Am I Blue by Beth Henley
Works Cited Not Included
The author of Am I Blue, Beth Henley, begins the play with the seventeen-year-old protagonist John Polk sitting alone in a bar. John contemplates on the red and black card in his hand. From the street, a sixteen-year-old girl whose name is Ashbe sits next to him. She hides under his raincoat because she stole two ashtrays from a local inn. Ashbe is a social person and soon begins a conversation with John. Through persistent questioning, Ashbe discovers John is in a fraternity. John admits the fraternity is not solving his problems like his brother told him it would. Ashbe, noticing the red appointment card, asks John why he has an appointment with a prostitute. John responds ?Yeah, I
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Later, while the two talk about dancing, Ashbe asks John to make love to her. John says he could not even kiss her with a clear conscience. After John?s comment, Ashbe views herself as undesirable. John tells her he likes her too much to make love to her. John decides to break his date with the prostitute and dance all night with someone he cares about, Ashbe. John Polk experiences three personal conflicts in Am I Blue: his difficulty of adjusting to adulthood, his ambitions in life, and his attempt to develop individuality.
John Polk?s first conflict is his difficulty of adjusting to adulthood. John is attending college, and he is involved with a fraternity. John realizes the adult world looms ahead, and he exercises poor judgment. Life on the soybean farm is different from fraternity life. John is overwhelmed with this new fast life ?of parties, booze, honking horns?(line 34). John states ?Oh, God, I need to get drunk?(line115). John resorts to drinking alcohol when he thinks about his problems. The party life of the fraternity fuels the fire. John drinks alcohol throughout the play to escape from his worries. Toward the end of the play, however, John makes some adult decisions. John refuses to make love to Ashbe because he cares for her. Also, instead of going to the prostitute, John stays with Ashbe for the night.
John Polk?s second conflict is deciding his ambitions in life. Ashbe asks John
During the trip, the narrator spends a lot of his time taking care of his nephews, James, and John. There is a time when they play in a pond at the bottom of a hill and John starts to talk about marriage by mentioning that he wants to marry Abby, his best friend. Unexpectedly, James says that he wants to marry Ethan, Abby’s brother. John starts to make fun of his brother and chants that his brother cannot marry James. But, there it is, the chance that the narrator was waiting for to be himself and revel his own beliefs.
John’s troubled soul was fueled by hatred towards Owen’s control for his destiny, the kind of control that John never has in his own life. The events leading up to the Vietnam War and beyond were out of his authority, however, as destiny has it; it is inescapably going to happen. The war itself indirectly took the life of John’s best friend and John always felt helpless and responsible thinking that somehow he should have taken some kind of control in order to change occurrences. Due to Owen Meany’s belief that he is an instrument of God and that God has set a task for him to complete, Owen does his best to fulfill each part of his destiny. John does not understand why Owen bothered, John himself having so little faith and acceptance in destiny and fate. Owen has control over which path in life he should take, he could follow God’s orders, or he could ignore his calling and not do as his fate would have to save the little Vietnamese children. John’s feeling of helplessness in the fate that has befallen Owen makes him feel responsible and angry because he thinks he could have tried to persuade Owen to avoid his destiny. Moreover, John is angry by Owen’s faith in God and his acceptance of his destiny by living his life accordingly rather than avoiding it, the control that John never
The book is titled: Pink Think Becoming A Woman in Many Uneasy Lessons, the author of the book is Lynn Peril. The first copyright of the book is in 2002 the type of book pink think it would be the author stating her ideals on what it is to be a woman. The subject matter is the ideal woman meaning what America sees as the ideal woman and the things they have done to create or influence women to go and become these ideal roles. The book shows various pictures depicting how women were looked at as well shows newspaper advertisements and pictures of the different roles of men and women in society. The pictures are there to show the ideology of the time of how people wanted women to basically worship the men and treat them with nothing but love and respect. Also included are quizzes from magazines that were created to test if you were feminine enough. These quizzes were good example of what people assumed the role of a women were. The price of the book varies from place to place and is sold between $10.00-$15.00 the isbn for the book is 978-0-393-32354-2.
The dilemmas established from the nature of motivation, compel the characters to resolve their conflicts. Ann is struggling in a mental and emotional anguish to find the importance in her life. The conflict arises in her decision to gratify her goal; the satisfaction she seeks for in life which is the love and support of her faithful husband. In addition the conflict results from Ann vs society, she feels as though she can’t connect to society because “John never talks, he doesn’t understand…maybe he’ll have Steven come again, and some other young people, too. It’s what we need, both of us, to help keep young ourselves”. Even though John’s ignorance towards his wife’s emotional needs create issues between them, Ann fails to stop herself from being attracted to Stevens appeal, she tries to impress him by changing to “another dress, hair rearranged”. Furthermore, it is true that marriage can sometime result in peoples miserable conditions. As a result of Ann’s actions she came to realization that even after cheating with Steven her guilt leads her to realize that only with John she can be emotionally fulfilled. “John was the man…with him lay all
John pushes against the society’s standards. He is against taking soma, a drug that puts you are peace and goes against the social means. John takes the soma from workers at the hospital receiving their pay. “’Free, free!’ the Savage shouted, and with one hand continued to throw the soma into the area while, with the other, he punched the indistinguishable faces of his assailants. ‘Free!’ And suddenly there was Helmholtz at his side —‘Good old Helmholtz!’—also punching—‘Men at last!’—and in the interval also throwing the poison out by handfuls through the open window. ‘Yes, men! men!’ and there was no more poison left. He picked up the cash-box and showed them its black emptiness. ‘You're free’” (213). John hates people taking soma because it takes away their freedom, which keeps them from thinking and speaking freely. He continues to fight the system when he isolates himself at the lighthouse because he is so against the World State. He ends up not wanting to be in the world. He hangs himself to show everyone how messed up it is and prove himself to the world controllers.
Ann was very selfish woman who only thought of herself. This is when does not want john to go look after his father, who is old and alone. She only want john around. However her marriage is dull, and boring as john think that the best way to prove his loyalty to Ann was to work hard all day long. She ends up having sex in her matrimonial bed with the neighbor and John come to find them there. He decided to commit suicide by walking in the storm.
Have you ever thought about what it would be like not to be free? What would it be like not to be able to make choices? What would it be like not to be able to do what you want? It's scary to think about not being free, but even in the world today some people don't even have basic human freedoms. Lois Lowry shows us in her books The Giver and Gathering Blue what it would be like not to have freedom and how important it is that we have it.
In the story “Blue against White”, the author, Jeannette C. Armstrong, writes about a native girl coming home to her reserve after spending time in the city. The topic of memories is very apparent throughout the story as the main character, Lena, is reminiscing through most of it. Whether we like it or not, life always goes on and sometimes, there are things we don’t really pay attention to until it’s too late. Memories can help to keep the past alive and get us through some pretty tough situations. In the story, Lena thinks about her time in the city and how she got through it with her memories of the place she grew up in. Armstrong represents her idea of memory of the past in her text with the use of the blue door as a symbol, comparing
The Color Purple by Alice Walker is the story of a poor black woman living in the south between World War 1 and World War 2. This was at a time when, although slavery had ended,many women were still virtually in bondage, and had to put up with many conditions that was reminiscent of the days of slavery. The problem was that they had to endure being treated like an inferior being by their own families sometimes, as well as from the white people that lived there. It was a life that was filled with misery for many black women, and they felt helpless to do anything about their situations.
When John was led back into life in the futuristic society, he was mocked and treat as a strange attraction. He was at the awful end of a sick joke - people came from all over to understand this simple “savage” who has spent his life in curiously primitive manners. John was so poorly received, he went as far as wanting to commit
In Bebe Moore Campbell’s, You’re Blues Ain’t Like Mine, I was able to view the novel from the three main sociological perspectives: the structural-functionalist approach, the social-conflict approach, and the symbolic-interaction approach. From the structural-functionalist point of view, I analyzed the Honorable Men of Hopewell as the power elite. I viewed Mamie Cox’s understanding of social class from the social-conflict perspective, and Doreen and Lily Cox differences were easily seen through the symbolic-interaction approach. By examining the characters and situations from these three important perspectives, I was able to have a better understanding of the novel and the life of the people in which the novel was based.
John was terrified of discovering the truth about his father. O’Brien explained that for John, “[Knowing] is to be disappointed. To understand is to be betrayed.” (242) While hiding the truth was convenient for John, the secrets piled up and ultimately proved to be too much of a burden. For as hard as John tried to cover up the truth, he always knew about his father’s drinking. “That was the worst part. The secret drinking that wasn’t secret,” O’Brien explained. (66) When Paul hanged himself, however, John was finally able to face the truth. He was still a child, and at the funeral he continually screamed in front of the entire procession, finally relieving himself of the burden of years of secrecy. While the truth of Paul’s alcoholism was not pretty, and was certainly less convenient to face than simply ignoring it, it was a significant relief for John. His mother explained: “I hate to say it, but it was a relief to have him out of the house. John and I, we both adored the man, but suddenly all the tension was gone and we could have supper without sitting there on the edge of our seats.” (97) Throughout the rest of John’s life, a similar process of hiding the truth and ultimately accepting it would repeat. As he progressed to the next stage of his life, as a young adult serving in the Vietnam War, John would bear a secret much heavier than his father’s
When Sally and John have their brief affair, which both spouses are aware of, the first problem of unfaithfulness becomes on display. As the day goes on, the tensions generated by this situation grow more acute, culminating in a physical confrontation between Sam and John.
Throughout European colonization in Canada Aboriginals were pressured to abandon their cultural identity and assimilate into western civilization. Aboriginals had inhabited the land for centuries; Aboriginals had already established their own distinct trade networks, social hierarchies and spiritual beliefs. Canadian colonization threatened the existence of Aboriginal culture; Europeans strove to achieve civilization in Canada and coerced “uncivilized” Aboriginals to adopt a Eurocentric way of life. This paper will argue that, a Marxist critique, of “A Red Girls’ Reasoning” demonstrates the persecution of Aboriginal culture in a Eurocentric society. Christine’s mixed race heritage enables her to play a role as a transgressor of rigid class, race and gender distinctions, representing her struggles as a microcosm of the imbalance between European and Aboriginal culture.
Alice Walker has been an activist for most of her life. Walker travels the world to help fight for the poor and the oppressed. She also stands for the revolutionaries who want to transform the world for the better. She is a defender of not only human rights but the rights of animals as well. In her essay “Am I Blue” she discovers the feelings of a horse named Blue. The essay is meant to show a different side of animals and show the audience the human-like traits that horses have. She compares the oppression of the African Americans and American Indians to the way we now treat animals.