Summary and Analysis of The American Dream

Author: Edward Albee- he was born in 1928, which would make him in his 30’s when writing this play. He is best known for helping popularizing The Theatre of the Absurd.

Setting: In a vague apartment. The reader is not given much information about the apartment besides the fact that it needs some work. An ambiguous setting is an element in The Theatre of the Absurd so that explains the ambiguous apartment.

Characters:

   -Mommy= The antagonist of the play. She is materialistic, rude, demanding, masculine, fake, controlling, demeaning, only cares about what others think, and does not show respect for anyone. She does not truly love other people and is only concerned about consumerism. She represents the new American Dream.

   -Daddy= Feminine, inferior to Mommy, bullied by his wife, immature. Never has anything important to say. Forgets everything.

   -Mrs.Barker= Head of the Bye-Bye Baby Adoption services. Clueless. Forgets everything. Listens to Grandma. Thinks what Mommy and Daddy to their baby was okay. Stands for government/corporations.

   -Grandma= The only “real” character in the play. The only one who has genuine love for others. Stands for the old American Dream. She is hard working and actually knows what is going on. Raised Mommy by herself

    -Young Man= Very attractive- only has his looks. The twin of the child that Mommy and Daddy mutilated. He stands for the new American Dream. He is the only one that actually communicates and appreciates Grandma. He has no ability to love others and is looking for a job when he goes to Mommy and Daddy’s apartment.

Plot Summary: The play begins with Mommy and Daddy sitting in their apartment waiting. Mommy is rambling on about her adventure while buying a hat and explains the controversy she had with the head of the women’s club about the color. Daddy is giving un-enthusiastic answers and Mommy keeps insisting he listens to her and occasionally forces him to repeat what she says. They are waiting for someone unknown to the reader and keep making remarks about how “they’re late.” Then Grandma enters the scene will boxes. Mommy and Daddy make a big deal about her boxes and then make remarks about Grandma and her “johnny-do’s.” They speak about how they hear her in the john weeping away. When the doorbell finally rings, Daddy gets up to answer it after Mommy persuades him by speaking provocatively about his “masculinity.” When Daddy finally answers the door, Mrs.Barker enters. The whole conversation is very confusing; none of the characters remember why Mrs.Barker is there. The following scenes include many uncomfortable, seemingly pointless conversations including Mrs.Barker taking off her dress and creating an immature reaction out of Daddy, Mommy and Mrs.Barker having an satirized host/guest relationship, Daddy’s surgery that “turned his tubes to tracks,” and Mommy all the while treating Grandma and Daddy like her children. When Mommy and Daddy are off looking for water for Mrs.Barker and Grandma’s room, which is apparently lost, Grandma tells Mrs.Barker a hypothetical situation that really explains why she is there. She makes clear that Mommy and Daddy mutilated their last child and Mrs.Barker is there now to give them another child since they were unsatisfied with the last one that they got from her adoption agency. Next comes the Young Man, who Grandma first believes is the van man that Mommy keeps threatening to bring to take her away. The Young Man is very attractive and is looking for work. After a dialogue about the Young Man’s career in Hollywood it comes out that he has an inability to love anyone. About this time, Grandma realizes he is the twin of the child Mommy and Daddy mutilated. Only Grandma knows the truth about him. When Mrs.Barker enters the scene again, Grandma tells her he is the van man and they take all of her boxes out of the apartment. At this point, Grandma leaves the play and joins the audience. Only the Young Man and Mrs.Barker can see Grandma. Mommy and Daddy believe the van man has taken her away. At first, Mommy is upset by this but quickly gets over it when she meets the devishly handsome Young Man. Mommy, Daddy, Mrs.Barker, and the Young Man congregate in the apartment and the Young Man goes to “work” for Mommy and Daddy. This play ends after Mommy provocatively speaking to the Young Man and Grandma addresses the audience.

Narrative Voice: None- it is a play. But, at the end, when Grandma joins the audience, she speaks as a narrator.

Edward Albee’s Style: Throughout the play, Albee uses many literary devices. He uses both repetition and parallelism a ton. Also, he utilizes tricolon, exaggeration, metonymy, and an abundance of sarcasm and irony. Albee has a cynical perception of society and expresses it through his negative connotations. He makes an emphasis on consumerism and materialism poignant in society. Repeatedly, he criticizes marriage, gender, and power roles. The whole play is set up as Theatre of the Absurd; it consists of a plot that goes nowhere. All of Albee’s connotations and “deeper meanings” are hidden beneath the words on the page. There are many symbols in this play. They range everywhere from Grandmas boxes to Mrs.Barker. Albee uses a unique technique is which he has his characters represent symbols. For example, the Young Man directly represents the American Dream while Grandma is the old American Dream.

Quotes:

1. Mommy- “I have a right to live off of you because I married you, and because I used to let you get on top of me and bump your uglies; and I have a right to all your money when you die (67).”

 -This line from Mommy to Daddy shows Mommy’s poor character traits, the materialism ever-present in the play, and fake love. It shows how Mommy just married Daddy for his money and not for love; Mommy is a gold-digger.

2. Daddy- “Oh dear; oh dear.”

Mommy-“Well, go let them in Daddy. What are you waiting for?”

Daddy-“I think we should talk about it some more. Maybe we’ve been hasty…. A little hasty, perhaps. I’d like to talk about it some more.”

Mommy-“There’s no need. You made up your mind; you were firm; you were masculine and decisive (75).”

-This conversation between Mommy and Daddy shows both the gender roles and the power struggle in their relationship. Mommy gets Daddy to do what she wants by exposing his masculinity, or lack of it. Mommy has the powerful, masculine, almost parental role throughout the entire play. This dialogue is a perfect example of their relationship: Daddy is tentative and weak while Mommy is bossy, controlling, and the masculine figure. 

Theme: The old, honest American Dream is progressively getting misplaced by a new society concerned with consumerism.

Support for Theme: Throughout the play, Albee supports the theme that the old, honest American Dream is progressively getting misplaced by a new society concerned with consumerism. He uses Grandma as a representation of the old American Dream. She is the only honest, genuinely human character in the novel. She understands what is going on and has real love. He foils Grandma with the Young Man who represents the new age American Dream. The Young Man is devishly handsome and will do anything for money. Mommy and Daddy represent the peoples of society; they only care about appearance, material things, and have no real love for others. At the same time, there is Mrs.Baker: a “plural” character who stands for gorvernment/corportations. Her controlling, but yet uncaring ways stand for what society is turning into. The entire play is obnoxiously filled with Mommy, Daddy, and Mrs.Barker forgetting EVERYTHING. Albee repeats things over and over again and meanwhile, the characters can’t remember what happened in the last line. There is even a part when Mommy and Daddy can’t find anything in the apartment. And when I say anything, I mean anything; Daddy even looses Grandma’s room. The water even goes missing, which itself shows the pureness of the old American Dream going astray. These literal images of things being misplaced and forgot symbolize the old American Dream. The ending, where Grandma leaves, and although Mommy pretends to be upset for a few lines, she really could care less since the new handsome Young Man has appeared show the new American Dream replacing the old American Dream and society’s ignorance towards the change.