Tuesday, March 18, 2008

3/18/08 8th

We read through Act 1, Scene 4 today. Dussel lets the annex dwellers in on all the latest news. This leads the audience through the rising action happening outside the annex. The climax is very much affected by the rising conflicts happening in the world outside the annex, and we need to be informed of those events somehow. The introduction of Dussel into the mix helps us see what is going on in the real world.

Anne and Dussel, not surprisingly, do not get along. Anne continues her conflict with her mother. When Mr. Frank confronts Anne about her poor treatment of her mother, Anne asks him how she can change. Mr. Frank says, "You must build your own character." This is one of the themes of the play. It goes very well with the "No one can put bars on your mind" theme Mr. Frank introduced earlier. Mr. Frank is all about individual choice of attitude and actions. We, as an audience, are meant to discover the universal truths in these themes Mr. Frank introduces.

We will finish Act 1 tomorrow. We will have a quiz on Act 1 and the first set of vocabulary words on Tuesday next week, after spring break.