Quite honestly, I feel as if first hour AP English puts me at a disadvantage because I'm essentially still asleep. I'm barely awake at 7:45 in the morning, and annotating Albee's American Dream is more of a struggle than an adventure at that obnoxious time in the morning.
Fortunately, the pace of the class is picking up now that we've finally molded our brains back to functioning for school. And it's helpful that my classmates are better morning people than I am.
They find things in Albee's play that I really haven't noticed, like subtle word play and different viewpoints. Sometimes we clash on interpretations of things; but this in no way means that the discussion environment is one of warfare and savagery. It's an extremely enlightening experience as we find interesting diction choices and laugh at all the sexual innuendos Albee inserts. Through our in depth discussions and annotations, we're finally applying all of the things we learned in the first few weeks of class rather than just going through formatted essays and looking for what has already been found for us.
Within our in class discussions, it seems that there's evidence indicating that Albee is a brilliant playwright who masterfully throws in all these subtle details. Everything from the beige and wheat hat incident to Daddy being so firm about opening the door has some sort of meaning or connotation to everyone in my class.
However, these details seem to take away from the widely accepted fact that Albee writes from the Theater of the Absurd. Maybe this is just me being weird, but I feel like there's a whole lot of contradiction. The point of absurdism is really to have no point, yet Albee already strays from that by seemingly trying to bash the American Dream. Furthermore, this play is definitely not lacking substance; rather, it is teeming with it. Though some things truly seem redundant, like the scene where Grandma keeps saying things along the lines of "a man very much like daddy...a woman very much like yourself....a woman very much like mommy....", Albee has much momentum and drive in his writing.
I've definitely learned a lot, but I'm yearning to learn more about this play! If I have the time, (heavy stress on the IF), I would like to go through and annotate once more because I always absorb more information and also new insight the second time around for anything I read.
I definitely agree with your response her Jiaxin. The class discussion are quite insightful, even though we may clash with our insights at times. I feel like if we were given the opportunity, we could analyze this play for months on end (not that we’d want to). Also, first hour? Ouch.
ReplyDeleteYes, first hour APELit sounds rough. I think that the optimal time for a class like this that requires so much brain power and attention for the analysis of literary works is right after lunch. Your brain has been fed, you are awake, and can really get involved. But yes, 1st hour, definitely harder.
ReplyDeleteI also find that my fellow classmates are picking up on a lot of things that I don’t catch. At first it worried me, but then I realized that it’s literature, which can have infinite interpretations.
Do you think that the subtle details that you talk about were included intentionally? I am always wondering how much of the things we find were put in their on purpose by the author, and how much is just supposed to be taken at face-value.
With regards to your thoughts on the Theater of the Absurd, I think it’s important to note that Albee came in at the tail end of the movement. He was able to learn from the greats, and utilize their techniques effectively. So, I think that he probably does a good job of adhering to the basic characteristics of a Theater of the Absurd piece. I am not sure about this, but I thought that a work of absurdism definitely has a point, but the way it goes about making that point is different than most other types of writing.
That is really unfortunate that you have this class 1st hour, because it's really a thinking class and for me, I'm not usually all there untill about 3rd hour. I also like annotating in a group has been very helpful, because I don't alway pick up on important meanings or hidden messages. It's nice expecially in the begining to bounce ideas off! I agree with your last paragraph! I would take so much from going through the book more times, but my life is so crazy that it gets very difficult to do so! Good luck!
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