Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Edward Albee was an American playwright known for his Absurdist dramas. He won Pulitzer prizes for three of his dramas; A Delicate Balance (1967), Seascape (1975), and Three Tall Women (1994). He also won two Tony Awards for his plays 'Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf' (1967) and ‘The Goat, Or Who is Sylvia?’ (2003).
The Zoo Story was his first play that he wrote in 1958 and it was performed in 1959. The play can be understood as a criticism of the American Dream. The American Dream is a belief that any person can become successful in American society regardless of the wealth or economic status they were born into. People in America can always rise to the top of society through hard work and sacrifice and by taking risks rather than just pure chance. Freedom and equality are essential components of the American Dream. Just like Arthur Miller’s ‘The Death of a Salesman’, Albee’s ‘The Zoo Story’ is a strong rebuttal of the American Dream which explores the themes of isolation, loneliness, miscommunication as anathematization, social disparity, and dehumanization in a materialistic world. In addition, the play also highlights the controversy regarding the rights of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer community in America during the 20th century.
Characters of The Zoo Story:
The Zoo Story is a one-act play that includes only two appearing characters. Peter is a publishing executive and family man in his early forties, Peter is reading in Central Park when he is interrupted by a stranger. Their conversation, which eventually escalates into violence, is the centerpiece of The Zoo Story. Peter embodies convention and propriety and seems to have achieved the American Dream. Jerry eccentric transient in his late thirties, Jerry lives in poverty on the Upper West Side and is profoundly lonely. He lost his parents when he was too young and his only romantic relationship was with a boy of the same age when he was a teenager. This loneliness drives him to seek companionship from strangers; that companionship is ostensibly what he seeks from Peter. Jerry is contemplative and critical of society, and he is eager to share his opinions about life, love, and isolation with Peter.
Summary of The Zoo Story:
It is a One-Act play that takes place on a Sunday afternoon in Central Park of New York City. Peter is an upper-middle-class family man and publishing executive in his mid-forties. He is reading a book quietly on a park bench, as he does every Sunday. He is interrupted by Jerry, a sloppily dressed transient in his late thirties who approaches him and announces that he is coming from the Central Park Zoo. Peter doesn’t know him and despite Peter’s apparent reluctance to chat, Jerry insists on striking up a conversation. Peter doesn’t understand why this stranger has chosen to talk to him, but after trying unsuccessfully to return to his book, he begins to engage. Jerry is lonely and desperate for a connection with another person. Jerry quickly becomes an annoyance, with his boisterous personality and his disruption of Peter’s quiet time. He rambles on, telling Peter that smoking will cause him cancer and suggests that having cats rather than dogs is a sign of being effeminate. Jy continues to bring up the zoo repeatedly, suggesting that something mysterious happened at the zoo.
Peter is still sitting on the bench while Jje is still standing nearby. Jerry predicts that Peter is not satisfied with his personal life. He says that Peter wishes to have sons and dogs. Peter isn’t comfortable with such personal talks with a stranger and when Jerry notices it, he apologizes. Jerry says that he doesn’t talk to a lot of people, but that when he does he likes to “get to know somebody, know all about him.” Jerry continues to ask Peter questions about his life, his job, and his interests. Peter tells Jerry that he works in textbook publishing and lives in a nice apartment on the Upper East Side. Jerry tells Peter that he traveled all over New York City to approach the zoo from the right direction—because “sometimes a person has to go a very long distance out of his way to come back a short distance correctly.” Peter too begins guessing about Jerry and says that he might be living in Greenwich Village. Jerry retorts and says that his guess is wrong. Jerry tells him about his miserable apartment in a flophouse on the Upper West Side. He describes his unsavory neighbors and the junk that comprises his possessions – including two empty picture frames. When Peter asks about the picture frames, Jerry explains that he is alone in life. His parents died when he was young, and his only significant romantic relationship was a short liaison he had with another boy when he was a teenager.
Jerry again begins telling Peter about his trip to the zoo but is sidetracked into telling Peter about his landlady, a drunken woman who constantly propositions him. He says that the landlady drinks too much and often comes on to him. Peter is disgusted and comments that it is “hard to believe that people such as that really are.” Jerry tells him that the landlady recently got a dog. Jerry tried to befriend it, but the dog responded only by attacking him. After repeated and repudiated attempts at friendship, Jerry decided to murder the dog by feeding it a poisoned hamburger patty. Although this sickened the dog, it eventually recovered and began to simply leave him alone.
Peter is shocked by these revelations and wonders why Jerry is telling him all this. Jerry tells him that he uses people’s pets as a way to try to start friendships with other people. Peter tries to leave and says he didn’t comprehend his story about the dog. Jerry accuses Peter of lying, insisting that he must understand because Jerry explained everything as clearly as he could. Peter says that he didn’t mean to offend and begins to get up from the bench and leave. However, Jerry resists him and begins to tickle him. Peter is shocked at this physical touch and falls into hysterics, laughing and saying that he must leave as his “parakeets will be getting dinner ready… the cats are setting the table.” Peter sits back and calms down. Jerry says that he went to the zoo to understand how animals and people live calmly in the zoo. He further says that he was disappointed by noticing that all these animals remain separated by bars from everyone else. He then pokes at Peter’s arm and tells him to move aside on the bench so that he may also sit.
Jerry keeps punching Peter and ordering him to “MOVE OVER!,” even when Peter is crowded on one end of the bench. Peter gets angry and, as Jerry gets more violent, begins to yell for the police. Jerry mocks Peter, calling him a “vegetable.” Peter is aware that Jerry’s conduct is irrational, but for some reason finds himself feeling possessive of the bench that was “his” before Jerry arrived. Jerry pulls out a knife and says that the two of them should fight. Peter is surprised by this and refuses. Jerry then gives the knife to Peter who holds it as if protecting himself. Upon seeing this Jerry runs at Peter and into the knife. Jerry loses control at this point but then becomes calm and he accepts that death is upon him. He thanks Peter and as his life leaves him, he wipes Peter’s fingerprints off the knife handle so that Peter will not be accused of his murder. Before anyone might pass by and see the dying Jerry, Peter retrieves his book and leaves.
Jerry’s death may appear as a sudden accident but it is foreshadowed throughout the play and is the logical result of his personality and behavior. In telling Peter his life story, Jerry reveals that he is poor, socially isolated, and haunted by a traumatic past — three factors that, then as now, put individuals at risk for suicide. He also demonstrates rapid mood swings and a high level of impulsiveness. These qualities are evident most prominently in the dog story, in which Jerry rapidly shifts from liking the dog to wanting to murder it, but they manifest throughout the story, including when he insists that Peter fight him for space on the bench.
There are a variety of possible explanations for Jerry’s choice to involve Peter in his suicide. Social isolation and alienation are the dominant forces of Jerry's life, they might be his prime motivation for wanting to die. And yet, even so, it is interesting that he feels compelled to involve someone else in the act. Certainly, this inclusion could be the result of an unconscious desire, one that he might not have the strength to carry through himself. Jerry’s behavior may appear absurd but it seems far more deliberate than an unconscious impulse would explain, as if he planned his own murder while affirming that Peter remains free of any accusation. While guessing that Peter too isn’t satisfied with his life, Jerry suggests that the American dream isn’t proving true to Peter either, however, Jerry himself is the poster boy of the failure of the American dream.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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