Water by the Spoonful

Choose a primary character? Type the name of the character and the play that they are in.

Elliot Ortiz, Water by the Spoonful

What are five relevant Given Circumstances to that character? Use a sentence to explain each one so you have five sentences total.

-Served in Iraq war

-Injured his leg, so he walks with a limp

-Works a hourly-wage job at Subway

-Constantly sees a ghost that speaks Arabic to him

-Wasn’t raised by his biological parents

What do they want and Why do they want this? Use three sentences to answer this.

Elliot wants to be free of his demons, and to put the pieces of his life back together following his service overseas. Injured in Iraq, he began to suffer from a painkiller addiction that caused three overdoses. This not only caused Elliot large amounts of physical pain, but psychological trauma too, as he kept seeing a ghost.

What are five examples of tactics/verbs that they use throughout the play? Five Verbs

-Guilt

-Shame

-Support

-Confront

-Convince

Cite an example/moment in the play where they use that tactic/verb? One sentence.

Verb: Confront

“But I was raised by my aunt Ginny and that particular aunt just died. (To Odessa.) So now, you got three hours to find some money to pay for one basket of flowers in the funeral of the woman who changed my pampers.” (Elliot, pg. 67)

MONOLOGUE

What page number is the monologue you are looking at from? Single word

Page 6

Who are they speaking to and what is their relationship to that person/people? Single sentence.

Elliot is speaking to his sister, Yaz.

What do they want from the person/people they are talking to? Single sentence

Elliot partially wants help from his sister with their adopted mother, and in some ways also wants to vent, and for his sister to validate for his feelings.

Why do they speak uninterrupted? Think about this a little. Normally, we don’t get to just talk a long time without another person answering us. Political Speeches are an example where the speaker is uninterrupted. A Thank You speech after getting a reward. Why does this character get to speak uninterrupted? What is your opinion? Five Sentences

After Elliot asks Yaz for help with their adopted mom, she says that she had a good morning and cooked breakfast. Elliot disagrees, and knows that the doctors say that their mother shouldn’t be eating as much junk as she is. Due to Yaz’s lack of acknowledgement of the problem at hand, Elliot digs in. Because he is the one who cares, he doesn’t care how long he speaks for about the issue, and proceeds to complain to Yaz about their mother’s eating habits. Their relationship as brother and sister also allows Elliot to speak more freely.

THEMES

What would you identify as the theme of the play? What is the play About? Five Sentences

I would say the main theme of the play is dealing with baggage and personal ghosts, both figuratively and literally. Just about all the characters suffer from one affliction or another, most of them being addiction. Each character who struggles with this has their reason how they got into it, and why it became a problem. Each one is doing something to deal with their problem, big or small. Whether that be going to a rehabilitation service, or keeping in touch with an online support group. Elliot deals with more literal ghosts, and tries to confront why he keeps seeing the apparition all the time.

What in the play resonated with you right now? What felt relevant to you? What did you identify with? Five sentences.

I think the humanity of each character resonated with me the most. Someone like Elliot has gone through a lot, and continues to struggle, despite having to function in day to day life. Odessa is someone who wants to be supportive in her community of recovering addicts, but at the same time can be selfish when it comes to her own birth children. Characters are selfish, and characters are also selfless. They aren’t depicted solely as one thing, and I found that to give them a lot more genuine humanity.