Jay states "I hate coming here," "when I was five, I drew a picture of her and called it "Frankenstein's Grandma."" (Act I, sc. i) Even the younger brother Arty, hated visiting his unbearable grandmother, stating that "I hated kissing her. It felt like putting your lips on a wrinkled ice cube." (Act I, sc i) As Crosby (2002, p.1) asserts ""Lost in Yonkers" exemplifies the unique power of theater to move you to laughter and tears, sometimes at the same moment." Simon uses this technique of humor and irony together to immediately capture the intrigue of his audience within the opening scene of this play, following the rigid structure of the drama.
As Eddie is in the bedroom trying to convince his mother to temporarily take in his sons, they boys are having a conversation about the rest of their family. We learn of the other characters in the play such as Aunt Bella who "is a good-hearted soul who's not right in the head." (Kroll, 1991, p.1) .
"Bella has a childlike innocence and unabashed sense of joy. Her character is vulnerable, aching, lonely, and has a womanly longing ness. Bella possesses a deep capacity for love. Like a young child, she is always eager to please but easily hurt. Despite her slow-mindedness, Bella is extremely insightful."(Crosby, 2002, p.2).
Bella's character subtly symbolizes a significant contrast of Grandma Kurnitz. Bella is everything that Grandma is not. Bella is loving, and vulnerable. Grandma is cold and distrusting. Bella is trapped in childhood, unlike the Grandmother who seemingly missed out on a childhood. Grandma feels no love and no pity for others, not even her own children and grandchildren. Bella on the other hand, embraces all of her family members with open arms and tender love. .
We also learn of Aunt Gert who "is so nervous that she sometimes forgets to stop talking when she inhales, so that her speech is punctuated by death rattles of fear.
The overall criticism of "Lost in Yonkers" is that the characters are rich with many sides and that they provide the plot with enough complexity to make the story work well. I, on the other hand, think that there wasn't enough to the characters. I think that the story could have used a character tha...
"The Odd Couple" (the Female Version) Marvin Neil Simon was born in the Bronx on July 4, 1927, and grew up near Manhattan. He attended New York University briefly (1944-45) and the University of Denver (1945-46) before joining the United States Army. Once in the Army, Simon began his writing car...
Throughout the years one can see that the construction of black identity has changed due to white political and social conditions. It is true that white racism has had great influence on the identity of blacks through especially through segregation. Blacks have used this development of identity to...
We later understand this to be because Willy nearly hit a boy on his sales trip into Yonkers, which shook him up so much he had to return home.The Loman family home is located in Brooklyn, NY which is where the majority of the film takes place. ... The illumination of the room is low and soaked with shadows with Biff being shown in the light as the good, and possibly the most realistic character in the film, while Happy being in the shadows suggests a sense of foreshadowing, that he like his father, may begin to lose touch with reality.When Willy"s is in the kitchen talking to himself and then...