Blog # 5

John is the one driving this scene. John wants to make Graham feel small for some reason, which leads to why the value at stake in this scene is power. The value starts out as positive, as John demonstrates his superiority over Graham through his indirect insults, as he criticizes him for the way he dresses and even suggests that he doesn’t pay taxes. Poorly dressed, college drop-out Graham is an easy target for successful, established John, and John takes full advantage of that fact in this scene. However, by the end of the scene this positive opening value changes to a negative closing value when Graham finally knocks John down a couple notches by stating that lawyers are the lowest form of human being. This in turn makes it hard for John to feel superior to Graham, since being the lowest form of human being definitely trumps being a poorly dressed, college drop-out that may or may not pay their taxes. By the end of this scene, John has lost a bit of his power and feeling of superiority, as Graham has one key and no responsibilities, while John has many keys and big responsibilities, such as marriage and being a lawyer. John is in fact envious of Graham’s lack of responsibility, even though he puts him down for it.

Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions:

1. Why do you think that Weston chose to use this scene as an example? Do you think that it was a good example to use?

2. Using only the information present in the scene, develop a viable backstory for Ann’s sister, Cynthia. Using that backstory as a guide, what do you think Cynthia ultimately wants?