When looking back at all of the things we did this month, I was extremely surprised by the fact that we have been reading and analyzing The American Dream for a whole month. Before we could read, we learned the basics of play in the articles, “Theories of Humor and Comedy,” “Theater of the Absurd,” and “Existentialism 101.” After annotating and discussing them, I had a much stronger grasp of Existentialism and Theatre of the Absurd. I thought it was intriguing how Existentialist believed that those to who try to ignore the responsibility they carry from their actions cannot live an authentic life while those who accept the burden of responsibility can. It makes you wonder if you're accepting it or constantly trying to escape from that responsibility. However, my favorite part of the articles was looking at Absurdist philosophy. There is a lot of elements that contribute to an Absurdist work that give it meaning while also confusing the readers heavily. These elements and themes such as repetition, lack of values in the modern world, and breakdown of communication were things I could clearly see in The American Dream.
After the first read through of The American Dream, I was extremely confused. We discussed as a class what we thought the significance of the title and the play was. Our discussions mostly were directed at the immigration and the idea of the "American Dream" that many immigrants carried. I didn't feel as if that was right, especially after reading the "A Supermarket in California" by Allen Ginsberg. I drew similar parallels to each work as a criticism of American conformity, consumerism, and artificialness. Our class finally came to this conclusion with the help of Grandma. By using the poem "I Hear America Singing" by Walt Whitman, we could see Grandma as a stand in of American values.
Finishing the first read and discussion, we were given more articles that provided insight into the play's symbols and Edward Albee's personal life. I was amazed by all of the themes and archetypes that Albee used subtly and that I had completely missed. It was quite incredible to see how thought out the play was in its meaning and techniques amidst the nonsense and repetition. I was also shocked at how much of Albee's personal life was seen in the play as an adopted child. I could clearly see it in Grandma's preference to Daddy rather than Mommy as well as the emptiness of the Young Man. This articles led us into our second read of The American Dream and a nearly a week of discussion. I was able to experience and see everyone's unique interpretation of the themes and characters. I really liked discussing the power and status dynamics of the play as that was seen in the articles. While Grandma had the most power, her status was certainly the lowest. It was amazing to see how clever Edward Albee was in illustrating this idea, and the futility of gender roles by switching them with Mommy and Daddy as well.
This last week has served as a conclusion for many things. Our understanding of the literary terms were nailed in with a literary terms test. We had spent the week before practicing and practicing them. By understanding the definitions of the terms, I had a greater awareness for these techniques when seeing them in literature. This often helped me analyze the work as a whole and aided me when I wrote the first closed prompt on poetry. This terms, when used correctly, helped me on my American Dream open prompt and will help me in future essays including the ones on the AP exam. The Summary and Analysis also prepared me for the open prompt test by closing the gaps in my comprehension and tying loose ends. The open prompt test concluding The American Dream, and tested my knowledge and understanding of the book. For me, it served more as a test of time because I really struggled with putting everything I wanted to say about the novel in the allotted time span. Using this experience, I can improve on my time management so that I can be prepared for the AP exam.
However, some things were introduced to us in the last week. Though I am awful at it, we have looked into the multiple choice portion of the example. I thought the distractor portion of the reading really helped. By becoming familiar to the question types and potential answers, I can prepare for a vital part of the AP exam. We also were given a terms application pre-test and it was strange to see how knowing the definitions is definitely different than applying them. I hope to improve my applications skills as it is quite crucial to using the terms to my advantage when analyzing literature and writing essays, especially for the AP exam.
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