Our Town Literature Analysis

Our Town Literature Questions:
 Version: Our Town by Thornton Wilder Harper Perennial Modern Classics

GENERAL
1. Our Town is a play split into three parts that takes place in New Hampshire during a period of about twenty years. The play actually includes the stage manager which in a way directs and control the characters in the town itself. The book includes stage actions, as well as having the setting on an actual stage. The town represented on stage is fairly typical with a standard set of characters, in a way perfectly ordinary. Everything is slightly shaken up with the marriage of two members of the town, George and Emily, three years after the start of the play. They doubt themselves and if they are truly ready for commitment or not, but go through with it. Nine years later the play cuts to a cemetery where the characters who have died in the last nine years preside. Among the characters is Emily who still feels attached to the living. However, on looking back on life via stage manager, she sees how much she and those around her had not fully appreciated life. Emily can't stand this and returns among the dead, where her final line about the living is, "They don't understand, do they?". 
2. The theme of the novel is to not take life for granted. Enjoy the pleasures of which you come upon, and just because things may be common, and monotonous, doesn't mean that they are not to be appreciated any less.
3. The characters in the play seem very ordinary for the time period, but there is always a sense of uncertainly and passiveness about them. They lack conviction and passion for life, which shows in Emily's comments at the end of the play.
"Ye-e-s. I never thought of that."
"Well, Mr. Webb...I don't think I could...""Uncle Luke's never been much interested, but I thought-"
"Ma, I don't want to grow old. Why's everybody pushing me so?" "Listen, Ma, -for the last time I ask you...All I want to do is to be a fella-"
4. 1. Point of View: The stage manager presents a completely different point of view than the other characters, and points out different actions in an objective way. "Here comes Howie Newsome, deliverin' the milk." Page. 10
2. Foreshadowing: The all knowing stage manager knows the character's fates beforehand, and shares some with the audience. "But the war broke out and he died in France.-All that education for nothing." Page 9
3. Flashbacks: Along with looking forward into time, the stage manager allows Emily to look back in time onto her old life. "Yes, it's 1899. This is fourteen years ago." Page 101
4. Allusion: "What was it about?" "The Louisiana Purchase. It was like silk off a spool."
5. Dialect: The characters have distinct accents, all similar. "Life's awful funny! How could I have known that? Why, I thought-" Page 31
6. Symbolism: The town itself can be seen as a character. It's very standard, but enjoyable, look, and feel signify how the characters acted in life, and regretted in death. "Good-by to clocks ticking...and Mama's sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new-ironed dresses and hot baths...and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you." Page 108
7. Dialogue. Very little of the book is characters thinking to themselves, or long speeches. A vast majority of it is simply characters talking to one another. Even stage direction simply explains the actions of the characters. "She breaks down sobbing. The lights dim on the left half of the stage. Mrs. Webb disappears." Page 108
8. Plot twist. During the third act, the play goes from being very standard, to opening up into a new world, a world of the deceased. "Live people don't understand, do they?" Page 96
9. Setting. The setting of each scene is described by the stage manager before the scene begins. "This is certainly an important part of Grover's Corners. It's on a hilltop- a windy hilltop- lots of sky, lots of clouds, -often lots of sun and moon and stars." Page. 86
10. Resolution. It comes with Emily's realization of waste in life. As the story ends it cuts off to the stage manager which neatly wraps up the play with the line, "Hm...Eleven o'clock in Grover's Corners. -You get a good rest, too. Good Night." Page 112

CHARACTERIZATION
1. Direct Characterization:
"Mrs. Webb, a thin, serious, crisp woman, has entered her kitchen, left, tying on an apron." Page 6
"Howie Newsome, about thrity, in overalls, comes along Main Street..." Page 10

Indirect Characterization:
"I'll come and slap the both of you, -that's what I'll do." Page 14
"Gee, it's funny, Emily. From my window up there I can just see your head nights when you're doing your homework over in your room." Page 28

The author uses direct characterization to introduce the characters in the play briefly, and their actions are really what define them throughout the book.

2. The author's diction does not change too significantly between characters. Since they live in a small town, that is fairly flat as a whole, all of them think, and talk alike. Some are more positive, and others negative, but as a whole they are significantly similar.

3. Is the protagonist static or dynamic?  Flat or round?  Explain. The protagonist is dynamic and round. Through the majority of the book, Emily stays quite the same, until the revelation in the third act. Through her death and looking back on her life, she realizes what she could've enjoyed more, and what she took for granted, changing her view on life.

4. I did not feel as if I had really got into a character's heart and soul. There was not a significant look into any one of the character's personal feelings on a consistent basis throughout the book, so it was hard to truly relate.