Grade 8 Humanities: Week of 6/5/2017 With Families Like These, Who Needs Enemies?

Dear Families,

A View from the Bridge is not a feel-good family drama. But, maybe no family drama ever is. The characters are all flawed in their own particular and peculiar ways, and either by nature, circumstance, or choice, make mistakes that drive the plot surprisingly. A perfect example of this phenomena is our protagonist, Eddie Carbone. Eddie is a 1950s “man’s man,” who works on the docks in Red Hook, provides for his family, and even shows an empathetic sensibility with his Italian immigrant relatives who have had less opportunities than himself. However, Eddie’s love for his niece, Catherine, becomes something other than what it should be and his subsequent actions turn values and morals for any time period upside down. Besides enjoying (or being horrified by) the sometimes salacious story line, we used the text as a touchstone to the 1950s in order to see how far we’d come as Americans in terms of gender roles, economic and academic opportunities, and social norms.

We also analyzed an episode of the classic 1950s television show, The Honeymooners, and compared each of the elements mentioned above to Miller’s play . . .

The expectations for men and for women were vastly different, but unrelentingly similar in their rigidity . . .

Countdown to Graduation: As of Monday, June 5th, we will have 11 class days until the big day!

Yours,

Ms. Sacilotto

“I confess that something perversely pure calls to me from his memory—not purely good, but himself purely, for he allowed himself to be wholly known and for that I think I will love him more than all my sensible clients. And yet, it is better to settle for half, it must be! And so I mourn him—I admit it—with a certain . . . alarm.” — Alfieri, Act II