Narrative Criticism of McPhee
"Do not pass go. Do not collect two hundred dollars." We’ve all heard these phrasesfromthe board game Monopoly. Monopoly, however, isn’t merely a game.It wasbased on an actual city. "The Search for Marvin Gardens" tells of Monopoly’s relation to Atlantic City, NJ. In this narrative criticism I will examine several main characteristics of the piece. In doing so, I will try to answer the question, "How has Atlantic City changed due to a greedy, capitalistic attitude?" I believe that this question makes a good connection to thepiece’s description of the changes in the features of the city.
"The Search forMarvin Gardens" is a section of the book Pieces of the Frame byJohn McPhee. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux published the piece in 1975. Thecomposition itself is fifteen pages long. It tells of Monopoly’s connectionsto a realworld location, Atlantic City, NJ.
In order to write a narrative criticism of McPhee’s "The Search for Marvin Gardens",I firstread and gave a comprehensive examination of the narrative. To dothis,I looked at several characteristics of the piece. I decided that thesetting,the characters, and the theme were the most important characteristicstothis piece. Other characteristics such as the narrator, events, temporalrelations, casual relations, and audience are not quite as important inmycriticism of this piece. To look at the important characteristics, youmustask yourself questions about the piece. How does the setting changethroughoutthe piece? How does the setting relate to the plot and characters?How isthe setting created? Who are the main characters? What are the physicalandmental traits of the characters? What is the major theme of the narrative?There are several other questions you may ask, but they do not prove asrelevantto this piece. The aforementioned questions are significant becausethey helpanswer the research question.
A participant in a game of Monopoly narrates the piece. He not only pictures the game board. He sees the corresponding locations in Atlantic City. The plot line ofthe story follows the narrator in search of Marvin Gardens. Along the wayhe sees the difference between the way things were, and the way they usedto be.
In "The Search for Marvin Gardens", there are basically four physical settings: the Monopoly tournament, Marvin Gardens, Atlantic City of the past, and Atlantic Cityin the 1970s. McPhee alternates between the settings with great regularity,and the tempo of the story is constantly changing.
Chris McCandless lived a life in which he disgusted by human civilization, and left it, eventually being led to his death in Alaska. McCandless entered the Alaskan wilderness severely unprepared, a brutal error that cost him his life. In the novel, Into the Wild by John Krakauer, Chris glances into his mindset by they way of his journal, history, and analysis of his life reveals that Chris McCandless as an arrogant and judgemental narcissist, while not mentally unstable, had a condescending attitude towards society and perished not only from his reckless stupidity but also from his unparalleled ego. Chris McCandless was immune to love and had an obsession with nature and society, him showing characteristics that created the appearance of McCandless
Was he a reckless idiot? That is the big question. This is what people always seem to talk about when they talk about Chris McCandless. There are many people who think that Chris McCandless was a reckless idiot who was mentally ill, or something else was wrong with Chris. It seems that almost everybody that met Chris thought maybe Chris was crazy or had problems. Here are just a few things that people said about Chris and his state of mind. Pg 40 Zarza admits saying, "he was always going on about trees and nature and weird stuff like that. We all thought he was missing a few screws. Pg 42 Charlie said, "seemed like a kid who was looking for something." Pg 45 Burres said "I thought Alex had lost his mind when he told us about his 'great Alaskan odyssey, ' as he called it."
One of the settings most important factor is location. Location is the basic aspect of the story such as conflict, reaction, character and plot. Sinclair Ross used the aspect of the location very we...
In 2013, just shy of my 17th birthday, I planned a day trip with two of my friends to see The Phantom of the Opera in New York. At this point in my life, I was entirely unaccustomed to large cities, such as New York City, and felt excited to experience the bustle I expected. While in the city, a woman informed me about methods to avoid the crime so intertwined with life in the city and introduced me to the concept that, just as New York City held many attractions for tourists, it also held some dangers as well. This idea takes pride of place in Edward Jones’ short story, “Young Lions” and its discussion of Caesar Matthews. As I learned a few years ago, the city truly contains amazement for those experiencing it, but, like all things in life,
Abrams, M.H. and Greenblatt, Stephen eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Seventh Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2001.
During the 1920’s, Atlantic City was famous for gambling and drinking. People all over would visit for entertainment and to get rich. After world war two crime and corruption took over the streets causing the city to enter an economic decline. Also following the war, cars became more available which led to the decrease of time spent at the city, people no longer had to wait for a train, they can now visit for a little and leave whenever. Less people staying at the hotels for longer, took away more of the cities money. In 1972, “ The New Yorker” published an article called the The Search for Marvin Garden’s by John McPhee who was smart and talented monopoly player. In the article, McPhee persuades Americans to be weary of what trying to become rich in order to be happy can produce and instead search for happiness in
... to World Poverty", the speaker uses potent pathos, thought provoking rhetorical questions, ethos, and a assertive tone to demonstrate that it is in the best interest of man kind for those living lives of luxury to exchange opulence for altruistic lifestyles which leads to a more meaningful existence. Through his usage of rhetorical questions and aggressive tone the speaker is able encourage self reflection which leads to greater acceptance of his utilitarian philosophy. The speaker also utilizes a bold tone, allusions, and references to professionals such as Peter Unger to build his credibility as an author and to gain the trust and respect of his audience. Singer uses pathos along with his assertive tone to evoke anger from the audience and make them more willing to accept the idea that forsaking materialism is in the best interest of the world community.
McPhee begins his essay with the description of a turn in Monopoly. He then quickly movesto a description of a street (specifically Vermont Avenue) from the actualcity of Atlantic City. He continues in this fashion throughout the essay.As he moves from property to property in his game, he moves descriptivelyfrom street to street and from sector to sector in Atlantic City. McPheebrings in a bit of history as describes each "property" for the reader.From Anthony J. Drexel Biddle and the Brighton Hotel to changes that havetaken place concerningthe type of criminals held in the prison, McPheeoffers us a now and thencomparison throughout and all the while continuinghis game of Monopoly.
Colson Whitehead ponders the essence of New York in his collection of essays titled, The Colossus of New York. Throughout the entire collection of essaysWhitehead inquires about what New York stands for based on the journey’s of its inhabitants and visitors. By establishing a sense of authenticity and creating an intimate relationship between him and the reader, Whitehead effectively provides his readers with a genuine account of New York. This genuineness found in Whitehad’s writing has not been met without criticism. Wyatt Mason’s critique of Whitehead’s essays reiterates throughout the review that Whitehead’s account go New York isn’t unique to New York and that the essayist isn’t particularly attentive to detail. While I agree with the
Baldwin gives a vivid sketch of the depressing conditions he grew up on in Fifth Avenue, Uptown by using strong descriptive words. He makes use of such word choices in his beginning sentences when he reflects back to his house which is now replaced by housing projects and “one of those stunted city trees is snarling where our [his] doorway used to be” (Baldwin...
Christopher Johnson McCandless, a.k.a Alexander Supertramp, “Master of his Own Destiny.” He was an intelligent young man who presented himself as alone but really he was never lonely. However, he believed that life was better lived alone, with nature, so he ventured off throughout western United States before setting off into Alaska’s wild unprepared where he died. Some may say he was naive to go off on such a mission without the proper food and equipment but he was living life the way he wanted to and during his travels he came across three people: Jan Burres, Ronald Franz, and Wayne Westerberg. McCandless befriended these people, it is believed that he made such a strong impression on them that their connection left them with strange feelings after finding out about McCandless’ death.
The writer behind “Singers Solution to World Poverty” advocates that U.S. citizens give away the majority of their dispensable income in order to end global suffering. Peter Singer makes numerous assumptions within his proposal about world poverty, and they are founded on the principle that Americans spend too much money on items and services that they do not need.
The book asks two questions; first, why the changes that have taken place on the sidewalk over the past 40 years have occurred? Focusing on the concentration of poverty in some areas, people movement from one place to the other and how the people working/or living on Sixth Avenue come from such neighborhoods. Second, How the sidewalk life works today? By looking at the mainly poor black men, who work as book and magazine vendors, and/or live on the sidewalk of an upper-middle-class neighborhood. The book follows the lives of several men who work as book and magazine vendors in Greenwich Village during the 1990s, where mos...
It is always important to look to the past in order to move towards the future. This was done in the formation of Western Society, and more specifically the formation of American society. The Greek culture served as a frame of reference for many aspects of Western life including government, architecture, math and the arts. Ancient Greek culture served as a very broad base for our society to be built upon.
“The Greeks molded the mind of Western Civilization, if not the body and the culture” (PowerPoint #6). The Greeks had a very powerful impact on the entire world, making them a huge influence to Western culture. The Greeks showed their power over the world by their great intellect. Through their accomplishments in art, architecture, government, philosophy, education, and science they helped shape Western Civilization. They built strong and intricate buildings, allowing others to see throughout history the plan of the architecture used. The Greek government was one of the first to have a Democracy. Their ac...