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.