Final Paper

For my last paper I plan to write a play similar to the way Christopher Durang wrote "For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls."  He wrote his play to mock The Glass Menagerie and I think I am going to write a play that mocks "The Doll House". I think that it will be interesting to make a play like Durang about the doll house because there are many characters with flaws that will be easy to exaggerate. I want to keep the same kind of plot with a few changes and exaggerate the characters personalities. In my paper about the play I write, I will explain what the similarities are between my play and the Doll House and how I changed the characters as Durang did to the Glass Menagerie. 

Think about it...

For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls is a complete mockery of The Glass Menagerie. If you had not read or seen The Glass Menagerie then this play would have seemed pretty stupid because all of the jokes are about the characters from the previous play. All of their flaws are exaggerated and instead of being sad it is turned into a comedy. There are many examples of this such as, Laura had a set of glass animals which she cherished, Lawrence has a set of swizzel sticks that he has named completely idiotic names. Laura has a serious illness while Lawrence has a serious case of hypochondria. Tom brings over a girl for Lawrence that is a very rude, partially deaf, lesbian and Laura's date is a handsome gentleman that she had a crush on in school. In the glass menagerie, Tom is very reluctant to leave amanda and Laura but he wants to pursue his own dreams. In this play, Tom is mean to his amanda and lawrence and very quick to leave them with little guilt. Although the Glass Menagerie is sad and causes the audience to feel sympathy for all three of the characters, this play makes a mockery of Lawrence and it is easier to laugh at him than feel sorry for him. Although he seems to have a mental illness that he truly cannot get over, it is hard to want to help him because he is so whiney and annoying in the play. Even his mother doesn't try to help him she only tries to find someone to take care of him so that she doesn't have to. I did find the play to be funny at some points and I could appreciate it because I have read the Glass Menagerie. I think it would be even better to see it performed to truly understand how ridiculous Lawrence is in the play.

Good Grief!

I read an article about how oncology nurses deal with the grief of watching their patients suffer and then die. This particular hospital has a grief counselor center representative come to the hospital once a month to hold a meeting during the nurses' lunch time and talk to them about healthy ways to grieve and how to leave work at work. The struggle with this is that many times the nurses cannot go to the meeting because they are busy helping their patient or if they do attend then their phone keeps ringing with doctors or patients' family members asking for information or giving instructions. The nurses have different ways of dealing with their grief. "The Good Grief Center, leaving work at work, talking amongst ourselves -all these things lighten the burden of sadness. But ultimately what helps me the most is remembering why I come to work at all." Every nurses has to find what works for her when it comes to mourning patients. Some nurses so to the funerals or visitations of their patients, others have a moment of silence for them and move on to help the next patient.  Nurses deal with these emotions during work everyday. "Dealing with work at work needs to happen, too, and as nurses we confront death, and our own grief, in specific ways. We make crass, unrepeatable jokes that people not in the know can find shocking. It’s a defense mechanism, and we recognize the humor for the release it is. Sometimes we cry and get angry, swear loudly, drink too much when we get home, and tease each other mercilessly on the floor." These nurses have a very tough job and often think about how easier to would be to switch to career that did not deal with pain and dying everyday but in the end they all love what they do and they love the patients that they are so fortunate to spend time with.

Busy April

This past weekend was pretty exciting. A lot of my friends came and stayed with my in wilmington to go to the third eye blind concert, which was amazing. It was by the battleship and its was so pretty with the lights on the water. They played all the good songs and everybody was drunk. I got beer spilled on me twice and my feet stepped on multiple times. Third eye blind said that they have not released an album in 5 years, however they are planning to release one soon. There was crowd surfing and outrageously disgusting port-a-johns, the classic concert setting. Saturday my sorority had a sisterhood retreat and after that I went to cape carteret to be home for the rest of the weekend. This week is greek week and is so busy. Every day there are events and every night there is talent show practice, on top of dance company rehearsal. I have two tests this week and a research paper to work on. This seems to start the business of April, where every weekend if filled with some event. April is always so hectic but i love it because it means school is almost over. There are about 4 more weeks of school left which will fly by. Im so ready for summertime and no class. 

Nora Helmer

I think that Nora is a very complex person. She seems innocent and happy but it turns out that she is just the opposite. She is deceiving to her husband but in a way she is deceiving him so that he will not have to deal with the debt himself. She is scared of what will happen if he found out and does not want him to be ashamed that he had to use borrowed money. She allows her husband to call her pet names and talk to her like a child but tries to prove to Kristine that she is not a simple minded housewife like Torvald treats her. She is intelligent and capable of taking care of herself in the business world but is very pampered by her maids and husband. Nora has a good heart but has many flaws. She spends hardly any time with her children, lies to her husband about petty things such as eating candy, and she is obsessed with money. Just as many other people, she longs for security and to pay off her debt so that she will not have to worry anymore. She is very insecure with her huge debt and potential blackmail with Krogstad. She is definitely not someone that I would want to hang out with because she is so tricky and seems to have a charisma that easily fools people. 

Weekend

Last weekend was very fun and quite eventful. Friday I got my hair cut and colored which cost way more than I thought it would. Then my friend from high school in kinston came to wilmington and we went to one of our friend's house to celebrate him turning 21. There was a ton of people from kinston who I hadn't seen in a long time and it was really fun seeing everybody again. We all went down town to the cellar, which was really nice. And we met Peyton from One Tree Hill, everybody was freaking out but since I don't watch one tree hill I didn't get too excited about it but I did get my picture taken with her and promise to start watching it from season 1 this summer. Although the night later turned into drama, I still had a great time, probably due to the 7 or 8 yeager bombs consumed earlier. Saturday I went to the movies with my Big and saw He's just not that into you. It was so good and very funny. I loved it. Saturday night I went out with some of my friends and had an amazing time. Sunday I slept in for the first time in forever! Then I went to decorate my pledge class's rocking chair for Tri-Sigma. We all went out to eat then went to chapter. The SGA president candidates came to our meeting and talked to us. It was pretty funny listening to them try to win our votes. So at some point this week I'm going to vote for one of them. Although this past weekend was really fun, I know that this weekend is going to be even more amazing. My boyfriend is coming to WIlmington to hear Third Eye Blind with me Friday night, which should be pretty spectacular. Then saturday, after my sorority's sisterhood retreat, we're going to my home in cape carteret so I can see my family because I won't be able to go home for a few weeks after this weekend. Any way, Im in Biology so I should probably go take notes....

beauty

Today I wanted to write about the question: Is beauty more important than character?  I believe that the answer is no. It is ridiculous how much emphasis the world puts on being beautiful and looking perfect. People take drastic measures to perfect their body and make themselves look good. I don't mean that you shouldn't take care of yourself, I think everyone should try to look their best by putting on make-up or fixing their hair, but that doesn't mean going to get plastic surgery on your face because you don't like your nose, getting liposuction on your thighs because you don't like them, or getting a face lift at 60 because you have wrinkles. Your supposed to have wrinkles at 60, that's what is naturally supposed to happen. And getting liposuction will not do any good if you don't exercise and diet because you will gain it all back. You could have just gone on a diet and gone to the gym to lose it, and you would have saved thousands of dollars plus have put yourself through a lot less pain. Everyone should eat a healthy diet and exercise, but when you go to drastic extremes like surgery or starving yourself just to look good, that is when it is a problem. I saw in the news yesterday that a model in her 20's died a couple days ago from malnutrition. She was anorexic and weighed 88 pounds. That is completely absurd. Life isn't about seeing how little you can weigh. Everyone's body has a natural weight that it stays at if they eat right and exercise so you have to accept your weight and concentrate on being healthy, not on making sure all your ribs show in your bikini this summer. Although it is proven that people who are more attractive are more accepted by society, get better jobs, and are perceived as nicer than an average person, beauty does not compare to character. When you get old or if you get injured it doesn't matter how beautiful or skinny you were, all you have is your character.