You know, I actually kinda miss this play...

1984. Select a line or so of poetry, or a moment or scene in a novel, epic poem, or play that you find especially memorable. Write an essay in which you identify the line or the passage, explain its relationship to the work in which it is found, and analyze the reasons for its effectiveness.

Edward Albee’s play The American Dream is his criticism of the formation of a new ideal, a new dream that came to popularity in the 1950s and 1960s. Albee uses Grandma and the Young Man to showcase the differences in the old American dream of hard work and real values and the new American dream of having money and artificial values. One line from the Young Man provides the most obvious statement of these differences: “I'll do almost anything for money" (109).

At this point in the play, Grandma and the Young Man are talking about what kind of work the Young Man is looking for. Up to this point, the audience has only seen glimpses of Albee’s criticism of the new American dream through Mommy and Daddy’s commodification of everything in their life. Neither of them has outright said they are looking to be wealthy, but comments about “satisfaction” and Mommy only marrying Daddy for his money have left the audience with the sense that they are money-seeking, corrupt people. When they adopt the Young Man, after he says this line, and appear to finally be satisfied, it is clear to the audience that money is the driving force in Mommy and Daddy’s lives.

The Young Man’s line was effective when Albee first wrote the play, and in the years since then, the line has become more effective, but only on the surface. The Young Man as a character is devoid of feeling and as a result is sometimes difficult to relate to, and this line only enforces that at first. The idea of doing anything for money is preposterous to most audiences. When it becomes clear that this line was Albee’s big strike against the American dream and way of life, the audience’s first reaction is to take offence. The line takes an accusatory tone, suggesting the American people will do anything for money. However, instead of taking to heart what Albee is saying and changing their ideas of happiness and success to better reflect the old American dream, audiences shrug off accusation assuming Albee could not be talking about them specifically. This enforces the idea that the Young Man’s line is only effective on a surface level.

Albee’s use of his characters to represent the differences in the new and old American dreams helps the audience relate to the message Albee is suggesting. Although the Young Man seems impossible to relate to for most of the play, when he says, “I’ll do almost anything for money,” the audience is forced to consider what they would do for money and if they are more like the Young Man than they thought they were.