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AMERICAN DREAMERS
MATERIALISM, SELF-INTEREST AND TRAGIC CONSEQUENCES
Take that money. Watch it burn. Sink in the river. The lessons are learned…
AMERICAN DREAMERS MATERIALISM, SELF-INTEREST AND TRAGIC - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
AMERICAN DREAMERS MATERIALISM, SELF-INTEREST AND TRAGIC - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
AMERICAN DREAMERS MATERIALISM, SELF-INTEREST AND TRAGIC CONSEQUENCES Take that money. Watch it burn. Sink in the river. The lessons are learned Money .. You say it long enough it doesnt mean anything Every man does have a star. The
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Money.. You say it long enough it doesn’t mean anything… Every man does have a star. The star of one's honesty.
Jim Bayliss (Act Three, 79-80) SLIDE 4
FAILURE OF THE
HOW FAR DO YOU THINK THE PLAY ILLUSTRATES
AMERICAN
DREAM
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THE DREAMERS CHA-CHING
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THE GOOD LIFE
BETTER RICHER FULLER
THE DEFINITION IS PROBLEMATIC
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dehumanising the individual and transforming the American Dream into a nightmare.
The play can be read as a denouncement of a competitive, capitalistic society responsible for
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I would love to help humanity on a Warner Brothers salary.
Jim Bayliss (Act One, 7) SLIDE 9
NATURALISTIC STYLE
The play has to connect with its audience because it is about its audience, whether post-war America or modern-day Singapore, and their materialism, their self-interest.
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THE SUBURBS
Familiar scenes of middle class America
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SETTING
The Kellers’ 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). SLIDE 12
EVERYBODY’S GOT A PRICE
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LANGUAGE OF
MONEY
The opening scene is tinted by the
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MONEY, SALARY, GOODS, PROPERTY
Want ads High prices paid Make a living All the kind of business Toaster, malted mixer Money, money, money, money…
AN ABUNDANCE OF ALLUSIONS TO
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Are all of Miller’s characters also ‘too.. realistic’?
LOMAN
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EVERYBODY’S GOT A PRICE
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SLIDE 17 COSTS ‘THREE WEEKS SALARY’ A MARK OF CONSUMER SOCIETY
ANN’S DRESS
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Bayliss
Jim and Sue
‘Come and see what we did with’ the house ‘You’ve got to give up your life’
Domestic Comforts
VS
Medical Research
For ten dollars..
Symbols of compromise & material bliss? SLIDE 19
JOE KELLER
‘Build you a HOUSE... I had one of the best SHOPS... BIGGER than ever’ SLIDE 20
[Frank] has three children and his house paid off. Stop being a philosopher, and look after yourself... [Joe will] help you get set, and find you a girl and put a smile on your face.
Kate Keller (Act Two, 67)LUBEYS REPRESENT THE AMERICAN DREAM
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LOOK AFTER YOURSELF!
SMILE
Does the play call for us to relinquish our ‘big principles’? SLIDE 22
I WONDER HOW THEY SLEEP AT NIGHT
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TRAGIC END
IS THE ENDING IS 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.
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WE DON’T NEED YOUR MONEY X3
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- 1. AS THE CHRIST-LIKE FIGURE
CLOSEST TO THE PLAY’S VALUES
CHRIS
- 2. AS A CONTRAST TO MILLER’S
MATERIALISTIC CHARACTERS?
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ideals
values
J u x t a p
- s
i t i
- n
Chris elevates
- ver
MORAL
MATERIAL
R e s e n t f u l t
- n
e E x u l t a n t t
- n
e
SLIDE 27 Chris Keller (Act One, 38)
I felt... ashamed somehow. I felt wrong to be alive, to
- pen the bank-book, to
drive the new car, to see the new refrigerator.
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Inc.
Christopher Keller
CHRIS’S DISGRACE A SYMBOL OF ILL-GOTTEN GAINS AND HIS OWN COMPLICITY. SLIDE 29
(a little uneasily) J. O. Keller is good enough. (touched) I will, Dad.
I went to work with Dad, and that rat-race again. I felt—what you said— ashamed somehow. No, don’t feel that [I’m ashamed].
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A CONTRADICTORY
TENTATIVENESS
IN LANGUAGE AND ACTION
WHOSE INNER CONFLICT IS PLAYED OUT IN HIS
CHRIS
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AMERICAN DREAM
Oh Annie, Annie... I’m going to MAKE A FORTUNE for you!
CHRIS SPEAKS THE LANGUAGE OF THE
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WE NEED TO TAKE IT BACK IN TIME
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(putting her arms around him) Oh, Chris, I’ve been ready a long, long time.
Annie, we're going to live now! I'm going to make you so happy.
I’m going to make a fortune for you!
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THE FUTURE CONTINUOUS TENSE AND USE OF ‘NOW’ REVEAL CHRIS TO BE ANOTHER ‘LOW MAN’ CONSUMED BY THE AMERICAN DREAM.
SLIDE 35 Chris Keller (Act One, 17)
If I have to grub for money all day long... I want it beautiful. I want a family, I want some kids, I want to build something I can give myself to.
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I want to build something I can give myself to.
CHRIS KELLER
I took it for you.. When would I have another chance to make something for you?
Chris and Keller are alike in their motivation. Both strive in the name of family ‘for you’.
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YOU CAN’T PUT A PRICE ON LIFE
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TRAGIC
HERO
CHRIS
A S TH E P L AY ’ S
It is Chris’s hamartia that indirectly causes his father’s death We can consider Chris’s idealism or righteousness his hamartia SLIDE 39
MILLER’S TRAGIC HERO CONFRONTS HIS FAULTS AND ‘SPITS ON’ HIMSELF FOR PARTICIPATING IN THE AMERICAN DREAM
CHRIS’S
ANAGNORISIS
SLIDE 40 DEHUMANISATION - ANIMAL IMAGERY
IF I WERE
HUMAN
ANYMORE
A ZOO, A LAND OF GREAT BIG DOGS SLIDE 41
I’M PRACTICAL. THAT’S THE PRINCIPLE. THE ONLY ONE WE LIVE BY.
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CHRIS LATER REPUDIATES HIS FATHER AND CALLS FOR HIM TO BE ‘BETTER’
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YOU CAN’T PUT A PRICE ON LIFE (PT 2)
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REMORSE
KELLER FEELS NO SUCH
JOE
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I don’t know what you mean! You wanted money, so I made money. What must I be forgiven? You wanted money, didn’t you?
Joe Keller (Act Three, 84) SLIDE 46
FAMILY LOYALTY
Keller’s ‘pragmatism’ is not self-interested. Just MISGUIDED? SLIDE 47
A SYMPATHETIC VIEW Keller as the everyman
‘Half the goddam country’ is guilty too. Sacrifices for the family, not pure self-interest. The audience can offer Keller some compassion.
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WHY IS EVERYONE SO OBSESSED?
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Half of my patients are quite
- mad. Nobody realises how
many people are walking loose, and they're cracked as coconuts. Money. Money —money—money—money. You say it long enough it doesn't mean anything…
Jim Bayliss (Act Three, 79) SLIDE 50
GREEK CHORUS
PROVIDES SOCIAL COMMENTARY
AUTHORIAL VOICE
JIM BAYLISS
Seemingly on his ‘mad’ patients Actually on post-war America
THE ROLE OF AS
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WE PAY WITH LOVE TONIGHT
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SLIDE 52 THE PLAY IS PERHAPS BOTH AN INDICTMENT
AND A SERMON ABOUT OUR PERFECTIBILITY.
CAN WE BE
BETTER?
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Son
FORGIVE
H O LYFamily