Literary Analysis : Our Town By Thornton Wilder

Our Town is a play written by Thornton Wilder in 1937. Our Town is a play about the daily life in Act One, love and marriage in Act Two and death and dying in Act Three. The play is about two main characters, Emily Webb and George Gibbs. The play in Act One just goes through the daily life of the characters. Act Two it shows the love and marriage between these two characters and last Act Three shows life after death of the characters. The play has a man called the Stage Manager that is mainly a narrator throughout the play but also takes on the role of people in the town. The Stage Manager knows many thing about the people in the play Our Town.  The Stage Manager steps in, describes scenes, and seems to start and stop the action of the play whenever he wants. The Stage Manager has many similarities to God. The Stage Manager doesn't only know everything about everyone, he can also see into the future. The Stage Manager is also present in every scene watching it all play out. The Stage Manager and God are different because the Stage Manager unlike God makes

The 1989 filmed version of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town,” did not differ from the storyline of the play very much, however there were a few differences in how the two felt overall. Much of this change in the spirit of the play had to do with how the actors played

Wilder uses the main character as the narrator, who describes to the viewers/audience members, events that had previously taken place. This uniquely used technique makes Wilder’s audience go “stir crazy,” and captivates and sparks the audience's self curiosity to find out what happened. It is also important to note that this technique creates a relation between the narrator and the audience members, which is important because the audience members will hear a complete story of the character’s self experience. Through the narration the male character, relieves the stress, guilt, and burdens onto the “audience” members. We (the audience) are guided by the narrator to understand and unravel the films

Have you ever thought that even the littlest things in life can make the biggest difference? One of the themes of Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town is people never fully appreciate the wonders of daily life. People take everything for granted and don’t really realize how the little things in life actually make a huge impact on your life. Wilder shows examples of the little things in life many times in each of the acts throughout the play. Our Town is about a young couple who falls in love and ends up spending their life together. The young couple overlooks the small but important things in life. Throughout Our Town, Wilder informs us about how all people don’t appreciate the little things in life that actually make a huge difference.

Our Town is a story on how humans does not fully appreciate life until they die and realize what they did and want to go back and change it. Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town is about a town life in three acts. The three acts are as followed. Daily Life, Companionship, and Death.It shows how people live and die and how they regret things they did on earth and come to see the big picture of life. Wilder argues, because life is short we must appreciate the joys of living until we die.

Our Town is a play written by Thornton Wilder set in a small town known as Grover’s Corners. Wilder conjured the Stage Manager to be a representation to the theme of the play. The theme of universality placing Grover’s Corners in view with the rest of the world. Wilder makes a point to the audience that people have a big impact and influence over the next person, whether they were important or insignificant to that individual’s life. Therefore, the Stage Manager emphasizes on this very viewpoint that the lives of certain people are overlooked so are their influences. The Stage Manager himself is a physical embodiment of Wilders own views and opinions of humans and life itself. Throughout the play, the Stage Manager plays various of roles in order to force the realization to the audience into understanding the importance human life and the influence of others.

The Stage Manager acts as the spokesman for Wilder’s propaganda to bring to light what is positive and encouraging in the American society. He will show what happens in Grover’s Corners, “In our town we like to know the facts about everybody”(I.9)13. The society here is depicted as conducting a very happy life. As a matter of fact, “Living in “our town’’ includes a social unity and harmony with nature, the fulillment of the individual within the community.” 14 Such a harmony stands behind the source of happiness strongly felt by the people in this

Our Town is a play that takes place near the turn of the century in the small rural town of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire. The playwright, Thornton Wilder is trying to convey the importance of the little, often unnoticed things in life. Throughout the first two acts he builds a scenario, which allows the third act to show that we as humans often run through life oblivious to what is actually happening. Wilder attempts to show life as something that we take for granted. We do not realize the true value of living until we are dead and gone. The through-line of the action seems to be attention to the details of life. Wilder builds up a plot that pays attention to great details of living.

The section begins with a description of the town, “After rain, or when snowfalls thaw, the streets, unnamed, unshaded, unpaved, turn from the thickest dust to the direst mud”(Capote 1). By including these details in the description of the town it shows that the town is a very old fashioned town that is behind the societies that are in more developed, larger cities in America. Capote goes on, “The bank closed in 1933, and its former counting rooms have be converted into apartments”(Capote 2). With the bank having been closed around the time of the depression it shows that the town no longer trusted the government after the banks failed them and they do all their business between themselves. The town is a very closed off from the national system and the only connection they have is through their post office. All these descriptions cause the town to be a perfect picture of a safe, rural community where nothing bad happens and people all depend on each other.

Our Town takes place in Grover’s Corner, New Hampshire around the turn of the century. (1900’s). This play uses a lot of flashbacks. There’s one with George and Emily when they first fall in love at Mr. Morgan’s shop. It also uses foreshadowing. When they told of how everyone died. Another flashback is when Joe comes back after about ten years and they talk about the dead and everyone’s lives.

The Stage Manager maintains a somber tone throughout the play that deeply contrasts with the joy perpetually exuded by the other characters. Wilder emphasizes this contrast particularly during the wedding, in which the Stage Manager offsets the “radiant” atmosphere and digresses: “The cottage, the go-cart, the Sunday-afternoon drives in the Ford, The first rheumatism, the grandchildren, the second rheumatism, the deathbed, the reading of the will.” In this passage the Stage Manager describes life as a list of events, thereby expressing his apathy for it. Wilder, therefore, conveys the consequences of recognizing life’s finality. The finality of existence consumes the Stage Manager and causes him to disengage from his surroundings which prevents him from seeing the meaning and importance in a particular moment. His aversion to life is evident when he states, “Once in a thousand times it's interesting.” The Stage Manager merely views life as transient, and despite having the capacity to appreciate it, he is unable to because he only sees value in things that have longevity. Hence, why he is so adamant about putting a copy of the play in the time capsule he mentions because it will be preserved and “the people a thousand years from now’ll know a few simple facts about

The play began with the stage manager (Jackson Mendes) welcoming the audience into the theater as he introduces the people and the places of Grover's Corners, New Hampshire in 1901. Grovers corners is pictured as the perfect American town before any urbanization, automobiles are unusual,

At the beginning of the opening, the author’s tone is relaxed. He talks about how small the town is. Capote mentions that nothing ever happens in Holcomb. He describes the town as a desert. There is not much to see. In the fourth paragraph, the author begins to talk about the school in Holcomb. When he describes the school, Holcomb starts to sound like a very conceited town. Capote characterizes the school as “a good looking establishment.” He describes the school like this because the readers will compare the charming school to the boring town. The readers will wonder why this small town owns such a outstanding school. In the last paragraph, the tone dramatically changes. Capote writes, “...few Americans-in fact, few Kansans-had ever heard of Holcomb.” The author implies that Holcomb will soon be what everyone is talking about. The author also says that the town was happy that they have kept a low profile. The author hints that everything will soon change for the little town of

Truman Capote portrays his own specific, intricate view of Holcomb, Kansas, in the beginning statements of his novel, In Cold Blood. His dismal, melancholy outlook of the town is presented to the reader through carefully and intentionally placed rhetorical strategies and stylistic elements. Specifically, Capote describes the loneliness and haphazardness of Holcomb through the devices of word choice, imagery, and selection of detail, which come together to convey an overall feeling of isolation and emptiness in the town. The careful word choice by Capote paints a picture to the reader of the emptiness and vastness of Holcomb and gives the town an ominous mood.

Holcomb, Kansas, appeared to Capote as the very embodiment of traditional American ideas. Discuss the importance of the setting in Holcomb. What does the novel reveal about the town? How does the gossip surrounding the crime reflect underlying truths about Holcomb and small town Kansas? Is the town a character or protagonist?