Blurred Lines

Blurred Lines

Today we live in a world that keeps us on the run. There is a way to get in contact with anyone at any given time. There is no such thing as 'getting away' because we have created a society of people that want to be found. But it is also through this technology, the same one that keeps us connected to the outside world, that we can get lost. The simplest video game can help a person escape into a different reality, spending hours on end in front of a computer screen, looking for nothing in particular on e-bay. This gets us lost. We engulf ourselves in things that have nothing to do with our daily lives because we've had enough, our life is too much to handle. So we focus on AIM, or video games, anything that can take us out of our life, and into something better. But then where do we draw the line? When does it become okay to spend an entire day on the computer because life was too stressful? Or, still worst, when the life we lead to get away, becomes our daily life. We lie about our lives and retell occurrences that really did not take place. Things that happened on our mental breaks become reality. These lies then have to proceed and grow, because we don't want to be exposed. That cannot happen because that would add more stress, but what we don't realize is that by perpetuating the lies we become more and more stressed. The exact reason we needed to get away has come back full circle. In the play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? the line between truth and illusion has very nearly disappeared. No longer does the reader know when the character is telling the truth or embellishing a lie. Even still is the character himself is being honest to his personality.

George and Martha have a very tumultuous marriage. In some respects it is obvious that there is some deep rooted love. The simple fact that they have been married for twenty three years shows that although they are high spirited, there is love. What does not match up very well for these two, aside from their quarreling, is their child. A child whom they adore and never speak of. One who is their "little bugger"(p.70), but has never really seen the light of day. They wanted ever so badly to have a child it seems, so they made one up. They made him up, and kept it to themselves, he was their escape from their scattered lives. They never spoke of him to anyone, and even became very defensive when the thought of mentioning him arose. Their little boy, turns twenty one, and is tragically killed in an accident. This lie, arose when Martha decided she would tell the guests about their child. But this child was not real, it was the creation of their minds. They loved him in a way that could only be understood by the two people that created him. He was everything they wanted a child to be, even being able to make up stories about his injuries. This is how much they wanted to escape their lives, whether they created this child because they could not conceive one of their own, or because boredom overtook them, it did not matter. He was real in their minds and it became too much to keep him a secret.

On the other hand, we have Honey and Nick. What seems to be a perfectly happy young couple, the complete opposite of George and Martha. These two are young and wistful. But even they have secrets. Honey, the more innocent of the two, turns out to be somewhat of a snake. Their marriage is primarily based on the fact that Honey "blew up"(p.110). Because she showed a pregnancy Nick felt the need to marry her, then suddenly "pouf"(p.110) it disappeared. The truth be told, Honey was never really pregnant. It was a false alarm and she deceived Nick into marrying her. Now she plays this loss of child off as though she is incapable of having children because as both Nick and George agree "she's slim hipped". She is playing everyone for fools. In reality, Honey is afraid of having children but is totally capable of doing so. She also neglects to tell Nick this point which leads the reader to believe that she is very manipulative beneath her sweet exterior.

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