The Dehumanizing American Dream in David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross
Keywords:
American dream, ideology, capitalism, individualism, consumerism
Abstract
The American Dream is a recurrent theme in American literature. In this response, this paper is an attempt to expose the destructive effects of the dream on the human spirit. It is also shown, through the analysis of David Mamet‟s glengarry Glen Ross, that despite the promise of the dream it contains many contradictions. Beneath the seeming simple surface of the play lies a deep current of meanings that reflect the calamities of modern American life, and in a broader sense, the modern world. This article indicates how capitalism inculcates ideologies in the mind of individuals in order to facilitate the exploiting process and unquestioning subordination. Ragged individualism, for instance, as the most prominent of these ideologies, disrupts all communal bonds and even exceeds to the disintegration of friendship and family life.Downloads
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References
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Bigsby, C. (2004). David Mamet. In C. Bigsby (Ed), The Cambridge companion to David Mamet (pp. 1-41). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Bigsby (2004). David Mamet: All true stories. In H. Bloom (Ed), Modern Critical Views: David Mamet (pp 163-202). Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publisher.
Billington, M. (1994). Mamet turns to the world of salesmen. In L. J. Trudeau (Ed.), Drama criticism, vol. 4 (pp. 229-230). Detroit: Gale.
Brucher, R. (2000). Pernicious nostalgia in Glengarry Glen Ross. In L. Kane (Ed.), David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross: Text and performance (pp. 211-225). New York: Garland Publishing Inc,.
Clarke, M. (2010). Challenging choices: Ideology, consumerism and policy. Bristol: The Policy Press.
Brietzeke, Z. (2007). American drama in the age of film. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press.
Dorff, L. (2000). Things (ex) change: The value of money in David Mamet‟s Glengarry Glen Ross. In L. Kane (Ed.), David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross: Text and Performance (pp. 195-209). New York: Garland Publishing Inc.
Ferretter, L. (2006). Louis Althusser. London: Rout-ledge.
Harriott, E. (1983). Images of America: Four con-temporary playwrights (Wilson, Shepard, Mamet, Fuller). Doctoral Dissertation, State University of New York at Buffalo. Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses database.
Hayes, C. D. (1998). Beyond the American dream: Lifelong learning and the search for meaning in a postmodern world. Wasilla, AK: Autodidactic Press.
Hayman, R. (1994). Following the lead. In L. J. Trudeau (Ed.), Drama Criticism, vol. 4 (pp. 328-329). Detroit: Gale.
Kimbal, K. (2004). Gradation of criminality in the plays of David Mamet. In L. Kane (Ed.), The art of crime: The plays and films of Harold Pinter and David Mamet (pp. 95-103). New York: Routledge.
Klaver, E. (2000). David Mamet, Jean Baudrillard and the performance of America. In L. Kane (Ed.), David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross: Text and performance (pp. 171-183). New York: Garland Publishing Inc.
Mamet, D. (1996). Glengarry Glen Ross. David Mamet: Plays: 3. London: Methuen Drama.
Nightingale, B. (1994). Is Mamet the bard of modern immorality? In L. J. Trudeau (Ed.), Drama Criticism, vol. 4, (pp. 331-333). Detroit: Gale.
Piette, A. (2004). Glengarry Glen Ross. In C. Bigsby (Ed), The Cambridge companion to David Mamet (p. 74). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Roudane, M. (2004). Betrayal and friendship: David Mamet‟s American buffalo. In C. Bigsby (Ed.), The Cambridge companion to David Mamet (pp. 57-73). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Roudane, M. (1994). Public issues, private tensions: David Mamet‟s Glengarry Glen Ross. In L. J. Trudeau (Ed), Drama Criticism, vol. 4 (pp. 334-338). Detroit: Gale.
Stafford, T. J. (2000). Visions of a promised land: David Mamet‟s Glengarry Glen Ross. In L. Kane (Ed.), David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross: Text and performance (pp. 185-194). New York: Garland Publishing Inc.
Tyson, L. (2006). Critical theory today: A user-friendly guide. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge.
Tyson, L. (1994). Psychological politics of the American dream: The commodification of subjectivity in twentieth-century American literature. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.
Published
2014-06-01
How to Cite
Sepehrmanesh, M., & Dehghani, E. (2014). The Dehumanizing American Dream in David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross. K@ta: A Biannual Publication on the Study of Languange and Literature, 16(1), 45-53. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.9744/kata.16.1.45-53
Section
Articles
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License
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