Kelly presents john Tate and Phil as leaders in DNA but in different ways as john tate gains power through violence and picks on the people he knows are weakest to gain power such as Brian and Kelly uses punctuation and stage directions to show this like when it says ” john tate steps forward. Leah and phil enter he goes back to where he was.” This uses stage direction to show a hierarchy in which john does not assert himself as leader when phil enters this shows that even john tate himself thinks phil is the overall leader I think kelly wanted to show us this because it shows that john tate does not think he is above everyone making him not a ultimate leader and the punctuation in his line shows the reader that he is unsure and hesitant like when he says “Right there’s… now I’m really getting a little cross don’t use that word.”
The other character that takes leadership in the play is phil who is the ultimate leader in the play as all the characters see him as leader even john tate whereas john tate is not accepted by everyone such as Richard and Leah whereas phil is looked up to by everyone this is shown when it says “They all stare open mouthed at phil” this uses stage direction to show that everyone accepts him and also stage direction throughout the scene separates phil from the others by showing that he is calm and eating while everyone is shouting this shows that Phil is a good leader as he is calm while everyone is in panic. I think Kelley did this because it makes the reader know that phil is different from the others from the stage directions showing he is eating while everyone else is shouting this shows that he overall is a better leader than john tate as he is in control of the situation while john tate argues with the other characters.
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