Modernism Postmodernism - Mamet and Millers Works - Essay Example

Modernism, Post Modernism and Tragedy in Mamet and Miller’s Works As the times change, so does the culture and the values that the people hold to be important. The beginning of the twentieth century till the current time is the modern era. More particularly, the first half of the twentieth century was the modern era and the second half was the postmodern era. It is the literature written during these periods which show the various cultural values, traditions, beliefs and morals that the people then followed. One of the most common themes of that time was the American dream. Every citizen wanted his business to be successful so that he would be financially stable and be able to take care of his family’s needs, however, the plan for living a stable and peaceful life backfired because their ambitions rose to the point that they were willing to take the wrong path to earn money. The impact that this great dream had on the American society is depicted in Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” which was later followed by David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross”. Miller’s play implies that these dreams are wrong, his view and writing style show that his is a modern work. Mamet’s plot, however, shows how the dream may be seen from another perspective during the postmodern period. When comparing both the works, we can see that in “Death of a Salesman”, the characters still think that having faith and hope and dreams matters. They have not completely turned into automatons who tune out everything that does not bring them money. On the other hand, the Americans in “Glengarry Glen Ross” do not seem to care about these ideals. Their sole aim in life is to get as rich as possible regardless of what steps they would have to take to accomplish that. The literature written in the modern era shows the lives of the amassed common men. The number of industries in the country increased, resulting in the American economy reaching great heights. However, this improvement in the financial state of the country was only for the benefit of the wealthy. They grew even richer whilst those of the lower class turned even poorer. These common men had everyday jobs such as being salesmen who went from door to door in hopes that someone would buy what they were offering to sell. Nevertheless, the well-to-do businessmen were still not happy with the amount of money that they had, they wanted more and they put the pressure on their employees, which resulted in the development of labor unions and an increase in revolts by the workers. This is also shown in the books of the time including Miller’s play. In “Death of a Salesman”, Willy Loman is the protagonist who works as a travelling salesman. He “is raised from the parameters of regionalism and ethnic specificity to the level of the more purely, symbolically ‘American’” (Oates). He has ambitions to reach the American dream which is a corrupted system where family or personal joy holds no value, and all that one is judged is on the amount of money one has. However, Loman is so starry-eyed over it that he turns a blind eye on what really is happening around him. His blindness affects his family and especially his relationship with his eldest son. He does realize though that in the past, his work got him “respect, and comradeship, and gratitude” but now it was “all cut and dried” (Miller 58). He spent all his life working for another until he is fired which makes him even more mentally weak. His life ends in tragedy when he commits suicide so that his son Biff can use the insurance money to open his business – which does not actually exist – and make his father’s dream come true. Since Loman could not get rich enough to make an investment, he gives up his life. However, the younger Loman says that his father “had the wrong dreams” (Miller 103). This insinuates that the father was on the wrong track and the son would not be. The postmodern period was prompted by the Second World War. The atrocities that were committed left a deep mark in the hearts and minds of the people. Their outlook to everything changed completely because of all the terrible things that they had witnessed. Seeing the number of people dying also led to their faith in god being weakened enough so that the scientific explanation of things could take over, there was no hope at all. People stopped trusting each other and only focused on themselves. This resulted in a drastic change in their morals, and the idea of right and wrong. Postmodernism did not “lament the idea of fragmentation, provisionality, or incoherence, but rather celebrate(d) that” (Klages). Earlier, money had been a want but other things mattered too. However, all that the people now focused on was earning more money; they did not care about relationships with god or man. The new theories also made them realize that everyone’s perception of things varied depending on their thoughts, feelings and experiences. All this is portrayed in Marnet’s play “Glengarry Glen Ross”. It is about the real estate agents: Levene, Roma, Moss and Aaronow, and their head Williamson who sell badly built estates at exorbitant prices. They do “not value people as individuals, but only as resources for profit” and they are willing to earn it through unethical means including cheating, lying, stealing and even bribing (Cullick 23). They set up a contest whose terms are that the person to sell the most real estate will get a Cadillac as the prize. Everyone wants to win the competition and they will do anything in their power to get what they want. Roma quite easily summarizes all that the book shows, how the world has no “absolute morality” and that the every man was responsible for his own destiny (Mamet 33). He talks about how all of them have turned to the immoral path because there is no one on the higher order to punish them for committing bad deeds since they no longer have faith in god. All the characters are constantly acting, waiting for the right moment to pounce in to get the best piece of whatever is available, and there is no love lost between them. Through their own subtle and not-so-subtle manner, the plays pan out how the modern era turned into postmodern. The former is all about bright and shiny dreams when the people were full of hope and craved a successful life. The latter, however, shows how time changes and so do priorities of things in people’s lives. The postmodern era had people who no longer believe in reaching great heights through honest means, their morals no long mattered, they just wanted their result: lots of money. Works Cited Cullick, Jonathan S. "“Always Be Closing”: Competition and the Discourse of Closure in David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross." Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism 8.2 (1994): 23 - 36. 23 Apr. 2014. Klages, Mary. "Postmodernism." n.d. Willamette University. University of Colorado, Boulder. 24 April 2014 . 23 Apr. 2014. Mamet, David. Glengarry Glen Ross. 1983. PDF file. 23 Apr. 2014. Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. 1949. PDF file. 23 Apr. 2014. Oates, Joyce Carol. "Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman: A Celebration." 1998. University of San Francisco. 24 April 2014 . 23 Apr. 2014. Read More