Summaries and Analyses of Literature: The American Dream

The American Dream
by Edward Albee
It takes place in a middle class apartment's living room. There are two chairs, facing diagonally and only slightly toward each other. A sofa separates them. There are doors leading to other rooms visible. It's set in the mid 1900s. 


Mommy is a dominant, yet childish figure. She's often harsh to the others, talking down to Daddy and insulting Grandma. 
Daddy is emasculated by Mommy, often looking to her for approval. He's more kind to Grandma, apologizing several times. 
Grandma is Mommy's mother. She generalizes what "old people" do in many of her monologues, speaking for the whole generation. 
Young Man is the twin of M and D's old baby, and suffered the mutilation they caused to their past baby. He's handsome, but empty of emotion and focused on money.
Mrs. Barker holds an air of official authority. She's the head of both M's Women's Club and the adoption agency, but also holds aspects of both the government (her "Ladies' Auxiliary Air Raid Committee) and a prostitute (she's a "professional woman," and excites D).


The play opens with M and D talking to each other. They're waiting for a guest. M talks about a shopping trip the day before with a hat conflict. She bought a beige hat, but Mrs. Barker calls it wheat. M goes back to the store with a tantrum, content once they give her the same hat again. Throughout the story, she tests D to see if he's listening. He is, repeating her last few lines when prompted. G enters with boxes, and the three talk in a stream of consciousness fashion, going between M's childhood (a time that seems like the recent past but, going by the Young Man's age later in the scene, is several years back) and the present. The conflicts between the characters- G's displacement, M's dominance over D- become apparent. Mrs. Barker, the guest they were waiting for, arrives. Once M and D are out of the room, G tells Mrs. Barker about M and D's past adoption in "hints"- telling of a story "like" the one Mrs. Barker was involved in. Mrs. Barker doesn't understand the explanation. Soon after, Young Man arrives. YM describes feeling his old twin's mutilations and his loss of feeling. He plays the van man for G, then takes on the role of M and D's new son, who they are delighted with. G, after stepping out of the frame of the stage, addresses the audience. She wraps up the play while "everybody's  got what he wants."


Albee's style is absurdist, but heavy with meaning; it seems superficial and nonsensical, but a lot happens within the figurative realm. 
The point of view eventually becomes Grandma's, to a small extent. While she isn't on stage in the first conversation, she becomes the closest to the audience. She's stays somewhat removed from M and D's nonsense, alienated by them with their talk of the van man and her own age. She becomes the closest thing the play has to a narrator later on, manipulating the ending to a satisfactory one and breaking the fourth wall.
The characters' conversations are light, yet often use dramatic language in generalities. G talks for all old people, and D claims that the lack of satisfaction is "the way things are these days." Their words end up sounding quite shallow sometimes, and layered others.
The room's separated chairs- and M and D's choice to sit on them, instead of the sofa- show the lack of intimacy that has risen between them. The room's average appearance grounds the play for the audience.


Grandma's boxes- everything of value, largely old sentimental things, are leaving with G
Grandma- she's the old american values
Young Man- new and shallow values of consumerism


"And Masculine? Was I really Masculine?"
D looks to M for confirmation; the traditional gender roles have been reversed. Albee's arguing that that's unnatural.
"They wanted satisfaction; they wanted their money back."
The new values support an obsession with consumerism. With its ties to M's hat situation, this quote suggests that that is also an obsession with power and attention.
"The American Dream! The American Dream! Damn it!"
This is G's recognition that this new American Dream, the YM, will replace her. It's directly responding to Mommy asking who's at the door.


The new society and its values are deformed- they're pretty, but emotionally handicapped, pushing away true satisfaction.

• the average setting applies it to the audience, broadening the claim to the real world's new society
• the far apart chairs and lack of intimacy mean something's wrong with this new time
• characters of this time are childlike, not fully developed (they change the baby so that it can't be fully developed, too)
• ^ treat a child as an object, want complete control
• ^ M's tantrum and D's subservience are shown as problems, too- feminism, to Albee, is unnatural
• Grandma identifies YM as the new "American Dream," and he replaces her. 
• ^the trade of power goes from a relatively strong character to a mutilated one