Exploring Our Town

An archeologist’s eyes combine the view of the telescope and

the view of the microscope. He reconstructs the very distant

with the help of the very small. It was something of this method

that I brought to a New Hampshire village.

--Thornton Wilder, "A Preface for Our Town" [1938]

Act I (20 points) Choose one of the following options.

1. Be the playwright, and write a monologue for the Stage Manager to deliver at the beginning of your own play about your own town, real or fictitious. If you like, use one of Thornton Wilder’s lines as a beginning:

  • "Well, I’d better show you how our town lies."
  • -OR-

    "So--another day’s begun."

    •

    • 2. Give an actual scientific and anthropological description of your town,

    following the example of Professor Willard in Act One.

    3. Describe the evidence of culture or love of beauty in your town, as Mr. Webb

    does in Act One.

     

    Act II (15 points)

    1. Near the end of Act Two, the Stage Manager compresses life into a list

    followed by a sentence. Use this is a model to write your own compressed

    description of modern life:

    "The cottage, the go-cart,, the Sunday-afternoon drives in the Ford, the first

    rheumatism, the grandchildren, the second rheumatism, the deathbed, the

    reading of the will.--Once in a thousand times it’s interesting."

     

    Act III (20 points) Choose one of the following options.

    1. Use the Stage Manager’s speech at the beginning of Act Three as a model for your summary of the most important changes you have seen in your own lifetime.

    2. In Act Three, the Stage Manager says, "Now there are some things we all

    know, but we don’t take’m out and look at’m very often." State your own

    philosophy about the things we all know.

    3. Near the end of Act Three, Emily says, "We don’t have time to look at one

    another." Write an interpretation of what she means, giving examples from your

    own observation or experience.

    While You’re Reading… (25 points) Choose one of the following.

    1. Several of the characters in Our Town confide their dreams to each other.

    Explore the play for evidence of these dreams--what they are, what they mean to

    the character, whether the dreams come true, and what difference, if any, the

    dreams make in the character’s life.

    2. At the end of the play, Emily says, "They don’t understand, do they?"

    In a short essay, short story, poem, monologue, performance, etc. illustrate what she means.

    3. Thornton Wilder plays with time throughout Our Town, shifting gears from

    present to past to future and back again. Construct a time-line for the play, and

    write about whether Wilder’s manipulation of time is dramatically effective or

    ineffective--and, in either case, why.

     

    Turning in something from the Internet

    -Or-

    Any other source without proper citations

    equals=

    zero on assignment and a phone call home

     

    Please remember that I have access to all of the Internet resources that you do. I can easily look on SpartNotes.com, pinkmonkey and all the "tell me the meaning of the book" sites and chatboards.

    Do not test me on this!

    Turning in something that is not your work is not acceptable.

    You will receive a zero and you will be making a call home to explain your serious lack of judgement.

    Act I—due Monday, Sept. 20

    Act II-due

    Act III-due

    As you are reading-due-

    You can, of course, turn things in earlier!

     

    Grading:

    -Quality of work

    -Thoroughness of answers

    -Correct grammar, punctuation, etc.