Final Thoughts On The Glass Menagerie

Wow! Tennessee Williams blew me away with this play. It wasn't particularly the story line, but the way he went about introducing Jim. He was perceived to be single to the audience and this gave me a sort of comfort and happiness for Laura at finding an ideal suitor who honestly cared about her and tried to help her out with her inferiority complex.
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams tackles a pair of problems that everybody at one point or another takes into consideration, success and happiness. The author goes about this theme with two key characters, Tom, Laura, and Amanda. Tom exemplifies a person in the middle class who wants more, Tom isn't content with living life working in a warehouse and making minimal pay for mind numbing work. Laura is used to show how success was perceived for women back then. Laura didn't have to worry if she did bad in school because she could just find a man to support her. Tennessee is writing to an audience with a rather broad view, this story isn't meant for a particular audience because it can be enjoyed by a wide spectrum of people.

 Vocabulary

Menagerie- Collection of wild animals

Supercilious- A desire for some distinction or achievement

Emulate- Copy or model after

Wire- Used to be used to refer to the phone.

Tone

The tone varies from character to character, but is usually assertive with Tom and distant with Laura.

Rhetorical Strategies

Stage Directions- "The scene dims out with The Glass Menagerie music" (pg 10)

Monologue- Jim: "You know what I judge to be the trouble with you..."  (Pg 80)

Soliloquy- Tom: "Yes I have tricks in my pocket..." (Pg 4)

Dialogue- Laura: It wasn't as bad as it sounds I went inside places to get warmed up

Amanda: Inside where?

Questions

Why is it that the common thought back then was that to succeed one had to marry into it?

Why did Tennessee WIlliams employ the use of so little characters?

How serious was Laura's leg problem?

Quote

Amanda: "... Oh honey don't let them burn go take a look in the oven and I'll hold onto the wire! Heavens- I think she hung up!" I thought this was pretty funny

Outliers 3/6/11

Precis

Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers: The Story of Success provides strong insight on the advancement of our world as a whole through the recognition of what yields success. He ends his ninth chapter stating that success can not just be attributed to individual intelligence or merit, but success depends on the environment, the opportunities that environment gives, and whether or not people take advantage of those opportunities. Gladwell's constantly evident style of adding rhetorical questions to his books is seen again as he ends the book using a rhetorical question. Outliers main purpose was to erase the American belief of success that has been implemented into our way of thinking since the founding of our nation; success is based on individual merit.

Vocabulary

Fallow- Not in use
Borough- One of the five administrative units of New York City
Condescending- Acting in a way that betrays a feeling of patronizing superiority.

Tone

Informative

Rhetorical Strategies

Rhetorical Question- Question that isn't answered for persuasive effect. (page 285)

Tables- Use of statistical evidence through tables for Page (255)

Statistical/Factual evidence- the use of previous studies to give evidence to the reader of cultural patterns (258)
Parallelism- Gladwell ends the book presenting the same facts he did in the beginning stating success isn't based on merit, but opportunity. (285)

Questions 

Why did Gladwell write the piece the way he did?

What can be said of Gladwell's style throughout the piece?

Why does Gladwell include his families own story of success in the epilogue?

Chapters 5-7

Precis

Gladwell's Outliers continues analyzing success in chapters five through seven. While doing the same thing the author goes about a different way of doing it; Gladwell still uses statistics, tables, and rhetorical questions as he had consistently throughout the first chapters, but this time he begins to interweave cultural background with his argument. Gladwell brings in flight statistics on crashes that were base on human error and begins to trace these crashes to the pilots and the pilot's cultural customs. Gladwell does this so his audience can understand what can be possibly be holding them back in their pursuit of success whether it be contempt of authority or fear of it. In these chapters Gladwell is writing to help people who probably haven't realized their problems that inhibit their success and open their eyes as to what these problems are.

Vocabulary

Demographic- A specific portion of a population.

Mitigation- To decrease the intensity of something

Anomalies- A strange occurrence

Tone

Informative, Critical

Rhetorical Strategies

Statistics- "Here are the top five 'uncertainty avoidance' countries..." (Page 203)

Allusion- Alludes to previous plane crashes "Consider for example the famous... crash of the Columbian air liner Avianaca..." (Page 185)

Historical Facts/ Occurrences- Talks of the great migration into the US of several different cultures and how this was a deciding factor in being successful, "A russian tailor comes to America... works in a swear shop for a small salary... The sons children [Grandchildren of fore named father] become educated professionals." (Page 152)

Tables- Used a table to show the odd drop of births in 1935-1945. (Page 134)

Questions

As Americans, why do we share a different form of respect for authority than other cultures?

What does Gladwell do to make his analysis on Racial affects on success sound analytical instead of racist?

How credible is Gladwell's information pertaining to Jews and their success in America because of their parent's harsh jobs?

Outliers Authors Argument 2/21/11

Precis

 Outliers: The Story of Success  is written by Malcolm Gladwell and chapters 1-4 provide insight on how an unusually successful person wasn't just successful because they were smarter or better than anyone else, but because they were lucky enough to have the right kind o opportunities open up for them in life. Gladwell is constantly employing the use of tangible evidence such as tables that help make his point much more concrete. Gladwell is writing to help his audience, who ever they may be, understand that success does not just involve one pulling themselves up by their own boot straps, but to show success is heavily dependent on the ecosystem that surrounds a person.

Vocabulary 

Paradigm-  A pattern or model.

Innate- Natural; in born

Paesani- Fellow countrymen

Tone

Informative

Rhetorical Strategies

Definition- "An outlier is something that is situated away..." (Page 3)

Use of Statistical evidence- Table on page 59

Exemplification- uses an example to prove his point "... for many years in the hockey world no one did... Roger Barnsley first drew attention to the phenomenon of relative age" (Page 21)

Counter-Points, by introducing the common theory of success, that it is based on the individual, the author can challenge this point of view. (Page 19)

  Discussion Questions

How hard is it for Geniuses to live in the world?

Why does Gladwell break the fourth wall and what effect does it give to his writing?

Why are time periods important to success?

Chapters 8 & 9

“Ah,” replied Roger Chillingworth, with that quietness which, whether imposed or natural, marked all his deportment, “it is thus that a young clergyman is apt to speak. Youthful men, not having taken a deep root, give up their hold of life so easily! And saintly men, who walk with God on earth, would fain be away, to walk with him on the golden pavements of the New Jerusalem.”

“Nay,” rejoined the young minister, putting his hand to his heart, with a flush of pain flitting over his brow, “were I worthier to walk there, I could be better content to toil here."
 
This quote is very significant. The quote spurred from a conversation Chillingworth was having with Reverend Dimmesdale. Reverend Dimmesdale had been acting weird lately, and the fact that Hester turned to him to help her when they wanted to take away baby pearl seems to hint that the Reverend is the father, especially the way he went about defending Hester. Reverend Dimmesdale also seems to feel a great guilt that has been quite literally eating away at him, this quote perhaps best exemplifies how he sees himself, as a sinner not belonging in the realm of god.

Q1: Does Chillingworth suspect the Reverend to be Pearl's father?

Q2: Why does Reverend Dimmesdale refuse help from Chillingworth,  but has Chillingworth at his side most of the time?

Q3: Is Hawthorne hinting Dimmesdale to be the father by using the wild Pearl and making her seem kind and innocent when she sees Dimmesadale?

Friday, December 24 Blog Post

“While this passed, Hester Prynne had been standing on her pedestal, still with a fixed gaze towards the stranger--so fixed a gaze that, at moments of intense absorption, all other objects in the visible world seemed to vanish, leaving only him and her" (61)


The passage is significant to the story because of the way Hawthorne wrote the chapter. The passage adds to the suspense of the newly introduced and slightly deformed character. As of that moment, the reader did not know who that man was and this spurred the curiosity of the reader. It is later revealed that the man was Hester Prynne's husband, yet he didn't want anybody to know.


Why didn't Prynne want to release her lovers name?


Why did her husband want his identity kept a secret?


Why was Hawthorne so descriptive when Hester Prynne spotted her husband, making it seem she didn't know him?