Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Bang Bang You're Dead
Bang Bang You're Dead is a play that was written by William Mastrosimone in 1999. The play is about a high schooler named Josh, who after going thru tough times in his life, decides to get rid of all of his problems by shooting and killing his parents and five of his classmates from school. Some of the problems that he faced before the shootings were: losing his girlfriend, having another guy start going out with his ex-girlfriend, getting bad grades in school, having his dad never pay attention to him, having his mom never pay attention to him and always tell him what to do, having his parents always be dissapointed in him, having to go to a physiciatrist, etc. Basically he hid all of his built up anger, sadness, and other emotions from these events behind a mask, so that no one ever knew that anything was wrong and that he felt that way.
"So you make your face a mask. A mask that hides your face. A face that hides the pain. A pain that eats your heart. A heart that nobody knows." This chorus said by the dead school mates, is repeated throught the story a numerous amount of times. This being said, I chose a mask as the symbol for this play. From the time the play starts all the way up until almost the very end of the play, he has a massk on (metaphorically speaking), to hide his thoughts and feelings from everyone, even though the whole play takes place in his "mind."
The play shows us memories of the past and brings all of the dead family members and friends back to life. One of the very first memories that is discussed, is one of Josh going hunting with his grandfather. While hunting, he kills a moose and feels bad and sad on the inside for doing it, but instead of showing his true emotions, he acts all proud of what he did and tough and manly about the situation. This is a memory from before he started to loose his mind, this was probably the first time that he put up a mask and was the start of his downfall.
Then throughout the rest of the play, more memories are shown where he puts up a mask. He starts putting up his permanent mask when his girlfriend breaks up with him and then starts going out with another guy. Then he starts to add more to the mask when he starts making bad grades and starts getting in trouble for his grades. Then not only does he have to have a mask on at school, but he has to put one on at home because of the way that his parents treat him; not paying attention to him, or yelling and getting mad at him, and always telling him what to do. After he starts to change a little for the worse, his parents send him to a physiciatrist, whom he doesn't want to go to; so now he has to have a mask on when he is with the physiciatrist also because he doesn't want to tell him anything. After the murders were committed and he was in jail, he still kept his mask up so that he didn't have to give in to the ghosts that were haunting him. Near the very end of the play though, the ghosts are able to torment him enough, that his mask breaks and comes off. After the mask is removed he breaks down and finally realizes what he has done and the extremity of it.
The mask had clouded his vision and common sense for the most recent part of his life, so when it finally came off, he realized that by killing his parents and his schoolmates, that not only did he take away their futures, but he took away his own as well. The mask in this play symbolizes what some teenagers go thru-covering up their feelings, emotions, thoughts, etc. By trying to block the past and bad things from the past, you ultimately block the future and all good things that could happen to you in the future and by trying to cover up all of the hurtful feelings in your life, you cover up all of the good feelings that you could be able to feel one day. Josh learned this the hard way, but from reading about his life, we can all learn from him what some teenagers go through and what not to do when you are put in these situations and when things get tough. We can also have insight into how to prevent a teribble outcome from situations like these, by trying to pick up on the signs that some people show when they put up a wall, or hide their face behind a mask.
"So you make your face a mask. A mask that hides your face. A face that hides the pain. A pain that eats your heart. A heart that nobody knows." This chorus said by the dead school mates, is repeated throught the story a numerous amount of times. This being said, I chose a mask as the symbol for this play. From the time the play starts all the way up until almost the very end of the play, he has a massk on (metaphorically speaking), to hide his thoughts and feelings from everyone, even though the whole play takes place in his "mind."
The play shows us memories of the past and brings all of the dead family members and friends back to life. One of the very first memories that is discussed, is one of Josh going hunting with his grandfather. While hunting, he kills a moose and feels bad and sad on the inside for doing it, but instead of showing his true emotions, he acts all proud of what he did and tough and manly about the situation. This is a memory from before he started to loose his mind, this was probably the first time that he put up a mask and was the start of his downfall.
Then throughout the rest of the play, more memories are shown where he puts up a mask. He starts putting up his permanent mask when his girlfriend breaks up with him and then starts going out with another guy. Then he starts to add more to the mask when he starts making bad grades and starts getting in trouble for his grades. Then not only does he have to have a mask on at school, but he has to put one on at home because of the way that his parents treat him; not paying attention to him, or yelling and getting mad at him, and always telling him what to do. After he starts to change a little for the worse, his parents send him to a physiciatrist, whom he doesn't want to go to; so now he has to have a mask on when he is with the physiciatrist also because he doesn't want to tell him anything. After the murders were committed and he was in jail, he still kept his mask up so that he didn't have to give in to the ghosts that were haunting him. Near the very end of the play though, the ghosts are able to torment him enough, that his mask breaks and comes off. After the mask is removed he breaks down and finally realizes what he has done and the extremity of it.
The mask had clouded his vision and common sense for the most recent part of his life, so when it finally came off, he realized that by killing his parents and his schoolmates, that not only did he take away their futures, but he took away his own as well. The mask in this play symbolizes what some teenagers go thru-covering up their feelings, emotions, thoughts, etc. By trying to block the past and bad things from the past, you ultimately block the future and all good things that could happen to you in the future and by trying to cover up all of the hurtful feelings in your life, you cover up all of the good feelings that you could be able to feel one day. Josh learned this the hard way, but from reading about his life, we can all learn from him what some teenagers go through and what not to do when you are put in these situations and when things get tough. We can also have insight into how to prevent a teribble outcome from situations like these, by trying to pick up on the signs that some people show when they put up a wall, or hide their face behind a mask.
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