Monday=Wdnesday, January 6-8 introduction to Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs / background readings

Welcome Back.  All grades are up-to-date. I am handing out grade reports for your benefit. Any missing material may be turned in for 50% until Monday, January 27, after which all new work will be in the 3rd quarter. If you find that you have something that I missed, please share it with me by the end of the day.
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Learning Targets:
11-12R3: I can analyze the impact of author’s choices.
11-12R5: I can analyze how varied aspects of structure create meaning and affect the reader. In informational texts, analyze the impact and evaluate the effect structure has on exposition or argument in terms of clarity, persuasive/rhetorical technique, and audience appeal.
11-12W2b: I can develop a topic thoroughly by selecting the most significant and relevant facts, definitions, concrete details, direct quotations and paraphrased information or other examples, appropriate to the audience’s knowledge of the topic


In our next unit, we are reading two plays: Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs and August Wilson's Fences.  We will have a class set that will stay in the classroom. If you wish your own copy of either text,  please check it out on your own time in the library.


In class:
Brighton Beach Memoirs by Neil Simon
Background readings / Assignment due at the end of class on Wednesday, January 8
Read the articles "The Great Depression" and "Growing Up: Then and Now" (class handouts/ copies below). Using the information in the articles and any other information you know about the 1930's, imagine that you are student in the 1930's. What is your daily routine like? How is your high school experience different for students in 1930 versus 2020? What did you do after school for fun? What big world or national events were in the newspapers?

Details: MLA heading. Size 12 font; Times New Roman.  Title: Then and Now  share:2006630
minimum 300 words
You are writing from the first person point of view, so "I" is used. Think of this as a memoir of your day, but use formal language, rich adjectives and expressive verbs. Make sure to reference the readings. (I suggest that you highlight / underline items that you might possibly reference in the handouts). Although you do not have to quote, you must demonstrate that you have clearly read the material. You may also research a news article from that time period and allude to it in your writing. The reader should be able to experience the day with you. 

About the play:

Brighton Beach Memoirs is a play that put family dynamics on display. Since the entire action takes place inside of the home, this family essentially becomes the whole world, and an entire culture is wrapped up in this microcosm*. (a community, place, or situation regarded as encapsulating in miniature the characteristic qualities or features of something much larger.) 

As the family faces the many struggles the Depression presents them with, they work to retain their morals and beliefs. The Jeromes are representative of families everywhere, but is it important to note that, although they play is partially autobiographical, they are not necessarily realistic representations of themselves.  

These are family members who live in Eugene's journal and memory, rather than the real world. Everything in the play is viewed through Eugene's lens, which allows the audience to get a genuine feel for how his adolescent brain sees and interprets the world around him. By interacting directly with the audience, Eugene is able to interject his perspective during any interaction on stage. 

Therefore, the sturggles Eugene faces as he matures are layered with the economic and political difficulties of the time. The world at large is treated with as much reverence as Eugene's inner thoughts, and the impending war is given as much weight as Eugene's desire to see a naked woman. Even during the most serious conversations, he is constantly preoccupied by normal teenage desires, which is shown both in his interactions with the other characters, and in his asides to the audience.

The character Eugene, by acting as a narrator, creates a world in which his preoccupations become the focus, and he guides the audience through this snapshot of his life. By doing so, the author Neil Simon, is bringing the audience into his memory and showing them a brief section from his childhood from his own perspective. In this way, Simon was able to tell his personal story.

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