1923

By: Elmer Rice

(Myth to Science Fiction)

Drawing Out Your Emotions

Directions: Observe closely at the paintings in the upcoming slides. You will be given 1-2 minutes to write how each painting makes you feel? What do they remind of?

Take out your writing utensils. Ready, Set, and GO!

Painting #1

•The night sky filled with swirling clouds, stars ablaze.•Rolling hills of the horizon lies a small town. •Dark structures and curvy lines.

Painting #2

•Red colored sky (symbol)•Wavy lines.•Creature in the front.•Dark background of the hills/roads.•2 figures in the background.

Painting #3

•Colors: Yellow, Red, and Blue.•Shapes: Circle, half-circle, the angle, straight lines, and curves.•Placement/ organization of shapes.

Tone in the Modernist Period (1900s: Early 20th cent.) Lonely individual fighting to find peace and

comfort in a world that has lost its absolute values and traditions.

Man is nothing except what he makes of himself.

A belief in situational ethics-no absolute values. Decisions are based on the situation one is involved in at the moment.

Mixing of fantasy with nonfiction: blurs lines of reality for readers.

Tone in Modern Literature (continue) Decline of the “traditional” hero in literature. Mass destruction made possible by

technology. Attacks on materialism and spiritual

emptiness. Ironic Humor: Contemporary writers look at

irony and absurd situations as a cause for subtle humor.

Change of attitude toward the individual and society. View individuals in relation to others rather than as isolated from others.

Elmer Rice (1892-1967)

About the Playwright Elmer Reizenstein; pen name Elmer Rice Only child after Lester (younger brother) died. Second-generation German-Jewish

immigrants (poor). At age 14, quit school to help support the

family. At age 18, obtained equivalency certification

for a high school diploma. Admitted to New York Law School. Married 3 times and have 5 children in all.

More About Rice:

Influenced by George Bernard Shaw: moral didacticism (stage as a platform to promote ideas).

At age 22, produced a successful play: “On Trail”—technique “flashback.”

Avant-garde style Soon became tireless in

freedom of speech and freedom of artistic expression.

Rice’s Styles

His styles includes:MelodramaExpressionismNaturalismRelatively violent propaganda playsStreet Scene

Concepts in “The Adding Machine”

Expressionist: distort reality for an emotional effect. Stream-of-consciousness: character's thoughts/

perceptions are presented as occurring in random form, w/o regard for logical sequences, syntactic structure, distinctions between various levels of reality

Avant-garde: new and against tradition. Anti-hero: main character who lacks traditional

heroic qualities. Technology: mass destruction, even though it may

benefit human’s lifestyle.

Questions you might want to ask while reading:

How is “The Adding Machine” considered to be avant-garde?

In what scene includes “stream-of-consciousness”? What is the significance in each character? Who is the anti-hero? What kind of emotions does Rice wants us to

experience? What is Rice trying to tell us about “technology”? What is Rice’s purpose?

Quiz Time:

At what age did Rice produced “On Trail”?

How did Rice died?Name the period in which play was

written.Define Expressionism.What is the purpose of the anti-hero?

The Adding Machine Clip: Scene I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AuRHxfneXM