Zero:
[Calmly]: I killed the boss this afternoon.
The Adding Machine page 50
I couldn't believe my eyes as I read that scene. Who would have guessed that Zero would kill his boss after him being let go. I think that all the "figgerin'" finally drove Zero crazy. In fact by reading the Fourth Scene in the play I knew he had gone crazy. He just kept rambling on and on about how he knew it was wrong to kill the boss but he seemed to think that that would have no affect on him and that he would get off scott free.
Another thing I would like to note is the fact that there seems to be a lot of rambling that goes on in this play. The play opens with Mrs. Zero and her monologue that to me seemed like it was nothing but a lot of complaining and a lot of stuff that really didn't make sense. I found myself having to go back and reread sections because I wasn't entirely sure what she was saying. Then in the beginning of Scene 3 Mrs. Zero again goes on a rambling rampage leaning into her husband without even knowing that he had just gone and murdered his boss.
Another odd thing that I found in the first four scenes of the play is how often Zero and his wife complain about each other. It seems to me as if there is no love in their own home. I mean in the second scene of the novel Zero states that he would date Daisy if he could when his wife died or what about this girl that he sent to prison (?) for six months. He said that he would even like to date her.
I do want to also comment on Karissa's blog. She puts the play into numerical aspects that my simple English mind could never concieve. She says that "Mathematically, with the miserable circumstances that seem to cloud Zero's life, I suppose he'd have to kill someone..." She goes into long discriptions about how numbers come into this play. Now that I have had them pointed out to me I'm excited to see how they will play out in the course of the literary work.
*More To come As I finish the Play*
Posted by Tiffany Brattina at February 2, 2005 2:49 PMHey, thanks for the quote! I really appreciate it; I'm glad my entry sparked some interest for you.
I won't say that I didn't gasp when Zero announced that he killed the boss; however, I was a bit suspicious when Mrs. Zero mentioned a red-stained collar when he uses a pencil at work (Act I, page 6, Zero's last line on the page mentions that he "busies himself with an eraser"). I'm looking forward to hearing other people's responses on this one.
Posted by: Karissa at February 2, 2005 6:19 PMThat didn't really throw me off because back when they were using pens they had ways of erasing mistakes. My mom told me that at least. Something I might have to look into.
Posted by: Tiffany at February 2, 2005 7:37 PMReally? Papermate makes pens that are eraseable, but they're also highly smearable--I used to love them in high school...
Still, the "red ink" Mrs. Zero mentions throws me off because what is red ink used for except checking or editing things? I know anyone can use any color pen they want for anything, but typically blue and black are the colors for anything official, know what I mean? I can even remember hearing in the news maybe a few years ago that people want teachers to stop using red ink because it's too harsh (or something like that); they want green ink and purple ink instead.
Try these for what I'm talking about: http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_fullstory.asp?id=26180
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/pittsburgh/s_245832.html
But anyway, the red stood out to me...
I love colors and colorful ink. I possess those very colored pens you are talking about, and really they aren't too smearable, perhaps they changed the style a bit to make them not so? I personally have never had a problem with them, teachers using green and purple ink? Interesting, i think they should use orange..ha ha..but thats becuase i want everything to be orange because its my favorite color.
Posted by: Lori at February 3, 2005 3:49 PM