1972. In retrospect, the reader often discovers that the first chapter of a novel or the opening scene of a drama introduces some of the major themes of the work. Write an essay about the opening scene of a drama or the first chapter of a novel in which you explain how it functions in this way.
The opening scene in a play is important. They introduce character, setting, plot and even theme. In Albee’s The American Dream the play’s major themes are introduced in the opening scene. Albee introduces the concept of dissatisfaction for Mommy and Daddy. He also foreshadows the plot of the play. This sets the stage, so to speak, for the real meaning of the work being of consumer dissatisfaction.
Dissatisfaction is clearly found in the opening dialogue between Mommy and Daddy. The pair complains about Mrs. Barker being late, about the apartment managers not fixing their icebox or doorbell in a timely fashion and about Mommy’s new hat. They are clearly dissatisfied with what they think they deserve. This dissatisfaction is tied into the meaning of the play. Mommy and Daddy are concerned with materialistic things and being satisfied by them. Mommy wanted her hat to be beige and when it was called wheat she threw a tantrum until she received a false sense of satisfaction by receiving the same hat as before. The dissatisfaction so closely following the initial satisfaction as portrayed in the opening scene shows how absurd their behavior is.
When Mommy just discards the beige hat for the same beige hat under the illusion that it is a different hat, Albee is foreshadowing that Mommy will want the Young Man after having discarded his twin brother. Mommy discarded the Young Man’s twin after he displayed undesirable traits such as talking back and touching himself. The Young Man is assumed to be identical to the other child. Mommy only wants the Young Man become she seems him as something new and shiny.
The fascination with the newest consumer goods is shown in The American Dream through Mommy’s need to get new things and gain satisfaction from them. However this feeling is fleeting because there is always something newer that just came out and therefore you no longer have the newest consumer good causing dissatisfaction.
The Beginning of a play can tell you a lot about the rest of it. Albee’s The American Dream introduced the feeling of dissatisfaction and even foreshadowed the entire play’s plot in the first few pages. The feeling of dissatisfaction permeates the first pages and becomes more specifically consumer dissatisfaction as the play progresses.
You may wish to merge the first two sentences; the first is, as were the last ones, somewhat general and vague. Your thesis did a great job of answering the goals in the prompt, as you include various elements of American Dream that satisfy the opening scene's specifications indicated in the prompt.
ReplyDeleteThe second paragraph topic sentence is better than the last few revisions; it contributes to the logical flow of the essay by making a conclusion that you will justify throughout the paragraph. You may wish to discuss more meaning here, for your support regarding the similarity between mommy's discarding the beige hat and discarding the baby are very good.
The third paragraph seems more an extension of the second than a standalone, so you may also want to integrate it into the second and create another, separate third paragraph with more support for your conclusion.
Other than that your conclusion paragraph is strong and properly summarizes all you said before; however, more substantiation could strengthen this essay.
As the play is called The American Dream, you can't really justify a theme statement that doesn't include Albee commenting on the American Dream =) So your theme statement is a bit weak. Also, I wouldn't talk about plot when they've explicitly asked you just to talk about how the first scene introduces theme. Your structure is strong here; you could afford to strengthen your support with more examples, however.
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