The American Dream

The Basics:

     There only a couple characters in The American Dream. There is Mommy, Daddy, and Grandma that we hear from the most in the play but there is also Mrs.Barker and The Young Man. Mommy is a materialistic and manipulative, she always seems to control Daddy and strive for satisfaction. Daddy on the other hand is very submissive to Mommy, he still tries to stand up for Grandma but easily feels emasculated. In the novel he also has an "operation" (Albee 82) which in the book symbolizes that he has had a sex change. Grandma is probably the most complicated character in the play. She acts like she is too "old" to understand yet she really understands everything that is going on and when she enters a baking competition she fools the new generation with a store bought cake. She does other things that are unique in the play, for example she sits with the audience at the end and hides everything in the house, then wraps it in boxes so everything that had to do with her is magically gone. The Young Man symbolizes the new American Dream and Grandma symbolizes the old American Dream.
    
      The setting is Mommy's and Daddy's apartment the entire play, there is never any action scenes or change in scenery. I think the author did this because we need to be focus on the meaning of what the characters are saying instead of changing the setting. The plot is that Mommy and Daddy has this "bumble" about twenty years ago and they didn't get satisfaction because the bumble (child) died so they called Mrs. Barker to get their money back. However when Mrs. Barker got there everybody seems to forget why she is suppose to be there. The young man shows up in the end and replaces the bumble so that everybody is happy, by this time Grandma ends up leaving.

Motifs:
-Gender roll swaps
-Childish behavior
-Getting Satisfaction
-Materialism/Consumerism
-Transition of the old American Dream to the new
-Shallow younger generation
-Power Struggles
-Lack of Respect, empathy, and values
-Repetition  of Language
-Wanting Conformity
-Impotence

Narrative Voice:

   When Albee writes the book from a very critical point of view. He is very weary of the new generation of Americans and seems very afraid of Women. Mommy takes on the head of the household, dominant role and Daddy has had a sex change and is constantly emasculated by Mommy. Afraid of Women taking over consumerism much? It's pretty obvious that Albee has some hidden fears of women taking over the male role in society.

There are many symbols in the play:

• Bumble- It symbolizes the child that Mommy and Daddy adopted and then ended up killing years later. The young man is the bumbles identical twin that felt everything that Mommy and Daddy did to him.
• Uncle Henry- The fact that Grandma used a man's name is significant because she has almost no gender identity in the play. "Uncle Henry" could also be used to reference Uncle Sam or the American government.
• The Wheat Hat- The discussion about if Mommy's hat was wheat or beige signifies the materialism and shallowness of the new generation or new American Dream. 
• The Boxes- Also symbolizes how shallow the new American Dream and new generation was because all the cared about is how pretty the boxes look and how nicely wrapped they were not what was inside (the old American Dream) 

Important Quotes:

"Oh my; that feels good. It's been so long since anybody implored me. Do it again. Implore me some more." (Albee 95) 
This quote is important because it shows how weird the sexual relations are in the book. First of all when Grandma is saying this to Mrs.Barker who is a women much younger than her and Mrs. Barker only wants her to tell her a story but they use weird and creepy language. It is also interesting how nobody seems to get sexual satisfaction in the play but Grandma does with Mrs. Barker in a very weird way.

"Daddy's going to blush and giggle." (Albee 79)
With all of Daddy's gender roll confusion this is a clear example,when Mommy says "blush and giggle" is a way you would describe a little girl not a husband and grown man.

"Oh, I think so. There's too much women hatred in this country, and that's a fact."(Albee 84)
I thought it was interesting when Mrs. Barker says this because Albee has in general a negative view towards women so I was surprised that he added this into the play. I think the significance is that a women is saying this quote not a man so Albee thinks women think there is too much hatred but he does not.


        Theme: The American Dream written by Edward Albee warns that the current generation of Americans has gutted the heart and soul of traditional American values and replaced them with a materialistic drive to acquire complete satisfaction.

The phrase heart and soul refers to the part in the play when they are talking about the bumble. Mommy and Daddy slowly ripped the bumble apart by taking things out they didn't like, for example when the bumble (we also never know his name) called Mommy a bad word they cut out its tongue. The mutilated the poor child just to get satisfaction. By meeting the Young Man we see that he was exactly what they wanted. He didn't have anything the bumble had because everything that happened to the bumble he felt too being a twin, all that was left in the young man was a shell. The shell or the appearance was the only thing that Mommy and Daddy wanted.

When the theme says the traditional American values were replaced this is shown with the interaction with Grandma and the Young Man. Grandma was symbolizing the old American Dream and the young man was symbolizing the new. When Grandma leaves at the end of the story and she opens the door (literally) for the Young Man, the new American dream is taking the place of the old one. The new more materialistic values are replacing more traditional ones. Gender rolls can also come into play with this as well when you talk about traditional American values as having specific expectations of men and women, but in this play they seem to be all messed up and very confusing also suggesting that the gender rolls are somewhat reversed in the new American Dream.

The play suggests the idea of the new generation being very materialistic and worried about appearances. This is shown by several examples, one of which and probably the largest example is of the Young Man, he is a shell. He is the shell they have always wanted. Another example is when Grandma has all the boxes and all Mommy and Daddy are concerned about is how the boxes look and not what is inside them.

They talk about the idea of getting "satisfaction" all throughout the book. They can't get satisfaction with the bumble or with the appliances in the apartment. They can't even get any sexual satisfaction between each other, instead there is a creepy motif of incest. When Mommy has her moral dilemma of the wheat or beige hat and she got "satisfaction", she really didn't because it was the exact same hat and she even said that. She just got satisfaction because she made a fit and bought it again, satisfaction is a materialistic and social happiness to Mommy and the new generation.