Essay on Music For Torching by A.M. Holmes

A particularly effective element of the production was the use of costume. The costumes exposed the time period, transporting the audience back to 1981, immediately involving me in the story. Costume represented the social class the characters belonged to. Mr and Mrs Lyons were rich and had a high social status, their costume established their character; Mr. Lyons was wearing a suit and Mrs. Lyons wore tights and uniform. In contrast, the Johnson family were living in poverty, and this is also shown through the usage of costume. I as audience felt empathy for Mrs Johnson as through costume I could see her financial struggle.

Though the inequality between genders was not fully resolved until later, the Women’s Rights movement was also beginning to take place at this time (Literature and Its Times…). An apparent problem of American society, then and now, is its tendency toward stereotypes, which will be further discussed later. Hansberry uses her characters and their dreams to draw upon the impact stereotypes have on a person’s ambitions and self-identity.

The American Dream has always been the unattainable idea of a perfect life, often causing disorder when it is not realized. In response to society’s unrealistically high standards, and the human desire to be accepted, people shape their existences to fit within the quixotic ideals of society. The ubiquity of this conformity is demonstrated by its omnipresence as a theme in American literature. The Great Gatsby and Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald, along with Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, demonstrate how these perspectives of social mores are centered on the prevalence of the unrealistic views of normality. The Great Gatsby, Tender is the Night, and

Through the use of irony in the HappyLife home, Bradbury demonstrates the notion that although the home included “everything” the Hadley family “could ever need,” the home could not imitate the human emotion and nurturing that is needed for a truly meaningful life (Bradbury 1). The Hadley parents, George and Lydia, did not feel that human interaction was necessary, but rather that an expensive, state-of-the-art home could provide anything they could ever want. Bradbury emphasizes the idea that the Hadley family was provided for when he states that “They walked down the hall of their HappyLife Home, which had cost them thirty thousand dollars

“JAZZ” is a documentary by Ken Burns released 2001 that focuses on the creation and development of jazz, America’s “greatest cultural achievement.” The first episodes entitled, “Gumbo, Beginnings to 1917” and “The Gift (1917-1924), explain the early growth of jazz as it originates in New Orleans and its expands to Chicago and New York during the Jazz Age. In assessing the first two episodes of Ken Burns' 2001 documentary, "JAZZ," this essay will explore the history of jazz, the music's racial implications, and it's impact on society. In doing so, attention will also be given to the structure of the documentary, and the effectiveness of documentary film in retelling the past.

One of the first symbols introduced in the work, Mrs. Wright’s apron is deeply symbolic of her personal struggle in her home and marriage. Physically, the apron is a feminine piece of

Robyn Schiff’s A Woman of Property is a study concerning the darker powers along with their everyday domestic insurgencies. Several American poets/poetess have for a long time sought to ingather symbols from their daily lives, from its whine gratifications as well as from shallow-end disappointments to help depict, communicate, and to impress certain notions in the minds of their readers. Among these poets/poetess is Robyn Schiff. In the context of Schiff’s writings, motivation may be considered as a light switch in a room that is in darkness. However, Schiff’s poems more deliberately try to blur the brightness of a fancy that is a little incisive. The poems, in this third volume of her poetry work, promise to save her from uncertainties,

The lives we live today encompass many moral aspects that would not have been socially acceptable fifty or more years ago. John Updike’s short story, A&P, addresses these issues of societal changes through a 1960’s teenager point of view. This teenager, Sammy, spends a great deal of his time working at a local supermarket, observing customers, and imagining where his life adventures will take him. Through symbolism and setting, Updike establishes the characters and conflicts; these, in turn, evolve Sammy from an observational, ignorant teenager, promoting opposition to changing social rules, into an adult who must face reality.

Mrs. Wright’s apron is also a symbol of oppression suffered by women. With dullness, she pleats it while giving details of her husband’s death. From the jail where it is obviously of no use to her, she requests that the apron be brought to her. The apron represents her identity of being a subservient housewife. The murder of her husband stripped her of this identity likewise, her marriage had taken her former identity of a choir girl. Being labeled a criminal is uncomfortable for her therefore, the want of her apron reflects that she has not yet accepted this new identity. Mrs. Peters seems to understand the need for her apron as she states, “I suppose

After reading the article by George E. Lewis called “Improvised Music after 1950: Afrological and Eurological Perspectives” there are many things that I found interesting and a lot of things that surprised me that I didn’t know. Something that surprised me a lot was that there was a lot of controversy over improvisation and the nature of it. I didn’t realize that that was something that was even able to be controversial. Also I thought it was surprising that there was a 150 year gap that improvisation was removed from this genre of music.

Goodwin takes the concept of the social life of the 1950s very seriously in her novel. Clothing is a big idea that defines the decade as it shows the social class and prosperity amongst a family. She explains the formality of everyday clothing by explaining how her father came home. She describes his entrance, “When my father came home from

Throughout the entire world, there is an idea of the social facade of how one should appear and no one is an exception to this. The south is particularly known for this and is seen throughout the various stories read in this class. One author who demonstrates this concept of social facade is Katherine Anne Porter in her story, The Jilting of Granny Weatherall. It is the story of a grandmother who is a hypocrite, not only to herself, but the whole town and obsessed with her appearance in how people view her and her family.These ideas can also be seen in Flannery O’Connor’s story A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Porter’s other story, The Old Order. The main theme seen in these stories is this idea of social facade and hypocrisy.

The author of A Pair of Silk Stockings explores female roles based on what other people believe due to stereotypes. In this short story Mrs. Sommers finds $15 which is a sizable about of money to her in New York. She and her family are on the poorer side of New York. At first Mrs. Sommers has no clue on what she should do the money she had just come to. She is thinking about her children and that they could use new skirls because she had seen a beautiful new pattern in a market window, or caps for her boys and sailor-caps for her girls (Chopin 1). She thought of them due to the fact that that is what mothers and wives do in the 1800’s, they but their children and husband before thinking of themselves. She thought back to the time when she wasn’t

“ You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.” (Tan, Amy) Like Tan in her narrative “Fish Cheeks”, everyone has had a time in their lives when they wanted to fit in at school or home. Sometimes it is hard to try to blend into the surroundings. Moving from Boston to Tallahassee has taught me a lot about such things like honor, pride, and self-reliance. Such is related to us in Wilfred Owens’s “Dulce et Decorum est” which is about his experience in World War I. Sometimes experiences such as moving can teach more about life than any long lecture from any adult. As the old saying goes: “Actions speak louder than words.”

In a short story by Katherine Mansfield called “The Doll’s House,” there is a social barrier between a family with less that is struggling to make ends meet and a flourishing family, that appears to not have any difficulties getting through life. The Kelvey family, whose hard-working mother makes the best of life that she can by crafting clothing from materials she can salvage from the wealthy clients’ houses she cleans. The Burnell family, who is getting through life with ease because of their position in the wealthy class, is the complete opposite in lifestyles. The short story “The Doll’s House” suggests society is unfair to the people with less and that possessions play a part in the deciding factor whether people will be your friend, but it only takes one person to break from the social expectations.