StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...

Rhetorical Analysis of House of Blue Leaves - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
Rhetorical Analysis of House of Blue Leaves American playwright John Guare wrote the play, “The House of Blue Leaves.” The play revolves around the life of a miserably married zookeeper who had a quest of becoming a Hollywood songwriter against his middle-class family life that seemingly did not give him a chance…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER98.9% of users find it useful
Rhetorical Analysis of House of Blue Leaves
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Rhetorical Analysis of House of Blue Leaves"

Download file to see previous pages

Guare a chance to associate hope of a better life to Vatican and Hollywood. At the time, there was war at Vietnam and America was in the verge of losing thus forcing everybody to look for a way out. As such, in the play, all the characters who are middle or working –class in this black comedy, sought refuge in celebrity life from their humdrum lives. This mix of black comedy with social commentary and real drama faced many critics who thought that the play fails to address serious issues due to its comedic nature (Shapiro 1966).

Nevertheless, it enjoyed equal support and indeed went ahead to record 337 performances and won several awards including the Best American Play in the New York Drama critics Circle Award. This paper will address an arguable claim related to the play. The clam is that, “isolation or a feeling of not belonging forms the foundation of the play, The House of Blue Leaves. All characters in the play seek to move from their status to a presumably better position.” The main character is a middle-class married zookeeper, acting as Artie.

Artie is not comfortable with his zookeeping job and he has a conviction to achieve better things. As such, he does the zookeeping job during the day and attends amateur night to play his original songs despite being the oldest person in the amateur. He is destined to make a for wand move though some circumstances limit his quest. Indeed, we can sense his dissatisfaction and sense of not belonging where the play opens with him on the stage of the El Dorado Bar & Grill playing the piano as he sings his songs.

However, his frustration manifests when he cannot get a spotlight and the audience ignores his singing. Nevertheless, he continues to sing and when he finishes with no applause from the audience, he quits a disappointed man with an urge to become a better songwriter. He claims his aspirations are old enough despite his middle age and thus his urge to achieve this bothers him so much. His pursuit to become a songwriter is seemingly absurd as he even plans to abandon his schizophrenic wife, Bananas, and their unstable soldier son for the sake of realizing his dreams.

Actually, he desperately seeks to escape to Hollywood with his mistress, Bunny Flingus who stays just downstairs. Most unfortunately is the fact that despite his absurd ambitions, most of his songs are terrible. Indeed, everybody can sense that he has no talent and his dreams may be in vain. Nevertheless, he is prepared to do anything to become a songwriter who will win Oscar awards. As seen herein, the main character is in a world that he does not enjoy a feeling of belonging. Indeed, despite his age, middle –class status, family commitments, and a schizophrenic wife, Artie is still convinced that he can become celebrated songwriter and thus puts a lot of effort to it (Shapiro 1966).

In fact, despite his current songs being terrible and the audience showing no interest in them, he aims to be at the top. However, his dreams draw some absurdity where he even plans to abandon his needy family to pursue his ambitions in Hollywood. Again, Artie is not comfortable with his schizophrenic wife and therefore does not have a feeling of belonging to her hence looking for a mistress just downstairs. Another character who is seemingly not enjoying his status is Bunny Flingus, the downstairs neighbor of Artie. Indeed,

...Download file to see next pages Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Rhetorical Analysis of House of Blue Leaves Essay”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/english/1458141-rhetorical-analysis-of-house-of-blue-leaves
(Rhetorical Analysis of House of Blue Leaves Essay)
https://studentshare.org/english/1458141-rhetorical-analysis-of-house-of-blue-leaves.
“Rhetorical Analysis of House of Blue Leaves Essay”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/english/1458141-rhetorical-analysis-of-house-of-blue-leaves.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Rhetorical Analysis of House of Blue Leaves

Visual rhetoric paper

According to George A Kennedy, the word "rhetoric" has its origin in the Greek "rhxtorikx" which came into use in the circle of Socrates in the fifth century and first appeared in Plato's dialogue Gorgias, written around 385 B.... .... (Kennedy, 3) Its primary purpose seems to have been that of helping citizens plead their claim in court, deliberative assemblies, and other formal occasions....
13 Pages (3250 words) Essay

The Achievements of President Richard Nixion

Even a cursory perusal of Nixon's history as a politician and a campaigner leaves no doubt as to his genius and marksmanship.... The White house always forwarded Nixon as an antidote against the Democratic aspersions regarding being lax on communism (Small, 2003)....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

The Use of Suspicion of Grandiose Rhetoric on Poems

Considerably, through analysis, it could be observed that Larkin and Duffy made a great implication as to how they were able to effectively utilize the "suspicion of grandiose rhetoric" approach on their poems as they presented the necessary point of consideration that needed focus and attention when making their poems much more than just a piece of art but also a piece of information and entertainment that would most likely be able to bring in a touch of color on their writing as the readers read on....
8 Pages (2000 words) Book Report/Review

Source Criticism

This research will begin with the statement that many modern scholars believe that the present text of the Bible is the final product of a long evolution and that source criticism is a method that is used to detect text evidence of its earlier stages.... hellip; According to the research findings, it can, therefore, be said that source criticism would particularly look for apparent discrepancies and contradictions in texts to indicate the work of redactors who had collated disparate sources....
21 Pages (5250 words) Article

Organizing GB's Information Services Department

The assignment "Organizing GB's Information Services Department" presents a message of the Director of Data management aiming to draw attention to the target audience to issues that have been ignored in the past to create in the organization a strategic basis for the new architectural changes and the introduction of push technology....
9 Pages (2250 words) Assignment

Political Speeches of President Barack Obama and Senator John Mccain

In this paper, the author will provide a rhetorical analysis of the political speeches of President Barack H.... The third part will provide a rhetorical analysis of John McCain's comedy routine at the 2008 Al Smith dinner in New York.... Also, as in the case of President Obama's remarks at the White house, it provides a chance for the candidate to get the attention of the audience.... The second part will discuss two speeches of President Obama, namely, his routine at the 2009 and 2010 White house Correspondents' Association dinner....
42 Pages (10500 words) Research Paper

Text Analysis: Heinekens Superbowl Advert

The advert also depicts male bonding because when the male owner of the house opens the closet and instead of beer the men see beer, some of the friends cry while others show irresistible emotions when they scream.... hellip; In conclusion, it is imperative to note that all the evidence stated in the discussion above enhance the rhetorical approaches in the “Walk-in Closet” Heineken advert.... The commercial does not only create personas, but also uses humor, as well as, compelling rhetorical structure, which is displayed at a pertinent place and time and in order to persuade a vast audience into buying and drinking Heineken beer....
6 Pages (1500 words) Assignment

Foucault, Governmentality, and Feminism

esides, transforming the terms of reading can help shift and refrain the problem, of the feminine through the tool kit called feminist socio forensic discursive analysis, the argument provocative way of transforming the terms of reading to help reframe interpretation of effect in both feminist and antifeminist (Tomlinson, 2010).... The assignment "Foucault, Governmentality, and Feminism" deals with rhetorical strategies and tropes that are familiar in society, self-care as the main notion of ethics,  Foucault's notions of power, the hidden role of pathos in Toulmin's layout of argument, etc....
7 Pages (1750 words) Assignment
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us