From the legendary Shakespeare to the great Simon, for centuries playwrights have filled the lives of readers and theater goers with entertainment. Drama is a versatile genre of literature which has withstood the test of time. However, according to McMahan, Day, and Funk, "drama is not as flexible as other forms of literature." (p.602) .
"A writer of fiction can take as much time as needed to inform the reader about character, setting, motivation, or theme. The dramatist must do everything quickly and clearly." (McMahan, Day, Funk p. 602) Drama must be developed with a rigid structure to gain the audience's interest immediately, and to maintain that interest throughout the play. In addition to structure, a well written play will include inserts of humor, action, and literary elements such as irony, symbolism, and foreshadowing. Neil Simon does an incredible job incorporating all of these elements into his renowned play "Lost in Yonkers." .
"Lost in Yonkers" as Kroll (1991, p.1) states, is about a "nuclear family that clearly has some protons missing." The play is set in the year 1942, in Yonkers, New York. The story begins in the sweltering apartment of the cold Grandma Kurnitz, where one fan is struggling to keep two exasperated young boys cool. Immediately, Simon incorporates a touch of irony and symbolism into his play with the setting of his opening scene on "a hot, sultry day in August," (Act I, sc. i), within the presence of the bitter and wintry Grandma Kurnitz.
Within the first scene, we learn about the two young boys, Jay and Arty, whose mother has recently passed away. Their father, Eddie, "is panic stricken when has to persuade Grandma to take in his young sons," (Kroll, p.1) so that he can go away on business, for he has to pay off the debts which accumulated when his wife was in the hospital. The boys are resentful and do not want to stay with their astringent old Grandmother.
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...
