Literacy Analysis: Am I Blue by Beth Henley

Am I Blue by Beth Henley

This article is intended to reveal my analysis on the play of Beth Henley, Am I Blue, produced in December 1981. The play itself introduces two major teenage characters which represent the difficulties of adjustment to adulthood, which becomes the main issue of this comic play. Therefore, the analysis of two main characters in the play will become the focus of this article.

Am I Blue is a play written by Beth Henley in 1973 which tells about the problems that two teenagers, John Polk and Ashbe Williams, have to encounter. Based on the general reading of the play, the pre-eminent theme of this play is the adjustments of teenagers to the adult world. There are typical moves of teenagers’ nature which will never change over the time, and those are accurately framed in the play. John Polk, seventeen years old, and Ashbe Williams, sixteen years old, are the stereotype of teenagers in which Beth tries to display. Here, in the play, Henley describes John Polk as a boy teenager who has a problem with society around him; he wants to fit in, but he does not actually want it. Meanwhile, Ashbe is a girl teenager who has a unique style and personality represent her hard and different personality; she does not want to fit in with other girls, but she actually desires it.

            Group fitness problem has been a very critical issue of social adjustments among teenagers for decade. When one cannot fit in a peer group, he will automatically be judged as unsociable, this leads him to a challenging life than those who can easily fit in. John’s decision of going to strip club in order to ‘prove’ himself is a major yet ironic reflection of how teenagers are willing to do something they actually did not want in order to get peers’ acceptance. If he refused the appointment given by his friends, he might not be allowed to join the group anymore. John’s confession about his true feeling about the appointment in line 288 and 290 become a very strong prove about this issue. It was his acceptance of the word ‘normal sheep’ given by Ashbe in line 260.

            In contrast with John, Ashbe seems to accept her uniqueness instead of following her peers’ styles in school. She seems to enjoy her loneliness, which leads John to mock her that she actually wants to be a part of the group. Here, Ashbe use the word ‘sheep’ to refer to the bunch of girls that she wants to avoid the most. The use of the word ‘sheep’ indicates how Ashbe sees people shepherd by society around her, and she does not want to admit John’s opinion that she wants to be like the other girls by the phrase “green of envy”. John’s words of the mocking is reasonable; Ashbe presents herself as someone who does not want to be the like of other girls, yet she is able to explain about the appearance of G. G in the beginning of the play. If she does not care and like being them, she would not give that much attention; she also would not have to be mad when John says that she is green.

            In this play, then, the problems that everybody might have experience in their life are neatly shown. It reveals different thoughts about the problems and world through the two major characters’ minds and behaviors which prop up the plot of the play. John and Ashbe can be represented as the color white and black. White is the representation of something/someone that need to attach to another color in order to ‘colored’. While black is the representation of something/someone that stuck in that position and cannot be changed by another color.

Literacy Analysis: “A Telephone Call” By Dorothy Parker

ANALYSIS OF “A TELEPHONE CALL” BY DOROTHY PARKER

The story is written in the first point of view where we can see the deepest thought and feeling of the main character. There, the main character implicitly described as a woman who falls into infatuation for a man. The whole story is written through the woman’s dialogue that reveal what she really thinks about the man whom she waits to call her and her sad feeling while she waits his call. Every word she says are the reflection of her thought that changes very often. She puts herself in an impatience condition. The traits of main character are shown in a various description as she does a lot of mood swings. At first she cannot be patient for the call from the man then starts to calm and becomes impatient again; unstable emotions. She sometimes says something rude as we can see in the eleventh paragraph “I wish I could hurt him like hell” or in the thirteenth paragraph “I wish he were dead. I wish he were dead, dead, dead.” The traits are shown very clearly through her attitude to make up a believable personality of an obsessive woman.

The story itself takes place in a living room, where people at that time put their phone and other religious goods, at 7:10 P.M as what is explained by the main character in the third paragraph “It’s ten minutes past seven.” We can see some clues that lead us to the conclusion that the specific setting of the story is taken in a living room. In the seventh paragraph, the main character explains it by “I’ll put the clock in the other room. Then I can’t look at it. If I do have to look at it again, then I’ll have to walk in the bedroom.” People at that time use an antique clock that is not hanging on the wall. They place it above a table or fireplace. And the place is absolutely not a bedroom, because she wants to go to her bedroom if she looks at the clock again. Then we can conclude that the setting is taken in a living room.

The woman is shown as the stereotype of women; impatient, care too much; always want to be treated nice by men.She shows us her impatient attitude by her non-stop prayers to God and some rude wishes that she throws to the man. She wants to be called by her lover right at 5:00 like what he promised. The man, in other hand, does not call her as what he promised. It is not like a woman who is impatient; man tends to be more patient and does not really care. Man does not take feelings too much. It is written in the fourteenth paragraph that “he doesn’t like to telephone me in front of people”. Maybe her thought about what happens to the man is right. If we look at the stereotype of man and woman, it is the usual attitude of a man towards a woman.

We can see the tone of the main character through the choice of words in the story. Dorothy puts some rude expressions and wishes of the main character to show how obsessive the woman is. We can see it through the thirteenth and fourteenth paragraph. The repetition used in the story is also become the symbol of obsession; the repetition of prayers and wishes about the phone call to God, and the supposition of the man’s reason for not calling her at the time. The casualtone type is also found in the story as the writer writes the story with a very simple choice of words. As the story brings by the thought of the main character, where it looks like the main character talks to herself, the story is written in a simply sentence structure.

The main problem that main character has is shown in the beginning of the story as an introduction. She puts herself in unstable condition where it leads up to some rude thoughts about her boyfriend. The climax of the story shown as she thinks that it would be better if her boyfriend died. We can take a look again at some paragraphs that explain her extreme obsession to the man. “If he were dead, he would be mine.” Or “I would never think of now and the last few weeks”. And then it ends up with she backs to her patience and decides to call the man if he still does not call her; even though it would break her pride as a woman. Woman cannot phone the man first because that is not something that a woman should do. It is shown in the twenty-second paragraph “Suppose he were another girl. Then I’d just telephone and say, ‘Well, for goodness sake, what happened to you?’”. It becomes the main reason why she is so impatient from the beginning of the story and cannot wait for her boyfriend to call her. If the society allows women to lead action in a relationship, the main character here would have called him from the start as soon as 5:00 has passed. The story would be flat and not interesting at all. There would not be such emotions encountered in her heart because of her boyfriend.

J-Drama Review : Nobunaga Concerto [2014]

Nobunaga Concerto [2014]

Thank you so much for visiting my blog! This post will be my first post. It has been several years since the last time I write a blog. Hope you can enjoy the review! 
 

Based on best-seller manga, Nobunaga Concerto was made into live action drama, continuing its popularity anime-series, staring Shun Oguri (as Oda Nobunaga), Shibasaki Kou (as Ki Cho), Mukai Osamu (as Ikeda Tsuneoki), and Mizuhara Kiko (as Oichi).

The story began with Saburo (Oguri) who confessed his love to a girl at a school tour. Wasn't able to say the truth, he ran away from the place and fell in to a hill, which cause him to travel back in time to Sengoku period. There, he met with Nobunaga Oda who looks and sounds just like him. Nobunaga Oda is the son of a warlord and magistrate of the lower Owari Province (it kinda different with the true history, btw). Nobunaga Oda is physically weak, unlike Saburo who is very good at sport and physically strong and active. Thus, Oda asked Saburo, forcefully, to replace him in the palace as Oda. Before he even declined Oda's word, he was taken into the palace by Oda's guards. Then, Saburo tried hard to take his role as Nobunaga Oda and protect his country while searched for a way to go back to the future.

The character of Nobunaga Oda is widely known by people around the world as a legend. He was the one who united Japan and introduced lots of western technology to Japanese people at the era. I've read lots of literature that mentioned or even told his story though. However, for those who expecting history, be ready to be disappointed. It is far from that. This story tends to tell us a life-romance-friendship story. Most of the historical characters mentioned in the movie are not made to be similar with the history. However, the story line and its comedy feature are really satisfying!!!

I am a type of audience who will skip a movie when it begins to be boring. There are lots of dorama which I have skipped frame to frame because of the boring scenes. However, Nobunaga Concerto didn't even allow me to skip even one frame! Each scene was so interesting and emotional. 

Shun Oguri played the Oda character very well. His character which was playful, funny. active, and cheerful was really different with his character in previous dramas (ex. Rich Man, Poor Man, Hanayori Dango). Shibasaki Kou also play a very generous woman here!!! I really love the way she acted as Ki Cho. I even dropped a tear when she cried in this dorama. 

Generally, this dorama is my favorite for this summer! I don't think I can find another dorama that can give me this much satisfying feeling. It is really worth to watch! :) 

Score : 9.5/10