Link to play is below.
Create a topic for the play and select five quotations that directly relates to the topic you have created. There should only be one topic and five quotes that support that topic. Your topic must be something that can be found in more than half the play. List the topic at the top of your page. When you develop the topic of the play your goal is to find the most significant theme throughout the play. The quotes that you select should support the topic you have developed. For each quotation you select from the play, do the following:
- Tell what is happening immediately before the quotation.
- State the quotation and cite it.
- Write your own literal interpretation of the quotation, an idea-by-idea “translation” of the quotation.
- Write your own figurative interpretation of the quotation, what it means to the story as a whole.
- Tell how you think the quotation relates to the given topic.
Finish your critique with a conclusion. In three to four sentences, state what are your overall impressions of the play.To receive an A for the assignment all five quotes must relate to the topic and all five prompts (A through E) must be fully addressed for each quote. You must also include a conclusion. Five to three points will be take off each sub-point that is omitted or done incorrectly.
Example
Below is an example of what this should look like.
“The Hairy Ape” Review Topic: One man’s search for identity in a hostile environment.
Quote 1 A. The scene is one which has a group of men who stoke the fires of the ocean liner. There is a group of men drinking and boasting of their skills to make the ship move.
B. “Home, hell! I’ll make a home for yuh! I’ll knock you dead. Home! T’hell wit home! Home was lickings for me, dat’s all. But yuh can bet your shoit no one ain’t never licked me since! ” (299).
C. Home, hell! I’ll make a home for you! I’ll knock you dead. Home! To hell with home! Home was lickings for me, that’s all. But you can bet your shirt no one has never licked me since!
D. Home was like being in hell. If you talk about my home, I’ll kill you. Home was nothing but beatings for me. Once if got away from home no one has ever beat me again.
E. Ever since Yank was a child he has been in a violent environment. When violence is seen daily by a child they soon believe that constant violence is the norm rather than the exception. This belief lays the ground work for all Yank’s violent thoughts.
Quote 2
A. Yank gives this response to another shipmate’s song.
B. “Care for nobody, dat’s de dope! To hell wit’em all. And nix on nobody else carin’. I kin care for myself, get me! ” (302).
C. Care for nobody, that’s the dope! To hell with them all. And nix on nobody else caring. I can care for myself, get me!
D. I can for no one, which is the way it should be. To hell with everyone who cares about others. No one cares for anyone else. I can take care of myself without any help from others.
E. Yank feels that he can only count on himself and no one will ever care about him. He states that he will never need anyone to care about him, but I do not think he really believes what he says. Yank is just being a man the only way he knows how. He grew up with no one showing him how to relate to others.
Quote 3
A. Yank has overheard Mildred call him a hairy ape in reference to what she saw him doing to impress the other men.
B. “Hairy ape, huh? Sure! Dat’s de way she looked at me, aw right. Hairy ape! ” (309).
C. Hairy ape, huh? Sure! That’s the way she looked at me, all right. Hairy ape!
D. So you are calling me a hairy ape. Well she was frightened and looked at me like I was some kind of monster.
E. Yank took Mildred’s name calling as a threat. He is enraged by this name calling.
Quote 4
A. Yank is making his way to the zoo in an enraged state contemplating his place and role in society.
B. “What is this life if you are too busy to enjoy it.” (319)
C. I am too busy to enjoy life.
D. The blue collar worker is too busy simply trying to survive
E. Yank is living in a state of rage, frustration and angst, he cannot see the light of day, because he is forced to work merely to survive.
Quote 5
A. Yank has gone to the local zoo to see the apes. He wanted to see the apes so he could make a comparison of his life to theirs. He opened the door of the cage and let the ape out. The ape than crushes him to death. Just before he dies, he realizes that even the ape did not like him.
B. “He got me, aw right. I’m trou. Even him didn’t tink I belonged. ” (322).
C. He got me, all right. I’m through. Even he didn’t think I belonged.
D. I tried to be friends with the ape and set him free. Instead he has crushed me to death and does not want to be my friend.
E. Yank has tried to make friends with the ape in the zoo, since Mildred has call him an ape. He feels that perhaps being among the apes will make him feel at home. Violence yet again is the result of his behavior.
Conclusion I think this is a very violent portrayal of a human being. Yank has been surrounded by violence his entire life. He expressed all of his life as anger. He did not know how to love another human being or express feelings of joy. This play sways the argument of “nature vs. nurture.” Nurture, or lack thereof, is simply the downfall of Yank’s existence.
