This is Our Youth and All - American Poem - Admission/Application Essay Example

English Essay Compare and Contrast of the Theme of Difficult Passage into Adulthood in “This is Our Youth” and “All - American Poem” Introduction Literature mirrors contemporary society and captivates the time within its bosom. Literary pieces like “This is our Youth” by Kenneth Lonergan and “All – American Poem” by Matthew Dickman could not escape the influence of time and documented the magic within their framework of aesthetic paradigm. The play, “This is Our Youth” by Kenneth Lonergan was published in the year 1996. The play gained a considerable popularity in the younger generation of theatre for the powerful representation of contemporary social issues which are edgy and captures themes that are modern and recurrent. ‘All - American Poem’ on the other hand is a beautiful collection of modern American poetry by Matthew Dickman that portrays picturesque modern America. The collection can be roughly divided into three segments. The first half of the collection represents poems that are conceived more on a personal note and delivers the themes of the feelings pertaining to the personal aspect of life. The second part of the collection deals with the fragmented pictures of the country. Poems in this segment are concerned with troubled era and these poems relate with the national sentiment of America. The final or the third set of poems in this collection are more concerned with the universal ideas and these poems relate with moments that help one to comprehend and discover one’s soul. Together, the collection can be termed as the poetry of America and its people. Theme of Difficult Passage into Adulthood: A Comparative Study Life of human being is a great trajectory, where transition is inevitable and an obvious phenomenon. These transitions bring along with them great social and economic metamorphosis. These changes are captivated in the literature that evolves out of the contemporary society and then through the epiphany and great fancy, they become timeless and universal. Both the literary pieces, “This is Our Youth” and the collection of poems, “All - American Poem” captivates this theme but its treatment and presentation is different in both the pieces. This difference builds the essence of the comparative study delineated in this essay and helps to develop an in-depth comprehension of the myriad perspective and delineation of the psychological and social issues intricately handled in these two texts. Coming of an age or the difficulties in embracing the adulthood is one of the most obvious and recurrent themes that find explicit expressions in the text of the modern era. All the three characters of the play, “This is Our Youth” i.e. Jessica Goldman, Dennis Zeigler and Warren Straub are on the edge of embracing their adulthood but are also under tremendous difficulties in accepting the same. All the three characters of the play are shown living a life of comfort and material pleasure backed by their wealthy parents where there is no room for compassion and love. Their parents want them to live their respective independent life and for such a pursuit, they are left desolate and free. Warren, Jessica and Dennis are shown indulging themselves into drug, alcohol and sex, “Dennis: “So look: new plan : We’ll take thousand bucks out of the shoe bag, cab it over Philip’s house, pick up an ounce of blow, call Natalie, tell her and Jessica to come over here, we’ll get them wired, I’ll fuck Natalie –you do your best to fuck Jessica-Then tomorrow we make few calls, sell the rest of the blow , turn a tidy little profit, and return the whole fifteen grand to your psychotic father intact on Monday. That’s a great plan.””(Lonergan, K., “This Is Our Youth”). They completely emerge themselves into the material pursuit or carnal desires of life and there is hardly any thought or space for the concerns for future. First sign of matured thought and development is being noticed in Warren where we find him eclipsed by the emptiness of his existence guided by a crisis which even compels him to move away from Jessica. When Jessica claims the most prized possession of Warren, i.e. his baseball cap, Warren recognizes her disrespect for mutual feelings and self-centred nature and decides to move away. This way a sign of existential belief is marked in the play at the first place manifested through the feelings of Warren. In the collection of poetry, “All - American Poem” the first part of the book deals with the coming of an age as well and in this segment, this theme evolves quite pertinently. The existential crisis that is represented through the growing matured thoughts of Warren in the play, “This is Our Youth” can be perceived even in the very first poem of the collection, (“All-American Poem”) bearing the title, ‘The Mysterious Human Heart’. The ending lines of the poem project this thought almost like a fore-boding, “where I pick up the plantain, the ginger root, the sprig, of cilantro that makes me human, makes me a citizen with the right to vote, to bear arms, the right to assemble and fall in love.” (Dickman, “All – American Poem”). ‘Chick Corea is Alive and Well!” is a poem that best delineates the problems concerning the transition into the adulthood, “Let me tell you, just because you see someone in a black and white photograph doesn’t mean he’s dead. Even if you find the photograph in an old-looking box inside your grandmother’s closet, the person in it standing against an old Ford with a goat walking past and a farm in the distance , he may be still alive, in a nursing home being fed by a large Kentuckian named Tony, but alive all the same.” (Dickman, “All – American Poem”). Problems concerning transitions of the adulthood culminate out of a hollow perspective towards life with lack of spirituality. Extreme materialism or pursuit of carnal desires eclipsed the entire American society. Warren Dennis and Jessica are the products of such a social structure. This framework compelled these characters in the play “This is Our Youth” to indulge into a life that is totally engrossed with the spending of hours in present. Where past is cliché and future is uncertain. The problems that human soul and particularly the present generation of American society are facing are well documented in the poems captivated within the collection bearing the title “All - American Poem”. The name itself suggests that this collection reflects the true sentiment, and presents the conscience and soul of America through the myriad soul-searching approaches presented in the poems. The same feeling is depicted in the play, “This is Our Youth” where all the three characters of the play are compelled to move towards a dark and hollow face of the society and the title of the play indicates the same essence and sentiment explicitly. The play depicts the condition of the American youth and the existential crisis they suffer from the hollow perspective of life. This existential crisis actually reinforces the continuous dejection for the adulthood and myriad transition in life which is normal and inevitable. Conclusion The play, “This is Our Youth” by Kenneth Lonergan and the anthology, “All - American Poem” by Matthew Dickman definitely belong to different genre of literature. But the most striking part of the entire comparative study is that both the literary pieces captivate same concepts and perceptions of life within their bosom. Coming of an age or the problems faced by human beings in accepting transition into adulthood is dealt, celebrated and comprehended in both the works. This close contact of the thematic aspect of these great works with the contemporary society make the works relative, timeless and universal in approach and context. References Dickman, Matthew All – American Poem American Poetry Review, 2008. Lonergan, Kenneth, This Is Our Youth Overlook Press, 2000. Read More