Today in the twelfth grade we looked more closely at the setting of Arthur Miller's All My Sons, and at a conversation between the man of the household, Joe Keller, and his son Chris.
The play opens on a scene in the back yard of an American family, "August of our era," writes Miller. Miller also described the initial atmosphere of the play as one of "undisturbed normality". Last class we actually watched the opening intro clip to Desperate Housewives season 1 so everyone had an image of what suburb life looks like.
We talked about how setting up a scene of perfect normality creates the expectation of a conflict to come - we have a sense of apprehension, as if we're experiencing the calm before the storm.
Today, we looked at these more historically accurate portrayals of suburban life after the war (the play was first performed in 1947).
And we talked about the transition between the extreme lack of the Great Depression with the extreme abundance and prosperity of the post-war era, and how each family felt entitled to its own piece of land, its own house, car, appliances and happy family.
We recognised that we, at the beginning of the play, zoom in on the back yard of a house very much like one of these in the planned suburb of Levittown, PA:
Then, we looked at this conversation on the board, and I had two students read the exchange. After reading it, I asked them to try to identify which party was the father, and which the son.
I was so pleased with their work. They noted that the one who sympathised with the mother was probably the father, since the father is more likely than the son to think of Mother's feelings. The son was probably the one who expressed frustration with lying and anything that holds people in the past. In both classes, students picked up on the fact that the father was more likely to be "frightened at the thought" of something, since older people are more conservative and resistant to change (they referred to Mama in A Raisin in the Sun) and both classes also noted that the only line that represented an anomaly was the line in which it appeared that the son was saying "Sit down, Dad, I want to talk to you." All agreed that this sounded like the kind of thing a father would say. But then they considered their (nascent) knowledge of Chris and Keller, and remembered that Keller is described as being uneducated, and so that might prompt Chris to take a more measured, even patronising tack with him. It also might show a son who's aware of his father's conservatism and knows he needs to introduce new ideas delicately.
I was so, so pleased with their work on this section. Then they continued to have great comments on Keller's desperation when Chris threatens to leave the business and establish his family elsewhere. "Don't be thinking like that..." Keller repeats to his son, fairly begging him, unhinged by the idea that his legacy, the business, would die out like a flame upon his own retirement.
Later on in the day, the 11th graders did fantastic work on Macbeth passages. I felt like a banshee, jumping between groups encouraging students to pay attention to the words they knew, not the words they didn't know. They really are very perceptive, if they can just get over the initial shock of Shakespeare's language. It's very hard text for them, but I look forward to watching them grow more confident in their interpretation.
This evening I was positively engrossed in the following article on a female Iranian activist, Asieh Amini. She and her colleagues are true heroines. What a powerful reminder to count my blessings, as a woman and a resident of a culture that honours my freedom of expression. Warning, it's a heavy hitting article.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/01/04/war-of-words-annals-of-activism-laura-secor
The play opens on a scene in the back yard of an American family, "August of our era," writes Miller. Miller also described the initial atmosphere of the play as one of "undisturbed normality". Last class we actually watched the opening intro clip to Desperate Housewives season 1 so everyone had an image of what suburb life looks like.
We talked about how setting up a scene of perfect normality creates the expectation of a conflict to come - we have a sense of apprehension, as if we're experiencing the calm before the storm.
Today, we looked at these more historically accurate portrayals of suburban life after the war (the play was first performed in 1947).
And we talked about the transition between the extreme lack of the Great Depression with the extreme abundance and prosperity of the post-war era, and how each family felt entitled to its own piece of land, its own house, car, appliances and happy family.
We recognised that we, at the beginning of the play, zoom in on the back yard of a house very much like one of these in the planned suburb of Levittown, PA:
Then, we looked at this conversation on the board, and I had two students read the exchange. After reading it, I asked them to try to identify which party was the father, and which the son.
_______________: {after slight pause} What was she doing out here at that hour? {_______________ silent. With an undertone of anger showing} She's dreaming about him again. She's walking around at night.
_______________: I guess she is.
_______________: She's getting just like after he died. {slight pause} What's the meaning of that?
_______________: I don't know the meaning of it. {slight pause} But I know one thing. We've made a terrible mistake with _______________.
_______________: What?
_______________: Being dishonest with her. That kind of thing always pays off, and now it's paying off.
_______________: What do you mean, dishonest?
_______________: You know Larry's not coming back and I know it. Why do we allow her to go on thinking that we believe with her?
_______________: What do you want to do, argue with her?
_______________: I don't want to argue with her, but it's time she realized that nobody believes Larry is alive any more. {_______________ simply moves away, thinking, looking at the ground} Why shouldn't she dream of him, walk the nights waiting for him? Do we contradict her? Do we say straight out that we have no hope any more? That we haven't had any home for years now?
_______________: {frightened at the thought} You can't say that to her.
_______________: We've got to say it to her.
_______________: How're you going to prove it? Can you prove it?
_______________: For God's sake, three years! Nobody comes back after three years. It's insane.
_______________: To you it is, and to me. But not to her. You can talk yourself blue in the face, but there's no body and no grave, so where are you?
_______________: Sit down, _______________. I want to talk to you.
_______________: (_______________ looks at him searchingly a moment) The trouble is the Goddam newspapers. Every month some boy turns up from nowhere, so the next one is going to be Larry, so...
I was so pleased with their work. They noted that the one who sympathised with the mother was probably the father, since the father is more likely than the son to think of Mother's feelings. The son was probably the one who expressed frustration with lying and anything that holds people in the past. In both classes, students picked up on the fact that the father was more likely to be "frightened at the thought" of something, since older people are more conservative and resistant to change (they referred to Mama in A Raisin in the Sun) and both classes also noted that the only line that represented an anomaly was the line in which it appeared that the son was saying "Sit down, Dad, I want to talk to you." All agreed that this sounded like the kind of thing a father would say. But then they considered their (nascent) knowledge of Chris and Keller, and remembered that Keller is described as being uneducated, and so that might prompt Chris to take a more measured, even patronising tack with him. It also might show a son who's aware of his father's conservatism and knows he needs to introduce new ideas delicately.
I was so, so pleased with their work on this section. Then they continued to have great comments on Keller's desperation when Chris threatens to leave the business and establish his family elsewhere. "Don't be thinking like that..." Keller repeats to his son, fairly begging him, unhinged by the idea that his legacy, the business, would die out like a flame upon his own retirement.
Later on in the day, the 11th graders did fantastic work on Macbeth passages. I felt like a banshee, jumping between groups encouraging students to pay attention to the words they knew, not the words they didn't know. They really are very perceptive, if they can just get over the initial shock of Shakespeare's language. It's very hard text for them, but I look forward to watching them grow more confident in their interpretation.
This evening I was positively engrossed in the following article on a female Iranian activist, Asieh Amini. She and her colleagues are true heroines. What a powerful reminder to count my blessings, as a woman and a resident of a culture that honours my freedom of expression. Warning, it's a heavy hitting article.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/01/04/war-of-words-annals-of-activism-laura-secor
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