Summary and Analysis of The American Dream by Edward Albee

SETTING
The American Dream, by Edward Albee, set in an urban-American apartment,  "A living room. Two armchairs, one toward either side of the stage, facing each other diagonally out toward the audience. Against the rear wall, a sofa.  A door, leading out from the apartment, in the rear wall, far stage-right. An archway, leading to other rooms, in the side wall, stage-left" (Albee 1).

CHARACTERS

• Mommy: dominating and hypocritical in nature, exemplifies the materialistic customs of her society. Degrades everyone else for her benefit, self-centered and greedy.
• Daddy: emasculated and submissive.  conforms to Mommy’s oppressive control consistently; he even undergoes a sex change on her command and depends on her for reassurance and direction.
• Grandma: witty, manipulative, old, and not oblivious. Has an intuition of the changes in society being portrayed in the play, she constantly voices her grievances. The only character that interacts with the audience.
• Mrs. Barker: proud and hypocritical, she belongs to many different organizations but does not to take any substantial action in them (emphasized by her general confusion). The representative through which Mommy and Daddy adopted their first and second "bumbles". 
• Young Man: Handsome, superficial, hollow, damaged, vindictive. The twin brother of Mommy and Daddy's first adopted child; Represents the New American Dream and is the result of Mommy's symbolic actions of mutilation and torture to his brother. 

PLOT

• The play begins with Mommy and Daddy discussing their grievances, and their difficulties in getting satisfaction. 
• Grandma enters with many mysterious boxes and the three of them begin to discuss various topics concerning societal obligation. 
• The doorbell rings and a woman named Mrs. Barker arrives, who is the head the adoption agency that Mommy and Daddy had worked with in the past. Mrs. Barker makes herself comfortable by removing her dress and exchanging subtle sexual commentary with Daddy, to which Mommy reacts defensively. 
• Apparently, the party has no idea why Mrs. Barker was called to the house, except for Grandma. 
• When Mommy and Daddy leave the room, Grandma explains to Mrs. Barker that her purpose is to legitimize a second adoption for the married couple, and also explains how the first adoptive child was mutilated to death for its normal, child-like, behavior. 
• The doorbell rings again, and the Young Man enters. Grandma labels him, The American Dream, after commenting on his “clean-cut, midwest farm boy type”. 
• Grandma then hires him and convinces Mrs. Barker to give the Young Man to Mommy and Daddy as their second adoptive child.
•  After Grandma exits on the pretense of being taken away by “the van man”, the Young Man is presented to Mommy and Daddy. A detail that is not directly explained during the play is that the Young Man is there to murder Mommy and Daddy, and it is assumed that Grandma is an instigator. 

POINT OF VIEW
As an infant, Albee was adopted into a wealthy family, where he grew to criticize the growing presence of materialism and greed in modern society. This reflects greatly on his play, The American Dream, to which his personal experience is drawn parallel and his views of Existentialism are outwardly expressed.  In addition, Albee detested his mother for being a part of the very society that he hated, and the aggressive criticism towards women in his play are a result of this.

TONE & IMAGERY
The tone of the play is rich with sardonic humor; Albee uses absurdist mediums, of unusual and unaccepted topics, to embody his basic criticisms toward the developing consumerism and greed in America, and its effects on society as a whole. In terms of the appearance of the character of the Young Man, Albee’s use of imagery and symbolism go hand in hand. The Young Man, who is beautiful on the outside, but empty on the inside is symbolic for how the new American dream is desirous but essentially lacks fundamental value.

IMPORTANT QUOTES

•  “It’s that I have no talents at all, except what you see . . . my person; my body, my face. In every other way I am incomplete, and I must therefore . . . compensate.” (76)
• Here, the Young Man is explaining to Grandma why he will do anything for money. This is important because, as a symbol of the New American Dream, the Young Man lacks all ability, other than to cater to the desires of other people. Symbolically, being created by the corruption of modern America, he recognizes his forced subservient purpose along with his intended place in society as an asset rather than an ambition.

•  “GRANDMA: ‘But then, it began to develop an interest in its you-know-what.’ MRS. BARKER: ‘In its you-know-what! Well! I hope they cut its hands off at the wrists!’” (61)
• While telling Mrs. Barker about how the “bumble of joy” was treated, she points out the absurd notion that her daughter’s society has toward parenthood. It is clear that when the baby would try to speak out, have favoritism, or experience pleasure, Mommy would prevent him from further doing so by simply removing the body part that gave him that liberty. This is a great example of how, in Albee’s eyes, the modern American people, utilize the fastest and easiest solutions available when faced with restrictions and challenges in the way of their self-satisfaction, no matter how destructive it may be.

THEME

An increased emphasis on consumerism and greed creates a tainted American Dream that will inevitably turn around and destroy its creators.

     The old American Dream, represented by Grandma, is based on morale, hard work, and determination, and is viewed by Albee as the golden mindset for the American people. However, the commodification and greed of an increasingly corrupt society destroys this, resulting in the creation a new, vindictive American dream that rises from the ashes, like how the Young Man was deeply affected by the mutilation of his twin brother. Albee uses his dark humor to highlight the two purposes of this new dream: First, to shallowly serve as a necessary commodity, conformed to the approval of the modern people, and second, to ironically serve as the means by which the same people are defeated through consequence of their reckless and selfish action.