America

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America

(Man lies down on couch. Silence. Man begins to talk to Doc, the assumed analyst behind the desk, his chair is facing away from the man and can not be seen. His actual presence is ambiguous. A huge American Flag hangs down from ceiling. The window is left open, so the flag ripples in the wind. The day is hot. The Devil Winds are blowing off the Mojave Desert.)

History is fabrication. History is betrayal.

“What passes for identity in America is a series of myths about one’s heroic ancestors."

America and Me

(1) History is fabrication, coated with honey, and bubbled from all evil, in order to make life worth living. American History is no exemption. Our history books contain heroes. Men and women displayed to be as perfect in life as Christ himself. Their lives are relived through the typed paragraphs, their faults extinct, their miracles numerous. This is a fabrication. A lie is a lie if only half the truth is told. When genocide is remembered, we make the victims savages; this is monstrous. When Vietnam is forgotten, this is a bubble community that believes what it wants to believe. I want to know the entire truth. I do not want to stumble upon the truth years later after already worshipping fabricated patriotic heroes. I do not want to vomit the already ingested heroes out of my stomach. I do not want to feel betrayed. I want to possess the heroes that I have patterned my life around.

(2) I am sixteen. I have my first girl friend. We are in love and talk about marriage. We think we will grow old together. I catch her in a lie and break up with her. She comes to me crying, begging for forgiveness, she can not live with out me. I forgive her. We continue going ...

... middle of paper ...

...le real heroes. I don’t want no Mickey Mouse or Disneyland Land ride. I want this marriage to work out……a………an………and……….i….i…if.. …if you can’t give me that….if you can't offer me anything….

(Silence.)

….lie.

Works Consulted

Faragher, John Mack. "The Tale of Wyatt Earp." Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies. Ed. Marc Carnes. New York: H. Holt, 1995. 154-61.

Pitts, Michael R. Hollywood and American History: A Filmography of Over 250 Motion Pictures Depicting U.S. History. McFarland & Company, Inc,. London: 1984.

Shepard, Sam. Motel Chronicles. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1982.

Warshow, Robert. The Immediate Experience: Movies, Comics, Theatre & Other Aspects Of Popular Culture. New York: Doubleday & Company, 1962.

West, Nathanael. Miss Lonelyhearts & The Day of the Locust. Toronto: New Directions, 1933.

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