Mamet and Masculinity

When Roma asks Williamson “Whoever told you you could work with men?” he sums up Mamet’s, or at least the characters he creates, idea of masculinity. A man is not a man simply because he was born that way, being a man is earned and in turn earns you respect. The men in this play often insult each other’s man hood when trying to establish dominance. This is a world where being a man comes before all else and if you are on the outside looking in you have to do everything you can to earn that status in the group back.

Manhood in this play is deeply rooted in a man’s job and his ability to do that job. We see this when Levene fills Williamson, a college boy, in on the street knowledge that “A man’s his job and you’re fucked at yours.”. This lets us into the psyche of this group dynamic that a man’s performance in the job is what makes him more, or less, a man. Therefore Moss lashes out at Roma when he feels emasculated by Roma, and the cop. They all know this is the stick for measuring manhood and within that dynamic you can see they react accordingly. This is also why we get lines like Roma telling Aaronow “You’re a, hey, you had a bad month. You’re a good man, George.” This idea of a Aaronow being a good man comes from him proving himself before and therefor they know he is a “good” man because he is a good salesman. The same thing happens when Levene finally makes a sale and become confident and boisterous again because his manhood and identity as a man is tied to his performance and when he does well he has restored himself in that identity.

“You are in the dark, in the car…”

Rankine is extremely experimental in the citizen and I think this falls in line with her overall thought which is why follow the status quo when the status quo is oppressive to you and your race. She expresses repeatedly in all her poetry a feeling of being silenced and oppressed and her poetry is a way to break out and express herself.

The poem “You are in the dark in the car…” is a poem told in story format which appealed to me because rather than changing her form to another in order fit her stories she is changing the way she uses the form so her story can be told the way she desires it to be.  The style is more personal to me than traditional poetry is, she inserts you into her point of view by constantly saying “You” and not I or someone. This personal connection to the story is one that makes me able to connect to an issue I personally have never faced. I have never had someone tell me “his dean is making him hire a person of color when there are so many great writers out there.” But through her poetry I felt like I was there and was forced to confront how I personally would deal with that situation.

Her jumping from situation to situation is something uncommon as well. It allowed her to express her idea over multiple situations without the message being written off as a one-time thing. The story of the car end with “You hope by sitting in 
silence you are bucking the trend.” And the next line is immediately, “When the stranger asks, Why do you care? you just stand there staring at him.”. The original thought is what is she talking about now but when you get down a few more lines you understand she is telling a story related but an entirely new one where “you” and the racism are the only common denominators.

I also appreciate how she is not only describing what happened she is describing how it made her feel. She says when the man makes a racist remark that “feeling irritation begin to rain down.”. This explanation not only of what happened and what was said but also how it made her feel and how you know you would feel in that situation creates a connection I never really feel with poetry full of hollow emotions or pretty words.

The imagery she uses gives more insight into the way she feels. Like her comparison of herself to “ a wounded Doberman pinscher or a German shepherd has gained the power of speech.” allows you to know how the person was looking at her and to what level that alienated her.

All the experimenting Rankin does with poetry separates it in the readers mind, letting you know from the start that this is different and needs to be paid attention to. The content she then provides matches that risk-taking style of writing; you are drawn in by the form and the content never lets you go.

Thoreau and the meaning in the small things

Thoreau’s Walden provides us with insight into where he felt the key to life may be found, but leaves us with the idea that only we can find it for ourselves. It is in the small details of everyday life and using them to shape our consciousness. Throughout Walden we are focusing not on society’s obligations, perks or downfalls but on nature and its effect on the human consciousness. By being in Walden, Thoreau is experiencing things that expand his thinking and allow him to explore the depth of himself, which if we are lucky maybe we will be able to do too someday.

In Spring Thoreau says when he is observing the clay running from the railroad tracks “The material was sand of every degree of fineness and of various rich colors, commonly mixed with a little clay. When the frost comes out in the spring, and even in a thawing day in the winter, the sand begins to flow down the slopes like lava, sometimes bursting out through the snow and overflowing it where no sand was to be seen before.” (344). Thoreau is using the metaphor of sand flowing to represent the human experience, even comparing the paths to the human anatomy in the same passage. We are all starting from the same material so to speak and when the beginning comes, Spring in the metaphor, we all start down the slope in our own paths, some of us overlapping and some creating their own paths that has never been seen. Thoreau chooses this analogy to sand flowing because it highlights his feelings on our own path and experience being the point to life. We are all starting from the same place and ending up in the same place but it is up to every one of us to find our path through life and that is what makes our lives special from everyone else’s, so that is the meaning that is individual will be found.

The placement of the sand flowing is significant also. The sand is not just flowing from anywhere, he chooses to observe the sand flowing from the “deep cut on the railroad.” Which is representative of society. While Thoreau is not anti-society he seems to place more meaning in nature and believe that it is important to be in nature and take in the small things. Thus, the sand is flowing from the image of society and finding their own paths and that is giving their lives the meaning he believes we should all be searching for. It is in the details of nature, like a hawk’s cry or the ice’s melting pattern on a pond, that Thoreau says we will be able to find perspective and start thinking about things bigger than ourselves or our possessions. He says in Conclusion “do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Turn the old; return to them. Things do not change; we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.” (362).

 

Citations: Thoreau, Henry David. Walden and Other Writings. Bantam Dell, 2004.

Binx and the search

Throughout the Moviegoer Binx is obsessed with the search. While he never explicitly defines what he is searching for, the search is for something to give his life meaning. This meaning Binx ponders may come through religion, experience or something completely unknowable until it happens but Binx becomes so obsessed with the search he ceases to find meaning in his day to day experience to the point he becomes a spectator to his own life. The reason Binx is not willing to discuss the search at the end of the novel is because he has found the thing that gives his life meaning, Kate and a life in which he is needed and important to others. This gives him a sense of validation and because he never knew this was what he was searching for he cannot bring himself to say that the search is over but indeed Binx has found the thing to give his life meaning which he so badly longed for throughout the novel.

Early in the Moviegoer Binx expresses his feelings of being different or an outsider in life when he says “The fact is I am quite happy in a movie, even a bad movie. Other people, so I have read, treasure memorable moments in their lives…” (7). Throughout the book Binx makes comments that lead us to conclude that he views himself as an outsider and what’s more is in denial of the fact but we can see through his obsession that he longs for the acceptance everyone else seems to have found. Binx has convinced himself that he is such an outsider as a result of his being onto something much more important in his search.

Binx expresses his self-doubt briefly however, when he ponders about the search and admits he questions “Am I, in my search, a hundred miles ahead of my fellow Americans or a hundred miles behind them?” (14). This admission of self-doubt shows that despite his talk Binx is unsure in his search and he is not truly sure if the search starts because of or results in the everyday. The novel ends with Binx taking Kate as his wife, becoming more involved with both sides of his family and starting medical school. The complete change in his life’s circumstances gives Binx a new outlook and new sense of purpose so he ceases to be a man on a search because he has found the meaning he longed for and became a lead part in the movie of his life, no longer simply watching it as a moviegoer.

Hello

If you are reading this you are probably in class with me, if not then who knows how you found this but regardless welcome. I hope you Enjoy my perspective on the works I am reading and I look forward to hearing what you guys think about my posts.