American Literature

The main plot of this episode of Friends was about the rumor  Ross and his friend Will spread about Rachel when they were all in high school. This was revealed during Monicas Thanksgiving dinner wherein all six friends were present, along with Will.  Ross and Will were close enough back then to form the I Hate Rachel Green Club. Will claimed Rachel was very mean to him in high school. Ross, on the other hand, co-founded the club when in fact, he was in love with Rachel.

The sub-plots are Rachel being pregnant with Ross baby while they will remain unmarried, something Will found hilarious, but the others did not.  Joey, in the meantime, forces Monica to make turkey for Thanksgiving, even though she had planned to skip it, what with only a few people planning to eat it. Meanwhile, Chandler and Phoebe pretend to be engrossed in a football game to escape helping with the preparations and cleanup.

The major characters in this episode were Ross, Rachel, and Will. Ross is a geeky, good-natured guy who has been in love with Rachel since high school, and will obviously do anything to get her attention, including co-founding a hate club for her.  Rachel is a pretty, slightly frivolous girl who was a cheerleader, and therefore popular, in high school.  Will, on the other hand was overweight and unpopular back then, and seemed to suffer from insecurity. Now, he claims he is rich and thin, and still holds a grudge against Rachel.

The episode occurs in Monicas apartment, which she now shares with Chandler.  This is where they always hold their Thanksgiving dinners, Monica being the resident chef of the group.  It is a very homey, comfortable place where they can all just be themselves, whether to swap stories, exchange confidences, sort out problems, or celebrate victories. Monica is like their mother hen, who cooks for them, and keeps everything organized. That is why her apartment is like home for them all.
The conflict begins when Rachel gets really upset when she finds out about the hate club, as well as the ugly rumor Ross and Will circulated in the school, that she was a hermaphrodite.  It turns out though that Rachel also spread a rumor about Ross, that he was seen making out with their 50-year old librarian, which turns out to be true anyway.  They both insist that each call all of their high school classmates to take back what they had said about each other. Monica then intercedes and tries to placate both parties, saying that this all happened a long time ago, it was all in the past, and Ross and Rachel have already been through so much, and they have much more important things going on in their life now, their future baby being on top of the list.

The American ideals shown in this episode were the importance of Thanksgiving and the traditions connected with it, be it a simple turkey dinner with all your loved ones. Take for instance what Joey said when Monica told him she was not going to prepare a turkey, Eating them is like a tradition...Thanksgiving with no turkey is like Fourth of July with no apple pie.  It also shows the way Americans give importance to looks, as when Monica is delighted with how much weight Will had lost, and he had the same reaction to her, she also being overweight in high school.  Likewise portrayed is the independence and compassion of the American woman in Rachel, who is pregnant and unmarried, but will keep and raise her baby. And of course the way Americans treasure friendship is shown when Monica caters to Joeys wish for a turkey even if it means extra work for her, and the way she tries to talk Rachel, Ross, and Will into letting the past go and to just forget about the rumors they had created, in order to preserve their friendship.

The first episode of Friends was originally aired in 1994, and the final episode  was shown in 2004 , but it still has a cult following whenever reruns are shown, probably because the viewers can relate with the realistic situations the characters go through, and in very witty and undeniably hilarious ways at that. The different types of personalities are vividly portrayed by the actors, it is getting difficult to imagine them otherwise.  It is therefore a suitable replacement for the literary short story because the whole range of emotions, witty quips, and comebacks can only be best expressed on television.