A Critique of The Zoo Story, a One-Act by Edward Albee

A Critique of The Zoo Story, a One-Act by Edward Albee Social Commentary Essay on Drama: The Zoo Story and Alienation Albee’s â€Å"The Zoo Story† portrays a fairly decent example of alienation of the absolute lower class versus the upper-middle and middle class. The two obviously have completely different backgrounds, which have brought them to their current points in life. Although they are both roughly the same age, Peter is displayed as an average man with average characteristics and mannerisms by describing him as â€Å"neither handsome or homely† and â€Å"†¦ wears tweeds, smokes a piepe, and carries horn-rimmed glasses† . He was likely the definition of middle class for his era. Jerry, on the other hand, seemed complacent about his looks and characteristics with a description of â€Å"†¦ not poorly dressed, but carelessly† . The play exemplifies the division of social status and class through Peter’s reaction to Jerry’s mostly incoherent speech, or his random sharing of his life story. The play starts by introducing and describing Peter and Jerry, the two main characters. It then starts with Jerry trying to create dialogue between the two, but Peter trying to avoid conversation with the stage direction of â€Å"[anxious to get back to his reading]† . This very start, along with their disagreement about smoking, shows the difference in the norms for their social statuses. Jerry continues on trying to force the conversation by asking about the direction he travelled from and the potential cancer from smoking. Eventually, he asks Peter if he would like to talk, but Peter responds slightly disinterested until Jerry forces his hand. The middle of the play is pretty much Jerry asking questions, Peter answering the questions, and then Jerry monologuing. The question and answer phase of Jerry and Peters shows the distance between the two of them, and, by essence, exemplifies the difference between social classes. For instance, Jerry keeps getting more personal as a specific conversation goes in, such as when he asks if Peter’s wife is the reason they can’t have any more children. Interestingly, the fact that Jerry keeps saying that he’ll tell Peter about the zoo but never actually tells Peter can be seen as the false promises between the classes. Jerry keeps asking Jerry personal questions and then eventually peer pressures him into answering. Jerry then goes into phases of monologuing about his life and thinks that Peter is patronizing him. Throughout the last portion of the middle of the play, Jerry goes on an extremely long story about a dog, how he tried to poison the dog, and how he keep s failing. At the end of the story, Jerry randomly tries to take the whole bench from Peter by force. However, Peter was being stubborn about his spot. The sudden change of character can easily be foreshadowed by his story of trying to poison a dog. However, Peter wasn’t going to let it slide Peter tells Jerry â€Å"You can’t have everything you want.† Eventually, Jerry gets heated and pulls out a knife. Peter instantly misunderstands the action, as anyone would but his misunderstanding is also a show of the misunderstanding between social classes. Strangely enough, Jerry gives Peter the knife. Peter tries to get Jerry to leave him alone, but Jerry ends up killing himself on the knife that Peter was holding defensively. I’m not sure I comprehend this part of the play, but Jerry thanks Peter and says that Peter comforted him. Perhaps, Jerry was confused and wanted a way out of life after holding a conversation. Either way, as he ends up dying, he tells Peter to get aw ay from the scene. In conclusion, Peter’s confusion throughout the play and Jerry’s constant monologuing shows misunderstandings throughout the whole play. With that being said, Jerry, or the lower classes, keeps putting Peter into awkward situations. Peter, or the upper-middle/upper class tries to keep to himself but Jerry keeps bringing him back in. Jerry tells Peter his life story, similar to how the lower class tries to convince the aforementioned classes to change. However, the less well off class (it’s not necessarily always the lower class that is less well off, but more than likely it is) in any civilization tends to end up creating conflict. That conflict ends in the death of the foolish actions of Jerry.

Communicable Disease Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Communicable Disease Paper - Essay Example Chicken pox can be spread easily through sneezing or coughing, even rapidly. Furthermore, any direct contact with the secretions of the blisters will spread the chicken pox from one person to another. An individual who is infected is contagious and infectious two days before the rash appears or any sign of chicken pox appears. This continues for about four to five days. â€Å"Varicella has an incubation period of between 10 and 21 days - i.e. the rash will appear from 10 to 21 days after the virus has infected the patient.† (Medical News Today, 2014) There is no way of reducing the length of time a child has chicken pox, only making the symptoms more bearable. A vaccine against chicken pox is used as part of the normal vaccination program. â€Å"They are mainly caused by the varicella virus which is either caused by the direct contact with blisters or through sneezing and coughing.† (Gosh.nhs.uk, 2014) Every individual usually catches chicken pox once in a lifetime. As it is one of the most communicable diseases, mostly children catch chicken pox sooner or later in their lives. Mainly everyone near the infected individual is at risk if they have not gone through this disease before. It is not possible to alter the time-period for which a child has chicken pox. â€Å"However, in most cases there is no need to keep the child away from nursery or school if they have been in contact with chicken pox but not caught the illness.† (Webmd.com, 2014) It is not possible to alter the time-period for which a child has chicken pox. Vaccinations, however, are used as part of the general program. If a child has fever, it should be brought down using paracetamol as it is effective from the start. This is done because when a child has chicken pox, he must be kept cool and in a normal temperature. Heat and sweating makes itching worse, hence the condition of child gets worse. A child suffering from this disease should be

PROJECT 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

PROJECT 1 - Essay Example The use of the mobile phone for the group was advanced to the extent that they knew how to download music from online sites, but the usage had not been used to improve levels of literacy considerably. The researchers reported the use of mobile phones as exceptionally advanced for the group, and therefore a channel that promoted levels of literacy. The researchers emphasized the role that the use of mobile phones played in the social lives of the people living in the remote community, and went further to maintain that the usage was core to the levels of literacy attained. The ideas used to support the arguments include that the exchange between the mother and the child showed considerably developed uses of the phone as a tool for fostering literacy among the members of the community. 2. Connolly, T. M., Boyle, E. A., MacArthur, E., Hainey, T., & Boyle, J. M. (2012). A systematic literature review of empirical evidence on computer games and serious games. Computers &Education, 59(2), 661–686. The analysis of the findings and the context reported from the 129 studies showed that exposure to computer games improved some skills, including those that were important to the learning of students. The skill areas reported to benefit from playing games included cognitive, perceptual; affective and also the learner’s levels of motivation for learning. The study revealed that the positive effects of playing digital games is widespread, therefore an area that calls for the exploration of the relationship further, so that it can be used to foster learning. The authors emphasized the importance of digital games in the learning of the students aged 14 and higher, by pointing out that it affected a variety of the skill areas that foster or limit learning. In conclusion, the position taken about the materials was that more study is needed, so as to