Extreme Apathy in John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation Essay

Extreme Apathy in John Guares half dozen Degrees of Separation Many authors go to great lengths to explore the limits of hu earthly pilfercern acknowledge, examen realms beyond the imagination. Anything from physical boundaries to social boundaries are broken and thus redefined Kafka explores the look of a musical composition turned into a bug, Nabokov examines the life of a man ruled by a sexual desire that is taboo. With so often effort focused on the extremes of life, whiz work, a play by John Guare entitled Six Degrees of Separation, stands out. Certainly, the events are extraordinary based on a true story, Six Degrees is the tale of a young con man, professing to be the son of Sidney Poitier, and his effect on the lives of several crude York socialites. Paul is the Eliza Doolittle of the modern age, adopting all the skills, stories, and styles that make him the perfect houseguest. Pauls charisma ensures that at every make for, his presence leaves its mark. One broke an d broken young man named Rick, after losing his last dime and last shred of dignity to an encounter with Paul, throws himself from his third floor tenement apartment. From the way that the New Yorkers speak of their experiences with Paul, one would think that Guare has crafted yet another story exploring the range of human experience, probe the impact and significance of encounters among fri stopping points and strangers. However, as much as some incidents, much(prenominal) as Ricks suicide, suggest the extreme and most violent ends of the interaction, Guares play leads us down a too familiar path to a quite harrowing conclusion that the most unnerving edge of human experience is not, in fact, the most extreme and violent, but the most common and infixed to human nature. Guares play is peopled with characters ... ...e to present ourselves and have some impart in our own destiny, we are paralyzed. As Paul says, the end of wait for Godot is Lets go. Yes, lets. They do not move (25). At the end of the play, Ouisa is virtually to go to Sothebys, but then pauses to watch Paul in her own mind. The lights go down as she remains on stage. Ouisa is not saved, and in the end we must doubt that she will find momentum enough to pull together the substance that is required to have a life. Instead of moving into a life of meaning, she will float to Sothebys, with a drink in reach out and an urbane smile. One can picture the unwritten end to follow, Ouisa at Sothebys We had the strangest call tonight, that imposter that came into our lives, and you know, I had such a revelation about our lives . . . NOTES 1 John Guare, Six Degrees of Separation. New York Dramatists Play Service, 1992.