imagination
Examining the human condition is appealing to any kind of audience because it offers a situation that every person can identify with and understand. At times this form of realism can cause some discomfort or awkwardness because it speaks to the innermost part of one's soul, which usually is the hardest thing to face. Everyone must admit that there is at least one thing about their life that they wish were different, but don't want to really face. In the play "Six Degrees of Separation," John Guare brilliantly portrays the ugly truths of American society and reality of life. Guare emphasizes the individual's necessity of personal significance through Paul, a young con-artist who ironically unveils the facade of those he manipulates. Each character is initially attracted to Paul. They each have one thing in common; an "overwhelming desire to be in Cats" (68). This desire symbolizes the characters yearning for something more. Just the idea of a making a movie version of TS Elliot's Cats perplexes Paul's listeners. When Paul proposes the idea of the film, Ouisa is astounded and even later questions the possibility of the film in a dream, "Sidney.
"To conjure up the kinds of worlds that were on the other side and what I'd do in them" (22), is our imagination. To lift ourselves out of the mundane and trivial illusion we call life and really live, is the imagination. Each of the characters that Paul manipulates as well as himself have something in common, a longing for some way to really live their lives and be true to themselves, away from the phoniness and emptiness. They wanted to act, to be in Cats, a part of something seemingly impossible. Paul just wanted to get into another world that he could only imagine, and he finds a way. He doesn't intentionally unmask Ouisa and Flan, but as they begin to let him into their world he starts to understand them and their desire to get out of their trivial world and make life worth living, and they begin to see the same qualities in him. It is this similarity that becomes a force that draws them together and connects their souls. In this play, Guare addresses the human condition that people are not true to themselves because they are too comfortable or too scared. Guare creates Paul's manipulating character to emphasize the longing in the human soul for some sort of significance, something accounted for. The final act of the play allows the audience to interpret for themselves what will happen to the characters, and also leaves them with a challenge: to seize the moment and stop living for society, appearance, or comfort, and grasp the imagination that is really "us." Ouisa's attraction to Paul becomes much more than a connection through her children: it soon becomes connection of similar desire. Paul longs for more significance in his life just as Ouisa does. As Trent Conway tells the Kittredge's daughter Tess his experience, the audience sees the unmasked Paul. Paul was uneducated, not knowing about pots of jam or even how to properly pronounce "bottle of beer," and wondered what it would be like to live among the wealthy. Trent agrees to
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1329
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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