RIGHT OR WRONG???

I believe that, although it was the classic thing to do, it was probably the wrong decision for Walter to tell Mr. Linder that they still wanted to move into that house. He had just lost all of their families money, and that was the last bit that they could possibly get back. Obviously the neighbors did not want them there if they were willing to donate more money than the house actually cost for them to move somewhere else. Earlier in the play, they had read about someone setting fire to a black family's house. Why would anyone want to put themselves in those circumstances? They are trying to do the right thing so that Travis doesn't have to grow up and continue the same way they always have, but moving him into a white neighborhood may be dangerous. All in all, I think their family is too obsessed with pride, as many people are. They don't want to be intimidated by "the man," so they stick it to him, not letting him have his way.

MAMAAA

I believe that Mama is the protagonist of this play, because she is always trying to help people and influence them to make the right decision. When Ruth is considering abortion, she says that no one in her family would ever kill a child. When she can tell that Walter is really down on himself, she decides to give him most of her money so that he can follow his dreams, giving him back his masculinity and the position of head of the family. She is the classic grandmother as well. When Travis buys her a large hat as a present and everyone laughs, she tells him that it is the most beautiful hat she has ever owned. At the same time, she is realistic. She tells Beneatha that she can't just pick up and move to Africa and get married all of the sudden. She is all about family; she will do anything for her family and believes that they should all put their family first as well. Everyone can relate to the character of Mama as their own grandmother, mother, relative, etc., which is part of the reason this play is so universal.

"A Raisin in the Sun"

I believe that the stage direction is crucial to this play, because of the simple fact that there is so much. Not only does it tell what the character is doing or where they are going, it also reveals their thoughts to us. For instance, (After a second very long and thoughtful pause; she is seeing back to times that only she can see). This is in the first act when Mama is reminicing on her old life with her husband and telling Ruth about it. The stage direction is very descriptive, which allows us to picture what is happening, which is the point of a play, I guess... However, not all plays include this much description. There is stage direction almost every time a character talks. "A Raisin in the Sun" is pretty straightforward in the way it would like the actors to portray this play. Without the stage direction in this play, we would most likely be very lost throughout its entirety.

Intermission

The play is divided into seven scenes. If I were to produce it with one intermission, I would put it after Scene 5. I feel like that is the half-way point of the play (props to you, Mr. Costello, for having us read it in those two sections). It shows the audience the personalities and characteristics of the Wingfield family. They see how Laura is shy and uncomfortable, because of the "defect" that she was born with. They see that Tom is the provider for the family who wants nothing more than to get away, but feels trapped in his responsibility to his family. They see how Amanda lives in a dream world with great intentions for her children, always dwelling on the past ever since her husband left them. It allows the audience to see how excited Amanda is about Tom getting a gentleman caller for Laura, and it leaves us waiting to see what will happen when Jim comes. Then after the intermission, they see that Jim is the boy that Laura had a crush on in high school and how everything pans out.

Laura

Laura is the pivotal character of the play. She seems so simple on the surface, but I believe that she is very complex in her thoughts, feelings, and actions. She was born with a "defect," as her mother likes to call it, of one of her legs being shorter than the other. While that could be difficult to deal with at times, I don't think that it is anything that should make her feel so awful about herself. I think that Jim hits the nail on the head when he says that she feels inferior and needs to find something that she feels superior in. She brings up her glass collection, which is one thing that she has truly dedicated time and effort to. I also think that he is right when he says that she needs to realize that she is not the only person with problems; everyone has problems. I think that is one of the themes of the play- to realize that everyone struggles, so one shouldn't always be down on his/herself. I felt like Jim really brought Laura out of her shell, and it's really sad, to me, that he is already engaged to another woman, because he treated her in such a special way. Although I don't think he meant to, he really gave her the wrong impression, which is unfair to her.

"The Glass Menagerie" Tennessee Williams

In the first scene, the author says: "This is memory and is therefore nonrealistic." She is referring to Tom's memory, because he is narrating the story. A memory may be nonrealistic because it is how this person recounts a situation, and so we get a biased telling of the story from Tom's point of view. It doesn't make sense that he can tell of conversations between people that he wasn't present for. For example, he tells of the conversation between Jim and Laura after dinner with great detail. I just don't understand how he would know what they discussed when he was in the kitchen with his mother doing the dishes. If the story was told in the point of view of the mother or the sister then we might get a completely different recollection. At the very beginning of Scene 1, Tom says: "I give you the truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion." I think he is saying that, although it may seem unrealistic, this is how it happened in his eyes.