author: Edward Albee, one act play, first performed in 1961, adopted very young and his parents (especially mother) extremely strict.
setting: America in the 1960’s, well furnished apartment that looks expensive.
plot. The American Dream starts out with Mommy and Daddy discussing that their visitors are late. Neither mentions who “they” are, and this turns into a discussion about how achieving satisfaction is impossible these days. Mommy then takes the lead and gives an example of this by explaining her trip to buy a hat, a beige hat to be specific. She sees the Chairman of the Women’s committee who then claims the hat is beige, and Mommy is forced to take the hat back and throw a tantrum until the people in the shop find her a new hat that they swear its beige. Daddy then makes an interesting comment about it being the same hat as before, and Mommy says it most certainly was. The conversation about satisfaction continues with Daddy listing all the things that are broken in the house, and then Grandma arrives. She has a large pile of neatly wrapped boxes which she places in the room. Mommy tells a story about her poor childhood, when Grandma would wrap Mommy’s lunch up neatly but Mommy would never eat it because she wanted to take it home for Grandma. Several conversations take place about Grandma being old and then Grandma gets angry at Mommy and says she always said she would marry a rich man to live off of. The doorbell finally wrings but Daddy doesn’t want to answer it anymore and Mommy has to persuade him by telling him how manly he is. Mrs. Barker comes in and a very odd sequence of social niceties occur: Daddy asks if she might want to cross her legs and Mommy asks her to take her dress off. Daddy talks about having qualms right where the stitches are. Mrs. Barker talks about the many committees she is part of and Mommy cannot find the water. Grandma begins to tell Mrs. Barker why she is here: Twenty years ago Mommy and Daddy adopted a “bumble of joy” but it misbehaved and they were forced to chop it apart until it died. They have invited Mrs. Barker here so they can get satisfaction. Next, Grandma meets the young man who tells her his life story. He had a twin but he was separated from it and now he cannot love or feel anything and will do anything for money. Grandma takes him upstairs and is now offstage and narrating. Mommy is upset because she thinks Grandma has been taken away with the van man, who she says she never called. The play ends with Grandma saying that the play must end now because everyone has what they want, or what they think they want.
Significant characters
Mommy: Daughter of Grandma, controlling, was poor and married Daddy for money
Mrs. Barker: sickeningly sweet, professional women, power struggle with Mommy, Chairman of woman's committee, husband in a wheelchair, only one with a name, embodies femininity
Young Man: twin of baby Mommy and Daddy mutilated, representation of American Dream, hollow attractive shell, no substance, plans to kill Mommy and Daddy
Grandma: old American Dream, has substance, gender neutral, knows she is playing a role
Daddy: had sex change, emasculated, controlled by Mommy, rich, never says anything important.
All the women in this play are controlling and manipulative, while the men are pathetic. This could be because Albee had a controlling adoptive mother. This play was also written at an extremely tense and changing time in American history. The Civil Rights movement was going on, and Albee may not have thought that woman should have more power because he believed they would abuse it. Albees tone throughout the play is mocking and condescending towards American values and culture, especially the false politeness.
Symbolism: The Young Man symbolizes the superficial new American Dream while Grandma represents the old one. The boxes represent substance. Mommy and Daddy cannot find anything because they have no substance. The competition that Grandma wins with the day-old cake symbolized Yankee ingenuity and relates to the day old cake Mommy used to save for Grandma in her lunch box. Her nicely wrapped lunch box represents illusions and the boxes that Grandma wraps now.
THEME: Consumerism is corrupting American societal structures and values.
TITLE: The American Dream references the ideals of society and what people are striving towards. It is used mockingly because Albee views the American dream as superficial and a threat to America. The Young Man embodies the new American Dream because he is beautiful on the outside, but empty on the inside. Grandma is the foil to him as the old American Dream, and although she is nowhere near perfect, she does have substance.
QUOTES: " I have, now, only my person, my body, my face" This is a quote from the Young Man that shows the motif of superficiality and also how he embodies the empty American Dream. He goes on to say that he lets people use him, and will do anything for money because he is empty inside.
"I can't quite remember anyone very much like Mommy and Daddy coming to see me about buying a bundle." This quote shows Mrs. Barkers stupidity because she cannot connect what Grandma is saying to her experiences twenty years ago. Albee wanted to show how fake the "professional woman" was, and how she is lost and confused just like Mommy and Daddy. The destruction of language is also shown by the word "bumble" instead of bundle of joy, because it turns something human into something not human.
The summarizing of the “American Dream” was thorough and you seemed focused on that part. I would add more symbolism, setting, point of view, and imagery. And I would add some quotes from the play. I think you might have had some in your summery but make sure that we the readers know that they are quotes, because I could not tell. And you have the theme but you did not discuss how that theme comes from the play. For the support of the theme you could talk about all of the motifs that we talked about in class and how they all narrowed down to the theme. I like how you connected the time period to the play. This play would not have ever been made if Albee did not think women would abuse power. I think that he is a little hypocritical because he wanted to be treated with respect from his mother, but is not willing to give respect to women to have some power because he thinks they would abuse it.
ReplyDeleteYour plot summary of the "American Dream" was complete and filled with details. Although this summary was good and thorough, I also think you should focus on other aspects of the play, such as tone, style, symbolism, and imagery. Use these things to help support the theme of how consumerism is corrupting American societal structures and values, as it will provide greater evidence and make your case stronger. It will definitely help out later in March when we are reviewing these analysis blogs for the AP test. Good job with your character analysis. It's not too detailed, but it gives you a good idea of who the character is and how their rolls fit into or affect the outcome of the play. Also, great job supporting the theme with historical context.
ReplyDeleteThe summation part of this assignment was extremely well written. You included many details about the plot and I could really understand what happened in the play. However, the analysis portion didn't include work with DIDLS.You never mentioned any tone, style, imagery, and only very slightly symbolism. You need to incorporate these into your piece and also talk about the theme more in depth specifically the importance of the theme to the play and how it is supported by areas of rhetoric. This piece is also missing the importance of the title and how it relates to the play. Other than that, it was amazing and will be helpful later when you need to study what we did with the text.
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