Robert Di Donato Di Donato 1
Professor Lennon
Literature in the 21st Century
December 1, 2008

Option Two: Describe the four Texts
Going in chronological order, the first play I will go in depth about is “The Mercy Seat” by Neil LaBute. The premise behind this was this man, Ben, was having an affair with his boss, Abby. He was having the internal conflict of whether or not to manipulate the situation that was 9/11 to finally run off with Abby or to return to his family and continue being a cheat. It progresses and we finally see that he makes the right choice and goes back to his wife, inevitably hurting his mistress, Abby; hoping things go back to the way they were.
The main concept behind “The Mercy Seat” was that of morality. Do you do what is wrong or do you do what is just even if the situation pending makes the option so much sweeter. One section I believe portrays that beautifully is on page 63 and 64. We see Abby and Ben in yet again another argument about him making the phone call to what she believes is his wife. He explodes at her because she wants him to tell the truth and he just cannot do that. At this point in time, he is still weighing out the options in his mind whether or not to use 9/11 as a scapegoat to live a life with his mistress or to go back to his wife and children with his tail between his legs, admit he was wrong, and revert to the way things were. It finally hits him what the right, just thing to do is, and he makes the phone call, which unfortunately ends up being to Abby.
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The next novel, which is actuality a memoir, is Jarhead by Anthony Swoffard. We enter into his life as a Marine. We go through his trials and tribulations as an incoming Marine and the experiences he goes through. As we get towards the end of the memoir, we finally come to see that Swoff never really does anything while in war, yet he recants to us that if one was not in war, they cannot say nor do anything negative about it because they were not there.
This piece of literature confused me about the theme behind it. To me, I personally see it as a jumbled mess of confusion. It has the feel of just babbling on to try and get a point across when there really is no point to be had. “To be a marine, a true marine, you must kill.”(Swofford, pg. 247) It is truly a powerful statement. Yet, we also have another statement that nullifies it. “… and thought at the time I was angry that the pompous captain took the handset from me and stole my kills, I have lately been thankful that he insisted on calling the fire mission, and sometimes when I am feeling hopeful or even religious, I think that by taking my two kills the pompous captain handed me life.” (Swofford, pg.257) Anthony mentions how one must kill to be a true marine, yet he, in fact, never killed. On a previous page, he tells us to listen while he talks because he signed up. “… but because I signed the contract and fulfilled my obligation to fight one of America’s wars, I am entitled to speak.” (Swofford, pg. 254) This entire memoir is just his way of complaining and has no real premise behind it. He is just rejoicing us with his tale. There is no real morality because he did what he had to do when told. He would have killed if told to. He would not have killed if not told to. This is just his ranting when he really has no right to rant since he himself admitted he is not a “real marine”.
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Next on the agenda is the graphic novel Shooting War by Anthony Lappe and Dan Goldman. In this, we more or less see a young man, Jimmy Burns, get tossed into a foreign land after he gets amazing footage of a terrorist act in front of him. He was an active blogger who always streamed his opinion on the internet. The way he filmed the original attack got him a job for Global News which had him deep in the heart of a terrorist land. We discover the plans of the Hand of Mohammed, the main faction over there, and slowly but surely defeat them. But, after Jimmy sees several people get murdered before his eyes and his blog gets shut down, he retrieves a backup of his data and uploads it onto YouTube, showing the world what had really happened.
What I feel this graphic novel tries to display is that of truth. We have a man who was loved as well as hated for having a blog and posting his real feelings about certain topics. Then when the topic in question got a little too real for people to stomach, he was censored on his own public online journal. That is why I find the latter of the novel to be the best example of this. After Global news has his blog shut down, Dan Rather hands him his footage to place onto another worldwide renowned site to get his point across. It shows that no matter how graphic the content is, people should be able to see the truth whether they like it or not. It should not be up to the government to say how we, the people, should feel about certain things. If we want to know what is going on, we will look for the detailed stuff like Jimmy uploaded. If we want something a bit more G-rated, we will watch the 10 o’clock news or pick up the New York Times. It is all about expressing our opinion, no matter how factual or brutal it truly is.

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Last on our list of reading material is the play “The Pillowman” by Martin McDonagh. We find out that we are in a communist land with three people in an enclosed interrogation room. We have Katurian, a writer of very vivid novels, and two cops, Detective Tupolski and Officer Ariel. The two authority figures believes that Katurian and his brother, Michal, have committed three murders; the slicing of a child’s toes to make him bleed out, feeding a little girl razor blades in apples, and a recreation of Jesus Christ. As we read on, we find out that Michal had performed these heinous acts and blamed Katurian for writing such graphic stories which warped his mind. After being hurt by his brother’s actions, he suffocates him with a pillow, the same way he did his parents. As Katurian writes a confession, he asks simply to not have his work destroyed so that his legacy would live on. After they find out that the confession was falsified and that the third child, the Jesus Christ kill, was never actually murdered, they kill him for the previous murders yet let his work remain.
What this is about in my opinion is that of memory. The thought of Katurian’s past is what made him write such amazing novels. If not for Michal’s beatings, he would not have written as well. We see what Katurian is placed on his knees, about to get shot point blank in the head, he continues to write to keep his legacy alive. He basically continues the tale of “The Writer and his Brother” by adding a specific ending to it. He added where the Pillowman, one of Michal’s favored story characters, comes in and asks Michal if he would choose to kill himself now. He merely responds that if he does die, his brother will not hear his torture, and his stories will not be as good. He retorted once more that he will suffer through it because he felt that one day, he would like the stories
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and would be happy to read them. We see that even at the time of his death, much like the philosopher Socrates, the thing they were being put to death for they were still doing. They did not care about themselves, but about the memory of their work and what they stood up for; they believed in.