Friday, November 9, 2012

The American Dream by Edward Albee

Like the son who is physic wholey flawless and will do anything at all for money, Albee personifies him as the ailment that afflicts modern America.

In a similar way, Albee uses lecture to illustrate the human race that underlies the American fantasy. For the author, language is a damage means of human communion as much as the American dream is flawed. As such, his characters exchange the most piddling banalities which show a lack of human contact. Albee is suggesting that this reality is what underlies the illusive surface of communication as a means of touch on human communion. Take the beginning series of exchange in The American Dream:

Daddy: Uh?Mrs. barker, is it? Won't you sit down?

mommy: Would you like a cigarette, and a drink, and would you like to cross your legs?

Mrs. Barker: You forget yourself, mamma; I'm a professional woman. But I will cross my legs.

Daddy: Yes, make yourself comfortable.

This trivial gunpoint of civility is one symbolisation used by Albee to lay out the moderatedown of the American dream. A second symbol already mentioned is the personification of the over-riding goal of the new American dream, being unforced to do anything for the almighty dollar, as is the substitute son. An some other symbol Albee uses is the lunchbox in the reminiscenc


e of Mommy talking about how her mother used to pack her a pretty lunch but it was so pretty she would not open it, "I used to say, ?Oh look at my beautiful lunch box; it's so nicely wrapped it would break my heart to open it.' And so, I wouldn't open it," (Albee, 1961: 21).
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However, soon by and by she says, "I used to eat all the little boys' and girls' provender at school, because they thought my lunch box was empty, and that's why I wouldn't open it. They thought I suffered from the sin of pride, and since that made them transgress than me, they were very generous," (Albee, 1961: 22).

Albee, E. The American Dream. Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, NY: 1961.

This defend is much like Albee's other works in that it shows that what is pretty on the surface is a good deal false, tortured and ugly underneath. Another symbol in the play is the emasculated father who symbolizes the loss of power and control that comes when a man enters the capitalistic system and must support others all to chase after the American dream (i.e., a romance the fruits of which he may never enjoy). Instead of the American dream we expect when we think of the popular myth, we get the stark reality of what it really is quite often-a lot of bickering people fault each other and manipulating each other to get what they inadequacy for themselves in the midst of the personal hell. We
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