Summaries and Analyses of Lit - The American Dream

Written by Edward Albee, this play has qualities and characteristics of the Theatre of the Absurd. The entire play is set in a single room of a boring, drab apartment owned by Mommy and Daddy, two unhappy characters who have turned to superficiality and consumerism to make up for their unsatisfying life. Grandma also lives with them. She seems to be the wisest character, full of irony and wit, talking to the audience as if she knows it's a play. She also seems to understand what is going on with the Young Man who visits the apartment. Mrs. Barker also visits Mommy and Daddy. She is whom they have been waiting for all this time, having apparently set them up with their "bumble of joy" years earlier. The Young Man supposedly the "American Dream" and Grandma labels him as such. He is a beautiful boy but empty, due to the murder of his twin, which we understand to be the "bumble". He ends up staying with Mommy and Daddy, a replacement for their "lost" child, which is what Barker was called about. She uses "we" and "our" in referring to herself, indicating that she is an interchangeable character, as she is also the chairman of the woman's club Mommy saw earlier but didn't recognize now. Grandma tries to tell Mrs. Barker what happened to Mommy and Daddy's child but she doesn't understand.
There are many motifs in the play including the boxes, old people, emasculation, and rooms. There are also parallels. For example, Mommy is unsatisfied with her first hat but is then happy with the same hat. She was unsatisfied with her first child but is now happy with her second (the Young Man) because she is seeing him from a new perspective.
Some good quotes include "That's the way things are today, and there's nothing you can do about it." Daddy's line is a repeated idea, especially in the first play. They use other words like "naturally" which reinforce their belief that they cannot help their situation, everything is out of their control. Another good quote which demonstrates Grandma's role in the play, as well as reinforcing the theme of fleeting, artificial satisfaction is Grandma's line, "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."
THEME: Albee shows his audience that when people become unsatisfied in their personal lives they turn to the fleeting, artificial satisfaction of consumerism. This is what Mommy and Daddy do and Albee, through Grandma, warns his audience not to be like them.
Things that support theme:
Setting - A drab apartment. Mommy and Daddy's chairs are set apart and turned towards each other which is oddly cold and formal, suggesting an unhappy marriage.
Title - Gets the audience thinking before the play even starts about the "American Dream". Helps us see that Grandma is the old, good American Dream and the Young Man, although it isn't his fault, represents the new, superficial American Dream.
Motifs - Diction and phrases like "naturally" and "can't get satisfaction". The boxes, suggesting Grandma (the old American Dream) is leaving, giving hope to that better way of living.