Our Town

--- Act 1 and Act 2 the characters in the play live as society does today. They all have daily routines, all have a plan for their futures, and live up to traits started a long time ago by ancestors. In society today people live and act the same way as the characters did when this play took place in the early 1900's. It's signifying time may change but people don't. Act 1 and Act 2 are used to set up and be used as examples for Wilder's main theme which is described through Act 3.

--- Act 3 was meant to be the conclusion of the play and to display and share the theme, or message, expressed in this play. The stage manager is the character who portrays and controls the time in this play. Time is important because it relates to the theme. The stage manager changes the time multiple times throughout the play. "This time nine years have gone by, friends--summer, 1913." Each part the stage manager expresses a new time, the characters act the same and the story could pick back up as if it was never interrupted. Each example of time used in this play relates to the theme, as time changes, people don't.

Free Reading Response 2

Vanishing Acts
Page 32
Jodi Picoult has given a lot of background information to the characters introduced so far. The setting is in New Hampshire and tells the story of Delia. The reading has told what is happening in present day with each character and also somewhat of a past with four of the five characters mentioned. We’ve found out about how the main character, Delia, feels about her husband Eric. Eric puts his drinking as a priority and has ever since high school. Delia has been emotional about their relationship and in a way blind to what their reality is as a couple. She got pregnant with Eric’s child and felt as if she couldn’t raise it alone. Ignoring her feelings and becoming blind to reality again she decides to engage him and is in the process of planning the wedding. The book also switches narrator into different characters. Right now, Eric is the narrator and we know the thoughts and feelings of him instead of Delia. This puts a change in setting and effects how aspects of reality are told.

Book Response 1

Vanishing Acts
Jodi Picoult
Page 6

From reading the prologue it tells about this girl and her father. Her father is a magician and uses her as his partner because his actual assistant is out sick. Being apart of the act she realizes magic isn't real. In magic acts nothing truly disappears, your attention is just directed somewhere else. In the beginning of chapter one it starts out in the forest and her and a policeman are looking for something. It's very mysterious as to what they are looking for, the only clue given is that it has to something to do with a four year old.

The main character is a girl who's intelligent, strong, and independent. Not much is known about her yet but she's going to play a major role in this story.