Bettys Summer Vacation Details and Summary

Bettys Summer Vacation Details and Summary Christopher Durangs plays are well-known for addressing taboo content in a biting and humorous manner.  Betty’s Summer Vacation, with its  talk of incest, murder, mutilation, rape, â€Å"three ways,† exposing/flashing, and more, is no exception. Durang notes that his sometimes irreverent manner in dealing with these sensitive topics is meant to reveal to an audience just how far news and entertainment have gone in desensitizing people towards topics that should produce feelings of horror and revulsion, but which are now are glossed over alongside stories of the latest Hollywood scandals. He likens modern audiences to those in Ancient Rome who found entertainment in gladiator battles and sending Christians to fight lions. He writes: â€Å"But I’ve not written a documentary, I’ve written a play; and it’s a farcical play as well, in which we are not meant to EMPATHIZE with the characters the way one is meant to empathize with Blanche DuBois or Willy Loman; it’s more like following the stories of Candide and Cunnegonde in Candide, or the characters in a Joe Orton farce, or even the characters in a 1930s screwball comedy (though admittedly a dark one).† It may be jarring to read or experience a Durang play if you are unprepared for his style. But, Durang aims for â€Å"healing laughter† that comes from serious events that are now distant enough from an audience that when described in a particular manner can be found humorous. Plot Synopsis Betty is on summer vacation in a shared rental property with her friend Trudy, Trudy’s mother Mrs. Siezmagraff, Keith, and Buck. Trudy is a talkative young woman who grates on Betty’s nerves. Buck is an over-sexed lout and Keith just might be a serial killer with a head in a hatbox. Mrs. Siezmagraff is a codependent, Auntie Mame-ish wild woman.  She invites a homeless man, Mr. Vanislaw, to come over for the night as her date. Mr.Vanislaw is wearing a trench coat and sneakers and he flashes everyone in the house and alludes to his penis every chance he gets. Trudy and Betty beg Mrs. Siezmagraff to keep Mr. Vanislaw under control, but she refuses to acknowledge his lewd behavior just as she refused to acknowledge that her late husband molested Trudy. After a night of charades, Mrs. Siezmagraff and Mr. Vanislaw go out drinking. Mrs. Siezmagraff passes out on the floor and Mr. Vanislaw, mad that his date is no longer able to perform, goes in search of Trudy and rapes her. Afterwards Trudy is furious with her mother for allowing the man into their house and demands that she do something, but Mrs. Siezmagraff turns a blind eye and says, â€Å"Every time I get a husband or a boyfriend, Trudy’s always after them.† Trudy is enraged and grabs a kitchen knife and cuts off Mr. Vanislaw’s penis. Keith then cuts off his head. During these events there is canned laughter, similar to that of a laugh track, coming from the ceiling. At first it is sporadic and confusing to the characters, but eventually they become accustomed to the laughter and question why some line or action might get a laugh while others do not. Then the Voices in the ceiling start talking back to the characters and making requests. Those requests soon turn into demands. When Mrs. Siezmagraff calls 911 and the dispatcher tells her to bring Keith and Trudy to the police station, and Betty goes for a walk, and Buck leaves to find the towns’ easy widow, and there is no one left for the Voices to watch, they get frustrated and angry and crash through the ceiling and into the setting of the play. They are a three-headed monster of sorts. They have three different personalities, but share a connected body bound with wires and tubing. The Voices demand that Betty and the rest of the residents at the summer share put on a courtroom drama to entertain them. After an Oscar worthy performance by Mrs. Siezmagraff in which she plays defense attorney, abusive mother, and long lost Irish maid, The Voices pronounce Keith and Trudy innocent of all charges. However, The Voices won’t stop there. They want violence and more violence. They want Keith to cut off more heads and Trudy to cut off more penises. When Buck comes home, this is just what Keith and Trudy do, all the while bonding nicely over the gruesome experience. The Voices want more. They want Keith to blow up the house. Betty begs to escape and manages to run as Keith turns on the gas stove and pulls out a match. Production Details Setting: A nice seaside summer community - maybe somewhere on the New Jersey shore. Not a trendy, chic location. Time: Summer Cast Size: This play can accommodate 9 actors. Male Characters: 5 Female Characters: 4 Characters that could be played by either males or females: 0 Roles Betty is a reasonable young woman. She is the most normal of the group of characters assembled at the summer share. She feels pressured by her job and her mother and is looking for a relaxing vacation at the beach. Trudy uses words as medication. She speaks long and incessantly about anything and everything. She is not used to being listened to and is surprised when Betty or The Voices acknowledge her. She is desperate for attention. Keith is a quiet young man who is looking to be left alone. He had a troubled childhood similar to Trudy’s and learned to cope by cutting off people’s heads. Buck is a â€Å"lout-hunk.† He is sexist in a naà ¯ve way. He believes that all women want to be with him just as he wants to be with them. He prefers to get off about 20 times a day and feels in pain if he falls short of this number. Mrs. Siezmagraff is a grand old woman. She lives life in a large way with self-inflicted blinders. She refuses to see herself or her daughter as a victim, instead choosing to view Trudy as competition for the love/lust of despicable men. Mr. Vanislaw is a derelict who gets his jollies by exposing himself to women as often as possible. He is uncomplicated and unapologetic in his wants and desires. The Group of Voices are comprised of two men and one woman. They are a cross section of demographics that TV stations poll to see what America finds entertaining. Production/Character Notes In the script provided by Dramatists Play Service, Inc, Christopher Durang has notes for potential directors, actors, and producers. He writes about tone, character choices, the use of blood and much more. Any theatre or company looking to produce Betty’s Summer Vacation would find it useful to read and study these notes. Content Issues: Language, murder, violence, rape, incest, sex

USA became the most powerful economy in the world

During the 1920s, USA became the most powerful economy in the world, there are many reasons for this which will be explained in the main part of my essay. After the First World War Woodrow Wilson wanted to play a part in shaping the peace. He came up with 14 points, one of them was the idea of a League of Nations, and he wanted USA to play a leading role in world politics. Unfortunately his political position was already weak, the American senate was worried that this would permanently involve USA in European affairs and rejected the treaties, meaning that they never joined the League of Nations. This helped the American Economy as they did not have to spend money on armed forces there was no threat to them because of the natural barriers of the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean. They also had Mexico to the South and Canada to the North, both friendly countries, which left money for new industries, effectively putting America first.This leads on to the American governments views on how the extra money put toward new businesses was used. The attitudes of the American government towards business and industry The attitudes of the American government was to give the business leaders a free hand to make maximum profits, the regulations over businesses were minimised, the government was said to have been restored to its position as Umpire instead of player by Herbert Hoover in a speech during the presidential Election in 1928. This encouraged people to work hard as they kept most of what their profits, although due to the lack of regulations, a lot of people were exploited.Some people who were exploited more than the average American were immigrants. Between 1820 and 1920, over 35 million immigrants reached USA, most were from Britain and Northern Europe and were Protestant, but after 1880 more came from Eastern Europe, Japan and China, in the 1920s the ideal citizen wa...

Use of Aspirin Among Diabetics Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Use of Aspirin Among Diabetics - Research Paper Example Not entirely. The subject was aspirin use among diabetics, a group known to benefit from such therapy. However, although much of the literature search included diabetes based studies, other pieces were of a more general nature, although still concerned with aspirin use, we're not concerned with this specific group. There is a section labeled ‘method’ but no such method is actually described. The researchers were presumably testing the correctness of the guidelines referred to from the Preventive Services Task Force, but this aim is not stated clearly. Only two studies were considered, although there are in fact plenty to choose from. Was the study well or poorly designed? As methods and aims were poorly defined if at all, it is impossible to tell if this study was well designed to meet its purpose. They quote evidence for instance of aspirin reducing the risk of coronary heart disease, but the evidence used is not specific to diabetics. The study setting was relevant? Only in the sense that the two papers under consideration were both concerned with diabetes and aspirin use. These studies were felt to be both inadequate and inconclusive so did not really add much of value to knowledge on this subject. If the participants were appropriately defined, selected representatively, followed? up without significant loss etc..? There were no participants to be considered, merely two earlier reports.

Legislative Proposal Topic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Legislative Proposal Topic - Essay Example In addition, containers with a capacity less than 750 milliliters would not contain 4 liters of the beverage. Secondly, the current law prohibits transportation of alcoholic beverages that comes from industries outside Commonwealth according to part B. Such transportation limitation remains limited to less than four liters of beverage of one gallon especially when transit occurs in metric-sized containers (LIS 1 ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­). Based on part A2, alcoholic beverages other than wine and beer, four gallons, provided that not more than one gallon of that shall be in containers holding less than one-fifth of a gallon. If any part of alcoholic beverage in transit remains held in metric sized containers, the four gallons limitation shall be taken as 12 liters, with not more than 6 liters of that should thereof be containers having a capacity less than 750 milliliters. The proposal as mentioned in part B below, aims at increasing transit quantities. As aforementioned, the proposal for the part B of the law seeks to increase the amount of other alcohol such as spirits in transit within the state. For the beverage produced in common wealth, the amount transported at a time should increase limits from three liters to four liters. For alcohol produced outside the Commonwealth, quantity limit should increase to two galloons from current one gallon. The amendment will not change morality of taking alcohol or endanger society culture. Larger quantity purchase guarantees better discounts on the prices of alcohol gives clients. Citizens of Virginia will be able to buy and transport larger alcohol quantities hence will save large amount of money. In addition, liquor stores will make more return to raise livelihood of personnel working in the premises while at the same time remitting higher tax return to the government. The current law seems to be unfair in regulation spirits manufacturing companies’ products. The amendment will also improve social life of those organizing legal

Back To School Night Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Back To School Night - Essay Example followed by a question-answer session. This will give the parents a good understanding of the academic year ahead of the child and the role they have to play to make it a success. â€Å"Unfortunately both the quality and quantity of parental contacts with the school decline as children get older†, say Puma & others (Puma et al., Strong families, strong schools, US DOE, 1994) and point to the sharply contrasting statistics for the first graders and the seventh graders. They go on to add that involved parents help students to perform better academically, stay longer in school, and have better social skills. Teachman et al., also reinforce this view pointing out that, â€Å"†¦parent-child and parent-school interaction†¦Ã¢â‚¬  is related to dropping out of high school. (Teachman et al., Social Capital and the Generation of Human Capital, Social Forces, 1997) A child who routinely expects its parents to visit the school at least during the Back to School Nights, gets used to parents Back to school night is held within the first few days of the school re-opening and is followed by more such meets – each after the successive term examinations are held and the results announced. The second, third and the fourth meetings are indeed open house meetings to take stock of the progress of the child in the school along with discussing and implementing ways to improve performance. Back to school night is an event of the evening and night. This is a time of joy and relaxation coupled with establishing or renewing relationships between the parents and the teachers. The subsequent meetings are for more serious efforts involving in-depth discussions for which sufficient time is to be earmarked to cover all aspects of a child’s progress and for all children. Thus, they are best held commencing from the morning and continued till all the

Criminals are a product of their environment

Criminals are a product of their environment This essay will concern criminals in regards to their ecology. Ecological criminology is the observing of criminality, crime and victimization in relation to the area of individuals and organizations and how it forms and affects them. In broad terms crime is seen to evolve in pathological conditions of certain communities and areas. This association between crime and certain parts of a city namely areas with pathological conditions has a long past. Theorists such as Fregier (1840), Mayhew(1862) and The Chicago School of Sociology have contributed substantially to the debate of crime and the environment. Through Clifford Shaw and Henry McKays (1942) book  [1]  and other sociologist work such as Park and Burgess(1925)  [2]  comes the zonal hypothesis. It was found that cities develop concentric zones of life and activity. This is called this the concentric zone model. The model consist of five zones in the following order , the center is the Central business district, the transition zone of mixed residential and commercial uses, low-class residential homes (inner suburbs), better quality middle-class homes (Outer Suburbs) and the commuters zone. Baldwin and Bottoms also point out that offences are gathered nearby the city center According to Chicago School each district in concentric zones yields on something of the traits and abilities of the occupants. Through this knowledge it became known evident that there was a large amount of pathological behavior such as juvenile delinquency and alcoholism in the zone of transition. It also seems that the zone of transition adapted its own social organization such as cheaper rents, an unsettled population, and a few settled institutions and also tended to house recent peers of immigrants which seemed to yield the same forms of behavior including crime. Before one looks at the explanations of why the zone of transition is a problematic zone there are some methodological problems one must look at. There may be a distinction between the offence and the offender rate e.g. one person may be the cause of majority of specific crimes in a certain area. The rationality of authorized figures in relation to area based data may be brought into question. In the explanation given to define the zone of transition by the Chicago school it was alleged that the zone accommodated people unfamiliar to each other, urban life and to America also their surroundings seemed fluid which is also termed social disorganization. Social disorganization was based on three flexible elements such as poverty (unlike Sutherland which will be discussed further on), as the poor societies do not possess satisfactory funds to handle the difficulties occurring. The increase of residential mobility and racial diversity causes deterioration of community control through the deficiency of mutual beliefs which is viewed as permitting illicit conduct to advance and be transferred from one generation to the next. Similar to the social disorganization thesis Schuerman and Kobrin (1986) alleged a three phase procedure which denotes the evolving of high offender rate areas. These where shifts in land which meant increase in renting, changes in population which signified a decrease in people and increase in quantity of dissimilar beings as well as Changes in socio-economic statues which means additional inexperienced beings and advanced quantity of jobless people. In contrast to the idea that area of residence takes on character and quality of inhabitance, it is also noted that the inhabitants of an area take on characteristics and value of the area. This means the societal life of a zone can stimulus illicit inspiration. The societal life of a zone may have long term impact on the individuals personality, social activities, though processes a daily routines. As opposed to ideas such as certain areas influence individuals and vice versa, the theory of differential association according to Shaw and McKay, may illustrate how delinquent activities are ethnically transferred from one person to another. Edwin Sutherland (1924 and 1939) it was claimed that illicit conduct is cultured in contact through other individuals predominantly in intimate personal settings. This kind of knowledge not merely instructs the person about the detailed practices of performing delinquency, but similarly guides their drives, motives, attitudes and definitions of the law (Jones 2006). Wherever an individual is exposed to excess definitions favorable to violation of the law over definitions unfavorable to violation of the law they are more probable to turn out to be a criminal. The probability is ascertained by discrepancies in regularity, concentration, significance and period of the relationship. An exemplification of this is as Orcutt (1987) states that students were more likely to smoke marijuana if one of their four closest friends did. Alike Social disorganization Wolfgang and Ferracuti (1967) state that subcultures of violence can often be found in poor zones, they also state that individuals from such backgrounds learn positive approaches towards vehemence though a process of differential learning, association or identification. Wolfgang and Ferracuti also claim that such a procedure might aid to dispel any outlooks of culpability that might perhaps arise as of inside such individuals. The fortes of Sutherlands theory lay in its capability to demonstrate delinquencies are not related to poverty. For instance Sutherland applied the concept to white-collar and professional crime, asserting that people turn into white collar criminals since they became engaged into a business culture that deemed unlawful practices as lawful Sutherland reasoned that numerous clusters of people in civilization varied in their views as to what caused suitable conduct and out of this multiplicity of opinions, culture conflict turns into the most definite proof of the social disorganization within society, and an underlying cause of differential association. For the purpose of criticism and analysis in regards to the ideas given by the Chicago school of sociology, the image of urban life assumed by the Chicago school is no longer the same. This is because it assumes an even, unchanging landscape. An Additional reproach of the Chicago school is that British capitals post Second World War did not look like the Chicago concentric ring pattern due to people fleeing away from the citys in fear. The theory is also insubstantial on individuals as it doesnt institute enough for decisions made by individuals such as highly emotive crimes such as crimes of passion e.g. serial killer which doesnt associate with no one to learn his modus operandi also known as method of operating. Theorist such as Tittle et al. (1986) claim that it is not the mocking of specific methods or the learning of illicit outlooks that is significant, but the learning of enthusiasms to participate in delinquency that create distinct relations. McCarthy (1996) revealed compelling proof of tutelage in techniques of delinquency between homeless youths Haynie (2002) establish that the quantity of criminal contacts in a persons network not individual had a strong optimistic outcome on that characters following criminality, but was also a stronger effect than the contacts total levels of criminality. Meaning and individual which has more criminal minded friends then an individual which only has one extreme criminal friend is more likely to be influenced. In light of everything mentioned what can be understood is that different theorist have different views and ideas on factors and elements which condition a person to act in a criminal way. Therefore some theorist claim people are the product of certain areas whereas others believe that the areas are the product of the people living in it, which effectively means there is a two way presses going on. On the other hand some theorist believe that poverty is the underlining cause of delinquency where as some theorist believe that poverty plays no role and that it is merely the individuals motivation which is fuelled by engaging with delinquent people in an close intimate setting.

I Am Not a Lesbian (for now) :: Personal Narrative Writing

My mother is not a lesbian. Her fraternal twin, Marty, was a lesbian. Marty died of lung cancer when I was seven; she and my mother were thirty-four. My mother’s twin is a martyr in my family, the perfect child, the perfect person. She loved people; she was smart, athletic, active in the fight for women's rights. She taught me how to jump rope on Sanibel Island in Florida. It was windy, but that's all I remember. We went to Philadelphia for the memorial service. Suede, one of Marty's former lovers, played "From a Distance" on her synthesizer. Marty's body was cremated, but we never saw the ashes scattered because a huge snowstorm covered Pennsylvania the day after the service. We ate dinner in Marty's old house, which she shared with Bonnie, her lover at the time. My mother says my father cooked chicken, and Suede played the piano and guitar for us. She played "House at Pooh Corner" and "Peanut Butter and Jelly" for me and my little sister. The August after Marty died, I taught myself how to play "Happy Birthday" on the piano, for my mother. Mom's birthday always created of a huge amount of stress for every member of my family. My father, my younger sister, Cricket, and I, we labored. To make it perfect. On our birthdays, my mother pined and agonized to ensure that every detail went correctly, so the birthday person would be happy. The reservations at the restaurant, the number of party favors, the order of giving presents and playing games, all must be in line. And when something did not go as planned, she would be devastated; we would spend the whole day assuring her that the birthday had gone well, that it had not been ruined by a burnt cake. So when August eleventh rolled around, it was imperative that not a single thing upset her, that we not ruin her birthday. Cricket led Mom by the hand into the living room as I began to play. I only got to the part where it goes high with "happy birthday dear Jody" before I messed up. Pressed the wrong key; the interval was off. I burst into tears. Sobbing on the piano bench, bent over the tainted keys, I realized my mother had also begun to cry, with Cricket in her lap. The only other time I'd ever seen my mother shed a single tear was months before, at Marty's memorial service.