The Real Inspector Hound by Tom Stoppard
For this unit, the play which we are studying is "The Real Inspector
Hound" written by Tom Stoppard, an English playwright famous for his
clever use of language and ironic political metaphors. Stoppard was
associated theatre of the absurd, and often his play referred to the
meaninglessness of the human condition. He combined the English
tradition of the "comedy of manners" (a play that attacks the customs
of the upper classes) with contemporary social concerns by
concentrating on the intricate and comical duplicities of everyday
conversation within a wider, and often menacing, historical
perspective.
Stoppard focuses on having fun with different theatrical conventions
such as the forth wall and seen on stage and what is not (the body).
The topic for our first assessed session was exposition, the
strategise, used were role play, Marking the moment in addition to
still image. The medium of the section was Language Gesture as well as
Action.
Foremost we were position into four groups of four to select and
rehearse what we felt was the superlative text on show, this
introduced us to the two different kinds of exposition ;( Moon &
Birdboot and Simon & Mrs Drudge). Our aim for this exercise was to
understand the different uses of exposition; the very easy, flowing,
subtle exposition of Moon and Birdboot compared to the 'in your face'
comic exposition of Mrs Drudge. To do this we first read through the
text in our for , this had already been read thought to us although it
became clear we had little understanding of it, by acting the scenes
we were bringing them to life, Therefore increasing our understanding
of the play.
We decided to create Moon and Birdboots scene in a very realistic way
to do this we used, gesture and action; their gestures were subtle and
unobvious and their actions were very slow, we also made sure however
that they were realistic characters by hot seating, a method we also
used for Simon and Mrs Drudge this was very useful as we did not know
Darryl’s life is worth fighting for. “You can’t buy what I’ve got.” ‘The Castle’ directed by Rob Sitch, about one man, his family and neighbours on the verge of being homeless. Darryl Kerrigan, the “backbone of the family” won’t stand for that. Of course no one can buy what he has. He’s spent almost his entire lifetime building what he has, why should he give it up? Darryl’s way of life is simple yet filled with family values. 3 Highview Crescent is the home to Darryl, his wife Sal and their 3 children: Wayne, Steve, Tracy and Dale. (Wayne currently being in jail.) The house is made up of love, and simple family values. Darryl’s also added bits and pieces to it. He’s added on so much to the house, his own personal touch. His neighbours, also in the same bout are almost family to the Kerrigans. Jack and Farouk are another reason why Darryl’s ready to take matters into his own hands.
In Frederick Nietzsche’s The Death of God, his madman cries, “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us?”(The Madman) To Nietzsche, the phrase "God is dead" is not to be take literally in the sense that he believed in an actual God who existed and then died. Rather, he is implying that the Christian God is no longer the go to for absolute moral principles. In a way, Nietzsche’s The Death of God is explaining that because people are starting to no longer believe in god, their morality isn't tied up in the idea of some imaginary being. It seems that Nietzsche's intended purpose was to do away with the traditional idea of “Christian” morality as he believed that because people were evolving to a place where they could create their own morality, God was unnecessary and irrelevant.
The story by Somerville Ross, “Philippa’s Fox Hunt” was set in Ireland. A recently married couple Mr. and Mrs. Yeates were featured adapting to a new environment. The new place was characterized by new social activities that were not common in their previous residence. They had to learn new skills such as riding horses and hunting. Mr. Yeates who narrated the story described his life after marriage and how events had shaped his marriage. At the very beginning I was able to pick an element of symbolism; a newly married couple will naturally start a new life and similarly in the story the couple ventured into a new society where almost everything was new just in the same way when two people get married to each other.
A household is a precious and sensitive system of a group. Everyone has a role and responsibilities and even if someone took a sliver of more than the rest the balance could be broken. In the short-story “The Boat” written by Alistair MacLeod, the mother controls decisions in the house and abuses them even if they are not for the better of the house. She refuses to accept the daughter’s gifts, she discourages her family towards getting a better education and she married their father and pressured him to be a sailor. Though these decisions are what she feels is right, it does not work out for the rest of the family members. The mother’s stubbornness towards change and education caused the state of desperation in the house-hold.
Every woman would want to be Lady Marguerite Blakeney, née St Just. Having recently made her debut at the Comedie Francois, Marguerite married Sir Percy Blakeney alias the Scarlet Pimpernel. Charming, clever, beautiful, with childlike eyes and a delicate face, Marguerite captures everyone’s attention. Yet Marguerite is portrayed as a stereotypical woman who is weak, impulsive, and whose identity revolves around her husband.
Grendel lives in a dark and gruesome underground cave with his mother and dozens of cold, unmoving creatures. He is very curious and, in his early years, finds a way to escape this terrible place and enter the world. Every night he wanders outside his cave, exploring the land around him. One night, he gets trapped in a tree. A band of human beings led by King Hrothgar approaches and, after some hesitation, attacks Grendel. They close in for the kill, but Grendel's mother arrives just in time to save him.
It is often astounding how secrets can tear lives apart. The Secret Lives of Sgt. John Wilson gives testament to this fact. This story is the ultimate portrayal of deception and betrayal set amidst the serene, isolated canvas of the Saskatchewan prairies. What makes this story seems unbelievable is the fact that this is a true story which actually occurred as opposed to being fiction. John Wilson killed his loving unsuspecting and hid her body in an isolated culvert in 1918 near Waldheim, Saskatchewan. Some years later he would be tried in a court of law, convicted and hung for his crime in Prince Alberta, Saskatchewan. He was the first and only Mountie to be hung in Canadian History. Once again, providing that the Mounties did get their man
Feelings are the most significant part of human’s creature, but what if it comes to the goal that one’s life is based on? Would it still be that important? In the article, “Dog Lab”, Claire McCarthy discusses her own experiences as a medical student at Harvard school. McCarthy was born in 1963. She did her residency at Boston’s Children’s Hospital and she is now working as a pediatrician at the Martha Eliot Health Center in the Jamaica Plains. During college, she used to keep a journal with her that provided the outline of her writings which she referred to for her books such as Learning How the Heart Beats: The making of a Pediatrician and Everyone's Children : A Pediatrician's Story of an Inner City Practice. In addition to McCarthy being
The novel The Maze Runner by James Dashner begins with a teenage boy waking up in an elevator who has no memory of the past, only that his name is Thomas. When the doors of the elevator open up he is pulled into a humongous square surrounding, called the Glade, by a group of teenage boys. The boys in the Glade refer to themselves as the ‘Gladers’. Thomas learns that the Gladers have lived in there for two years and that the Glade is located in the center of a maze which contains a labyrinth of high walls that move during the night and deadly creatures called grievers. The Glade is led by two boys, Alby and Newt; they both maintain order in the Glade by enforcing strict rules and jobs that keep the Gladers busy. A day after Thomas’ arrival an unknown girl arrives in the Glade. This shocks everyone because the Gladers only receive a new person every month, never within the same week. This also shocks everyone because she was the only girl in a maze full of boys. The girl also gives a message that everything is going to change and that she is the last one ever. Right after her message she immediately falls into a coma. The arrival of the girl causes many things to go chaotic including the sun seizing to rise, the Gladers stop receiving supplies from the creators of the maze, and the doors of the Glade that protect the Gladers from the grievers at night stop closing. When the girl, Teresa wakes up she informs Thomas that they both knew each other in the past and that the maze was a code. Thomas and the people who run around the maze to map out the labyrinth, the runners, look through the archives of the maps and find out the code. Then the leader of the runners, Minho, figures out that the cliff they thought was just a cliff was actua...
In the novel The Great Santini by Pat Conroy, the reader meets the main character, Bull Meechem. Bull Meechem had many outstanding traits good and awful. Bull Meechem can be mistakenly called a racist though he is truly an abusive father, and yet he is courageous and honorable at times of war and then at moment before his death. Bull’s male desire to have control over his family often gets the best of him, the reader witnesses him physically and mentally attacking his family in drunken rages control for self confidence and for just pure dominance. Throughout the novel Bull expresses how at times he acts like how he believed white southerners should act by making degrading comments to African Americans. The reader also is able to see the image of an American dream when they experience Bull serving in the Marine Corps.
The Sisters Grimm: Fairy-Tale Detectives written by Michael Buckley expresses the difficulty that two girls had to face when their parents disappeared making them move to many foster homes. Sabrina and Daphne had to get over what happened to them in the different homes and open their eyes to a new adventure with a grandma they never knew about. The book sets up the reader with a theme that no matter how difficult life gets do not give up, the setting gives the reader a mental image of what Ferryport Landing was like and the types of characters makes the literary work have great quality.
Arthur Ashe once said, “From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however makes a life.” Such is the case in Nikolai Gogol’s short story The Overcoat. Gogol takes a man without a friend in the world and gives him a new overcoat. The new overcoat represents a new life and a new identity for the man and instantaneously he is much happier. The man, Akaky Akakievich, basis his “new life” upon the love that he gives to his overcoat, and what he feels it gives him in return. Before long, Akaky begins to care more about his beautiful coat and less about the people around him. Thus is the theme of the story. Often material things are more important in our lives than people, resulting in the emptiness of one’s heart and soul. One cannot be truly happy with his possessions alone. He needs more than that. He needs people his life, whom he can call friends.
In the story "The Open Boat," by Stephen Crane, Crane uses many literary techniques to convey the stories overall theme. The story is centered on four men: a cook, a correspondent, Billie, an oiler who is the only character named in the story, and a captain. They are stranded in a lifeboat in stormy seas just off the coast of Florida, just after their ship has sunk. Although they can eventually see the shore, the waves are so big that it is too dangerous to try to take the boat in to land. Instead, the men are forced to take the boat further out to sea, where the waves are not quite as big and dangerous. They spend the night in the lifeboat and take turns rowing and then resting. In the morning, the men are weak and exhausted. The captain decides that they must try to take the lifeboat as close to shore as possible and then be ready to swim when the surf inevitably turns the boat over and throws the men into the cold sea. As they get closer to land a big wave comes and all the men are thrown into the sea. The lifeboat turns over and the four men must swim into shore. There are rescuers waiting on shore who help the men out of the water. Strangely, as the cook, captain and correspondent reach the shore safely and are helped out of the water, they discover that, somehow, the oiler has drowned after being smashed in the surf by a huge wave. (255-270) “The Open Boat’s” main theme deals with a character’s seemingly insignificant life struggle against nature’s indifference. Crane expresses this theme through a suspenseful tone, creative point of view, and a mix of irony.
Love and trust come to mind when thinking upon our relationships with one another. There are many types of these bonds whether it be between mother and child or owner and pet. The story of “A Dark Brown Dog”, is one take on how some relationships can leave us with a dark place in our heart.
I visited the Body Exhibition, which is located in Buena Park, California. This exhibit allows a person to get a deeper look the inside the systems of a human body and it anatomy. It includes the skeletal system, muscular system, nervous system, respiratory system, digestive system, urinary system, productive system and fetal development, circulatory system, and lastly the threatened body. This exhibit contains more than 200 actual human bodies that have been dissected and preserved. During my visit I saw many things that changed my perspective. While visiting bodies I observed the exhibit itself, observed the people around me and asked the tour guide questions regarding the bodies.