In Search of Marvin Gardens
The televisionshow "Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood" takes place in two different locations,one is Mr. Rogers home, and the other is make-believe land where the talesMr. Roger’s teaches are acted out for children by puppets. To even theyoung children watching the show, it is obvious that the transition fromone place to another is helped along by parallel themes or events. Thepiece "In Search of Marvin Gardens" is obviously divided into two separatesections, one part takes place during a Monopoly game and the other isa more descriptive set of passages about Atlantic City. Just as in "Mr.Roger’s Neighborhood" the transitions are reliant on parallel elements.Therefore, the questionposed is: How does McPhee use parallel elementsto help the transitions betweenhis multiple story settings? To answerthis, a narrative criticism will bedone.
McPhee’spieceis about a man, the narrator, who is playing a game of Monopoly andatthe same time flashing to Atlantic City and telling about that physicallocation. It is never evident where the narrator actually is when the storyis being told. The game and real life are meant to mirror each other andperhapsMcPhee is making a comment about what has been lost and misrepresentedovertime. Overall, the main drive of the piece is that the Monopoly gameis representativeof life.
The parallel components in McPhee’s two settings need to be examined closely in a comprehensive examination. In order to make a more effective use of the examination,each section of McPhee’s piece should be looked at separately. The settings of the two sections, are obviously different, but they are also stronglyrelated, when McPhee discusses a location or event occurring on the Monopolyboard, ...
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...ce jumps intothe Monopoly game without ever explaining where the narrator is or howhe got there, but the opening scenes in Atlantic City are long descriptivescenes telling all about the "sidewalks of St. Charles Place" and the street,which "sparkles with shattered glass". When McPhee steps back to tell exactlywhere he is playing Monopoly and alittle about the situation, he counterbalancesthis by taking a closer lookat the scene in his other setting. A changein one section therefore requiresa change in the other section to keepit flowing smoothly.
McPhee uses parallel elements to create a peak in action before transitioning to another section. He masters the writing elements in his comparison of Monopoly to real life. The well-thought out transitions in this piece help to make it effective, parallel scenes illustrating a parallel between a game and a reality.
"The Epic of Gilgamesh." The Norton Anthology of World Literature. 3rd ed. Vol. A. New York: W.W. Norton & Compnany, 2012. 99-150. Print
“After the game was finished, Mr. Oakhurst drew the youthful speculator behind the door and thus addressed him: “Tommy, you’re a good little man, but you can’t gamble worth a cent. Don’t try it over again.” He then handed him his money back, pushed him gently from the room,” (Harte, 3) He listened to others if he wanted to, but when it went against his own judgment, he decided not to. The Innocent wanted to search for his fortune, and “There was a remembrance of this in his boyish and enthusiastic greeting of Mr. Oakhurst. He had started, he said, to go to Poker Flat to seek his fortune.” (Harte, 3) Piney was his fortune. By seeking, he meant running away with her so they could be together. He did not go on his own. “Alone?” No, not exactly alone; in fact (a giggle), he had run away with Piney Woods.” (Harte, 3) He and Piney had eloped and gone to Poker Flat to be
A major theme in the novel is exposing Wall Streets greed and brutality. The Story begins with Solomon Brothers chairman John Gutfreund challenging board member John Meriwether to a game of Liars Poker, a card game, with one million dollars at stake. Meriwether raises his bet to ten million, setting the scene for the brutish and greed filled novel. Once at Solomon, Lewis is first placed in the training program on the forty-first floor. The training program, as well as the rest of the floor, is mostly comprised of white men in perpetual competition with each other. In the front row of the program are the attentive, nerdier trainees while the back row is described as rowdy and mischievous. The forty first floor was ruled by “The Law of the Jungle” where the traders beat down on the trainees, the back row trainees always stirred up trouble and the only focus was money. Good, bad or evil didn’t matter as long as it made the firm, and the traders, rich. The trading floor at Solomon Brot...
In the game of life man is given the options to bluff, raise, or fold. He is dealt a hand created by the consequences of his choices or by outside forces beyond his control. It is a never ending cycle: choices made create more choices. Using diverse, complex characters simmering with passion and often a contradiction within themselves, Tennessee Williams examines the link of past and present created by man's choices in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."
III. Individual Dreams Vs. Family Responsibilities - A central conflict in the play arises when there is disparity between the individual's dreams and his/her familial responsibilities
Today’s American society is economically stratified by class, if you put into perspective the upper educated class would start the game thousands of dollars more. Nevertheless making the playing field an unfair and unequal. The lower and middle classes start off already at a disadvantage, leading to inequality in opportunities in the board game and in life as well. Needless to say Cooper demonstrates how socialization causes the lower classes to accept these new playing terms and rules as the new social norm in today’s society.
The author stresses certain events or moments in the story to deepen the illusion of peace and tranquility taking the reader further away from the real truth. Knowles uses Finny’s superior leadership skills to invent a summer game called Blitzball and conduct the winter carnival. Both of which were tools describing ideal moments used to distract the reader from reality that there is a battle being fought. Another idyllic event Knowles uses to his advantage was when Gene found his rhythm, ”Buoyed up, I forgot my usual feeling of routine self-pity when working out, I lost myself, oppresses mind along with aching body; all entanglements were shed, I broke into the clear.” (112) Utilizing this the author was able to divert the reader’s attention to the 1944 Olympic games and fool the audience into a false sense about the war.
During the confrontation during the poker game, which immediately ends it, readers are exposed to the reality of Stella and Stanley’s
Perspectives on gender roles throughout history majorly favor the male over the female; her abilities are underestimated by society thus her role is belittled and objectified. The ancient Mesopotamian epic, Gilgamesh, follows this norm of males being in the lead. However in truth, the women play a small but significant role as their drive. The females provide the wisdom and balance the main characters need to endure their journey. Men worship the opposite sex, relying on the power of their love to the point where they are ultimately exposed to a new way of life.
In summation, the interconnection of people and events that one might ordinarily see as disconnected or unrelated is successfully applied in Angels of America. The use of dual roles, in correlation with dialogue and character interaction allow Kushner’s to interconnect four of the major characters established persona and communities, all the while fulfilling the requirements of other characters to further the play. Consequently, Kushner is able to expand or sustain, rather than renegotiate, his characters for the audience so that the messages, triumphs and struggles of one character may be evolved even while an actor is represented in another character.
The author defines Graham’s unique characteristics in the classroom and at home by Graham informing the class on his previous encounters with the possessions of the “Previous Owner” whose profession was an entertainer. Furthermore, in the following passage, passage seven the author states,
Drugs cause an overall disturbance in a subjects’ physiological, psychological and emotional health. “At the individual level, drug abuse creates health hazards for the user, affecting the educational and general development of youths in particular” (“Fresh Challenge”). In youth specifically, drug abuse can be triggered by factors such as: a parent’s abusive behavior, poor social skills, family history of alcoholism or substance abuse, the divorce of parents or guardians, poverty, the death of a loved one, or even because they are being bullied at school (“Drugs, brains, and behavior”) .
“Miller tries both to offer a disclaimer about the imaginative aspects of his work, and to claim a higher level of veracity for the play’s authority.” (133)
The illusion of freedom and self-determination is so strong because the dealer’s accomplices disguise themselves as regular people, when they are actually part of the trick. As Lincoln told Booth when he first started teaching him the game, “Everybody out there is part of the crowd. His crew is part of the crowd, he himself is part of the crowd” (Parks 73). The dealer, or the top-dog, and his crew is part of the target’s environment. They might be random strangers, but also people one would interact with every day. They could be a neighbor, a friend, and even a person’s own family, and within this book, one’s own brother. People who are not in on the game are helpless victims that fall trap in the system. Lincoln is the topdog in his little card game, and he plays his brother like how the system plays him. Although Lincoln plays the underdog as a black man in the work force, within the realm of the card game, he represents the
Drug abuse and addiction not only has negative effects in the lives of the people involved, but also in the lives of their close relatives, friends and immediate society. It leads to disintegration, failure in school, loss of employment and violence. Although intake of drugs is a voluntary and conscious decision initially, continuous intake of drugs changes the brain and challenges the self-control of the “addicted person” and inhibits the ability to resist extreme desire for drug intake.