Six degrees of speration

Show More
Related

  • How is Scrooge presented in a Christmas Carol

    1341 Words  | 3 Pages

    the play. It looks at the person he is and the person he becomes. It

    Read More

  • The Role Of Frank And April Wheeler In Revolutionary Road

    1398 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout a lifetime, one can run through many different personalities that transform constantly due to experience and growing maturity, whether he or she becomes the quiet, brooding type, or tries out being the wild, party maniac. Richard Yates examines acting and role-playing—recurring themes throughout the ages—in his fictional novel Revolutionary Road. Frank and April Wheeler, a young couple living miserably in suburbia, experience relationship difficulties as their desire to escape grows. Despite their search for something different, the couple’s lack of communication causes their planned move to Europe to fall through. Frank and April Wheeler play roles not only in their individual searches for identity, but also in their search for a healthy couple identity; however, the more the Wheelers hide behind their desired roles, the more they lose sense of their true selves as individuals and as a pair.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Paul's Case by Willa Cather

    1076 Words  | 3 Pages

    Paul surrounds himself with the aesthetics of music and the rich and wealthy, as a means to escape his true reality. In Paul’s true reality, he has a lack of interest in school. His disinterest in school stems from the alienation and isolation he has in life. This disinterest in school reflects Paul’s alienation because of the unusual attention he receives there that he doesn’t get at home. In class one day he was at the chalkboard and “his English teacher had stepped to his side and attempted to guide his hand” (Cather 1).

    Read More

  • Social Disorganization Theory In There Are No Children Here

    1966 Words  | 4 Pages

    Paul, who is the father of the eight children, shows up sporadically throughout the book. LaJoe and Paul split up because he was addicted to drugs. Paul worked for the local sewer department, making $350 to $450 every two weeks. Instead of providing for his family, Paul would spend all the money on drugs. This put the family in a stressful situation because they could not afford the necessities that they needed. Paul was so dependent on drugs to the point where he would steal money from his own children. The children knew about Paul’s drug problem, which caused them to act out. One morning, Lafeyette could not find his dog anywhere in the apartment. He immediately assumed that his father sold the dog for drug money. Paul was at the apartment that day with his mother sitting on the couch watching television. All the sudden, Lafeyette stormed in the room and up to his father, accused him of stealing his dog and called him a dope fiend. Lafeyette was so angry his “right fist came smashing into the side of his father’s temple” . Paul said “You’re fourteen. You’re of age. You want to be a man, okay, you got a choice to be a man” . All of the sudden, Paul started hitting Lafeyette. LaJoe did not know how to handle the situation and began to break up the fight. This example displays how strain affects the relationship with the father and son because they used instrumental relief to relieve

    Read More

  • A Feminist Reading of Paul's Case

    1201 Words  | 3 Pages

    In "Paul's Case," the story revolves around a young male. He is the main character. There are very few mentions of women, however, when they do come into the story they are only mentioned briefly, or they play minor, secondary characters. Paul's mother and sisters are spoken about once during the entire story, while there are four references to his father. The females in his family are mentioned only in passing and remain flat characters, while his father is referred to several times, each time involving an action or comment which exhibits an aspect of his father's personality which makes him a more rounded character.

    Read More

  • Maestro Character Analysis

    309 Words  | 1 Pages

    Paul's childhood in fifth business was not picture perfect. For instance, as Dunstan stated in the story is that "Paul was not a village favorite, and the dislike so many people felt for his mother - dislike for the queer and persistently unfortunate - they attached to the offending son." (34) This illustrates the struggle that Paul had dealt with at a young age. His father Amasa Dempster blamed Paul for his mother, Mary simple-mindedness; he constantly told him that it was his birth that brought misfortune upon the family. Furthermore, the people of the town also did not make it easier on him because of his mother's wrong actions; they put a great distance, and making him become the town's outcast. After all, the guilt, Paul felt for his mother pushed him to change his life for the better; More importantly, by running away with the circus he strived to become a famous magician.

    Read More

  • Irony and Symbolism in Willa Cather's Paul's Case

    1774 Words  | 4 Pages

    Paul believes that everyone around him is beneath him. He is convinced that he is superior to everyone else in his school and in his neighborhood. He is even condescending to his teachers, and shows an appalling amount of contempt for them, of which they are very aware.

    Read More

  • Cruise Control Terry Trueman Character Analysis

    580 Words  | 2 Pages

    Pauls past relationship with his dad has been rough because of his dad leaving shawn. Paul feels as though his dad left the family so he didn't have to worry about shawn and their family problems. During the time his dad was gone paul has been angry that shawn hasn't been getting the fatherly support he needs to feel normal. “My dad couldn't stay with us and help us take care of my brother--no, he left me to handle all that so he could jet around and make a bunch of money whining about his tragic plight”(4). Paul realizes that if his dad really cared about their family situation he wouldn't have left the family in the position he was in.

    Read More

  • Edward Bloor Tangerine Analysis

    758 Words  | 2 Pages

    For all of Paul’s life, he has been bullied by his brother Erik and hasn’t told anyone because he feared him. On page 263 and 264 of the book, Paul had a flashback “I remembered Erik’s fingers prying my eyelids open while Vincent Castor sprayed white paint into them.”. This illustrates

    Read More

  • Addiction In Norman Maclean's A River Runs Through It

    874 Words  | 2 Pages

    Paul has an addiction to alcohol that has greatly devastated his life, but he also has a problem with gambling. Paul’s gambling started shortly after his alcoholism and his problems are all related. This is demonstrated when Norman states “… tell my mother and father that my brother had been beaten by the butt of a revolver and his body dumped in an alley” (Maclean 102). His addiction caused a cycle of problems, starting with his alcohol addiction, which led to gambling and from there stemmed money problems. Ultimately his alcoholism left him dead in an alley with his family wondering how it all happened, because he was not connected to them. His life was literally destroyed because of a few thoughtless decisions he made while intoxicated. All of his life problems and experiences are connected by one thing: his need to get a short rush of happiness from alcohol. His past decisions all added up and ended up killing him, and if he would have made wiser decisions in the past he might be still

    Read More

  • Character Analysis Of Paul In Tangerine

    606 Words  | 2 Pages

    He begins to realize how he should not be afraid of everything all the time, and how he needs to start making his voice heard. Paul starts to accomplish this by helping students out of the broken classroom when the sinkhole forms in Lake Windsor Middle School. But, he still doubts himself. “I’m not saying I was a hero. All I did was slide around in mud and tried to pull people out. But I didn’t panic and run either.” This quote shows that Paul still doubts himself, but he knows that what he did was a good thing. As the story continues, Paul learns how he lost his vision. He now knows it wasn’t his fault, but his brothers. This realization was crucial for Paul to begin to gain confidence, and learn not to be so hard on

    Read More

  • Conflict in August Wilson's Fences and How it Affects the Work

    1365 Words  | 3 Pages

    life in the mid to late twentieth century and the strains of society on African Americans. Set in a small neighborhood of a big city, this play holds much conflict between a father, Troy Maxson, and his two sons, Lyons and Cory. By analyzing the sources of this conflict, one can better appreciate and understand the way the conflict contributes to the meaning of the work.

    Read More

  • What Is The Biggest Impact On Paul In Edward Bloor's Tangerine

    475 Words  | 1 Pages

    On page 227 paragraph 13 it says, “I saw you face down Erik and those other guys, and I saw Arthur Bauer hit you with a blackjack.” This choice impacts Paul because Luis was someone that Paul cared about and to know that it was Erik and his friend Arthur that hit Luis that caused Luis’s death, will cause Paul a lot heartache and emotional pain. But this inevitably makes Paul stronger because now he has the drive to somehow get back Erik for all the horrible things that Erik has done. On page 245 Paul is very distraught because he finds out that Luis has died and knows the reason why. This bothers Paul an incredible amount that he even goes home early from school. This shows that Erik’s choice affected Paul because Paul will forever acknowledge himself as Erik’s little brother, the brother of the person that killed Luis Cruz and this is something that will take Paul a long time to get

    Read More

  • A River Runs Through It

    1226 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...l’s legs and forearms, and the river’s rapids colliding with rocks. The viewer is shown that this is a battle between two giants; two entities that Norman has, and will, never fully understand. In the end, Paul is swept underwater, and reappears in a calm part of the river, holding the fish high in celebration. The river is tamed, and Paul is finally victorious in his rebellion. This is the final scene of Paul in the film, and he dies in a bar fight of which the details are not fully disclosed.

    Read More

  • Paul's Character in Paul's Case

    615 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the beginning of the story, Paul seems to be a typical teenage boy: in trouble for causing problems in the classroom. As the story progresses, the reader can infer that Paul is rather withdrawn. He would rather live in his fantasy world than face reality. Paul dreaded returning home after the Carnegie Hall performances. He loathed his "ugly sleeping chamber with the yellow walls," but most of all, he feared his father. This is the first sign that he has a troubled homelife. Next, the reader learns that Paul has no mother, and that his father holds a neighbor boy up to Paul as "a model" . The lack of affection that Paul received at home caused him to look elsewhere for the attention that he craved.

    Read More

More about Overview: Six Degrees of Separation by John Guare

Open Document