Open Prompt Response - 10/31

2002, Form B. Often in literature, a character's success in achieving goals depends on keeping a secret and divulging it only at the right moment, if at all. Choose a novel or play of literary merit that requires a character to keep a secret. In a well-organized essay, briefly explain the necessity for secrecy and how the character's choice to reveal or keep the secret affects the plot and contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole. You may select a work from the list below, or you may choose another work of recognized literary merit suitable to the topic. Do NOT write about a short story, poem, or film.

            An audience or reader can see great reward in knowing a character’s secret, especially when that secret reveals something monumental in the work. Albee’s The American Dream contains many revealing moments, and these allow the audience to see a greater meaning in his story. Grandma sheds light on certain secrets throughout the play, a choice that shows vividly Albee’s disdain for the changed nature of American society, and his belief that the American Dream has been butchered over time.

            The characters of The American Dream act extremely ignorant throughout the play’s beginning, often questioning their own reason for being there. Mrs. Barker’s appearance only confuses them further, and the question for most of the plot is the point of her arrival. The fact that none of the characters are able to specifically pinpoint why she’s there makes them all look foolish, and begins to create questions in the audience’s mind over why Albee would depict them in such a light. This questioning is key to his motives; he sets the audience up for an answer later on that will leave no doubt in their mind as to his beliefs.

            Grandma tells Mrs. Barker, in a roundabout fashion, Barker’s reason for being there towards the end of the play. Albee chooses this odd “hinting” method of reveal for two reasons: one, to make Barker look even more unintelligent; and two, to allow the audience to come to their own conclusions. It’s not overtly obvious the reason for Barker’s being even after the secret is revealed, but most of the audience will understand the brutal analogy he uses for the battered American Dream after Grandma shares it the story with Mrs. Barker.

            Albee’s views are made much more clear through Grandma’s reveal of this secret. Her story of people “very much like Mommy and Daddy” visiting “a lady very much like Mrs. Barker” to adopt a baby, and subsequently murdering this baby, are all analogous to a theoretical murder of the American Dream. The fact that Mommy and Daddy, the audience is informed, have called Mrs. Barker to give them a new baby, so that they can “get satisfaction” is Albee’s sarcastic commentary on the superficial consumerism that now plagues American life. This meaning would be left obscured had Grandma not revealed the secret as she did.

            The American Dream has a confusing plot that is combined with odd character interactions that can lead to many possible meanings. The secret that Grandma reveals about Mommy and Daddy’s murdered baby is revealing of Albee’s true intentions with his play, and makes his meaning much easier for the audience to understand.