The Play "Sure Thing" from David Ives examines the endless variations of boy meets girl and the ensuing pick up lines. The central theme throughout the play displays a few varieties of a possible conversation that end with a ringing bell that symbolizes a fresh start and a second chance to make a good impression.
The swift conversations begin in a coffee house with the two main and only characters are Bill and Betty. From the beginning till the end of the play one can see a series of pick up lines, from a man to a woman sitting in a coffee shop reading. The lines start out short and rapid with an equivalent short response from the woman. Each line is separated by a ringing bell. All humans are critical of their fellow human?s beings. They are critical about their looks, cars and etc. Generally there is an old saying ?you never have a second chance to make a first impression.? In this play the author uses a bell as a mechanism of separating the dialogue of subsequent pick up lines, which gives the characters another chance to make a good impression.
The ringing bell represents a fresh start. It is the device which allows these two characters to commence again, it is almost like the bell that is used for boxing matches which divides the rounds and lets the boxer rest before the next round begins. The play begins when Betty is setting down quietly reading her book when Bill walks in. The dialogue starts out very short, Bill glances at Betty?s book which is The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. In Bill?s pick up line he misidentifies the author. Generally women like to meet men who are intelligent, interesting and have a funny sense of humor. On pages 845 and 846 Beatty asks where Bill went to college and he said, ?I went to Oral Roberts University. ? (Bell.) In the next round Beatty repeats the question again but Bill said he is lying about ever going to college.
Most of the exposition happens in the beginning of the play. On pages 10 and 11 the women “set the stage” for us. First, Catherine tells us about herself. “I live in Ottawa, Illinois,” she says, and “I have two children that I love. I have a husband that I love.” Next a slide comes up reading “Chicago in the Gilded Age, The Roaring ‘20’s.” Then Frances, Charlotte and Pearl tell us about important people and events of the time. “Mayor “Big Bill” Thompson is running the city,” says Frances. Charlotte adds “So are Johnny Tori and Al Capone.” Later we hear about the Radium Dial Company and its history.
The scene the story keeps returning to, amongst others, is the trial in the courtroom. At first it appears that Nelly Windrow is the one on trial, and because it takes awhile for the truth to be revealed, the play has to clarify that Nelly is not the one on trial but rather a man who can’t even show up to court because he was killed. This scene acts as somewhat of
Drifters by Bruce Dawe This poem is about a family that’s always on the move, with no place to settle down for long, hence the poem was titled ‘Drifters’ to describe this family. ‘Drifters’ looks at the members of this family response to frequently change and how it has affected them. This poem is told in third person narration in a conversational tone. This gives the feeling as if someone who knows this family is telling the responder the situation of this family.
Michael MacDonald’S All Souls is a heart wrenching insider account of growing up in Old Country housing projects located in the south of Boston, also known as Southie to the locals. The memoir takes the reader deep inside the world of Southie through the eyes of MacDonald. MacDonald was one of 11 children to grow up and deal with the many tribulations of Southie, Boston. Southie is characterized by high levels of crime, racism, and violence; all things that fall under the category of social problem. Social problems can be defined as “societal induced conditions that harms any segment of the population. Social problems are also related to acts and conditions that violate the norms and values found in society” (Long). The social problems that are present in Southie are the very reasons why the living conditions are so bad as well as why Southie is considered one of the poorest towns in Boston. Macdonald’s along with his family have to overcome the presence of crime, racism, and violence in order to survive in the town they consider the best place in the world.
The play begins with Boy Willie and Lymon’s arrival to Berniece’s house in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Berniece is Boy Willie’s sister, who he has not seen for three years. Lymon and Boy Willie have come to the north for several reasons. The most motivating to Boy Willie’s was his intention to ...
In the short story “Being There”, by Jerzy Kosinski, there are multiple examples of satire that are displayed throughout both the book and the movie. A few of them are: media, death, politics, and racism. The satire of the media was very similar in the book and the movie. Media played a big role in society and still does to this day.
At the beginning of the play Betty and Bill are in conflict regarding their individuality. As their conflict plays out, Ives demonstrates how individuality can at times be detrimental to the formation of a sound relationship. Indeed, the play demonstrates that individuality can impede one’s ability to be congruent in a couple. Ives uses the bell which chimes every time that Bill or Betty makes a comment or shares an interest that was not well received by the other, to demonstrate this fact. One example is Bill's love of sports and his statement: “I'm a Mets fan, myself,” (643,49). One has a sense that Bill’s love of sports is a bit extreme and thus is not received well by Betty. The point the author makes is that having such passion for sport, or any individual interest for that matter, could take away from the amount of time he has to focus on the relationship. Moreover, Betty does not seem to share his passion thus making it hard for her to engage in conversation on the subject.
In the book by Carl Rogers, A Way of Being, Rogers describes his life in the way he sees it as an older gentleman in his seventies. In the book Rogers discusses the changes he sees that he has made throughout the duration of his life. The book written by Rogers, as he describes it is not a set down written book in the likes of an autobiography, but is rather a series of papers which he has written and has linked together. Rogers breaks his book into four parts.
In the essay “Everything Now” Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers, author Steve McKevitt blames our unhappiness on having everything we need and want, given to us now. While his writing is compelling, he changes his main point as his conclusion doesn’t match his introduction. He uses “want versus need” (145) as a main point, but doesn’t agree what needs or wants are, and uses a psychological theory that is criticized for being simplistic and incomplete. McKevitt’s use of humor later in the essay doesn’t fit with the subject of the article and comes across almost satirical. Ultimately, this essay is ineffective because the author’s main point is inconsistent and poorly conveyed.
A Streetcar Named Desire is an intricate web of complex themes and conflicted characters. Set in the pivotal years immediately following World War II, Tennessee Williams infuses Blanche and Stanley with the symbols of opposing class and differing attitudes towards sex and love, then steps back as the power struggle between them ensues. Yet there are no clear cut lines of good vs. evil, no character is neither completely good nor bad, because the main characters, (especially Blanche), are so torn by conflicting and contradictory desires and needs. As such, the play has no clear victor, everyone loses something, and this fact is what gives the play its tragic cast. In a larger sense, Blanche and Stanley, individual characters as well as symbols for opposing classes, historical periods, and ways of life, struggle and find a new balance of power, not because of ideological rights and wrongs, but as a matter of historical inevitability. Interestingly, Williams finalizes the resolution of this struggle on the most base level possible. In Scene Ten, Stanley subdues Blanche, and all that she stands for, in the same way men have been subduing women for centuries. Yet, though shocking, this is not out of keeping with the themes of the play for, in all matters of power, force is its ultimate manifestation. And Blanche is not completely unwilling, she has her own desires that draw her to Stanley, like a moth to the light, a light she avoids, even hates, yet yearns for.
The novel, Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other (2011) written by Sherry Turkle, presents many controversial views, and demonstrating numerous examples of how technology is replacing complex pieces and relationships in our life. The book is slightly divided into two parts with the first focused on social robots and their relationships with people. The second half is much different, focusing on the online world and it’s presence in society. Overall, Turkle makes many personally agreeable and disagreeable points in the book that bring it together as a whole.
Whether or not we are aware of it, each of us is faced with an abundance of conflict each and every day. From the division of chores within a household, to asking one’s boss for a raise, we’ve all learned the basic skills of negotiation. A national bestseller, Getting to Yes, introduces the method of principled negotiation, a form of alternative dispute resolutions as opposed to the common method of positional bargaining. Within the book, four basic elements of principled negotiation are stressed; separate the people from the problem, focus on interests instead of positions, invest options for mutual gain, and insist on using objective criteria. Following this section of the book are suggestions for problems that may occur and finally a conclusion. In this journal entry I will be taking a closer look at each of the elements, and critically analyse the content; ultimately, I aim to briefly bring forth the pros and cons of Getting to Yes.
The music was simply in my opinion, background noise which helped, especially at the beginning to put the audience in place and time. The main theme I believe that The Learned Ladies encompasses is approval and greed. This play looks at the limits we are willing to go for our own happiness, but not the happiness of others. I particularly enjoy the fact that in the end, we see the true colors of each complex character. Since it is a comedy I think it is funny that it makes light of the arguments between husband and wife.
The play’s major conflict is the loneliness experienced by the two elderly sisters, after outliving most of their relatives. The minor conflict is the sisters setting up a tea party for the newspaper boy who is supposed to collect his pay, but instead skips over their house. The sisters also have another minor conflict about the name of a ship from their father’s voyage. Because both sisters are elderly, they cannot exactly remember the ships name or exact details, and both sisters believe their version of the story is the right one. Although it is a short drama narration, Betty Keller depicts the two sisters in great detail, introduces a few conflicts, and with the use of dialogue,
The irony comes into play when the truth starts to unravel and Jack finds out what really happened to him as a child and why he does not know his parents. After some coincidental events, all the main characters end up in the same room. When Lady Bracknell hears Ms. Prism’s (the woman Jack hired as his nieces governess) name she immediately asks to see her. She continues to say that Ms. Prism had wandered off with a baby years ago and asks what came about of that. Ms. Prism continues the dialog to explain how she misplaced a baby that was in her bag at a train station. Jack, thinking he might have been that very baby, retrieves the bag he was found in as an infant in which Ms. Prism identifies by some distinguishing marks to have been her own. Jack realized the woman that had been teaching his niece was his mother. But then Lady Bracknell explained that she was not but Lady Bracknell’s poor sister Mrs. Moncrieff was.