The American Dream

      1.  Author/Setting:  The American Dream was written by Edward Albee.  It takes place in an unspecified time, which lends itself to around the 1960's, the time Albee wrote it, seeing as he wrote it incorporating details from his time.  It could also be taken in a modern day setting, because not much happens that would define it differently.  The setting in terms of location is in Mommy and Daddy’s apartment, the action happens in the living room of said apartment, but other rooms are entered and alluded to.

      2.  Characters:  One of the main characters of this play is Mommy, a strange, outspoken, abusive woman.  She constantly harasses and emasculates Daddy, she seems to have slowly hacked a young boy to pieces, and she often insults her mother.  Daddy is another main character, he is Mommy’s husband and has next to no self-esteem left after living with her for years.  This makes him a quiet uncertain character, the exact opposite of Mommy.  Grandma is a very important character because she breaks the fourth wall multiple times during the play.  She is also important because though she often acts as outlandishly as the others she’s the only one that the reader or audience can relate to.  Grandma is a symbol for the old American Dream.  Mrs. Barker is the outside force that causes things to happen in Mommy and Daddy's lives.  She is the president of Mommy's Women's Club, and the president of the Bye-Bye Adoption agency where Mommy and Daddy adopt their child.  The Young Man is also a significant character, he is the twin of the child Mommy and Daddy adopted, mutilated, and killed.  He appears to have lost all emotion by feeling what was happening to his twin, which makes him a symbol for the new American Dream.

      3.  Plot: In The American Dream we see Mommy and Daddy in a very unhappy marriage with neither party being at all satisfied.  They seem to believe that a woman named Mrs. Barker is the answer to their problems.  When Mrs. Barker comes by no one really knows why she’s there, but you later learn that her agency was where they adopted their first son from, and we see that they are attempting to adopt another child after murdering the last one.  Along the way to this understanding Grandma rants about how people treat old people, and we meet a young man who appears to be the twin of the first son.  Grandma is the only one who puts the pieces together, and is the reason why the audience can put them together as well.  In the end the young man decides to stay with Mommy and Daddy, even though he is a legal adult and for the moment everyone is satisfied.

      4.  Quotes:  “I no longer have the capacity to feel anything. I have no emotions. I have been drained, torn asunder disemboweled. I have, now, only my person, my body, my face.” –Young Man.  This is a very significant quote.  In this quote we see some of the ideas of the new American dream, and how the old American dream would feel about it.  It shows consumerism and the concept of the remoteness of this new American dream.  “That’s the way things are today; you just can’t get satisfaction; you just try.” – Daddy.  This quote again shows the commentary on the new American dream.  It sahows that no matter how promising the new dream looks it will still never be as fulfilling as the old dream.

      5.  Theme Sentence:  The meaning of this play is that to have a truly fulfilling life you can’t rely on the current whims of society, or let consumerism rule your life.  The title of the play promotes the idea that there can only be one “American dream” at a time which shows the idea that everyone should have this cookie cutter life but the way the characters speak shows a mockery of that cookie cutter life, showing us that it isn’t something we should strive for.  We also see this theme in the symbolism of the hat Mommy buys.  When Mommy buys the same hat twice due to the idea that the color is off because there is a difference between beige, wheat, and cream, we again see a mockery being made of societies consumerism.  The imagery of Grandma being the old dream and the Young Man being the new American dream is how we see that the so called “American dream” is just the current whim of society.  It’s so changeable that there are two different dreams within the span of a generation.