Tuesday, August 21, 2012

"The Homecoming" and "August: Osage County"


What is it about family dysfunction that makes it the obsession of our best playwrights?  Not that it’s a bad thing, since it makes for some great literature (“Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” etc.).

“August:  Osage County” is great, well worthy of its Pulitzer Prize.  I’d agree with those who say it’s the great American play of the last twenty years.  As I’ve said many times, “Death of A Salesman” is the best American play ever birthed, but “August” is in the discussion, and that’s high praise indeed.

But I always wonder what to do with a story that has (almost) no characters to cheer for, no one to like, no one to connect to.  No protagonists whatsoever.  It leaves you feeling a little bleak and empty, though it’s always great art.  I’ve felt this “hating every character” most acutely in the movie Election.  No characters to cheer for but a great movie for that very reason.

Something similar happens with my students; they’ll come into class and say they hated the story they read the previous night.  And after some prodding, I realize what they mean is that they hated one of the characters, a character so fully-realized that hatred was a possible reaction.  Which means the students are actually saying “I read a story in which a character became so human that I had feelings of resentment which I usually reserve for real people.  Thusly, it was a pretty amazing work of art to provoke such a response, and I can now consider said response more thoughtfully and then grow as a person.  Thank you, dear English teacher, for all that you give us to read and for all that you do.”

You’re welcome students.

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