Chicago the Musical

There is dramatic tensions scattered around all 3 acts, some severe while others lighter. Miller uses several techniques to evoke feelings in the audience through the use of stage directions as well. We can see that a large part of the play depend on bigotry and grudges which in turn leads to people getting accused.

The Film "West Side Story" illustrates how the Puerto Ricans of New York faced discrimination and were used as scapegoats by the American people during the cold war time period to escape their anxieties. Due to the fear of communism and possible nuclear war the 1950-1960s time period was a very fragile time for the American people which produced an air of xenophobia throughout the country. The air of xenophobia is present throughout the play due of the repeated mention of stereotypes about Puerto Ricans and the constant feeling that the Puerto Ricans do not belong. The people of American often dealt with these anxieties in one of two ways, through escapism or through and through the scapegoating. This is made very clear through the comparison of West Side Story to the play The Music Man in the document “West Side Story and The Music Man: Whiteness, Immigration, and Race in the US during the late 1950s”. Like many waves of immigrants, the Puerto Ricans faced discrimination when they arrived and for some time after. This came in the form of people being discriminatory directly to them, housing discrimination and job discrimination. Therefore, the play “West Side Story” expresses the discrimination that Puerto Ricans faced due to the xenophobic nature of the time period.

Watkins begins to show the manipulation very early in the play, in the Prologue to be specific. Roxie has just shot Fred Casely and the police and reporters were there. Prior to the police arriving, Roxie had talked Amos into taking the blame for the murder. She did not tell him that she had been cheating on her, so Amos gave her up after he received the news. Roxie says, “You said you’d stick, you said you’d–––” (12) Amos replies, “Sure, if he’s a burglar! What d’yuh lie to me for?” (12). This was when Amos found out about what Roxie failed to mention. Also, it shows the manipulation that she used in order for her to stay out of trouble. She was willing to throw her innocent husband under the bus to keep herself safe. Roxie’s manipulation of her husband to keep herself safe shows how easy the corrupted system could be taken advantage of.

Miller’s incorporation of this motive into the play provides a realistic scenario that applies to society. For example, when the play was first produced, McCarthyism plunged America in paranoia and fear. Audiences could relate the the plot because Americans were turning in their friends so they would not be labeled as Communists.

During Act 2, many occurrences happened. One in particular took my attention with a bit more force than some of the other content. According to the text, “… But not Sarah Good. For Sarah Good confessed, y’see. I hear a voice, a screamin’ voice, and it were my voice-and at all at once I remembered everything she done to me” (Miller 60)! This quote shows that this woman, Sarah Good, did something to Mary Warren that made her traumatized and afraid. According to the text, “… ‘Sarah Good,’ says he, ‘what curse did you mumble that this girl must fall sick after turning you away’” (Miller 61)? This quote demonstrates the acts Sarah did to Mary. I connected to this scene by remembering an old show that recently aired called Merlin.

The audience’ perceptions and understanding of texts depend on the way the composer represents them in relation to politics. Varying texts through their individual mediums offer perspectives on the way people manipulate and are manipulated by politics. Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible is a manifestation of the anger that the composer experienced in his personal life through the accusations which culminated in the McCarthy Trials. His play thus allegorically represents McCarthyism through the Salem Witch trials and exemplifies the false accusations of the people and their injustice from the corrupt politics as well as the influential ideas of power and manipulation. In relation, Geoffrey Robertson’s nonfiction ‘Michael X on death row’ also represents the corrupt and self-centred nature of the politics and the process of manipulation as a facet to gain power and control.

In the novel The Devil in the White City, Author Erik Larson uses imagery, irony, and juxtaposition to parallel the good and evil sides of the city of Chicago during the 1893 World’s Fair. Larson takes a more upbeat, joyous tone while following the story of Burnham and the architects designing the World Fair, but the tone turns much darker when perspectives change and we follow the plot of H.H. Holmes, America’s first known serial killer. Using rhetorical devices like imagery, diction, and syntax, Larson is able to paint a picture of Chicago from both the good and evil side, setting a more serious and ominous tone for the novel.

It argues that the police are not simply incompetent, but even apathetic to the problems of the community they have sworn to protect and serve. This is evidenced in that, while investigating the murder of a young girl, the police go door to door a single time canvassing for witnesses. When everyone claims that they didn’t see anything, the police move on. The play suggests that this, along with picking up the usual black suspects for questioning, is about the extent of their investigation. The police don’t appear to spend much time gathering evidence from the scene. They don’t come back to see if anyone has remembered anything since the shock wore off. In fact, they seem to be trying to avoid the scene of the crime. Zooman himself calls the police officers out on their lack of dedication to finding a murderer in this rough neighborhood, claiming, “[I]f a black kills a black, and they don’t catch you right away, they [sic] liable to forget about it” (Fuller 47). This indicates that his past experiences with law enforcement haven’t led him to believe in their capabilities, so much so that he has completely given up on the

This play had revealed clear view about class tensions and also explaining about the conflicting issues for ethnics in between 1970-1990. Those issues were also the major responsible factors for this Brutal Riots in Los Angeles. “Well, the terrible thing right now, and I don’t know the statistics, but there’s a growing concern in some communities about how rapidly people are sent from school to jail, how quickly they 're put into the criminal justice system. And of course the rapidly growing number

In Chicago, the main plot revolves around women who murder the men in their lives that have caused some injustice. Each woman has a story to justify the reason why the men had to die. Billy Flynn is a charismatic criminal lawyer that has never lost a case for a female client. The proceedings in jail and in the courtroom are anything but legal and ethical. It is clear that the plot is not serious. This justifies the fact that the female prison inmates are allowed to interact with each other in song and dance. Also the so-called warden can also act as a contract agent to get the girls their own Vaudeville act. The main purpose of the show is to water down the book plot and add individual entertainers. This is done to integrate the Vaudeville quality within a musical. In doing so the courtroom and jail is paralleled with a nightclub scene. The main purpose to maintain the Vaudeville quality is suggesting the cliché "all the world's a stage." In

Even though both pieces take place during different periods of time, that doesn't change people’s reactions towards the crimes and trials that are occurring in both the novel and musical. In “Chicago”, murder was a way many people got famous, it would end up in the newspaper, on the radio, and your name and face was everywhere. People looked forward to seeing who was the next person on the front page. When they would find out, they would make a massive spectacular. Once Roxie Hart killed Fred Casely, her name was known by everyone. Everyone wanted to see her, ask her questions, some even wanted to look like her. Despite the fact that she murdered someone, everyone wanted to be just like Roxie. As her trial was going on, no one could wait to hear if they convicted her of the crime or not. There were people that had made newspaper for both “Innocent” and “Guilty” as they waited to see what she was sentenced. Her crime, or anyone else before or after, was big entertainment more than anything else. But once she was pronounced innocent and was released, another woman killed someone, and she was completely

The theme that reoccurred consistently throughout Act 2 was “Hysteria and Religion.” The hysteria spread throughout the Puritan society like a wildfire. Puritans were cautious and quick to judge based off of circumstantial evidence, nevertheless, dozens of people were convicted of crimes that they may or may not have committed. Religion was the center of all life at the time. The average individual knew the Bible inside and out. While (most) individuals attended church services regularly, no one could be exempt from persecution. A reputation could change with one misstep, “remember, until an hour before the Devil fell, God thought him beautiful in Heaven” (Miller 71).

In the movie Chicago, Roxie Hart is a naive woman, though she has the ability to control the media, she has made bad choices. Roxie has slept with her furniture salesman, hoping to

Everyone has fantasies but most know that is not the true reality. Defining dreams and reality are two different things. Some want to escape the real world and make their own dreams become true, due to seeking happiness. The author portrays Blanche, Stella, and Stanley as characters that are fixated on what they want to believe is the truth; however, the reason being is because they do not want face their fears. Stella and Blanche both desire to make their past non-existent and live in a perfect world, rather than accept the truth and move forward. Stanley does not let his fantasies take over his life as much as the two women. In Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar name Desire the three protagonists Blanche, Stella, and Stanley exist in a fool’s paradise by using denial and fantasy to display a public facade in desire to obscure the truth; however, the characters want to escape their undesirable reality through their more desirable fantasy.

I really enjoyed this play as it kept me wondering what will happen next and taught me some life lessons on how people react or make decisions. As I read on this play goes into the man Sergeant Vernon C. Waters personality and who he really was. We learn that Sergeant Waters hates being black and anyone who may exhibit black characteristics or stereotypes for example. For example in Act Two we learn that Sergeant Waters does not really like C.J. as he frames him and provokes him to attack so that he could be arrested for any reason. Sergeant Waters admits to this is Act Two and wanted C,J. arrested so the world would be free of one more simpleton colored boy. In Sergeant Waters’s