Getting Out

Upon reading Getting Out, by Marsha Norman, I was not very intrigued or pleased with the play as a whole. Although I have read some of Norman's works, like the Secret Garden, and have heard of others like The Color Purple, I was not pulled into her writing, much like I have been in other plays that we have read throughout the semester. I found Getting Out to be initially boring, although it was not terribly written and I still enjoyed the characters she had created. Arlene strikes me as someone who is easily looked over and brushed off, even though her character possesses some strength as a woman. She grew up pretty much in an unstable home, with a mother that engaged in prostitution and an abusive father, as well as siblings that did little to try and keep Arlene on the straight and narrow. Upon reading about her past, it was pretty much a given that her character would end up going down the wrong road and getting involved with the wrong kind of people, thus landing her in prison. It was all interesting to read, but I didn't feel like Norman left much to the imagination or attempted to divert the reader from the "oh, I saw that one coming" feeling. Everything in the play, and all of its characters seemed to flow, but in a rather boring manner. However, one thing I did like about Getting Out was how Norman showed that a woman, who isn't expected to amount to much and who is seen as travelling the same path for the rest of her life, can change all that. I wouldn't really relate it to second chances, but Arlene was definitely able to move on and seemingly make peace with her past as Arlie, the troublemaker. Norman, who I would credit as an amazing writer, also was able to best depict a character that isn't like most in other plays you read. There wasn't anything grand or spectacular about Arlene, and she didn't dramatically lose anything throughout the play (the only exception I would make would be Joey, since she wanted him back so that she could keep him from falling into the same place she had) because she did not have anything to lose. Norman's characters were gritty and real; there was nothing grandiose about them. And because of that I felt that Getting Out was what it was, although I personally did not enjoy the story overall.