Summary and Analysis of the American Dream

Edward Albee:

• Born in 1928
• Mistaken as a theater of the absurd playwright  
• Adopted and ran away from his adoptive parents
• “ I am not a gay writer. I am a writer who happens to be gay.”

Setting:

• An apartment living room with the layout of furniture described in detail
• Although set in the 60’s the play happens presently

Plot

• Mommy and Daddy sit across the living room from each other waiting for their visitor(s)
• Mommy talks about her trip to the hat store, in which she runs into the Mrs. Barker who informs Mommy that her hat is not beige, but wheat
• Mommy throws a tantrum and ends up with the same hat
• Mommy says she can get satisfaction but Daddy can not and complains about Mrs. Barker and compliments her crippled husband
• Grandma then enters with her wrapped boxes
• Characters chat and argue about old people, Mommy’s lunches as a kid, and Mommy living off of Daddy’s money
• Daddy then has a sexual experience with Mommy about opening the door while Grandma watches
• In comes Mrs. Barker a professional woman
• All characters are confused about the reason for the visit except Grandma who is constantly silenced by Mommy
• Daddy goes to break Grandma’s t.v. and Mommy goes to get water for Mrs. Barker while Grandma tells the story of Mommy and Daddy’s abused “bumble”
• Mrs. Barker is confused and Daddy and Mommy cannot find anything, not even the water
• Mrs. Barker is called to help find the water and Grandma opens the door to the Young Man who is searching for money
• Grandma has him help bring her bags downstairs and they talk about Uncle Henrys Day Old cake and his emptiness
• Grandma sends him into the apartment and she stays in the audience
• Mommy is upset for a moment that Grandma is gone but then she flirts with the Young Man
• Grandma asks the audience to change their ways

Characters:

• Mommy is controlling, superficial, and abusive
• Daddy is “whipped” by Mommy, is straight but was forced to change his reproductive organs, and is wealthy
• Grandma represents the old American Dream, she is the only person who thinks clearly and can travel between the stage and the audience, she also is sarcastic.
• Mrs. Barker is a professional woman, the chairman of Mommy’s woman’s club, and works for the Bye-Bye Adoption Service company
• Young Man represents the New American dream, hollow on the inside but has an attractive appearance

Albee’s Techniques:

• no narration, but Grandma speaks to the audience at the end
• no point of view due to lack of narration
• comedic tone that plays lightly on the darkness of the actions in the play
• From the personalities of the characters you can imagine what they look like but Albee does not state many physical characteristics except about the nicely wrapped boxes and the attractiveness of Young Man
• Symbols:
• Young Man- American Dream
• Boxes - values of the Old American Dream
• Grandma - The Old American Dream
• Hat - Superficialness

• Malapropism is used with the bumble instead of bundle when describing the “bumble” of joy, implying the foolishness of the adoption

Quotes:

“You can’t get satisfaction; just try. I can get satisfaction, but you can’t.”(62)

Here Mommy shows that Daddy will never be happy because he can never achieve satisfaction, physically since the procedure, or mentally since marrying Mommy.

“Well, that’s all that counts. People being sorry. Makes you feel better; gives you a sense of dignity, and that’s all that’s important . . . a sense of dignity.” (64)

Grandma explicitly states the Old American Dream values and is appreciative of Daddy still holding on to some of them. But she leaves as she knows that her views are no longer valued by this generation.

“Daddy? What did we call the other one?”(126)

Here Mommy and Daddy cannot remember the name of their previous child who is assumed to have recently passed. This shows their lack of real care for anything like Grandma’s departure scene.

Theme:

Edward Albee’s “American Dream” warns that the current generation of Americans has gutted the heart and soul of traditional American values and has replaced them with  a materialistic longing to acquire unattainable satisfaction.

Supporting the theme:

• The gutting of the American Dream can be shown by the literal way Mommy tore apart her adoptive son. Because of the pain she inflicted on one boy his twin brother, the American Dream, stopped feeling emotion.
• The characters’ obsession with looks shows that they are materialistic, for example Mommy purchases the same hat after throwing a temper tantrum because somebody told her it was a slightly different shade.