J Acan Miranda's Online Journal

In this extract Hughes presents many forms of political unrest in America at the time. One of these forms of political unrest is the point that America is seen across the world as a beacon of liberty and freedom where anyone can be rich if they try, this extract shows a different view, although the poem starts out with a slightly optimistic hope of America the reader is then hit by a direct contrast view when they read “(America never was America to me).” This short powerful statement is in brackets which are used to show that this different opinion or voice is marginalised from the others as brackets are used to make things a side plot away from the main focus of a writing.

One of the other ways Hughes shows political unrest is through the idea that America rids you of any hope, this is evident when the poem says “I am that young man, full of strength and hope, Tangled in that ancient endless chain.” This uses a metaphor to show that America still has the grievances it had in the past such as slavery represented by the ancient endless chain, in the quotation this infers the idea that people of colour are still held back or marginalised from the days of slavery, this contrasts with the voice that says that America is free as Hughes is conveying the idea that certain people in society are not free but in chains from the past which holds them showing that many people feel that America is a lie which creates political unrest.
In conclusion Hughes shows that America is seen as a beacon of freedom but in reality grounds and holds people based on race an class.

My group for the assessment decided that the main focus of the performance was the relationship between Lucas and his family as the whole stimulus was him growing up and his relationships with his family changing and we decided to show him at his and his family’s most difficult part which we believe would be before he found his success and with his father gone however we decided not to say why he is gone as we did not find it necessary.

my jobs in the group as well as acting were character design and sound I used character development by making up the reactions that different people would have to a certain situation such as the drinking and drugs abuse that Lucas had at a young age and i did this to show the different characters.

We decided to create the character of  Lucas’s younger brother as an opposite of Lucas as he would have been to young to understand the negative impact on the family the father leaving and the drinking and drugs abuse had on the family and this is shown through his positive attitude compared to Lucas and his mother also he is cynical of Lucas’s  dream as he has not  been down in life so he does not need a dream to redeem himself unlike Lucas and he is also influenced by his mother who believes that Lucas’s dream will lead him down the path of his father.

For Lucas’s mother i made her very similar to Lucas in the way that she has not taken the events that have happened well and like Lucas she feels guilty and depressed over them however there is a difference between them as his mother sees Lucas’s dreams and frowns upon them believing he should  focus on a more realistic dream and that she sees to much of his father in him and his dream and does not want Lucas heading on the same path that he did.

For Lucas himself we decided that in this stage of his life he would be starting to work on his songs and we would show this in the performance by showing that he would rather work on his songs than eat he is also ashamed of what he has become and is trying to become a better man to lift himself up from his past.

For sound i decided that there should be a naturalistic sound and the confrontation between Lucas and his family should be silent so the words and phrases are clearly heard by the audience.

The overall message of this performance was to show what Lucas emerged from rather than what he has become as we already know this and by showing the hardship he went through and the emotional effect this had on him. Overall we wanted to explore what made him want to make songs in the first place despite what his family thought of him.

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Steinbeck uses the character of candy in mice and men to express that people were shunned and neglected once they were past working condition this is shown when candy’s dog is shot by Carlson and he says “he’s all stiff with rheumatism. He ain’t no good to you. An he ain’t no good to himself.” This uses symbolism to show that once you are passed your expiration date in 1930s America you were of no use to anyone like candy and this is told by Carlson when he says that the dog was no use to anyone just like his owner . This also shiws through candys unpopularity on the ranch as he is too old to do manual Labour and is ignored significantly this contrasts with the popularity of slim who is respected due to his skills at the job and praised even by candy himself. This makes the reader feel empathy for candy as he is old and weak yet ignored which is the opposite to today’s society were the old and fragile are looked after showing the harshness of america during the depression.

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Due to circumstances beyond our control, we have had to defer the external performance of your “Oh What a Lovely War!” piece until Tuesday 19th of June (a one week deferral).

You will now be timetabled in lessons as normal tomorrow.

Our apologies for the lateness of this notice.

1. Intention of the drama/design/script with any relevant background information: The intention of the play is to communicate that war benefits people and how they reach that goal by stepping over the bodies of overs.
   1. Planning: Our plan is to have my character a representative of a company that profits from war approach Daniel’s character and bribes him to leave a weapons cache relatively unguarded apart from two soldiers who are played by Dillon and Lethaniel who happen to be brothers he agrees after thought the next scene takes place when they are playing cards and talking when they hear a noise and when one investigates he is shot this is shown through red light and gunshots along with flash and when the other tries to help him but is forced to run due to the gunfire. He then arrives at the base and when he goes to report to the general he stumbles across him receiving the check from my character at which point he becomes angry and he pulls out a weapon and the room goes black and gunshots are heard.
2. How relevant areas of study have been applied: We have decided to explore how corruption and how money changes and affects people on a personal level as well as how profiteering from war leaves lives lost for a few’s personal benefit and gain..
3. Individual contribution to the chosen brief: my personal contribution was writing the script as we did not have one of our group members during members and we decided that a script would help us and our group member get up to speed. I also came up with many of the scenes in the story with the help of my group members. I also helped the lighting and sound men with what to do such as the red lighting and gunshots when Dillon dies.
4. Reflection and evaluation: In reflection I believe that the play could have done better with more effective lighting and sound effects as well as changes to the script which we decided to do later on I also believe that the stage transitions and movement of the characters could be better including my own. However I believe overall our performance showed our point of how money corrupts people and how that effects the lives of people caught in the crossfire.   

In drama we have been looking at stimuli such as the effects of poisonous gas on people in which we acted out how poisonous gas affects people. we also acted out scenes of war profiteering while the profits of multinational company’s

“oh what a lovely war” is a play which uses satirical comedy and song to hide its very serious message that millions of lives were being thrown away by people who got there positions from knowing high up people.

when I first read the play it was obvious that it was set in world war one through mentions of trenches, battles,and officers such as general Haig. when I first read the poem I wondered if war profiteering was still happening today and I found that it is on an exponential scale with companies such as haliburton making huge amounts of profits in the Iraq wars nearing $40 billion along with other companies.

The play touches on political satire mocking generals and the high up at the time of world war one such as general Haig who the play infers only got there jobs through there connections to other people.

CARTOON: U.S. NEUTRALITY.
Satirical American cartoon comment, c1917, on Uncle Sam’s conflicting desires to encourage peace by remaining neutral in World War I and to profiteer by selling munitions to the Allies.