David Mamet is turning a spot light on human relationship between the modern individuals in his play; Oleanna. The modern individuals are logical and rational and also use much of oppressive tones and behavior in order to exorbitantly pack up their identities and images. However, ironically their logic also strongly appears to reader as an emphasis implying that their values and the way of living in their lives are immoral and inhumane. From the conversations of John and Carol I saw a particular form of the frame. Perhaps, I would want to say “power mechanism”, in which people have different positions and conflicts in terms of looking at the development of their conversations in the play from common conversations to a serious sexual and physical harassment. And I believe that this development also shows how the power can be misused in the frame of “power mechanism” in the modern society. The reason why I chose question # 11 is that the ending scene gave me so much of catharsis, not that it was a trial to solve the issue, but it was to relieve reader’s concerns about the problem of power mechanism. When Carol said, “Yes. That’s right. . . . yes. That’s right”, it was an affirmation of what John previously asked in excited condition; JOHN: You vicious little bitch. You think you can come in here with your political correctness and destroy my life? After how I treated you…? You should be … Rape you
…? Are you kidding me…? From my point of view, Carol’s response by saying, “Yes, That’s right” was the best answer to readers as she did not directly get involved in what John did to her (physical attack) and provided a small size of example that ultimately broke John’s power mechanism. This is significant because in Act 1, John was oppressing Carol with his higher superiority over her, who showed a frightened looking with less logical speaking tone. In Act 2 and 3, their level of positions dramatically become reconstructed and Carol obtains the power as she learned how to display the power by performing more “polished” linguistic expression with clear and decisive tone. And on the other hand, John shows how the power can be easily lost in a minute with its characteristics; variable and fictive.
Carol: Sufficient? Sufficient? Yes. It is a fact ... and that story, which I quote, is vile and classist, and manipulative and pornographic. It...
John: ...it's pornograghic...?
Carol: What gives you the right. Yes. To speak to a woman in your private... Yes. Yes. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You feel yourself empowered...
In conclusion, I learned from Oleanna about a contradiction between human, which is ruled by the frame of power. I do not think that we will be able to make a Utopia (an ideal society) with the power mechanism as there exists either physical or mental criminal due to the fact that people who hold higher level of positions might have more power of control over people who hold lower level of positions in education, finance, and the origin of birth, etc. What we, readers need to know and should do is to realize the existence of the power mechanism as an obstacle to make a better society and practice to prevent and void applying this system.
I don't know why some part of the paragraphs are not visible...but you may be able to read the whole thing once you highlight them...
ReplyDeleteSorry for the inconvenience.
Hi Aram,
ReplyDeleteThose parts are in a black font, so they don't show up. You must have somehow changed the font color.
David Mamet is turning a spot light on human relationship between the modern individuals in his play; Oleanna. The modern individuals are logical and rational and also use much of oppressive tones and behavior in order to exorbitantly pack up their identities and images. However, ironically their logic also strongly appears to reader as an emphasis implying that their values and the way of living in their lives are immoral and inhumane. From the conversations of John and Carol I saw a particular form of the frame. Perhaps, I would want to say “power mechanism”, in which people have different positions and conflicts in terms of looking at the development of their conversations in the play from common conversations to a serious sexual and physical harassment. And I believe that this development also shows how the power can be misused in the frame of “power mechanism” in the modern society. The reason why I chose question # 11 is that the ending scene gave me so much of catharsis, not that it was a trial to solve the issue, but it was to relieve reader’s concerns about the problem of power mechanism. When Carol said, “Yes. That’s right. . . . yes. That’s right”, it was an affirmation of what John previously asked in excited condition; JOHN: You vicious little bitch. You think you can come in here with your political correctness and destroy my life? After how I treated you…? You should be … Rape you
ReplyDelete…? Are you kidding me…? From my point of view, Carol’s response by saying, “Yes, That’s right” was the best answer to readers as she did not directly get involved in what John did to her (physical attack) and provided a small size of example that ultimately broke John’s power mechanism. This is significant because in Act 1, John was oppressing Carol with his higher superiority over her, who showed a frightened looking with less logical speaking tone. In Act 2 and 3, their level of positions dramatically become reconstructed and Carol obtains the power as she learned how to display the power by performing more “polished” linguistic expression with clear and decisive tone. And on the other hand, John shows how the power can be easily lost in a minute with its characteristics; variable and fictive.
Carol: Sufficient? Sufficient? Yes. It is a fact ... and that story, which I quote, is vile and classist, and manipulative and pornographic. It...
John: ...it's pornograghic...?
Carol: What gives you the right. Yes. To speak to a woman in your private... Yes. Yes. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You feel yourself empowered...
In conclusion, I learned from Oleanna about a contradiction between human, which is ruled by the frame of power. I do not think that we will be able to make a Utopia (an ideal society) with the power mechanism as there exists either physical or mental criminal due to the fact that people who hold higher level of positions might have more power of control over people who hold lower level of positions in education, finance, and the origin of birth, etc. What we, readers need to know and should do is to realize the existence of the power mechanism as an obstacle to make a better society and practice to prevent and void applying this system.