Consumerism in critical contexts is used to describe a tendency of people to identify strongly with the products and services they consume, especially those with the commercial brands and status symbol. Andreas Eisengerich and Yoshio Miyamoto in Harvard Business Review believe that, “in Consumerism can take extreme forms such that consumers sacrifice significant time and income not only to purchase but also to actively support a certain firm or brand.”(30) The people who oppose consumerism argue that many luxury items and unnecessary consumer product may act as a social mechanism which allows people to identify like-minded individuals through the display of similar products, again utilizing status symbolism to judge the socioeconomic status
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The disintegration of values is due to the materialistic yearnings by the individuals which cause harm to the family and community. Hence, it is not difficulty to conclude in Albee’s work that the local aspects are considered to be less important than the universal. The issue of the American Dream is cemented in the minds of the Americans and the aliens as well. It is criticized by people but Albee has given it a different look. The sardonic way of mourning over the false impression that surrounds the American Dream makes Albee’s work masterpiece. Henry Popkins in Edward Albee believes that, “an examination of the American Scene, an attack on the substitution of artificial for real values in our society, a condemnation of complacency, cruelty, and emasculation and vacuity, a stand against the fiction that everything in this slipping land of ours is peachy-keen.” (26) The work is rich in elements of fiction among them, theme and imagery.
The play serves as an apologue of the way the American life has turned away under the ruse of the American dream. Mommy here serves as a sadist character, Dad is a weak character and Grandma is bitter. This play reveals what the American Dream left behind after its ‘timely’ death. Albee points straightly to the Young Man who represents the American Dream.
The disintegration of values is due to the materialistic yearnings by the individuals which cause harm to the family and community. Hence, it is not difficulty to conclude in Albee’s work that the local aspects are considered to be less important than the universal. The issue of the American Dream is cemented in the minds of the Americans and the aliens as well. It is criticized by people but Albee has given it a different look. The sardonic way of mourning over the false impression that surrounds the American Dream makes Albee’s work masterpiece. Henry Popkins in Edward Albee believes that, “an examination of the American Scene, an attack on the substitution of artificial for real values in our society, a condemnation of complacency, cruelty, and emasculation and vacuity, a stand against the fiction that everything in this slipping land of ours is peachy-keen.” (26) The work is rich in elements of fiction among them, theme and imagery.
The play serves as an apologue of the way the American life has turned away under the ruse of the American dream. Mommy here serves as a sadist character, Dad is a weak character and Grandma is bitter. This play reveals what the American Dream left behind after its ‘timely’ death. Albee points straightly to the Young Man who represents the American Dream.