Summary Of Reasons To Be Pretty By Neil Labute

In the play “Grand Concourse,” the talented playwriter and actress Heidi Schreck develops a plot based on the natural human conflict about the forgiveness toward unintentional actions. Heidi Schreck is a recognized writer who has been awarded with one-year residency by New York's Playwrights Horizons (Silk Road Rising 17,18). Named after the main street of the Bronx in New York City, the play shows the conflict that its characters face in the internal war between goodness and evil. The opposition between the actions of Emma (antagonist) and Shelley (protagonist) shows the complexity of human compassion towards the evil (sometimes unintentional) actions. Looking at the main actions of Emma in the play she egotistically seems to manipulate all the characters to feel better about herself. However, a deeper glazing indicates that her depression leads her to hurt people around her unintentionally; she tries to get forgiveness, but she realizes that the solution it is more complex that just an apologize.

Mark Rose once said in the essay I Just Wanna Be Average, “Students will float to the mark you set.” This quotation means that in order for students to succeed in there academics they need a teacher who will demonstrate to the students that they believe and have faith they will succeed in there class. In order for many students to reach there potential the teacher needs to be supporting and willing to take the time to help there students and give the encouragement they need to succeed. Students are all at different levels so some will “float to the mark” at a faster pace than others, but some will be lazy, and others will drown. Throughout my life education has pushed me to succeed in my future, and has motivated me and many students through the education system.

“You’re Convinced there was nothing important here…Nothing that would—point to any motive?” (Glaspell, pg. 5, 1908). In 1916, Glaspell worked for Des Moines daily news as a reporter where she later met her husband George Cook who was a play director. Together they wrote and produced plays, two of which are Trifles and Jury of Her Peers which are based off a crime scene she encountered while being a reporter. Glaspell’s plays are on the feminist side focusing on the roles women are forced to play in society and their relationships with men. Motive is the overall theme found in both versions of Glaspell’s story and is evidenced through the Wright’s relationship, the anger portrayed in various ways, and finally, regret found in Mrs. Wright.

The essay of I Just Want To Be Average by Mike Rose is a story of Rose’s high school experience. When Rose was a freshman, he was placed in his school’s vocational program, a program meant for the “underachieving” students. This program was meant to teach these struggling students specific trades when they could not get by in the other academic classes. Rose goes on to explain the many personalities he met in the vocational program and how they impacted his life. Rose told about how he was very unmotivated and not interested in education his first few years of school simply for the fact that his peers and teachers were also unmotivated and not interested. It seemed to be that students in the vocational program were not deemed as important and just slipped through the cracks of their education.

In the essay “I Just Wanna Be Average” Mike Rose reveals how society often neglects and undervalues a student's true potential. Like Mike Rose, I believe that students will float to the mark that is set for them because no matter the pathway to hit the standard, eventually everyone gets there. Throughout the text, Mike Rose goes on to explain how teachers generally set a standard for students. Rose then makes a clear point by saying that students shouldn’t have to exceed what’s asked of them. Both Mike Rose and I agree with the fact that some students will dumb themselves down in order to fit in with others. I also found it very relatable how Rose mentioned that some teachers may expect a bit too much from their students.

In the excerpt “I Just Wanna Be Average” written by Mike Rose, Rose describes his life in vocational education, which are lower division classes for students. Rose was placed in vocational educational classes accidentally when they confused his placement test with someone else's. Moreover, his teachers, Mr.Montez, Mr. Mitropetros, were no help to in vocational education. The teachers had no interest in assisting with the students and utilized physical violence towards them. Rose’s fellow classmates were all different and unique in their own way, however, had on quality in common- that they had no motivation towards learning and receiving an education. One of his classmate named Ken Harvey stated: “I just wanna be average.”(Rose 127) At first

Have you ever been misplaced somewhere and should have been somewhere else? Well, Mike Rose in “I Just Wanna Be Average” understands what it feels like to be misplaced. It first all started after he took all his standardized tests to get into the school. Throughout that time period Mike Rose’s test and some other person with the last name Rose got their test scores mixed up. Furthermore, this was the start of how it affected Mike Rose’s academic career.

All humans have an imagination. Frye speaks upon how those who read literature and analyze it has a well-educated imagination. However, those who are left, do not have an imagination or it is easily influenced. In Chapter 6, Frye says “ Advertising is one example, though an obvious one, of the deliberate creation of an illusion in the middle of real life.” (85) Frye interprets advertising as an illusion in life that a purpose. This connects to the beauty industry, specifically cosmetics displays the perfect image that the public must embody. However, it is known there is the chance of becoming the perfect face of beauty is impossible. The illusion made by the beauty industry is made for the purpose of showing what all society believes is

Joan Didion’s Play it as it lays describes the life of one Maria Wyeth, small time actress and ex-wife of Carter, a mildly successful film maker in Hollywood. The book follows her decline and retreat from the company she used to keep and her quest to find meaning within the absurdity and cruelty that is life. Within the book there’s a great deal of Maria’s inner thoughts that we are exposed to within Didion’s close third person narrative. However, one way to see the characters in Play it as it Lays is to look through the characters perceptions of each other, notably in the case of her ex-husband Carter. By looking at how Carter is treated by and treats Maria we can have insight into Both of them as characters.

Raised in a household of 3 other guys, by a wonderful lady by the name of Annie. I wasn’t raised in the best of ways and nothing came our way easy. We came from having nothing, no decent clothing, no healthy meal, no transportation, which cause little minor problems at school .Going to school i felt like an outcast. Reminding me of a story written by David Sedaris called “Me Talk Pretty”. She felt so different from the other classmates to where she felt left out. Moms was always working or out gambling and we were home with no money to purchase things we needed to get through the day. we didn't even have enough money to get a haircut from the barber college, which resigned on the second block down from our street. So i started cutting my brothers hair, as well as my own.

Friendships are tested when struggles come into play. The play of Wicked brings in fantastic moral lessons for the readers to ponder. It provides issues that are relevant to today’s society and it can help one be aware of some tricky situations that they may encounter throughout an individual’s life. The characters in the play may not go about the matters exceedingly well, but that does not mean that someone cannot learn from the mistakes of how the situations were handled. The struggles that were faced entailed that relationships are far better than being popular, everyone makes mistakes but not everyone takes responsibility for their mistakes, and one is bound to be used or manipulated at least once in their life time.

Often times in life, individuals are faced with troublesome conflict: trying to decide between what is morally right and wrong, good or bad. Unfortunately, however, sometimes there is no clear, advantageous choice for an individual to make. This often results in one becoming stuck in the middle, unsure of what to do or where to turn, afraid of the consequences associated with choosing one side over the other. In fact, sometimes two differing tensions can even be representations of two differing entities that have a major influence in one’s personal life, making one’s situation all the more difficult to handle. For instance, in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, Stella is stuck in the middle of underlying tensions between her sister, Blanche, and husband, Stanley. With both seemingly vying for compliance, Stella finds herself in an almost literal “tug of war,” between her two loved ones, with Stanley attacking Blanche for her lies and deceit, and Blanche degrading Stanley for his abusive tendencies. While both sides have their points, Stella continues to be pulled in two conflicting directions as a result of the distinct obligations she feels she has as both a sister and a wife, and this conflict, specifically the decision made between the two by Stella, illuminates the play’s overall theme of dependency on males.

Infidelity. Deceit. Sexual Curiosity. Circle, written by Suzanne Bachner is a thought-provoking play that interweaves the relationships of twelve different characters in various rendezvous spanning from New York City to Los Angeles, California. Based, very loosely, off of the Arthur Schnitzler’s Reigen, Bachner introduces 10 different sexual scenarios that are roughly seven to eight minutes in length and delve into the sexual encounter of two individuals. The identity of a character, especially in this particular play, is important to the plot because of the weight each character carries through their scenes. Because it is typically cast as four actors, the transition from scene to scene may be difficult to understand from the viewer’s perspective, due to the actor’s reoccurring presence in various characters.

Have you ever read a story in which there was a couple that had to undergo small or big changes for the better of their relationships. Their conflicts are very interesting and some can say that they have encountered the same problems in life before. Pulitzer prize winner Susan Glaspell and other play writers became famous for introducing the technique of realism into american dramas and the plays they staged were often found centered on the lives of those marigan to society, including women and housewives. The creators work “Trifles” was an early example of feminist drama and it was a widely celebrated and honored play. The author Ernest Hemingway began his career at the age of seventeen and typically was interested in portraying soldiers,

"Satire and Romance, rather than dramatizing the dominant patterns of human experience, embody the essential qualities and potentialities of human nature. Romance bears witness to what humanity can be at its best, Satire to what it can be at its worst. Romance offers us an idealized vision of human potentiality, Satire a spectacle of inferior human conduct. Satire and romance are intended ultimately to produce clear-cut images of good or evil, virtue or vice, wisdom or folly; and those images may be embodied most vividly in characters that are boldly outlined rather than finely detailed. Such qualities may also be highlighted through contrast. Thus, the plots of satire and romance often bring together characters from both extremes, using their interactions to create emphatic contrasts. In defining the emphasis of any play, we can ask ourselves whether the dramatist has focused on the beautiful or the ugly, on the orderly or the chaotic, on what is best or on what is worst in the world. A play that emphasizes the beautiful and the orderly tends toward an idealized vision of the world, which is the mode we call 'romance'. A play focusing on the ugly and chaotic tends toward a debased view of the world, and this we call 'satire'. Both these emphasis depend for their effect upon extreme views of human nature and existence. In contrast to