Glengarry Glen Ross

Overall the play showed many of the internal issues that sales businesses can have. It showed how salesmen can trick buyers into buying unnecessary things for their own gain in business. This however is how sales companies make their money.  At first the men all seem to have eachother's backs in the business  so the fight between Roma and Moss was unexpected. It probably occurred because the men were on edge about the prizes and the fact that the bottom to sales men were to be fired. After Roma gets a big sale Moss states, "...your hot, so you think you're the ruler of this place?!" Moss goes on to complain about the fact that he was accused by the cop of committing the robbery. Roma comes back saying, "Is that was I did? Dave? I humiliated you? My God...I'm sorry..." Moss ends up leaving the office saying he is moving to a different state. We see a glimpse of the closeness of the workers when the man that Roma sold a big sale to comes to the office looking like he wants to take back the sale. Levene immediately goes into character as a businessman talking with Roma so that Lingk won't be able to talk to Roma to cancel. The plan is messed up when Williamson comes up to them and tells Lingk that the check is already cashed, which is what Roma was trying to avoid telling Lingk. I think that the salesmen are kind of against and look down on their boss Williamson because he is not actually in the field with them. The ending was kind of confusing to me. Most of them were in on the plan but Levene was the only one that was caught. Roma acted as if he wasn't caught and wanted to maybe cut a deal with Williamson to get profit from Levene's leads. The last line was said by Roma, "I'll be at the restaurant." He told Levene to meet him there but Levene seemed to be taking the blame for the robbery and wouldn't be able to meet the restaurant.

Vocab
Lead- sales lead is the identity of a human potentially interested in purchasing a product

Same River Twice

I thought it was very interesting how the wife was described on page 148 when the narrator stated, "the woman I married has been replaced by an incubator with powers of speech and thought."
I liked the section of the book talking about the baby name. Like many people today, there was pressure from both sides of the family on what to name the baby. One father who had given the same name to Chris' brother wanted Chris' son to be given that name while Rita's family wanted her to name the child after her brother who was killed in World War II.  Because the baby was a girl they ended up agreeing on a name. Chris stated, "after agreeing easily to a girl's name, Rebecca Marie, we fought over what to call a boy. I want a common name that is still uncommon, an older name, one of strength, such as Oak or Thor." Chris was very particular about what to name the baby but I think because it wasn't a debate over a boy name, Chris was a little more lenient. It was also interesting that he talked about the meanings of his and Rita's names, "Rita is a Sanskrit word, meaning "brave" or "honest." My name means "bearer of Christ," a troublesome burden."

Vocab
impugned-  verb. Dispute the truth, validity, or honesty of a statement or motive; challenge; call into question
gizzard shad- a fish of the herring family

Emergency

The short story "Emergency" by Denis Johnson was a little bizarre to me. It is narrated by a man and tells the story of him and a fellow hospital worker, Georgie. The story starts out with Georgie cleaning of the floor of a hospital room covered in blood but we are told that the floors are basically already clean. At first I thought that Georgie was just out of his mind but we find out that he is a druggie along with the narrator. They both steal pills from the hospital. Georgie states, "There's so much goop inside of us, man...and it all wants to get out." This statement was one that reassured me that he had a drug problem but also led me to believe that he may have another problem as well. He may be trying to escape life with the drugs. This is ironic because he works in a hospital.

When one patient came in with a knife in his only good eye, Georgie is to prep him for surgery. When the patient had come in, the doctor stated,"...we've got to get a team here, An entire team, I want a good eye man, a great eye man...I want a brain surgeon...I'm not touching that head. I'm gonna watch this one. I know my limits. The doctor at the hospital felt that even he couldn't heal the guy. However, when the drugged up Georgie prepped him for surgery, he came back with the knife in hand and the patient could see and walk and move.

The two men continue to do interesting and unrealistic things throughout the story. I came to the conclusion that the reader was looking through the eyes of the drugged up person rather than what was really going on in Georgie and the narrators lives. The patient with the knife in his head could have actually died from having the knife removed, but in the eyes of Georgie and the narrator he may have been alive. It was almost like a dream reading through the story with its bizarre events.

Vocabulary
none