Open prompt revision 2

2007.

 The old saying “If at first you don’t succeed, try try again” has little merit if one does not also learn from their mistakes. In The American Dream, Mommy and Daddy have had a dreadful experience with adopting a child, yet they attempt to go through it again, asking for the same instant gratification they requested before. Mommy and Daddy’s inability to come to terms with the past causes them to continue to pursue a conformist american dream and not be able to achieve satisfaction, and also represents the growing problem in America at the time.

White picket fences with two point five kids are the traditional images of the american dream. Daddy and Mommy have fallen prey to this and it results in them being compelled to adopt another child. Mommy is the biggest culprit to conformity as seen in her escapades in buying a hat. She needed to be on the same page with the chair of her woman’s club even if it meant causing a large amount of trouble for another human being. After the first child adoption went horribly wrong a normal person would most likely decide to not have another child, but Mommy is dead set on having her satisfaction, because she feels the need to be in line with the classic view of the American dream.

While Mommy and Daddy flounder around trying to gain happiness, the other person under their roof has found it. Though being constantly persecuted for her way of life, Grandma has found a weird sense of content with her situation. This is because she does not shift her opinion or way of life based on what those around her believe, she lives her life the way she wants to and gains happiness from it. Mommy and Daddy do not do this and therefore are always struggling to be satisfied, even though they have failed multiple times. They continually feel empty as evidenced by the continual inability to reach satisfaction with mundane things such as appliances failing. It even causes them to mistreat the one sane individual who is able to learn and adapt, so much so that she leaves the household. Instead of re-evaluating their lives though, they continually try to appease this faux american dream.

The inability to learn from the past has caused Mommy and Daddy to not be able to reach proper fulfillment in there lives. Albee clearly makes the point that until individuals act on their own will, they will never be happy, and that society must learn from other individuals failures in order to succeed.