Drag by Lusia Strus

The word 'exhale' is quite a powerful word throughout the monologue.  It seems to do a lot for the setting of the play, since during the monologue, the other actors are throughout the audience exhaling when Lusia exhales.  It seems that it is a transition to each topic that she discusses, and it also gives her power, which she gains from smoking.  There are even some points where Lusia does not take a drag before exhaling, which means that it is not just from smoking.  It seems that she could be letting out different aspects of her life through her breathing as she thinks about what she has done with her life.  It is being released the same way her breath is leaving her body.  Another thing that Lusia does is that she uses the smoking to be more confident to the audience.  When the lights begin to go dark, she begins to lose her confidence and she is a child, like she describes herself through the monologue.  She seems to be battling within herself if she is a child or if she is an adult, like the way she bought her first cigarettes when she was 12, but she asks "Do you think the IRS will try me as an adult?" It looks like Lusia grew up when she bought her first pack of cigarettes, along with making her way “through college doing phone sex” and by talking about cancer, but she seems like a child when she talks about the IRS and when the lights begin to go out, she seems like she is childish and scared.