The American Dream

Author Edward Albee

Setting 1950s America (post WW2, during the rise of consumerism). The play is centered in Mommy and Daddy’s apartment, specifically the living room.

Characters

-Mommy: Daughter of Grandma. Mommy is obsessed with power and material possessions. In her relationship with Daddy, she plays the more masculine role.

-Daddy: Wife to Mommy, has many feminine characteristics.

-Grandma: represents the old American dream. Resourceful, intelligent, and VERY sarcastic (this sarcasm is lost on the other characters, however)

-Mrs. Barker: Chairman of a woman’s club that Mommy belongs to, and a part of “Bye Bye Adoption Service.” Her husband is in a wheel chair. Often referred to as “them” in the play.

-Young Man: Represents the new American dream (a beautiful but hollow shell of the old one). Communicates well with Grandma. Adopted by Mommy and Daddy.

Plot

At the beginning of the play, Mommy and Daddy are sitting in the living room, complaining about how “they” are always late. The audience discovers Mommy and Daddy need something fixed, and that they can’t get satisfaction. Mommy forces Daddy to pay attention as she tells him a pointless story about a hat she bought yesterday. Later, Grandma arrives with an armful of boxes. Mommy and Daddy focus on how beautifully-wrapped these boxes are, while Grandma couldn’t care less. After that, Mommy tells another story about the lunchbox Grandma sent her with every day when she was younger. Mommy then tells how she believes she has a right to live off of Daddy. Grandma remembering how Mommy always wanted to marry a rich man when she was younger reinforces this. Suddenly, the doorbell rings, and Mommy emasculates Daddy to get him to open the door. Mrs. Barker (a/k/a “they”) arrives, but Grandma can’t see her. She removes her dress, which turns Daddy on and makes Mommy jealous. They begin conversing, and Daddy admits that he had a sex transplant. Throughout the conversation, Daddy is unable to remember Mrs. Barker’s name, while Grandma and Mommy constantly argue. Mommy also threatens Grandma that they’ll have her carted away by a van man if she doesn’t start behaving better. Eventually, Mommy commands Daddy to go destroy Grandma’s TV. Since Daddy is gone, Mommy wants to have some “girl talk” with Mrs. Barker. However, Mrs. Barker says she feels faint and Mommy instead leaves to get her some water. While she’s gone, Grandma tells Barker a story about a woman “very much like Mommy” and a man “very much like Daddy.” According to Grandma, this man and woman adopted a child from Bye Bye Adoption Service. When the child (referred to as an “it”) didn’t do exactly what they wanted it to do, the man and woman tore it apart limb from limb. Eventually, they killed it. Mrs. Barker expresses her agreement with what the man and woman did as she hears this. Meanwhile, Mommy and Daddy are unable to find anything in the apartment. Because of this, Mrs. Barker leaves to get the glass of water herself. At this point, the Young Man enters the scene. Him and Grandma talk for a while, and Grandma tells him that he is the American Dream. The Young Man confesses that he is there looking for work. Grandma tells him that she has a lot of money from a baking contest, where she entered a cake called “Uncle Henry’s Day-Old Cake.” Upon hearing this, the Young Man confesses that he’d do anything more money, because he has no particular talents. He’s empty. He then tells the story about how he used to have a twin, but that they were separated when they were young. Then, from time to time, he would feel these twinges (e.g. his eyes burned) until one day he couldn’t feel anything anymore. As Mrs. Barker re-enters the room, Grandma makes the Young Man pretend to be the van man. Grandma leaves with her boxes, and leaves the Young Man in the house. Grandma now comes out of the play and becomes a part of the audience. Mommy and Daddy adopt the Young Man, and Mommy finally has satisfaction.

Style

-There is no narrative voice in this piece because it is a play. However, Grandma plays somewhat of a narrator towards the end because she begins to address the audience directly.

-Over all, Albee is quite critical towards the way current American society is. He portrays Mommy, the Young Man, and even Daddy as quite selfish and materialistic. After all, the Young Man is willing to do anything for money, and Mommy and Daddy rip apart and eventually kill a child. Grandma, on the other hand, is resourceful and kind.

-The imagery used in this book is especially vivid when Grandma describes how Mommy and Daddy rip the child apart. This makes the action stand out from the rest of the play. A lot of imagery is also used when the Young Man is describing how he feels nothing. Again this is used to make Albee’s point (that the new American dream is hollow) stand out.

-Albee uses symbolism heavily in The American Dream. Grandma represents the old American dream, while the young man represents the new American dream. Mrs. Barker stands in to represent government. This helps the play to be a comment on society as a whole; it makes the play bigger than itself.

Quotes

1.) “You’re turning into jelly; you’re indecisive; you’re a woman.” (Mommy to Daddy)

-This single quote sums up Mommy and Daddy’s relationship with each other. Mommy is emasculating Daddy as she says this, and also showing how masculine and controlling she is. Also, Daddy tolerates this abuse, which shows just how feminine he is.

2.) “Oh no; we’re much too efficient for that.” (Mrs. Barker to Daddy)

-Because Mrs. Barker refers to herself as “we,” this shows that she is standing in for someone bigger than herself. This emphasis on efficiency is also consistent to values of the new American society/dream.

3.) “So, let’s leave things as they are right now…while everybody’s happy…while       everybody’s got what he wants…or everybody’s got what he thinks he wants.” (Grandma to audience)

-This ending was bitter. It’s clear from this line that Mommy and Daddy are only temporarily satisfied. It’s clearly a comment on American society how nothing is ever good enough. Also, because Grandma addresses the audience, this makes her seem more relatable—who the audience should aspire to be.

Theme

People need to return to the old American dream, because the new one is materialistic and lacking real values.

This is seen quite clearly with plot and symbolism. Throughout the play, Grandma represents the old American dream, while the Young Man represents the new one. Grandma is resourceful (e.g. making thousands off of day-old cake) and kind (e.g. she wouldn’t eat dinner when Mommy was a child so Mommy could have lunch the next day). The Young Man, on the other hand, claims he’ll do anything for money and even admits that he is empty. At the end of the play, the Young Man replaces Grandma, symbolizing the replacement of the old American dream with the new one in American society. Another element that supports this is the characterization of Mommy and Daddy. They both constantly want more products for satisfaction and are never happy with what they have. The fact that they love the Young Man shows that they are pursuing the new American dream. Because they are so materialistic, this shows that the new American dream is materialistic, just like them.