How I Learned to Drive Analysis Essay

In the play, “How I Learned to Drive” the relationship of Lil Bit and Uncle Peck makes the audience feel about control. Their family relation is extremely different than most families. Especially, Peck and Lil Bit have forbidden relationship. Throughout the play, the author Paula Vogel, portraits both protagonists who try to control each other through body and mind. Until one of them loses their power over one another.

When she enters the bedroom, her voice changes from present to past tense and she starts to reminisce and begins to talk about her mother and aunts. She seems happy to remember her mother’s room and introduces her aunts to the audiences. Mary delivers her dialogue saying that the dressing table and the small elephant statue figures are all same. When Mary gently touches her mother’s photo, she delivers a sad tone. Her performance conveys to the audiences that she misses her mother. The tone of her voice represents that she is a gentle, innocent and a loving child. Her verbal and non-verbal interactions conveyed the viewers with a message that she is an orphan.

Teenie, Tidbit, and Hushpuppy add color and flavor to life on the plantation. Teenie is a tiny middle-aged black woman who works as the master’s chief and main housekeeper (she oversees most of what is going on inside the house). Tidbit is Teenie’s son who has a dog named Hushpuppy. The trio keeps busy on the plantation doing their daily chores. They do not forget their ancestors and keep strong by remembering their past. Tidbit is still a little child and has fun while doing his tasks.

In summary she changes majorly throughout the whole play. From immature to mature and from not even thinking about marriage to marriage. Overall her as a character becomes an adult. No longer is she obeying her parents and not being in love. She has transformed to a proper young adult who knows what the word love means and its full values. Also she learns how important some people are to her and that if you want things your way you are going to have to take risks in order to full those wishes of hers. These wishes end in blood spill and peace between the 2 previously raging

After Duddy graduates from school, he is lead further astray by his peers in his apprenticeship. The McGill boys whom Duddy works with at Rubin’s Hotel teach him to be ruthless by playing pranks on the young boy. Irwin, without much conscience himself, not only makes life miserable for Duddy, but also enlists his girlfriend Linda to cheat Duddy at his roulette game. Losing his entire summer savings, Duddy realizes the truth about Linda and says to her, "I thought you went out with me because you liked me. Boy, was I ever a sucker." (94) While working in Uncle Benjy’s dress factory, Thérèse encourages Duddy to follow Adèle into the washroom, thus getting the young girl into trouble. This sets in motion the part of Duddy’s apprenticeship that deals with women. Mr. Friar is right when he says Duddy is "callow…he hasn’t the first notion of how to treat a woman." (163) Yvette is crippled in that she is submissive like many of Duddy’s peers. She suffers verbal abuse from Duddy such as "you little fool" (98) and knows that he is using her to buy land, as he is underage. When Yvette mentions romance, Duddy laughs, "I don’t get it. Imagine guys getting married and tying themselves down to one single broad for a whole lifetime when there’s just so much

The first time Li’l Bit is sexually assaulted by her uncle is when she is eleven years old; under the guise of teaching her how to drive, he violates her. Growing up fatherless, this is a man who, in the future, teaches her how to drive and supports her dreams of achieving better things in life. “Over a seven year period Li’l Bit and Uncle Peck develop a sick, but close and needy

Jeannette can see and understand what is going on to her and her family. Jeannette shares: ‘mom you can’t quit your job’ I said. “ we need the money.” mom asked. “you have a job. You can earn money. Lori can earn money too.”(218). jeannette gets into a conflict with her mother. Jeannette don’t want her mother quit the job; because Jeannette understands this time her family need the money than ever. Opposite to Jeannette, her mother do not care much for the family and her children. Jeannette also conflict with her father after she tells him about her mother problem. Jeannette shares: “who do you think you are” he asked. “Shes your mother.” “ then why she doesn’t act like one?” i looked at dad for what felt like a very long moment. Then I burted out, “and why don’t you act like a dad” (220). Instead go to the bar and drink; jeannette wants her father to get a job to help the family. Jeannette wants her parents have responsibility for their kids and their family. Jeannette matures in her mind and also her actions such as talks to her parents to get a job, and take care her siblings. She is a young lady, but she has a mature thinking. Jeannette says:” i was afraid that Mr.Brecker wouldn’t give me the job if he knew I was only thirteen, so I told him I was seventeen.”(215). Jeannette has to work to get the money to help her family when she only thirteen years old. At this age, most children are only focus on school, but

Katie is raised by a single mother like Tyrec and uses the childrearing method of natural child growth. That’s it. The Brindle’s are a poor family struggling to make ends meet as Ms. Brindle is currently unemployed as she raises her eighteen month old child “Melmel” and lives off the welfare system and child support she gets. Due to the abusive lifestyle that she has experienced as well, she has taken a larger toll, physically and psychologically, than a lot of thirty-seven year old women. Katie herself has experienced difficulties with her being sexually abused in the first grade that has affected her life. Therefore, the involvement of Katie’s extended family is huge. Her grandmother plays a role in being an additional caregiver in her life. Social problems seem to be an everyday occurrence for the Brindle’s as they try to live their everyday lives. As a result, Katie acts older than her age (nine years) due to the added responsibility of trying to take care of herself at times. Ms. Brindle’s parenting style of natural growth may have affected how mature Katie is, but it the Katie’s past and current environment that has had a greater influence in her

Despite both being teenage mothers as a result of their early sexual activity, Li’l Bit’s Grandma and Li’l Bit’s mother take two opposite sides on the issue. When they talk with her about sex on pages 29-31 of the Dramatists Play Service edition, Grandmother becomes almost violently irritable, suggesting that her sex drive is repressed. She continuously talks about sex as a displeasurable act, referring to sex as dirty, painful, and disgusting. Grandmother hopes that Li’l Bit will not want to try sex after Grandmother’s depiction of it, even though she didn’t use the same tactic to help keep her daughter, Lucy from getting pregnant. Lucy (Li’l Bit’s mother) on the other hand seems to remain relatively neutral in the matter. Lucy does not attempt to deter Li’l Bit from being sexually active but still makes sure Li’l Bit know that every action has a consequence. Lastly, Li’l Bit’s Grandpa represents another unique influence to Li’l Bit perception of sex. Vogel portrays Grandpa as sexually aggressive and sexist. Grandma describes her husband as always wanting sex, and Grandpa remarks that Li’l Bit should be more focused on having sex than getting an education. “How is Shakespeare going to help her (Li’l Bit) on her back in the dark?” which confirms his sexually aggressive behavior. (Vogel, 14) Vogel uses Grandma and Grandpa to represent the persisting societal views of women and men. Men are painted as confident

Sadly, it was easy to find myself completely influenced by Uncle Peck’s charm, but this is how pedophiles operate. They manipulate children into situations in which conflicting demands make it impossible to do the right thing. While reading the play, I felt like I was Li’l Bit, wanting to put my trust in Peck. You almost believe that the play is more like a tragic love story, but then the sinister details come to the surface. Not only was Uncle Peck molesting Li’l Bit, but also her young cousin Robert, plying him with alcohol, and shaming the boy into a secret liaison in an old fort

Starting in the golden age of 1950, a Broadway musical's critical judgement depended on how well the show’s elements were formally integrated. Meaning the outlook of the plot in relation to the music, lyrics and characterization of gender roles. Gender is a fundamental element of Broadway musical theatre, constitutional to the musical’s architecture. It is essential as a building block for characters, music/lyrics, and stage settings. Broadway musical is a popular art, in which conveys social issues in the female gender from the representations of women in the 1950's to today. The Broadway musical participates in a larger conversation about gender and sexuality because it is a commercial, profit-seeking, artistic commodity, entertainment form, and cultural product. Broadway musical is a mainstream form that needs to relate to middle-class audiences’ desires and expectations, one might expect only social issues and stereotypical representations of women. The female gender stereotypes are represented in Broadway musicals portrayed by the character's roles. As time went by, the portrayal of the female characters in musicals changed because of the representation that women in today receives. Thus, these musicals explore social issues of the day, including women’s rights and changing roles in U.S. culture, sometimes directly and sometime obliquely. Therefore, the Broadway musical venerates female performers and provides substantial roles for women.

In John Patrick Shanley’s play, “Doubt: A Parable”, and Paula Vogel’s play, “How I Learned to Drive”, both have strong themes of sexuality in the forms of sexual predation and pedophilia. Although these two stories are considerably different, the message is the same. “Doubt” is a play that concerns a mystery over whether or not a boy (Donald) has been raped by a priest, and “How I learned to Drive” is a play about a woman (Li’l Bit) who reminisces about the sexual molestation and the emotional manipulation she had to endure at the hands of her uncle. Although these plays both have main theme of sexuality, they each have vastly different settings, desires, and outcomes. In this essay, I will compare and contrast the theme of sexuality in both of these plays.

James Thurber was doing what he does best in his most recent story, “The Car We Had to Push”, making it evident that he loved his childhood and all the stories that went with it. Thurber shows his love for his childhood in a multitude of ways, but none are greater than his tangents that he gets on while trying to retell a story. His admiration for The Get-Ready Man was shown when he says, “The only car I was really interested in was the one that The Get-Ready Man rode around town it.” A young boy always seems to remember that guy who rode around town in the cool car. The retelling of his mother and grandmother being afraid of electricity dripping shows to us that Thurber fondly remembers his mother and grandmother.

Instead, she says, between sobs, “O my dear father, my good kind father, where are you gone? You are gone to try to do me some good, I know! You are gone away for my sake, I am sure! And how miserable and helpless you will be without me, poor, poor Father, until you come back!” (Pg. 35) and cries for her father rather than feel sorry for herself. She is so caring and compassionate that she always thinks the best of things. This is probably why Jane, the younger sister of Louisa and Tom, grew up much happier than her older siblings. She had been raised by the affectionate Sissy and treated like a human, unlike her older siblings, who had been raised more like robots by their father, Mr. Gradgrind. Bitzer, however, is completely different. He did not receive the love and the care the Sissy did. Because of this, it seems as though Bitzer has no heart (but of course he does, physically). He cares only for himself, even at the expense of others. Near the end of the novel, when Tom Gradgrind, Jr. (also known as the whelp) tries to escape from Coketown, who, other than Bitzer, is there to turn him in? In his own words, he says, “I am going to take young Mr. Tom back to Coketown in order to deliver him over to Mr. Bounderby,” for “I have no doubt whatever that Mr. Bounderby will then promote me to young Mr. Tom’s situation (position)” (Pg 267). Basically, he wished to pursue Tom, “for it will be a rise to me, and will

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF MOTORS AND DRIVES: In this segment, I will briefly review the diverse types of variable-speed drives used in the industry. For the most part, electronic AC and DC drives find their domination in manufacturing and commercial HVAC uses of today. This brief look at drive machineries will assist you, should you encounter any of these types in the future. In addition, I will also review the benefits and limits of each type.