Analysis of Accepting Her by Nikki April Lee

After I read Accepting Her by Nikki April Lee, honestly, I feel something interesting in this script. The playwright is very amazing. She can make me being emotional. Even I almost cry when I read this script deeply. The message and the atmosphere in the script are successfully delivered to the reader. You can download the script here.

This script tells about a girl who has hermaphrodite disorder. Maybe people won't accept her with the condition, including her father. Different than others, her mom and her friend, Blade, don't care about anything. They love Torie the way she is.

In this script, we know that the playwright uses androgynous method. Because the playwright is a woman, she uses gyno method. In gyno method, woman is chosen as the main character, and here Torie is the main character. We can know more the method with doing analysis the dialogues and narrations of the characters.

We can see tendency in Chelsea's character in her dialogue,

"Yeah that. So what? You’re my hermaphra- whatever.And I wouldn’t change a single thing. Any man who can’t accept you can go straight to hell. "

From here, we know that one of woman characters, especially a mom exactly really loves her children, and she will defend all out if her children have a problem.

Here's also implicit meaning of character from Blade, such as in this narration:

Blade and John exchange distasteful glares. John enters an office.Blade exits through nearby door. Mary stops.

A man usually leaves a room when he doesn't like something. At the moment, he tries to hold his anger and choose to calm himself.

We can also find tendency at John in his dialogue:

"If I have to make sacrifices, you will, too." 

A man who is egoistic never lets another person peacefully. He will force her to feel the same condition as him.

Then, In this scene John also implements a trait of man. When he wants to get something, he will do anything until he gets it.

"Corrective surgery. Do this and Blade will be safe." 

"You have twelve hours to change your mind. The minimum number ofyears for sex with a minor is fifteen years. With one phone call, I can make it more. Let’s see how long your love lasts after that." 

John laughs. He exits. Torie chokes back a sob.

He forces Torie so that his willingness will be obeyed.

The playwright also makes tendency at Torie. When her friend, Blade, is arrested, she says that she wants to do surgery. She does that with hoping Blade is not arrested. "I’ll do it," said Torie. A strong woman indeed will do anything, even it will hurt her. Providing her lovely person will be free from problem, she will do it.

After we discuss about gyno method that the playwright uses, we will continue to tone of the characters. There are Torie as protagonist and John as antagonist. Then, secondary characters are Blade, Chelsea, Mary, Police, Doctor, and Nurse.

Let's begin with Chelsea. Her tones in this script are happy and merciful. You can see in the narration and dialogue.

They giggle like children. It clearly states that the person is happy.

"Yeah, that. So what? You’re my hermaphra- whatever. And I wouldn’tchange a single thing. Any man who can’t accept you can go straight to hell.""I love you, Torie."

Chelsea is very a merciful person. She really loves her daughter anything that happens.

Then, we go to Torie's tones. Her tone includes positive and negative tones. There are happy, sad, worried, angry, hesitant, disappointed, and frightened.

HAPPY

Torie laughs. Torie cranks up the volume. They sing along at the top of their lungs. Chelsea drums on the wheel. Torie uses her cellphone as a microphone.

In that narrations, we know that Torie is happy. But, everything changes when her mother dies in the accident. Her tones are dominant in negative.

SAD

Torie stands before a fresh grave, her skateboard in hand.She place a rose on top of the grave. "Goodbye, Mom." John laughs. He exits. Torie chokes back a sob. Torie, in tears, nods..... She kneels with a heavy sob.

From these narrations, we know that Torie is sad due to all things happen to her after her mother died.

WORRIED

John"I see your little boyfriend Brian here has committed a crime. Sex with a minor. At least that's what I'll tell the police...." 

Torie"You can't do that."

ANGRY

Torie breaks from John's grip bound for Blade. Cop 2 rushes to her. She delivered a pinch to his face.

HESITANT

John notices Torie's trembling hand as she takes the pen and papers. Torie loses focus as the gaze at the form with contempt. She hesitates to write.

DISAPPOINTED

With tearful anger, she tears the card in half.

FRIGHTENED

Torie is wheeled into the room. Torie looks about the room frightened.

These narrations clearly state that Torie is frightened.

Let's move to John. His tones are dominant in negative. There are care less, cunning, worried, ambitious, feeling guilty, and aware.

CARE LESS

John exits the office with a female AGENT. He disregards Torie’s presence.

His trait that disregards Torie states that the tone that use here is care less. When a man disregards someone, it means that he doesn't like someone's presence. He has problem with that person, and I think in this case, John still can't accept Torie as her daughter because of her hermaphrodite.

CUNNING

"if I have to make sacrifices, you will, too." here we know that John is a cunning person because he doesn't want feeling sacrifices alone, so he forces Torie feeling it too.

AMBITIOUS

"I can, and I will. Unless you agree to one thing... surgery"

"You have twelve hours to change your mind. The minimum number of years for sex with a minor is fifteen years. With one phone call, I can make it more. Let’s see how long your love lasts after that."

John is an ambitious person. He will do anything so that his willing comes true, including do things in the narration above in order to force Torie to take surgery.

In the resolution, his tones change to be positive.

WORRIED

Torie is wheeled into the room. Torie looks about the room frightened. Her eyes finally find his. John stiffens at the childlike fear in her eyes.

CALM

After Blade says something to John, he is frozen but eventually makes a quiet exit. He can hide his feeling and keep being calm.

GUILTY

.... John gaze at her for the first time with a pinch of regret. ..... Another pinch of regret peeps on John's face. 

AWARE

"Stop the operation! Please stop!"John looks into Torie’s surprised eyes. His face gentle and full of care."That’s my daughter. She’s perfect the way she is."

"You were right. You were always right. We have a great daughter you and I. I never saw it before but now I see. She’s perfect. And so were you." 

Blade's tones are optimistic, panic, sad, angry/disappointed.

OPTIMISTIC

They hold hands. 

 BLADE 

"You sure you want to do this? Your father hates you. Who you are." 

TORIE 

"He’s all I have left." 

BLADE 

"Whatever happens, you’re perfect the way you are."

PANIC

Skaters move around Torie and Blade who are on a incline.Blade paces in a panic.

It clearly describes that his tone in this scene is panic.

SAD

Blade looks up from his cot at John with swollen eyes and a wet face. Blade wipes his face and goes to the bars face to face with John.

DISAPPOINTED

"I hope one day you love something so perfect, so much it hurts. And then I hope someone comes along and takes it away from you. And I hope it hurts like hell." He says that to John because he's disappointed with his traits.

We move to Mary's tone. Here her tone is positive. She has warm and kind tones, such as in this dialogue.

"I’m Mary Geiser. We’ve come to take you home. You are more than welcome in our family."

She also tries to keep Torie's feeling when she wants to tell the truth about John to Torie.

"He has. He abandoned you and your mother because you were...
different. It’ll take time for him--"

It is proven with her spoken that's stumbled and take a pause.

The tones of COP 1 and 2 are assertive.

Such as in this dialogue. "You're under arrest. You have the right to remain silent..." and in this narration. Cop 2 rush to Torie. As usual, cops indeed have assertive tones.

The doctor's tone is neutral. There's no specific tone in his short dialogue, 

"Well Miss Torie, I have you scheduled for next week. Here are a couple of forms to sign so I could help speed up the paperwork process."

And the last is nurse's tone. Her tone is assertive such as in this dialogue. "Sir, you can't be here! This is a sanitized operating room!"

Social issue that discusses in this script is about hermaphrodite sufferer. Generally, many people in this world don't accept presence people who have this disorder. They feel strange with them. Just like in this script, John can't accept Torie as her daughter except she wants to take surgery for changing her. She is being depressed getting coercion from her father. Honestly, I don't agree with John's traits to her. He should accept Torie the way she is because she is prize from God for John and Chelsea.

At the end of the script, I feel so touched. My tears almost fall down when I read the resolution. Finally, Torie, a hermaphrodite sufferer, is accepted by her father. We know that hermaphrodite is a condition when a person or animal having both male and female sex organs, and it happens to poor girl, Torie. John realizes that whatever happened, Torie is her daughter. No matter she's abnormal or not, he loves her literally.