By: Elmer Rice

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1923

• By Elmer Rice
• (Myth to Science Fiction)

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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!

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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.

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Painting 2

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

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Painting 3

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

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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.

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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.

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Elmer Rice (1892-1967)
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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.

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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
  Trailtechnique flashback.
• Avant-garde style
• Soon became tireless in freedom of speech and
  freedom of artistic expression.

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Rices Styles

• His styles includes
• Melodrama
• Expressionism
• Naturalism
• Relatively violent propaganda plays
• Street Scene

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(No Transcript)
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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 humans lifestyle.

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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 Rices purpose?

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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?

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The Adding Machine Clip Scene I

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v3AuRHxfneXM