These past few weeks have been a not-so-gentle reminder of how much work I need to do before the A.P. exam. I realized when we discussed introduction paragraphs that I had no idea how to write a good one. I have a lot of editing to do on my open prompt responses. Luckily, the exercise we did involving writing our own open prompts and responding to others with a stressful time limit helped. It made me more aware of each element of the prompt and how it should all fit in to the opening paragraph. It was a little scary to realize that I had such a big hole in my essay-writing abilities, but I still have most of the semester to figure it out, and I'm really glad Ms. Holmes noticed that we were struggling with opening paragraphs and cleared things up for us.
Along with intro paragraph work, we have been studying Tom Stoppard's play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. As this course goes on, I feel like the works are getting harder and harder to draw meaning from and write a theme statement for. This play is no exception. Like The American Dream, it has elements of the theater of the absurd, but still (in my opinion) has a meaning unique to the work. However, The American Dream is an allegory, making its meaning more blatant and understandable. With Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, I can not even begin to articulate an overall meaning or any form of theme statement yet.
To help us with this play, we watched a movie version directed by Stoppard himself. This was cool, because it represented Stoppard's interpretations in every way, and he even made some adjustments from the book after he had grown as a writer. The most obvious change was the ending, which I personally liked a lot. Making it end with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hanging themselves and then cutting to the wagon riding in the woods where the play began made the cyclical aspect of the play more clear. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are simply characters who exist solely for the purpose of being plot devices in Hamlet, and they are dead until are summoned for their lines whenever someone reads Hamlet (Or Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead). Having them actually die at the end of the movie I think highlights this. This whole idea is really interesting to think about. It reminds me of when I listen to Les Miserables songs. I always feel really sad at the songs near the end and feel the need to go back to the earlier songs when everyone was alive. The characters are all reborn for me when I go back to the opening song, but for other people who are not listening to Les Miserables or are listening to the ending songs, they are dead. I toyed with this idea a little before reading Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, but the play really takes it to the next level and shows and articulates it in a way that I could not and still am struggling to.
There's a lot of meaning in the play that I'm still trying to comprehend, and I am hoping more class discussion will help. Our class discussed whether or not the other characters in Hamlet are just as confused as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, or they are like the players. My initial thought was "They must be confused too, because what makes Rosencrantz and Guildenstern special so that they would be the only ones who are confused?" But someone pointed out that other characters could be players, and they need Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to be their audience. That made me doubt myself, and it raised questions like "How do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern know their lines?" and "Why would the players want Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to be their audience, if they can't even really watch the play? The players know they are in a play, so isn't the audience in the seats enough?" All of that is super confusing to me, along with what exactly Stoppard is trying to say about fate and free will. I know I say this about every play we read, but I seriously have no idea how we are going to put all this together into a theme statement.
Another tool we were given to help with Stoppard's play was a lecture on the work by a college professor. This lecture helped clear up some parts of the play and made me think about things like the friendship between Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. I did not, however, like the last few paragraphs of the lecture that basically say that the whole play is just Stoppard messing around, and this is an absurd work with no unique meaning. I think there is a meaning behind the play, although I am struggling to articulate it. The main thing that bothers me though, is that the first part of the lecture seems to talk about and imply a deeper meaning to the work. Even the bit about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern being friends has meaning in it (although maybe not the main meaning). The end of the lecture seems to refute a lot of what it says in the beginning and body. Although I appreciated most of this lecture (whether I agreed or disagreed with each argument), I was not happy with the end.
I thought that writing our own open prompt questions was a big waste of time, to be honest. We aren't going to be writing our own for the test, so I failed to see the importance of doing that exercise. Responding to the questions was very useful to me though. Also, like you apparently I was writing all my open paragraphs wrong too. I would write what I was going to be talking about at the very end, but Holmes told me that meaning goes at the end instead. The talk with her was very helpful. I also agree with you on how confusing this play is. Do you like it? I can't wrap my head around it. By unlike you, I don't think there is a meaning behind this play. I think its sole purpose is to make an audience laugh. By there is no right answer, which is important to remember.
ReplyDeleteSydney,
ReplyDeleteGreat job! I know what you mean when you talk about AP exams, im stressing out too. I thought the open prompts were going to difficult but then we started practicing them and I started to feel a bit more confident but then came the closed prompts.. this is going to be a long and bumpy road before we are ready for AP exam.
Now that we are done with the R & G, what did you think of it? Do you still have any questions unanswered? I know I do.. but they are just minor ones, and I only have one major one. R & G was a definite comic relief from all the depressing stories we have been reading.