AMERICAN DREAMERS MATERIALISM, SELF-INTEREST & TRAGIC CONSEQUENCES
Money ..you say it long enough it doesn’t mean anything..every man does have a star. The star of one's honesty.
How far do you agree that the play illustrates the failure of the American Dream?
The American Dream � The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately… It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable... James Truslow Adams, Epic of America (1931)
You could say I’m a dreamer (pg2) THE IDEA OF A GOOD LIFE; BETTER RICHER FULLER IS PROBLEMATIC
Suburban middle-class life Naturalistic style
SETTING THE KELLER HOME IS A SUBURBAN IDYLL CLEARLY DEFINED BY ITS MONETARY VALUE ‘It would have cost perhaps fifteen thousand in the early twenties when it was built’ (3).
Page 3 Page 3 EVERYBODY’S GOT A PRICE
AN ABUNDANCE OF ALLUSIONS TO MONEY, SALARY, GOODS, PROPERTY
Page 3 EVERYBODY’S GOT A PRICE
JOE KELLER ‘Build you a HOUSE...I had one of the best SHOPS…BIGGER than ever’
LUBEYS REPRESENT THE AMERICAN DREAM KATE KELLER , ACT TWO (67)
SMILE. LOOK AFTER YOURSELF !
Page 4 I WONDER HOW THEY SLEEP AT NIGHT
TRAGIC END. Is the ending the message? The moon is strong and casts its bluish light. The destruction of the Keller family might serve as a WARNING against the AMERICAN DREAM .
Page 5 IT’S NOT ABOUT THE MONEY, MONEY, MONEY
I felt…ashamed somehow. I felt wrong to be alive, to open the bank- book, to drive the new car, to see the new refrigerator. CHRIS KELLER, ACT ONE (38)
CHRIS’S DISGRACE CHRISTOPHER KELLER A symbol of ill-gotten gains and his complicity.
Page 6 WE NEED TO TAKE IT BACK IN TIME
HOW DOES THE USE OF GRAMMATICAL TENSES DEPICT CHRIS’S BELIEFS AND PRIORITIES? IS THERE A SHIFT? � CHRIS : Annie, we're going to live now ! I'm going to make you so happy . ( He kisses her ...) (Act One, 37) � ANN: Because you have a right to whatever you have. Everything, Chris, understand that? To me, too... And the money, there's nothing wrong in your money. Your father put hundreds of planes in the air, you should be proud. A man should be paid for that… � CHRIS: Oh Annie, Annie... I'm going to make a fortune for you! (Act One, 38)
CHRIS: I want to build something I can give KELLER: I took it for myself to. you … When would I have another chance to make something for you ? Both Keller and Chris are alike in their motivation. Both strive in the name of family ‘for you’.
YOU CAN’T PUT A PRICE ON LIFE (pg7)
CHRIS’S ANAGNORISIS
IF I WERE HUMAN ANYMORE
YOU CAN’T PUT A PRICE ON LIFE (pg7-8)
JOE KELLER FEELS NO SUCH REMORSE
CAN WE BE BETTER?
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