Six Degrees of Separation
A young, black man named Paul trains himself with Paul, the main character in the play Six Degrees of separation seeks education so that he can be able to plan and execute an audacious scam. He asks for help from his friend from high school, and as a result, he is able to accumulate several addresses of wealthy families in New York. He then familiarizes himself with the names, customs, and possessions of each of these people’s family members. His friend, who is currently a college student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), trains Paul to speak the upper-class language, which would make it easy for him to interact (“Six Degrees of Separation Summary and Study Guide” 2020). After he arms himself with all the knowledge he needed about the rites and tribal customs of these families, he befriends one of their offspring at the Ivy League universities. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
Similar to the case of Don Quixote of old, Paul rushes forth, although he does not exactly demonstrate all of Don’s ideas. He comes up with a plan to use to come close to Ouisa and Flan Kittredge’s home, one of the wealthy families he had identified earlier as his target. They are affluent and sophisticated art dealers. His plan involves stabbing himself and going to the family claiming that he had been robbed. He appears at the home bleeding, and after explaining his ordeal, he is welcomed and starts his interaction. He makes friends with the family’s siblings, Woody and Tess, and goes further to familiarize himself, as a friend, with some of the attractive items in the house, such as a painting hanging on the wall (“Six Degrees of Separation Summary and Study Guide” 2020). However, he does not use the knowledge, manners, and charm that are expected from the son of Poitier Sidney. Paul is mainly focused on learning the façade of one member of the social tribe from which the Kittredges come. Moreover, he keeps his victims interested in him by telling them that he might feature in a new movie in which his father is casting. He also talks to them about his family and how they freely discuss everything about their lives, including their parents.
However, the beginning of Paul’s downfall eventually comes when he is found with a male prostitute in Tess’s bedroom, who he has picked from the streets nearby. Other frauds he had committed earlier were also discovered, one involving a wealthy family just like the Kittredges, and another involving a struggling couple, Rick and Elizabeth, from Utah. The couple in the latter cheat came to Ney York in pursuit of an acting career when they met Paul, and ended in Rick’s suicide, causing Paul’s goals to fail. According to the Greeks, past events are crucial in the reassessment of what people need to do in the present and even the future. In a play, the reenactment of the past is done through brief and abrupt monologue and dialogue lines that relate to the main scene, and which creates some level of tension. In this case, Ouisa’s recollects her past, revealing moral questions that keep the audience wondering about her personality.
The title of the play is derived from the contemplations of Ouisa about the theory of comfort that the only thing that can separate one from the rest in the planet is six “degrees,” six people (Keazor, 2018). The dilemma is finding the six to determine the connection, which Ouisa experiences herself.
References
Keazor, H. (2018). Six Degrees of Separation. Faking, Forging, Counterfeiting, 11.
Six Degrees of Separation Summary and Study Guide (2020). Super Summary.
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