The American Dream Summay/Analysis

• Author: 
• Edward Albee

• Setting: 
• 1960s? (published in 1961, NYC, York Playhouse)
• Set in an apartment (NY?)
• Main action happens in living room, rest = off stage (implies more bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen)
• A living room. Two armchairs, one toward either side of the stage, facing each other diagonally out toward the audience. Against the rear wall, a sofa. A door, leading out from the apartment, in the rear wall, far stage-right. An archway, leading to other rooms, in the side wall, stage-left
•  Characters enter/exit through main door
• Mrs. Barker, Young Man enter; Grandma exits
• Also = power struggle for Daddy when Mrs. Barker arrives
• Social environment: 
• Power struggles (Mommy over Daddy/Mrs. Barker/Grandma)
• Vulnerability (Grandma connecting w/Mrs. Barker, Young Man)
• Dominant impression: seems very generic - characters/furniture seen very non-descript (Only character w/actual name is Mrs. Barker & all livings rooms would have chairs, a door, etc.)
• Time: commentary on consumerism/materialism of the times
• Passage of time: 
• Marked by Mommy/Daddy waiting for Mrs. Barker, old stories (Grandma talking about Mommy's youth, telling Mrs. Barker about the bumble
• Passage of time doesn't seem very concrete
• Plot: 
• Freytag's Pyramid: The Elements of Plot
• Status Quo: intro of characters, setting, conflict at beginning
• Introduced w/Mommy & Daddy sitting in living room, complaining about waiting for Mrs. Barker
• Rising Action: events that complicate/intensify the conflict
• Mrs. Barker's arrival (Daddy's response to her sexuality) --> Mommy's power struggle
• Grandma arguing w/Mommy
• "The Bumble" discussion
• Climax: point of greatest tension
• Is there really a climax? It seems to wander

• Resolution: where conflicts may/may not be resolved

•  Arrival of Young Man...bumble resolution
• Grandma's departure

• What conflicts does it dramatize? --> Consumerism, materialism

• Significant Characters:
• Mommy - static, power, greedy, authority, childish
• Daddy - static, emasculated (but sticks up for Grandma)
• Grandma - dynamic, voice of reason, "Old American Dream"
• Mrs. Barker - static(?...bonds w/Grandma but seems to remain the same), higher class, power position, on an adoption board, interacted w/Mommy & Daddy before (bumble)
• Young Man - static, "New American Dream" good looks, vanity, money, power, little/no values

• Narrative voice/author's style:
• Point of view:
• Obviously displays Albee's opinion of society
• Tone:
• Theater of the Absurd
• Nonsensical
• Satirical
• Imagery:
• 
  
• Symbolism: 
• Baby/bumble - being formed/discarded if not fitting standards
• Door - being "born again" when walking through, power to face future
• Grandma's boxes - containing all "important" things
• Absurdist techniques:
• Characteristics: 
• pattern of images (people = bewildered human beings in an incomprehensible universe)
• anti-heroes (plus: role reversal - Mommy/Daddy)
• humor masks horror of meaninglessness
• Elements of Structure
• Sense of repetition (verbally, Mommy's threats against Grandma, Daddy's protests, etc.)
• Lack of apparent progression
•  No cause/effect (characters don't really change/develop)
• Static quality (characters)
• Freud's ID --> EGO --> SUPEREGO
• Subjects of Theme
• Lack of values in modern world (Old vs. New American Dream)
• Ridiculous situations
• Breakdown of communication (...the whole play!)
• Destruction of individualism (first baby, Mrs. Barker is made to conform to Mommy's household standards)
• Civilized people acting uncivilized (first baby, Mrs. Barker undressing)

• Quotes:
• "I'm sure that must be all very true, Grandma, but what does it have to do with why...pardon me, what is that name again?"
  (Daddy, page 86 when talking about Grandma's boxes)
• Insincerity when asking about boxes, forgetting Mrs. Barker's name (even though she's the only character who has a name)
• "You ungrateful - Daddy? Daddy you see how ungrateful she is after all these years, after all the things we've done for her?...to Grandma...One of these days you're going away in a van, that's what's going to happen to you!"(Mommy, page 88)
• Shows Mommy's petulant behavior, empty threats (foreshadows Grandma' departure)
• "You see? I told you. It's all those television shows. Daddy, you go right into Grandma's room and take her television and shake all the tubes loose."(Mommy, page 89)
• Again, shows Mommy's childish attitude/authority. "tubes loose" could also be referring to Daddy's "tubes" when he had his "operation"

• Thesis/Discussion: 
  
•  Thesis: 
• Through techniques utilized in the Theater of the Absurd, Edward Albee communicates the change in America's values in his play, The American Dream.
• Discussion:(setting, plot, title, narrative voice, author's style, tone, imagery, symbolism)
• The generic setting offers a backdrop that could house almost any American family. Names like "Mommy", "Daddy", "Grandma", and  "Young Man" leave room for interpretation. Almost everyone has or knows a mommy or a young man. The only character with a name is Mrs. Barker, representing the upper class/the government. The reader/viewer also picks up on symbols - doors, boxes - to represent what they interpret. With incoherent dialogue, plot, and time progression Albee translates the timelessness of the American struggle with consumerism.