Water by the Spoonful
Susana Guevara
April 29, 2013
English 112
Dr. Wells
Final Essay
Internal Struggles
In Water by the Spoonful, the author portrays Elliot as a military veteran who has had a rough life from a very young age. He lost his younger sister under bad parental circumstances, has a limp from being in the Iraq war, and works as a sandwich maker making his life not too significant. Elliott does not seem to have a lot of drive with going somewhere in life. He likes to stay in his comfort zone even if it means making sandwiches for a living instead of trying to persuade a professional career. For Elliott, change is something that brings him anxiety and stress similarly to the character of Margie from Good People. Margie is a single mother who is raising her handicapped adult daughter in the Southie Boston area. She has just lost her job and is in a tough financial situation. She is going to be evicted if she does not pay rent and tries to get an old friend, who happens to be her daughters’ father, to help her find employment. Both characters experience significant changes in their lives noted in both plays. Elliott has just lost his adoptive mother whom he lives with, and Margie has lost her job, in which she was living paycheck to paycheck. Elliott and Margie are going through difficult changes in their lives with significant events that have transpire but what they both fail to realize are their inner struggles within themselves and do not realize what truly is holding them back from making progress. In the play Water by the Spoonful, Elliott does not handle stress situations very well. In Scene 3, when news of his adoptive mother, being admitted to the hospital reaches him, he physically shows rage and becomes violent. “Just smashed the bathroom mirror all over the floor. Boss sent me out to the parking lot” (Hudes 20), then Elliott not only shows physical violence towards his surroundings but also to himself, “I’m about to start walking down Lancaster Avenue for
April 29, 2013
English 112
Dr. Wells
Final Essay
Internal Struggles
In Water by the Spoonful, the author portrays Elliot as a military veteran who has had a rough life from a very young age. He lost his younger sister under bad parental circumstances, has a limp from being in the Iraq war, and works as a sandwich maker making his life not too significant. Elliott does not seem to have a lot of drive with going somewhere in life. He likes to stay in his comfort zone even if it means making sandwiches for a living instead of trying to persuade a professional career. For Elliott, change is something that brings him anxiety and stress similarly to the character of Margie from Good People. Margie is a single mother who is raising her handicapped adult daughter in the Southie Boston area. She has just lost her job and is in a tough financial situation. She is going to be evicted if she does not pay rent and tries to get an old friend, who happens to be her daughters’ father, to help her find employment. Both characters experience significant changes in their lives noted in both plays. Elliott has just lost his adoptive mother whom he lives with, and Margie has lost her job, in which she was living paycheck to paycheck. Elliott and Margie are going through difficult changes in their lives with significant events that have transpire but what they both fail to realize are their inner struggles within themselves and do not realize what truly is holding them back from making progress. In the play Water by the Spoonful, Elliott does not handle stress situations very well. In Scene 3, when news of his adoptive mother, being admitted to the hospital reaches him, he physically shows rage and becomes violent. “Just smashed the bathroom mirror all over the floor. Boss sent me out to the parking lot” (Hudes 20), then Elliott not only shows physical violence towards his surroundings but also to himself, “I’m about to start walking down Lancaster Avenue for
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