The Quest for Clarity

      In our life, our dreams are often shared with others much more than we think they do.  Lynn Nottage's play, "Sweat", explores the dynamics of unity and disintegration in the pursuit of shared dreams.  It effectively demonstrates what it is like to be a powerful force through the combination of shared viewpoints and perspectives but also introduces hardships and challenges in the plot that shatters the shared dream into several meaningless pieces of individuality.     One of the strongest threads in the fabric of "Sweat" is the mutual support Stan gives in their shared labor at Olstead's.  As a formal worker at Olstead's, he can connect and openly share opinions with many different characters such as Brucie.  Even the shortest and simplest comments like "Things'll pick up" and "I hear you" gives Brucie a sense of freedom to share his deepest struggles that he probably wouldn't share with any other character.  The characte

      What is our purpose in life?  On some days we feel a sense of urge and motivation while on others, our efforts are nugatory and meaningless.  The struggle for motivation is the wall separating us from The Dream.  The Dream is not a jargon of random thoughts - it’s our sense of ambition and desire.  It’s the fire in our souls that keeps on burning.  It’s what distinguishes us from a random lifeless stone on the ground.  It’s the future that we see ahead of us, and we were given the gift of chasing it down and taking control.  “Dreams”, a poem written by Langston Hughes serves a perfect example of these ideas.  The Dream is not going to chase us, so we have to chase it.     The Dream is our driving force and the catalyst for achievement.  Without The Dream, we cannot serve or contribute to the rest of the world.  Hughes compares the death of a dream to a “broken-winged bird that cannot fly”, which is still alive physically but really dead on the inside.  Imagine how it would feel i