The Aliens
The Aliens is a realistic drama about two best friends, KJ and Jasper, who meet in the backyard of the coffee shop, and talk about their daily life. Also, Evan, clueless teenager who works at the coffee shop, gets involved with KJ and Jasper. This play is written by Annie Baker, and she somehow achieves to make everything feel straight-forward. Her unique writing style makes this play extremely realistic because Baker writes about real people with real problems, focuses on the facts rather than the arts itself and choses an interesting title that raises a discussion.
First, Baker`s contemporary style is all over The Aliens because it is about three `real` people that is part of everyone`s life. For instance, KJ has great knowledge
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Her play contains great amount of pauses which makes the conversation whole a lot real. While people are talking to each other, there is always awkward moments, or silence because we don`t usually know what to say and think about it to come up with a logical answer. While so many playwrights don`t specify the pauses in their play, Baker defines amount and types of pauses. For example, one third of The Aliens is silence. It is important because while Jasper, KJ and Evan are having a conversation about Buddhism, Bukowski, philosophy and math, the reader needs to pause and think about those dialogues. Moreover, Baker`s choice of creating so many silence can be seen as an opportunity to think about the real meaning of the conversation, and what is left unspoken. Her way of writing is so …show more content…
For instance, Amir is a Muslim who is ashamed of his true identity whereas his nephew, Abe, embraces his religion and his heritance. Even though they are both Muslims, Amir`s narration of Islam is completely different than Abe`s, so they both stand for different groups. Amir`s ideology of being an American is to embrace American culture, name, religion, and values while his nephew believes that Amir should support his people and their “cause”. Another smart choice is to insert an African-American and a Jew character because they are also minority like Amir. One would expect that Jody and Isaac, members of different minorities who have suffered from different issues, such as slavery and genocide, would relate to Amir`s problem; however, they seem to judge him based on stereotypes just like anyone else. In contrast, Emily is extremely supportive, and amazed by Islam and its values. Therefore, Akhtar`s smart choice helps to understand so many different
Adolescence is a monster that lurks in the dreams of parents. It’s a strange new world to children and they never see coming. It’s the time of life when a world that never changes is thrown upside down. Yet, it affects more than the adolescent. It can impact families as a whole, such as the owl family shown in Larry Shles’ book, Aliens in My Nest. Squib the little owl, comes home to find his loving brother Andrew gone. Instead, it appears he has changed into a strange new creature with bumps on his beak, and clumpy feathers. His temper is short and he doesn’t appear to love his parents or brother. In response, their parents are at the ends of their ropes, and they even take Andrew to be diagnosed with owlescence, a play on adolescence. The
Conclusion: In all, racial oppression and identification is a concurrent theme in Butler’s works that have been discussed. Butler’s examinations involving the sense of pride and passion towards uniqueness and individualism are evident in many different perspectives. In Butler’s works, the passion the main characters have towards themselves in an alien world teach the reader important values and lessons against negativity and racial discrimination.
My premise is really quite simple: aliens are among us.And they're bad.But they're not the aliens you think they are, and they're not bad for the reasons you might imagine.In order to understand who these aliens are and why they're bad I want to begin by reaching back into the dark heart of the McCarthy era, when American paranoia in its most popular incarnation as American patriotism was at its peak.The year is 1951 and the film is Howard Hawkes' The Thing: From Another World.
Amir’s development from being “a boy who won’t stand up for himself,” to a man that stands up for the morally responsible thing to do (22, Hosseini). When Amir was a child, he tried to escape from his sins in the past by hiding them with lies. However, this only made it worse for Amir, causing him to be an insomniac for much of his life and putting himself through constant torment. Only when Amir became a man, like Baba wanted him to be, was Amir able to face the truth of what he done and put himself on the path of redemption. Even when Amir was suffering a violent beating from Assef, Amir was able to laugh because he knew he was doing what he should have for Hassan years ago. Amir’s development from a child, who lies in order to cower from their own mistakes, into a man, someone who is not only able to admit his sins, but atone for them, is essential to communicating the theme of redemption being the only way to settle with your
A boy who doesn’t stand up for himself, and a war that demands decency are two points Hosseini portrays to demonstrate the readers sense of moral values depicted in this book. Amir is taught many values to be a decent man, however when the situation presents itself for Amir demonstrate his teachings; Amir realizes how different he is from the ways of his father. Amir discovers his courage after many years of being a coward and feeling regret. The teachings of his father did sink in and Amir is now educated with the virtues of a decent man.
After reading The Book of the Unknown Americans, I realized how difficult immigrating to the United States can be. I am an immigrant also, so just reading the story makes me relate to many problems immigrants experience relocating to a different country. Immigrants often face many issues and difficulties, but for some it is all worth it, but for others there comes a point in time where they have to go back to their hometown. Alma and Arturo Rivera came to the United States to better their life, but also so that Maribel could attend a special education school. While Arturo had a job things had gone well for the family, but once Arturo lost the job and passed away the two of them had to go back because they felt that that was the best option for them. Reading this book made me realize how strong an individual has to be to leave their own country and relocate somewhere else not knowing if this will better your life or cause one to suffer.
Life in America for Baba and Amir is much different than their life in Afghanistan. Specifically, Amir adapts well to America. He completes high school and college. Furthermore, he follows his dream of becoming a writer. In American Amir becomes a young man who marries Soraya. The reader witnesses a kinder, non-vindictive Amir.
...ind a way to redeem themselves. The relationship between Amir, Hassan and Baba has shown so much neglect and disregard to the fatherly love that Amir and Hassan needed from Baba as it stands in comparison to Amir and Sohrab’s growing relationship. The appreciation of the unselfish actions are demonstrated as they give up their career, life, and pride for the betterment of their sons. The book itself demonstrates the development of the characters as they got more mature to which this bad past they had causes them to reinforce a more effective functioning father and son relationship. A neglect of a father may lead to bad decisions as a father should be there to ensure and reinforce a lesson to his son, acquiring the happiness of the son which is necessary for a fatherly figure.
As Josselson (2012) argues, it is simpler for the people to fix multicultural or multiracial individuals into a single cultural or racial identity, although realistically, most people find it difficult to categorize oneself in a single-margin. This is apparent in the reading White Teeth and Tar Baby, where the character’s identity is influenced by a socially embedded habitus of values, expectations and self-understanding, or lack there-of. In order to understand the challenges of racial and cultural identity in these novels, I will first look at characters Son and Jadine from Tar Baby and Samad and his twin sons, Millat and Magid from White Teeth.
Everyone dreams of having the perfect life. For hundreds of years, America has remained the land of opportunities. The American Dream is simply what lured millions to start the lives in America. It’s theoretically the basis of American life. However, in post World War 2, the American Dream seemed to be only targeted to white males. The American Dream seemed unattainable for racial minorities. Not only was life hard for non-white Americans, women also had a difficult time fulfilling their dreams. White males reigned supreme while everyone else was left in the dark. A Raisin in the Sun does a stupendous job of painting a picture of what hardships and injustices non-whites and women faced in the segregated 1950’s. A raisin in the sun focuses on
The main character described in the novel is Amir. Amir is the narrator and the protagonist in the story. Although an impressionable and intelligent son of a well-to-do businessman, he grows up with a sense of entitlement. Hassan is Amir’s half-brother, best friend, and a servant of Baba’s. Although considered an inferior in Afghan society, Hassan repeatedly proves himself to be a loyal friend to Amir. Baba is the wealthy, well- respected father of Amir and Hassan. He is willing to risk his life for what he believes in, but is ashamed of having a child with a Hazara woman, leading him to hide the fact that Hassan is his son. Ali is another modest man, who is a fatherly figure to Hassan and a servant to Baba.
However there are some characters that become better people and change becoming a better, stronger, more loyal individual in the end. The individual that demonstrates this development within this novel is Amir himself. All of the guilt Amir holds with him as a child allow him to realize his duty to be loyal to his brother Hassan ion the end. An example of this is when Amir goes back to Kabul, Afghanistan to retrieve his nephew Sohrab. Amir says, “I remembered Wahid’s boys and… I realized something. I would not leave Afghanistan without finding Sohrab.’ tell me where he is,’ I said” (Hosseini 255). Here, Amir is at the orphanage waiting to find out where Taliban has taken his nephew. Amir remembers the three young starving sons of Wahid, a man whose home he had been in earlier, and realized that Afghanistan is not a safe place for Sohrab. Amir is finally aware of one thing, Hassan has always been there to protect Amir like a loyal friend and brother would and now Amir knows that it is his turn to return that loyalty to Hassan by protecting Hassan’s flesh and blood. A second example of Amir’s loyalty to Hassan near the ending of the book is during Amir’s confrontation with General Sahib and the dinner table after Sohrab is safe in America with him. Amir proclaims to General Sahib, “…That boy sleeping on the couch
Other than flying kites and watching westerns, Amir would read to Hassan to help pass the time. Amir was not a particularly a good friend to Hassan and would attack him out of jealousy. Amir would tease Hassan’s illiteracy by giving him the wrong definitions of words. Amir was devastated by Hassan for quickly finding a plot hole in his first short story. He was not athletic or brave as Hassan and Amir prided himself for being intelligent. In Amir’s situation, he felt entitled to all of his father’s attention and the majority of it, from his point of view, was going to Hassan and the
In the book Amir can be seen as a troubled young boy who is struggling with a tremendous amount of guilty. It is easy to blame Amir’s actions on his guilty and his father’s lack of love for him. The movie does not allow this. The movie characterizes Amir as a young boy who is to blind by his owns needs to be a decent and noble friend. The movie does not do a good job of showing that Amir felt horribly guilty about what he did to Hassan. It portrays Amir as uncaring and selfish. The movie also changes the depiction of Amir as an adult. While the book shows Amir as a man who has not yet learned to stand for what is right until he comes face to face with his past all over again, the movie jumps the gun and shows the change earlier with the change of a scene. The scene that is changed is when Amir and Farid visit the orphanage where Sohrab is supposed to be. In the scene Amir is the one to try and kill the orphanage owner instead of Farid which takes away from Amir’s cowardice persona that is portrayed in the book. The movie makes Amir seem stronger before his time while the book keeps up his weakling persona until he is faced with a situation he cannot help but stand up to. Similarly the characterization of Hassan is just as lacking as Amir’s in the movie. In the book, Hassan is shown as being selfless beyond a doubt and loyal to a fault.
He illustrates that in many example, such as, Baba, however, never calls Ali, Hassan’s father, his friend, because of their ethnic and religious differences. Also the culture can play an important part in this novel. For an example, when Hassan is getting raped by Assef and hi friends, Amir refers to the sacrificial act of the lamb because Amir is Pashtun and Hassan is Hazara (Pashtan is Sunni Muslim, but Hazzara is Shi’a Muslim). At that time, Assef says Amir is part of the problem for being friend with Hazara. For another example, when Amir and baba moves to America, they communicate with the Afghan group there because the search about people look like them, and behave with the same