Edward Albee Essay

“It’s a shallow life that doesn’t give a person a few scars”. This quote said by Garrison Keillor, metaphorically exemplifies the true meaning of hollowness and shallowness. Hollowness and shallowness were a major part of people’s characteristics in the 1920’s ‘easy money’ era because of the great economic boom. During this era, people earned their money by corruption with smuggling alcohol during prohibition. In addition, people earned their money by people unknowingly investing in major stocks. A few people earned their money with hard work; it was mostly made easily for them. Throughout the novel, The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the shallowness and hollowness of the upper class is persistently shown. Hollowness and

My English Literature major has helped me to achieve an outstanding level of appreciation, enjoyment, and knowledge of both American and British Literature. As a high school AP English student, I struggled through great works like Hamlet and To the Lighthouse. My teacher’s daily lectures (there was no such thing as class discussion) taught me merely to interpret the works as critics had in the past. I did not enjoy the reading or writing process. As a freshman at Loras, I was enrolled in the Critical Writing: Poetry class. For the first time since grade school, my writing ability was praised and the sharing of my ideas was encouraged by an enthusiastic and nurturing professor. Despite the difficulty of poetry, I enjoyed reading it.

In the nineteen twenties it also produced the greatest writer of theatre plays, Eugene O’Neill. O’Neill had dark and violent views of human nature. He used the theatrical methods, that no one else have ever used before. The way that he used them carried an emotional power never seen before in America. Some of his best known plays were “Mourning Becomes Electra,” “The Iceman Cometh,” and “A Long Day’s Journey Into Night.”

As the new world struggled to gain impendence from its mother country, Britain, native authors also try to develop their own style of writings. It quickly became evident that the search for a native literature became a national obsession. Then with the triumph of American independence, many at the time saw this as a divine sign that America and her people were destined for greatness. Greatness came with a strong nation and thousands of poems and stories that still shape our nation. The recent revolution greatly expressed the heart of the American people. However, it would take another fifty years of development throughout American before it produced the first great generation of American writers such as, Washington Irving, Ralph

The Catcher in the Rye and Dead Poets Society are very similar stories. Both deal with the coming of age in the lives of prestigious young men. These two stories also deal with the conformity of these young men in their transition from private boys school to the real world. There are two young men from each of the stories whose lives are alike yet different in some ways.

“Is Tom most responsible for Gatsby’s death? Daisy? Myrtle? Gatsby himself? Give reasons why or why not each character is implicated in the murder.”

When you think of the words “famous playwright,” who is the first one to come to mind? Most people would say William Shakespeare. Shakespeare is one of the most recognized playwrights of all time, with many of his works being archetypes for many stories told today. An example of this would be Twelfth Night, a comedy about a woman who disguises herself as a man to fit in and finds herself in the middle of riotous hijinks and disorder. However, Twelfth Night is set in a time period that is found to be uninteresting to some. That is when someone bold steps up and offers an adaptation in the 21st century. This person was Andy Fickman, who helmed the 2006 film She’s the Man, a modern-day retelling of Shakespeare’s classic comedy. As with any adaptation,

Today, rap music is an ever growing genre of music that is often centered on hedonistic pursuits such as wealth, cars, drinks, and fame. About forty years ago, however, rap music focused on an entirely different subject matter. During the 1970s, African Americans sung rap songs to express the need for Black empowerment in society; though their form of singing was not called rapping back then, it was called spoken word poetry, a form of song in which verses of poetry were performed with a fixed beat before an audience. African Americans used this style of singing to express the discontent with the economics and politics during the 1970s. The black population was still economically and politically powerless

The novel The Great Gatsby is a story that takes place in the 1920’s. The story

Charles Ives is known in our day as the “Father of American Music,” but in his day, he was known just like everyone else- an ordinary man living his life. He was born in Danbury, Connecticut on October 20, 1894 (Stanley 1) to his mother, Sarah Hotchkiss Wilcox Ives and father, George White Ives (A Life With Music, Swafford 4). His father was renowned for being the Union’s youngest bandmaster and having the best band in the Army (The Man His Life, Swafford 1). Little Charles was influenced early in his life by his father who had libertarian ideas about music (Stanley 1). Although Danbury prided itself as “the most musical town in Connecticut”, the people did not give the musical profession respect or understanding

Although most of his work is one-act comedies such as “All in the Timing”, “Words, Words, Words” and “Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread”, he has written several full-length plays such as “Polish Joke” and “Don Juan in Chicago”. In 2001 he also ventured into children’s literature novels with “Monsieur Eek” and “Scrib”. Wikipedia) As if his resume is not impressive enough he is also credited with screenplay writing for both motion pictures and television. (Literature)

Edward Hirsch taught everyone to love and appreciate poetry to its greatest potential. Born in Chicago on January 20, 1950, he began writing at a young age and his traditional writing style of formal with a small creative twist. He strengthened America Poetry and gave a different view of literary criticism.

“There is music in the air, music all around us, the world is full of it and you simply take as much as you require”-Sir Edward Elgar. Elgar was one of the 19th century’s most famous composers. He devoted his life to writing musical pieces such as Enigma Variations, The Dream of Gerontius, and the Pomp and Circumstance Marches. Certain personality aspects of Elgar, such as his wit and creative humor, are found in his music and set him apart from the other composers of his time.

E.E. Cummings was born on October 14, 1894 in Cambridge, Massachusetts (E.E Cummings, poets.org 1). Cummings began was an early developer and learner and began writing around the age of 10 (1). He was the son of Rebecca Haswell Clarke and Edward Cummings (Berry, S.L. 29). He had one sister, Elizabeth Cummings, who he loved dearly and played with all the time. He and his father had an inseparable bond, Cummings described his dad as a hero and that they were very close. (29). Cummings being such an early developer had no problem with school and went to a private school where he continued to read and write (10). His reading level was extremely high (10)! Cummings studied many different languages consisting of Latin, French, and Greek (10). As a senior Cummings wrote and was the editor of the schools newspaper (10). When he was 15 years old he did the unbelievable and went to Harvard University (14). While in college Cummings loved to go to circuses and ballets (14). While balancing college and school work Cummings was a romantic (14). He also turned out to be an astonishing dancer (14).When Cummings, who was around twenty, was done earning his degrees and graduating he was ready to leave Massachusetts (15).

Edward Albee was an American playwright producer and director. He was born on March 12, 1928 probably in Virginia. He was adopted at an early age, which influenced him to write about characters that are different. His writings were characterized by realism; fidelity to life as perceived and experienced, and were considered to be absurd dramas. Albee, in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, portrays a primitive sex struggle between a middle aged couple; the relationship between George and Martha is acted out in a series of games in which one sex dominates the other through unapparent love, weapons that each have mastered, and the most hurtful insult, the revealing of the hidden truth.