Analysis of Oleanna

It is interesting to watch how Carol’s character develops as the play progresses because although she becomes more coherent as the play goes on, her morals and values become intertwined in a jumbled up mess all the same. On page eighteen, she informs Jon that she and her group have created a list of reading material in which they do not approve of being assigned in his classes. The condition under which she will speak to the tenure committee is that he abide by their guidelines and alter his reading material shared in class by omitting this list of books she has given him, and adding one’s that her gr

After reading the play over a few times, I acknowledge that Carol had some very good points, and she sincerely felt that she was fighting for a very valid cause, but the fact is that although these viewpoints may be very relevant in most or all institutions, she was penalizing the wrong person. Jon did not deserve losing his job, and being disgraced. Although he may have enjoyed the advantages of being a Caucasian male, this was not through any fault of his own, and if he was to be punished for it than so should every other white male in America.

oup has chosen as more favourable to their cause. This action is done no sooner than directly after she judges Jon on page eighteen, “… and you say you believe in free intellectual discourse. YOU BELIEVE IN NOTHING.” She has patronized him in saying that by sharing his views in a book he had written, questioning the education system, and working for the position which he has acquired, he had been restricting intellectual discourse and freedom of thought. This does not seem like a valid argument to me, but none the less, what does seem worth mentioning is the fact that after making this remark, she believes she has the right to tell Jon what he can and cannot teach his students. She states how there was no way that he truly believed in literary freedom, and then she goes ahead, and attempts to restrict the system even more so. She was also telling him that he was not allowed to teach from his own book that he had written, stripping him of his right to acknowledge something that he believed very strongly in and worked hard for. He wanted students to be able to read that material and critically discuss the topic just as he thought he would be able to do with Carol. He didn’t expect everyone to agree with him, just to give it some thought. Carol says he doesn’t believe in anything when it’s obvious that even she doesn’t believe that is true, otherwise, she would not be making such an issue of his position.

As far as their opinions on teaching, Jon’s methods were definitely wasted on Carol. Rather than taking the time to realize what Jon meant by wa

Some topics in this essay:
BELIEVE NOTHING”, , page eighteen, education system, page seventeen, reading material, jon page eighteen, doesn’t believe, book written, jon page, jon’s views, regards education, intellectual discourse,