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A PHOSE LARGER THAN LIFEt A STUD* OF THE DICTION AID
DIALOGUE IN TWO PUIS OF CLIFFOBD ODETS
APPROVED!
Major*'Professor
Minor Professor
-•••9 ^ ".. 1
•» •> J\ . iV Si J' Director of the Department of 'English
D@an of the Graduate School
A PROSE LAHGIR THAU LIFSt A STUM OP THE DICTION AMD
DIALOGUE IN TWO PLAYS OF CLIFFORD ODETS
THESIS
Presented to the Graduate Council of the
North Texas State University in Partial
Fulfillment of the Requirements
For th@ Degree of
MASTER OP ARTS
By
Dairid J. Burt, B. A.
Denton, Texas
August, 1966
TABJjE OP CONTENTS
Chapter Page
I. INTHODUCT ION . 1
II. AWAKE AND SING! 21
HI- GOLDEN BOY 77
IV. CONCLUSION 136
BIBLIGGBAFHX 139
111
CHAFTBH I
INTBODUCTION
The reputation of dramatist Clifford 04©ts, ©no®
considered the ©oat promising stag® craftsman of the 193G*s,
has undergone significant revision in the past two decades*
Although in an interview recorded in 1962 Arthur Miller does
appraise Clifford Odets'stechnical handling ©f dramatic
diction and dialogue in the Depression Thirties as "a new
lyrlelsm§ a proae larger than life**1 h® stresses that in the
works of such playwrights M Lillian Bellman and Odets, fthe
inner voice broke through? they personally felt the public
2
anguish of the Fascist years,w It la the latter view
which now seem® most representative of present critical
opinion of Odets as dramatist—that whatever may have been
the degree of his theatrical skill, he was primarily a
social oritlo, Indeed, in his final evaluation of Odets on
the occasion of the playwrights death in 1963» Hew York
Times obituary writer decries Odets's "failure to outgrow the
adjective 'promising'and sums up Qdets's dramatic
1Henry Brandon, "A Conversation with Arthur Miller," World Theatre, XI <Auturn, «M52). 238,
2 Ibid.
-'"Clifford Odets, Playwright, Dlesw (author not given), I§Jf %mX W m % * August 16, 1963, Sec. 1, p, 2?.
accomplishment as merely that of social oritioi 11. . . In
bis day, Mr. Odets made a substantial contribution to the
theatre. The social comment of his plays was widely praised
k
during the Depression Era." Other orltlm agree, Mlehael
Mendelsohn writes that "Odets was among those who oould not
completely escape the urge to propagandize"and Robert
Sanford Brusteln feels that "social revolt dominates . , .
the entire work of such secondary dramatists as , . . 6
Odets." Murray Kempton states flatly, "It was for his
metsage that he was worshipped by his oandlehearers»M^ while
Gerald Babkin notes that there is no denying the "pervasive a
influence of Marxism upon the great bulk of his work.*"
Even Odets's friend and direetor Harold Cluraan suggests that
the reason for Odets's importance la the 'thirties was that
"his work reflected not only his own faltering, but the time
and place with whioh he struggled."*^ Whereas R. Baird
Shuman pay® tribute to certain of Odets's technical skills, he 4Ibid.
%l@hael J, Mendelsohn, "Clifford Odets and the American Family," Drama Surrey, 111 (Pall, 1963), 238.
Robert Sanford Brusteln, The ^haite, SlISM (Boston, 1964}, p. 22.
^Murray Kempton, "The Day of the Locust,Part of Our Time (New York, 1955)» P« 185*
Q Gerald Sabkln, Drama and Commitment {Bloomington,
Indiana, 1964), p. 180.
%arold Clurman, "Clifford Odeto," Yn-rk Times. August 25. 19^3, Se©» 2, p* 1.
feels that It Is perhaps too early to evaluate the author'®
position in the history of American dram. Galling him "the
moat significant of the specifically proletarian playwrights
of the 193G*s»,,i0
The inclination of the critics to consider the drama of
Clifford Odetf aolely in the light of Its politic*®! or social
meaning la particularly a racent one, however, for in the
1930'® Odets was most often praised for hi# achievements in
dialogue and character creation. In 1935* Hiohard Watts
©acclaimed in th# jggg tfe»M Odets" talent
for dramatl© writing la th® »o»t exciting thing to appear in
the American drama since the flaaing e»ergenc® of 0* Me ill*,***1
"Mr. Odets* dramaturgy ©an Tje possessed of uncommon vitality
. . . he ha® an astonishing ear for dialogue#** wrote John
Mason Brown in 1937—the same year that the Mew Xork Times
critic Brooks Atkinson noted that Odets wrote "with th®
strength and gusto of a genuine artisan of the theatre
And in 1938* Burn® Mantle proclaimed* MThe most promising
playwrighting talent that has come Into the theatre in the
i0Baird Shuman, OllffoM Odets (lew Haven, Connecticut, 1962}, p. m*
1 hiohard Watts, |ta Xogk Tribune. Maroh 31. 1935. P. 25, cited in C^iarB»feIl£7Braite and Commitment, p. 170.
12 * John Mason Brown, Two on the Alale (Mew York, 1938) *
p. 220. 1 Brooks Atkinson» "The Play," M m *<>** Times.
_ . . ^ ^ niilNpMMPPIHWIOTInRpiPV
November 5. 1937» See. 1, p. 18.
last ten year® Is the possession of a young mn named tk
Clifford Gdets.w It remained, however, for Joseph Wood
Krutoh to render the most significant judgment, summing up
in 1938 the then-current opinion* "Odets* gifts as play-
wright are far more conspicuous in his plays than hi© gifts
as a political thinker."1-*
Yet when Clifford Odets, social oritio, began to lose
his followers in the late forties and fifties# only a very
few, such a® Arthur Miller, would recall the early achieve-
ments of Clifford Qdets, dramatist* in dialogue technique
and character creation* Most would remember Odets only as
social spokesman. let is it solely for his oontribution to
the field of soolal~propaganda drama that Clifford Odets
deserves to toe remembered today? Or, as the earlier reviews
suggest, has not this man contributed muoh that is significant
to the development of contemporary American drama?
Clifford Odets was bom in Philadelphia on July 18,
1906, of poor middle-class, Jewish-American parents. Hi®
father, a native of Philadelphia, at various times had sold
newspapers, peddled salt, and worked for a publishing company,
while Clifford's mother had worked in a factory. The family
had moved back and forth between Philadelphia and the Bronx,
^Robert Bums Mantle, Playwrights (New York, 1939)» P* 115-
^Joseph Wood Krutoh, "Theatre," America Now, edited by H. I. Steams (New York, 1938). p. 78.
before finally settling In Hew York: City. Odets claimed
later that he had been '"a worker's son until the ag# of
t w e l v e , a t whioh time the family achieved financial
seourity and settled in a moderately well-to-do section of
the Bronx, As a child, Odets possessed an early ambition to 17
act in plays, and h® "wrote poetry, lots of it."Af As a
teenager, he recalled later, "I was a melancholy kid, I
guess. 1 thought high school was a mat® of time, though I
liked biology and English, and I acted in all the plays and 4 O
belonged to the literary ©lub."x After having completed
his second year at Morris High School in Mew York City,
Odets quit school and went to work in his father's print
shop. But the attraction of the theatre was persistent?
after having obtained his father't reluctant permission to
become an actor, Odets began his dramatic career as a
member of an amateur group known as the Drawing Boom Players.
Jiater he joined Harry Kemp's Poet®' Theatre, played in stock
companies, and finally formed a group of his own, whioh
performed on radio from 1925 to 1927. During this time Odets
worked in vaudeville as well as on radio as a Boving Beeiter,
reading primarily from the works of Bobert W. Service and ^Clifford Odets cited in Shuman, Clifford Odets. p. 19.
i?Thoaas Sugrue, "Mr. Odets Begrets»« H l f t W CXXII (October, 1936). 106.
l8Ibld.
6
Rudyard Kipling. In addition, h© wrote two plays for radios
Dawn (never performed) and At Water line (produced on
three radio stations and in which Odets himself acted the
role of hero). In the spring of 1929# he went to Broadway as
an understudy to Spencer Tracy in Conflict, and ihortly
aft trowed* • he obtained a minor position with the Theatre
Guild,^
In 1930» Odets became a charter member of the Group
Theatre, the beginning of an eleven-year association with a
permanent acting company which was to be instrumental in
shaping his dramatio style. Throughout his work m y to® seen
the influence of the Stanislavskl method of dramatic art.
upon whose aims and directives the Group Theatre was founded.
Odets himself formally recognised his debts «. . . ay chief
influence as a playwright was the Group Theatre acting
company» and being a member of that company* formed and 20
trained and shaped and used by Lee Strasberg.»
let what made Odets's plays, especially as performed by
Group actors, arrest the attention of the Depression audience
was his individual dramatic style—his ability to combine
theme® of social impact with warm, vibrant, and highly
personalized characterizations# In Justification of his
^John McCarten, "levolution's lumber One Boy," The lew Yorker. XI? (January 22, 1938), 21-24.
20Miohael Mendelsohn, "Odets at Center Stage,« Theatre Arte. XLVII (May, 1963). 76.
tendency to speak out on publlo# political, and social issues, 21
Odets asserted that Wnew art works should shoot bullets."
04@ts, however, was neither the first nor ©Tea the angriest
of the Depression playwrights to attempt to convert the
masses to the Marxist Ideology. It Is, then* necessary to
note how Odets used the then-current dramatic tradition and
the Group Theatre training upon which to construct his
individual creative endeavors.
She theatre of the thirties did, to apply Odets's own
term, "shoot "bullets" of social and political concerns for
it was wore olosely related to its social context than is the
theatre of today. Although the drama of' the thirties did
draw upon the expressionistlo innovations of the theatre of
the twenties# it regained realistic in presentation#
concerned not with the depiction of tragedy as such but with
the causes of that tragedy.22 Plays reflected both the
devastating# "widespread" effects of the 1929 crash and the
mounting tensions of an approaching war. Playwrights of
the period, In attempting to analyze and interpret their
society, filled their draaas with characters "close to the
edge of frustration." J
21Clifford Odets, "Preface," SS x Plays (Hew York, 1939). p. ix.
22Sleanor Flexner, American Playwrightfi 12i&~122§ (Hew York. 1938), p. 289.
25Prank O'Bara, Today in 2S§» (Chicago# 1939). p. 68.
8
let to many dramatists, the mere presentation of the
specific situation seemed insufficient, so they turned to
Hoaoow-inspired doctrines for simple solutions to America's
economic troubles. The establishment of the Theatre Union
(America's first and only Marxist theatre) and the many
radical amateur groups directly testify to the drama's
movement toward the left. By 1933 Odets and several Group
members were attending Theatre Union meetings. Odets had
even begun to instruct classes for the Union's younger
actor®. As Group director Harold Clurman remembered*
"While Odets felt that the Group was artistically more
mature, he was intrigued by the down-towners, for with them
he might become something of a leader, a teacher. Besides
this, the slogans of the Theatre Union were more daring than
those of the fense-slttlng, hair-splitting Group." Less
than a year after his first association with the Theatre
Union people, Odets Joined the Communist Party for a period
dating from the end of 193** to the middle of 1 9 3 5 G e r a l d
Rabkln notes that, "Odets, however, did not arrive at his
radicalism after a long period of intellectual debate. He
was, In a sense, born to it; radicalism was in the air his
^Harold Clurman, |hf Fervent lears (New Yorfc, 19^5), p. 122.
2%ouse of Representatives, Hearts, I2BS2. m May 19, 1952 (Washington, 1952},
9
generation breathed." Moreover, Odets quit the Communist
Party lass than a year after he Joined It, protesting Its
Interference with his work—an action which Indicates to
Gerald Babkln that Odets's dedication to the Party was
27
"essentially more emotional than intellectual." '
The Theatre Union and Hew Theatre League specialized in
that type of drama known as "agit-prop," whose specific
purpose was, as Its shortened name suggests* agitation and
propaganda. Rabkin points out that this was drama "of
didacticism and Invective . . . created for the specific
purpose of serving Its unorthodox theatrical environment:
labor meetings, rallies of the unemployed, etc."6 Direct
influences of the agit-prop genre are evident In Odets's first
one-act play, M k H t M tM. M S l . particularly in Its con-
clusion. There, after brief episodic scenes have revealed
the economic and social injustices which have made the taxi
drivers ready to strike, the play concludes; AGATE (crying): Hear it, boys, hear it? Hell# listen
to me! Coast to coast! HELLO AMERICA! HELLO. WE'RE STORM-BIRDS OF THE WORKING-CLASS. WORKERS OF THE WORLD.. .OUH BOMS AND BLOODS And when we die they'll know what we did to make a new world! Christ, cut us up to little pieces. We'll die for what is right! put fruit trees where our ashes are! (to audience): Well, what's the answer?
Rabkin, SSStt & & famttMnh* P- 179.
27 , p. 180.
28Xbld.. pp. *6-k7.
10
ALLS STRIKE T AGATI: LOUDER! ALL: STRIKE! AGATE and OTHERS on Stage: AGAINt Alii STRIKE, STRIKE, STRIKE 111
Curta|n29
The ending, a ringingly didactic on®, Is full of Marxist
dedication*
The Theatre Union had a lasting Influence on the
dramatic soene and left its mark on Odets, for* although it
consistently attempted to expose what it saw as proletariat
exploitation from strlotly Marxist viewpoints, the Union
nonetheless endeavored to make artloulate the -voice of the
Depression-stifled common working man. Having Identified
himself with the suffering proletariat and the destitute
middle olass, Odets maintained this same class consciousness
in his later creative work.
Existing along with the other dramatlo organizations
of the thirties, the Theatre Guild, formed in the early
twenties had become one of the foremost institutional
theatres in the w o r l d . I t # productions, though concerned
with man1s social position# were not politically inspired
and had little to do with specifi© economic phenomena*^*
^Clifford Odeta, "Waiting for Lefty,* SJa tlaya (Mew York, 1939). p. 31.
John M, Gasaner, "American Galaxy," Matters of M m S m m xork, 195*0. p. 662.
^Krutoh, "Theatre," p. 77.
11
Harold Clurman, a Guild member, states that the Guild's plat-
form remained politically conservative and, "from the first,
was to do distinguished plays according to the "best profession®!
standard®*b32 It was from this theatre, not from the
radically ©ono®IT®d Theatre Union, that the Group "brokei for
deeply concerned about the young actors' training under the
Guild's system, Cluraan, I#e Strasberg, Morris Caraovsky,
and other young actors gathered to outline proposals for a
new theatre group. Their approach to theatre, Clurman adds,
was the philosophical one derived from Constantine Stanislavski
of the Moscow Art Centers "We expected to "bring the actor
much closer to the content of the play, to link the aotor as
an individual with the creative purpose of the playwright."33
There were to be no "stars" in this theatre, "not for the
negative purpose of avoiding distinction, because all
distinction. . . . was to be embodied in the production as a
whole. The writer himself was to be no star either, for his
play . . . was simply the instrument for capturing an idea
that was always greater than the instrument itself."^
The "Group* began to hold weekly meetings from November,
1930, through May, 1931. Clurman relates that "One aotor, a
young aaa who had played secondary roles in two Guild
32Ciura*an, 1 M Tears, p. 23. '
33Ibid.. p. 21.
3**Ibld.. p. 32.
12
productions, confessed to me, after perhaps ten meetings,
that ho was Just beginning to understand what X was talking
about# lis nam® was Clifford Odets.Ironically, It was
the later emergency of this same young man as a playwright
that Is said to have been the "single most Important factor
influencing the success of the Group.
Odets and the members of the newly formed Group struggled
through the effeats of the crash. By the 193^-35 season, the
rise of the Inexpensive "talking1* motion pictures Joined
with the Depression loss of part-time non-theatrical
employment to throw between twenty to thirty thousand actors
and theatre people out of work.-^ The year 1932. however,
was financially bleakest for the Group—only eighteen of the
thirty-member company were paid that season. Half of the
company moved into an old ten-room flat, where they shared
the cooking and living expenses. There, too, Odets wrote a
play ©ailed X $£& Blues, whioh was later revised to
become Awafte £|ng! Melther 1 Got mms, »or «» earlier
play entitled £££ Men Street, which Odete submitted in 1931,
gave any hint of creative potential. In fact, Harold
35Ibl&., p. 33.
-^Charles Kaplan, "Two Depression Plays and Broadway*a Popular Idealism," American Quarterly, X? (Winter, 1963)» 580,
^Bailie Flanagan, Arena (New York, 19^0), p. 20*
13
Clurman remembers of 910 Eden Street. MI hardly thought of
It as a play* or of Its author as a potential playwright."* ®
By the fall of 193^ tensions within the Group had
become somewhat strained over the company1s conservative
policies concerning agit-prop drama. let despite the
activities of some of It® radical members {between five and
nine members of the Group were reported to have been
associated with the Party at this tirne- ), the Group Theatre
was never formally aligned with the Marxist Theatre move-
ment. Through its artistic aims, it always remained linked
to the tradition of fine drama sponsored by the Theatre
Guild. The Group's commitment to social drama has been
viewed by Babkln as one wmore moral than political? it felt
compelled to raise and reflect social questions* rather than ito
to offer a uniform solution."
In the 193^-35 season with productions falling In
Boston and lew Xork, the Directors almost decided to close
in mid-season. "At this Juncture," writes Clurman, "Clifford
Odets cm# to me one evening with an outline of a one-act
play he contemplated writing far the New Theatre League.
The League was looking for plays that workers might put on
at any meeting place or hall . . . . It sounded very promising,
38Clurman, Sfc filMl XttEft* P» 63-
3%ouae of lepresentative®, Hearings, p. 3^56. kg . Babkin, P. 7*.
I told Odets. On this he disappeared Ills# a flash—and wrote
MftIMM iM MfM la fctoee nights."41 Bewritten from £ g&t
Jte llMSSt Odetg's A$Bte M i MSS1 was selected for Group
production, and the company want Into rehearsal for that play
as wall as Walt line for Lefty, By this time he had also
finished two acts of PftafHa Hal*
Early In 1935• Clifford Odets "arrived.« Almost over-
night, he emerged from virtual obscurity to become a vigorous,
passionate spokesman for the social dlssldence of American k,o
youth» Acted by members of the Group, Malting for Lefty
won the Mew Theatre League one-act play writing ©out®at and
was performed on January 5 at the League's Sunday night
benefit. The worker-audience reaction was spontaneous and
enthusiastic. Responding to the play1® final militant
question, the audience stormed the stage to congratulate the
actors. Awake and SingI began its Broadway run on February 19,
1935 > and • companion piece, Till the Day £ J)| , was added
to the hour-long Waiting for Lefty for Broadway production.
The critics were generous to Odets. The reviewer for The
atftlMX SMftSS described his emergence! In less than ninety days, tolling with the unrest of his times as a central theme, a young actor in the Hew Xork theatre, a young actor who was competent . . .
^Clurman, The M f . FP- 132-133-
^2Lloyd Morris. ** Across the Footlights," Postscript to Yesterday (Hew Xork, 19*7). P. 200.
15
has "become the most exciting spokesman the world of worker® yet has produced, and . . . he has become perhaps |h© most articulate dramatist available In the theatre.*-*
Brook® Atkinson stated flatlyi "Until Clifford Odets' Awake
SIM* opened under the Group Theatre's canopy a fort-
night ago I had not realized that we have been blundering
along for some time without acquiring any new dramatists."^
Concerning tSSL MSM* Richard Watts wrote i w * short
dynamic drama . . . had all the qualities of a dramatic
machine gun.'"1*5 Orenville Vernon exclaimed that "the
characterizations and the dialogue have a bite and an
originality of turn which set them apart from the somewhat
pallid characters and dialogue of most modern p l a y s . A n d
Joseph Wood Krutch noted, "One of the most important things
about SiSS* Is an extraordinary freshness.
Closing out the most exciting and dynamic year in the
life of Odets, the Group produced Paradise Lost in the fall
•'"An Exciting Dramatist Bises In the Theatre" (author not given), The Litgrarr Digest. CXXX (April 6, 1935), 18.
hk M A m n s o 2 ' "Pr®sh Talent." T£e N@j£ York Times, March 10, 1935» 8m, 8, p. 1. AASKS
^Blohard Watts, larfc H.rald Irlban. (no data given),
(May*29? I n s ) . ^ ' UCHIII
kg Grenville 7ernon, "Mr. Odets' Flays Are Jewish,"
»0QC (December 16, 1938), 215.
Iork.<'l93l)!'hp!f0268frUt0h' **WT*<W> J £ s B a 8 t a o e ^213
16
and later a short monologue. I Can't Sleet*« written and
played at a benefit for the Marine Workers• Industrial kg
Union. With four plays toeing staged on Broadway, and with
Theatre League groups having produced Waiting for Lefty in
some sixty towns simultaneously throughout the United States,
Clifford Odets "scrawled hit name across the page marked
1935 In American dramatic history.
With these four play® running on Broadway, Odets began
to hear from Hollywood. Although the offers for his services
went to as high a® ##000 dollars a week, he refused to leave
the Group, until Paradise Lost began to falter. Then, to
get money to save that show, Odets went to Hollywood as a
screen writer for 2,500 dollars a week, wrote the scenerto
ffh® General Died at Dawn* fell in lore with and then
narrled movie star Luis* fialner. Some associates felt that
Odets had "sold out" to Hollywood, but in 1937 he returned
from California and gave th# Group Theatre Golden Boy, a
play which earned enough to sustain the company for two more
seasons. Many critics felt that Golden Boy was Odets*s
best play to that times "There are moments when Golden Boy
seems near to greatness,"^ wrote Joseph Wood Krutch.
^Babkin, I m P« 1®0 •
49Ibid.. p. 169.
50irutch, Ssssa must m i . P* 272.
17
Bosket to (1938) and H j iM. (19^0) failed,
receiving a poor press. Then, after Clash by Hlght (19^1)#
Odets and the Group split. This, as Baird Shuman noted,
"marked the final disintegration of the Group Theatre and
the end of Odets* most fruitful and satisfying artistic
period.
The thinning of Odets's talent is apparent in the post-
Group dranae, Bis Kntfe (19*8). Sffi C,o«ntry (1950),
and Hift Flowarlng faach (1954), uhtoh repreaant a marked
falling off from the earlier vigorous, exalting productions.
The critics hegan to ask what had toeoome of the "promising"
Odets. In 1963, Odeta struck out at such appraisalsx
Me lire in a time where you say something in one decade, and a deoade later you*re old-fashioned* They talk about me as % playwright or Jj&ji playwright of the Thirties . . . . What are they going to call me in the Sixties, when I produce three or four or fire plays which will obviously have quality? What are they ^ going to still call me, a playwright of the Thirties?-'*'
In the light of the author's death juat two months later,
this statement has taken on added irony1 for, having made
extensive notes on half a dozen future plays, Clifford Odets
passed away after he had finished the "book for the
musloal version of the 1937 SaMSB
51ShtMan. Clifford Odets, p. 3*.
52Ml@h»el Mendelsohn, "Odets at Center Stage," Theatre Arts. XLVII (June, 19*3)» 30.
^Catherine Hughes, "Odets: The Price of Success," Commonweal, LXXVIII (September 20, 1963), 559-
18
Thus unable to re-assert his dramatic talent In the
fifties and the sixties, O&ets remained known best for his
achievements of the thirties—most notably for the first four
or five plays which had been written with such dramatic
fore®, However, when today*® critie remember® Clifford
Qdets, his comments usually are concerned with th© social
implications of th© earlier works, particularly Waiting for
Lefty, This play, with It® «ators.blrd8 speech1* became, In
truth, "the ghost he oould not escape,
This thesis contends that current critical appreciation
of Clifford Odets as a dramatist is incomplete and that,
contrary to the general view, Odets, a creator of living
language and unforgettable dialogue, did make a significant
and lasting contribution to the contemporary American
theatre, Uhe purpose of this study, therefore, is to
demonstrate with what creative skill and with what theatrical
precision Odeta use® the dramatic language of hi® plays#
In order to re-evaluate th# playwright*© special han-
dling of diction and dramatic dialogue, two plays of th®
Depression Decade are eh©sen for close textual analysiss
the 1935 Awake and Slnid. "Odets* masterpiece In the opinion
of most erities,"^ and the 1^7 Golden Boy. Odets's most
^Michael Mendelsohn, "Social Critics on Stage," Modem Drama. (December, 19^35# 281,
->%a»#ner, "American Galaxy,M p. 690.
19
popular and financially successful play. The body of the
thesis Is composed of Chapters II and III, each of which
deals with one of the preceding dramas to show how diction
is selected and arranged deliberately to establish oharaoter,
to evoke mood and atmosphere, and to determine pace.
Chapter II examines the function and the effectiveness of
the dramatie language and dialogue in Awake and Sinat
Chapter III, after analyzing the influence of the Hollywood
cinematic technique on Odets's dramatic method, investigates
specifically the use and the suitability of the diotion and
dramatic dialogue in establishing mood and atmosphere
within the scenes.
Such a® analysis of (Met®'suae of diotion and dramatic
dialogue in Awake and Slngt and Golden Boy should be of mine
as well as ©f interest to the student of American drama,
for to date there has been no full-length study. The chief
secondary sources used here are brief critical reviews,
which due to their very nature oould not undertake systematic
structural analysis of the dramatic dialogue. Most of these
reviews discuss the social implications of the dram, the
themes within the play, and the performances of the actor®.
Thus they offer little, if any, relevant information
concerning Odets's use of dramatic diction. Since the
existing analyses of Odets's language are incomplete, this
study makes what is hoped to be a significant contribution to
critical knowledge of Odets's works.
20
There are, nonetheless, several books and articles which
provide useful biographical "background information. This
study has made use of the following scholarly works: laird
Shuman'ss Clifford Odeta. the only full-length critical
interpretation of the mm In relation to the entire "body of
his workf Harold Clunaan*a Jfca trails a personal
account of the establishment of the Group Theatre and of the
aoveaents of Gdets in the period 1930-19 1 i Gerald JLabklri'B
Drama and Commitment, a work which discusses politics in the
American theatre of the thirties and which contain® most
relevant chapters ©a both Clifford Odets and on the Group
Theatrei and John HoCartenf« 1938 article In The Mew Yorker.
"Revolution's Number One Boy," which provides Invaluable,
biographical data.
The primary sources of this study are, of course, the
plays themselves. The 1939 Bandom House edition, entitled
Six Plays Mill' «sed throughout, and all
footnote ©it&tlons , to the plays are to this edition.
CHAPTER II
AWAKE AND SINQt
In Awake and Slag! Clifford Odets departs fro® the
traditional method of dramatic presentation, for, structurally,
the play does not progress along the strict lines dictated
"by a realistic narrative plot, "but instead advances and
unfolds through the interplay of the conflicting attitudes
and temperaments of th© characters. The dram 1$ primarily
concerned with the live® of the Jewish-American Berger family-*-
Jacob, Bessie Berger's father) Myron and Bessie Bergen and
Balph and lennle, the Berger children, Two outsiders figure
importantly in the action: Hoe Axelrod• a suitor of Hemle's
who becomes a boarder In the apartment, and Uncle Morty,
Bessie's brother who is a successful "business man,
Schlosser, an overworked German janitor, and Sam Feinschreiber,
who becomes Hennle's husband, also appear on stage. Awake
and Slngt Is a Depression play, with each Individual
mirroring In a different way the unhapplness and Insecurity
which resulted fro© the 1929 Crash. These lower-middle
class people are likened by Odets to the characters found In
Chekhov's dramasi and this, Odets claims, "is why the people
In Awake and Slngt have what is called a 'Chekhovian quality,'
which is why it Is sinful to violate their live® and
21
22
1
aaplratlons with plot lines."
The drama is staged in three acts, with the second act
broken into two scenes, and the entire aetion takes place
in the Berger apartment in the Bronx, covering a time interval
of one year. Through the individual members of the family
unit* Odets explores what hi® Introduction calls the theme
of the play# the faet that "all of the eharaeter# in share a fundamental activity: a struggle for life
2
amidst petty oonditiona," Yet since muoh of what transpires
happen® not so muoh on stage as in the minds of the characters,
the plot# when stated in summary, gives hut a brief hint of
what really takes plaoe in the drama.
Awake and Btxmi relates the story of the Berger family,
whose daughter Hennle is pregnant as a result of an llllolt
affair. Bessie, who is "not only the mother in this home
but also the father,discovers Hennle's oondltion and
rushes her into a hasty marriage with Sam Peinschrelber, a
"lonely mam, a foreigner in a strange land, hypersensitive
about this faot, conditioned by the humiliation of not b
making his way alone." The grandfather, Jacob, protests
the marriage but is overruled by Bessie. Myron, the quiet i Clifford Odets, "Some Problems of the Modern
15, 1935* Seo. 11, p. 3. 9 Clifford Odets, wThe Characters of the Play# 'Awake
•and SlngM* S3* Plays & Clifford Odets {Hew fork, 1939), P. 37-3,M&. "laa.. p. 39.
33
father and a "born follower,*^ site awe-struck fey the
happenings* Mo® Axelrod, who loves Hennle and would marry
her, refuse® to declare hit love, since he is bitter against
a world whloh permits wars, having lost his leg in World &
War One, and thus "fights against his own sensitivity#"
though Jacob is disillusioned in the American economic
system and has turned to the teachings of Earl Marx, he is a
"sentimental idealist with no power to turn ideal to
action."'' He Is consoled, however, by the thought that
perhaps his grandson Balph might help to build a better
world* Balph also la much dissatisfied with his way of life*
let he is a timid youth, for Bessie's domination over the
years has been strong. Though Bessie will not consent to
the aatoh, Balph is still in love with Blanche, an orphan
without money* Since Balph is the one character who is
finally able to "awake and sing," the drama focuses on hie
development from a passive and ineffectual personality to a
forceful and dedicated*
When Balph later discovers the circumstances of
Hennle's marriage, he turns in anger on Bessie for
proposing the match and on Jacob for allowing it* Bessie
responds in anger by smashing her father's most cherished
possession—his Caruso records* The grandfather, sickened
by what has become of his family, commits suicide by
5Ibld** p. 3?. 6Ibld., p. 38- 7Ibid.
2^
Jumping from the apartment roof—but only after he has
willed his insurance money to Ralph. Unci© Marty then
conspires with Bessie and Myron to cheat Balph out of hla
Inheritance, but they are prevented by Moe, who produces a
paper whloh he ©lalms is a suicide note. Balph finally
do#® give the noney to his family, after he Is converted to
Jacob's Marxist vision# At the play*a conclusion, loo
persuades Hennle to run off with him, leading her husband
and baby; and Balph* Inheriting Jacob's books, la moved by
his grandfathers spirit to fight for a better life*
Thus Awake and Slngt Is a drama, not concerned with
speoifio economic Interpretations of the causes of the
Depression but with the psychological and spiritual attitudes
whloh are Its results. These attitude® are revealed
primarily through a dranati© diction whloh expresses directly
and simply the frustrations, the longings, and the hopes of
the characters. This study aalntains that it is the inter-
play of the personalities of the character® as expressed
through dramatic dialogue whloh provides the dynaalo
movement of Awake and Slngii for, by gradually exposing the
oharaoters' psychological frustrations through sharp and
telllag encounters, each building to an Inevitable personality
oonfllot, the drama achieves an unfolding rhythaio progression.
Curiously, however, there has been a noticeable absence of
orltloal comment on the manner in whloh Odets juxtaposes the
attitudes and temperaments of his oharaoters.
25
Further, although winy of the critical reviews make
brief mention of the lyrical and poetic qualities of the
language of the drama, only Bobert Marshow offers any
extensive study of Odets's poetic technique. Warshow feels
that many of the speeches of Awake and Slngt do have the
effect of poetry, "suggesting much more than Is said and
depending for the enrichment of the suggestion upon the 8
sensibility and experience of the hearer«w But Warshow
also believes that only the hearer ean supply the
psychological response to these vivid images from the
cultural life of the Jews, that the poetic process "operates
exclusively between the writer and the audience§ It Is not
In the play"^ and that the characters "do not speak: in
poetry—indeed, they usually become ridiculous when they
are made to speak •poetically.10
Although It Is true that certain events of the play do
strike the individual consciousness in such a way as to call
forth a psychological response to life in the Jewish-
American tradition, it is a basic contention of this thesis
that It is the characters who are the Instruments and that
their utterances, rather than making them appear ridiculous,
suggest to the audience their intense, motional desires
®Sobert Warshow, "Clifford Odets: Poet of the Jewish Middle Class,* The Immediate Experience (Hew York, 1962)* P. 58.
9Ibid. i0Ibld.
26
and frustrations through a diotion rich with Imagery and
allusions to Idealized, escapist worlds.
This chapter, then, will analyze and evaluate Clifford
Qdets's deliberate selection of words—his use of dramatic
diction—to reveal oharaeter, create mood and atmosphere,
and determine pace. This section will also demonstrate
how the conversation of the oharaoters—the dramatic
dialogue**-Is used to advance the action through the inter-
flay of th© attitudes and personalities of the oharaoters.
The opening speeches of Awake and SingI reveal the
psychological states of two members of th® Berger family
and introduce th® prevailing mood of frustration which so
plagues them alii
BALPHi Where*s advancement down the placet Work like crazy! Think they see it? lou'd drop dead fifst.
MXHQIi Never mind, son* merit never goes unrewarded. Teddy Hoosevelt used to say—
HENNIEj It rewarded you—thirty years a haberdashery clerk!11
Balph's initial comment marks hia as an angry young man
disgusted with the economic system, lis earXy mention of
death in this scene is a significant one, for it is th® first
of many references foreshadowing Jacob1s death In Act XX.
And, further, It prepares the audience for the dramatic
pre-sentatlon of the many spiritual and psychological ndeaths"
110dets, mwake and Singulis Plays, p. H ,
27
which the characters ea©h suffer as a result of horn® and
economic environment.
Myron*» first speech also provides an early insight
into hi® character, as the linking of the old platitude
with a statement by Teddy Booaevelt reveals the backward
direotion of hi® mental musing®* An additional indication
that Myron is not on* at ease in the present is the fact
that he mafces no reply to Iennie*s taunt* In Just three
short lines, the dialogue brings .out a clear, sharp picture
of a tired man whose roots are in the past. • Subsequent
speeches amplify this initial portrait. When* with no
apparent relevance to any previous speech, Myron suddenly
remarks, "This morning the sink: m e full of ants. Where
they eoae from 1 just don*t know. 1 thought it was toffee 12
grounds...and then they began moving," the statement
illustrates that he is unable to interpret present reality.
For Myron, completely perplexed by the constant flux of life,
•shifting external appearance® but reflect his own inner
confusion.
Bessie and Ralphopening argument establishes that
the frustration which Balph has experienced at the factory
is also present in the home, where hi® mother personally
stifles the development of any individualityt BALKgt I wanna make up ay own mind about things.be
something! Didn*t I want to take up tap dancing, too?
12 Ibid.. p. k2.
28
BESSIEi So take lessons. Who stopped you? RALPH» On what? BESSIEi On what? Save money. BALPBs Sure, five dollars a week for expenses and the
rest In the house. I can't save even for shot laces,
BSSSUs You mean w@ shouldn't have food In the house, tout you'll make a Jig on the street comer?
RALPHi I mean something* BESSIE s You also mean something when you studied on the
drum# Mr. Smartie Iljj
Here the dialogue not only briefly sketohes the eoonomic
situation of the family, but it also shows how quickly and
instinotlvely Bessie mores to pronounce on any questions
which concern family finances and how thoroughly she
dominates Balph in the early acts.
In the language of the older characters, particularly
Bessie and Jacob* Odets has relied heavily on Jewish dialect
and Idiom. The children, more involved in the American m y
of life# are further from the dialect and seldom lapse into
it. In Bessie's diction Odets demonstrates a precise
command of both dialect and speech rhythm, for her speeches
are filled with the circumlocutions and inverted word orders
characteristie of Jewish-American dialect. This dialect,
however, never becomes obtrusive or confusing, and it is often
used humorously! ttI oan't take a bite in ay mouth no ik
more»'* she exclaims in disgust—and the sense of her
statement is as explicit as when, fifteen lines later, sh®
remark® to Jacob, "You gave the dog Yet beneath the
13Ibid.. pp. 41-^2. ^Ibld.. p. 42. 15Ibld.
29
humor of Bessie's Jewish sjweeh rhythms* the dietIon
reveals a personality totally conoerned with preserving th®
family unit and Its financial security. Bessie's advice to
Hennie about »arriage comically illustrates that aspect of
her character whioh directs her deoisions on familial
nattersJ "It's time you already had in your head a serious
thought. A girl twenty-six don't grew younger. When I waa
your age it was already a big family with responsibilities."^
The debilitating effect upon Balph of Bessie's coercion
is »ade explioit with hie poignant lament, "1 don't know...
Every other day to sit around with the blma and mud in
your aouth."1? Here the unusual linking of "blues and aud"
forms an image which expresses his mental depression perfectly.
And, moments later, using th© concrete image of a pair of
wblaok and whit® shoes® as an object of Halph's desire,
"It's cragy—all ay life I want a pair of black and white
•hoes and can't get them. It's crazy!"18 th® diction exudes
the same sense of desperate frustration.
. To Balph's laments» Myron's coma&nt, "That's how it is—
life is like that—a oake-walk,"1^ gives further dimension
to hie initial characterization m one lost in the past by
adding to it this totally unrealistic view of reality, Th#
reference to life in .terms of the trouble-free, musical world
l6Ibld.. p. Vh. 17Ibld.. p. 42.
l 8lSM« i9Xbld. ji.uiMj mi.,., — n M 9 P M < p « i i m w p m f p
30
of the "cake-walk" la especially significant in the dramatic
oontext slnee it is the first of the many allusions to the
various ©soap1st worlds whioh contrast go keenly *ith the
monotonous and drab llf® the characters actually live, For
Hyron» whose thoughts remain linked with the past, the only
hop# of escape in the oonfused present 1® that associated
with money J the world of wealth that awaits fey winning the
Irish Sweepstakes or by picking long shots at the races.
"Xou oan buy a ticket for fifty ©ents and win fortunes# A
man came in the store—it's the Irish Sweepstakes,"20 Myron
blurts out inconsequentially shortly after his description
of life as a cake-walk.
Bessie's sharp reply, "Who spends fifty-oent pieces
for Irish raffles? They threw out a family on Dawson Street
today• All the furniture on the sidewalk. A fine old woman 21
with gray hair," again exposes her instinotive concern for
family security. As the family prepares for the vaudeville show, Balph
and Jacob are left alone. Ralph's simple, MI can't stand 22
lt,« maltss olear that what has transpired at dinner is not
Just an isolated family quarrel but a daily occurrence in
Bessie's house. The mood swiftly changes to one of vigorous
argument, however, as Bessie enters and begins her
2 0 m - . P. *3. ZLAIA- 2 2 n u . . p. 45,
31
persistent questioning. Odets uses the short staccato
lines to quicken the pace In recording the conflict of
personalities# The lines build rapidly to Ralph's explosive
exclamations
BESSIEs . . . . (%o RALPH)t What'11 you do? BALPHi Don't know. BESSIEi You'll see the boys around the block?
RALPH* I'll stay home every nightt23
The argumentative tone continues through Bessie's
dispute with Schlosser, the janitor—one easily confused
and dominated by Bessie's verbal aggressiveness—and his
submlsslveness critically underscores her authoritarian
control of the other members of the family.
Again Bessie's dialogue is filled with colorful Jewish
colloquialisms. In reply to Sohlosser's comment about the
apartment receiving new ropes for the dumbwaiter, she
exclaims in heavy dialect: "He should live so long your
Mr. Wimmer. For seven years already he's sending new
ropes. No dumbwaiter, no hot water, no steam—In a
respectable house, they don't allow such conditions.
Though the dialect is humorous, Bessie's speech brings out
clearly her primary conoern with family responsibilities,
and her ohdice of the word "respectable" reveals significantly
that it is the need to maintain this front of respectability2**
which drive® her to dominate the family. 23Ibld. 24Ibld.. p. k7.
2%alrd Shuman, Clifford Odets (New Haven, Connecticut, 1962), p. 62.
32
After Bessie and the family leave, Balph1s speech
vividly contrasts the Joy usually associated with a birthday
celebration with the sadness which he actually experienced.
The diction slows the tempo as the mood reverts to oil® of
glooms »l never ia w ltf« «T«n had a birthday party.
Every time I went and orled in the toilet when my birthday
came." But the dramatic tempo picks up rhythmically as
Balph tell® Jacob of hi® newly discovered love for Blanche.
Ralph"b language breaks fro® th® haunting images which have
symbolized his frustration and becomes lyrioal with his
rising emotionsi
BALPH* But s h e g o t met Boy» I'm telling you I aould slngf Jake, she's like stars. She*s so beautiful you look at her and oryi She's like Frenoh wordsI Me went to the park the other night. Heard the last band concert.
JACOB i Suiti BALI'Si . . . It got oold and 1 gave her ay ooat to
wear. We Just walked along like that# see* without a word, see. I never was so happy in all ay life. It got late...we just sat there. She looked at me—you know what I mean, how a girl looks at you—right in the eyes? "I love you," she says, "Balph." 1 took her home...! wanted to ory. That's how_I feltt
JACCBs It's a beautiful feeling."
The Images of comparison, such as "stare" and "French words,"
represent distant and relatively unattainable objects of
desire, as the language becomes highly figurative. It Is
this same love which early in the drama holds Balph*s dreams
2^0dets, "Awake and SingI * Six Plays, p. 46.
27 Ibid., p. **?.
33
of future happiness and escap© fro® the family* The short
responses and clipped diction give articulation to Balph's
mixed emotions of young love and nature decisions
HALPHs They don't have to tea* Ifv@ got a girl, JACOB« What's in the end? HALFHS Out I got I don't mean maybef JACOBi A M then whatf HALPH* Life begins. JACOB j that life? B A M i Life with my girl. Boy, I could sing when I
think about itI Her and me together--that's a new liftf28
Odets needs only one sharp line of dialogue'to sober this
lyric mood* Jacob*e sudden and unexpected warning—'"Don't
make a mistakeI A mew death!"2^
Becalling his former dreams in contrast to his present
ineptitude, »0ao® I had la heart a dream* a vision, but
came marriage and then you forget. Children com® and you
forget . . » ,*3° ja00b urges Ealph to identify himself with
the cause for world betterment which he describes in
Marxist terms*
JACOB» Boyohiok, wake upI Be something! Make your life something good. For the love of an old man who sees in your young day# his new life, for such love take the world in your two hands and make it like new. Go out and fight so life shouldn't be printed on dollar bills. A woman
Later in Aot III Odets deliberately employs Jacob*s phrases
"...take the world in your two hands and make it new" and
2 8 M ' . pp. 7-48. 29Ibid.» p. 48.
3°IM4» 31Ibld.
34
"Go out and fight so life shouldn't be printed on dollar
•bills" to denote thematic advancement, i.e., Balph*s
Intellectual conversion to Marxism as shown by his echoing
of parallel statements. Her®, however, Balph's quick reply,
"Say, I'm no fool!"-*2 indicates what a distance he is from
understanding the meaning of Jacob's message.
Moe Axelrod arrives as Balph leaves. The good-natured
exchanges between Moe and Jacob provide expository background
concerning Hoe's war experiences and his wooden leg, and they
demonstrate also to what extent he has adopted a veneer of
self-confidence and cynicism to cover his true feelings, Moe
has learned to live in th® capitalistic system sad to earn
his living from it, even though he breaks the country's
laws as a small-ti»e gambler and bootlegger.
let beneath the cocky exterior there lies an aspect of
Moe's character which seeks normal expression in desire and
tendernessi
MOEJ Who's home? JACOB* Me. MOBi Good. I'll stick around a few minutes. Where's
Hezmle? JACOB« She went with Bessie and Myron to a show. MOB? Sh® what? JACOBS You had a date?
( J I M&QS hia feelings) t Here—X brought you some halavah.
JACOBs Halavah? Thanks. I'll eat a piece later.-5-5
This portion of the act begins in a low key, a conversation
32IM£. 3 3MA** PP. 8-^9.
35
between friend®. However* Images of violence and death
("to your dying day"} "ay goddamn leg shot off"! "she'll
knock your head off11 % "he11*1 die" i and 11 starring beggars"
even when spoken In Jest, mark the dialogue and thus add to
a vaguely felt apprehension of further violence whioh. fore-
shadows Jacob's suicide. However, Hoe's sudden interjection,
"¥here'd they go?"3-* shows that throughout th® conversation
his thoughts have been on Htnnie.
The two begin a pinochle hand. But when Jacob put® on
a Caruso record which expresses a Joyful vision of a Utopian
land, each suddenly discloses a personal longing for some
peaceful place far from the troubled Bronx. First Moe
speaks t "Ever see oranges growl? I know a certain place-
One summer I laid under a tree and let them fall right in
ay m o u t h . M o e * s mention of growing fruit suggests his
desire for a full aad complete existence quite unlike his
present sterile life. Then Jacob's feelings, too, are moved
by the music, and he cries out in lyric accompaniment to the
music« "From ,L*4fricanal..#a big explorer comes on a new
land—'*0 Paradise. * From act four this piece. Caruso
stands on the ahlp aad looks on a Utopia* You hear? 'Oh
paradiseI Oh paradise on earth! Oh blue iky, oh fragrant
air— *
^Ibld.. p. 35Ibld.
36Ibld.. p. 50. 37Ibid., pp. 50-51 *
36
For but a brief instant the drama is held suspended as
eaeh man lays baar his inmost desire for asoape to the
visionary land, Than the mood is dissipated as Mo® says
oynioally, BAsk him does he see any oranges,and as
Bessie, Myron# and Hennie return* Bessie's abrupt, ttTake
off the phonograph, Pop,"39 outs short the last moments of
the beatific mood which had accompanied the Idealized
longings#
Upon Bessie's arrival both the mood and pace immediately
shift, ae a s@rl.ea of brief disputes arise. First, Bessie
assumes the role of the "offended mother" in an argument
with Henniet "I don't understand what I did to God He
blessed me with such children. From the whole world—"?0
but she Is interrupted by Moe who speaks up in Hennie's
defense. The mother move® instantly to a personal attacki
MOB (sal|g $2 a M W H S ) * Chris* sake, don't kibitz so muehf
BESSIEi You don't like it? MOE (aping)t No, I don't like it.
. BESSIfsfhat's too bad, Aawlvod* laybe it's better by your cigarstore friends. Here we're different neoole,
MOEi Don't gimme that cigar store line, Bessie, X walked up five flights—
BESSIEt To take out lennie# kBut my daughter ain't In your class, Axelrod.*1
Moe then explains that one of Myron's long shots at the
track has come in, paying twelve and a half to on®. As Mo®
38i&i&.. p. 51. 39sm'
^^Ibld. • pp. 51-52.
3?
exits to get change for a twenty, Myron blissfully contem-
plates his winningsj "Oh, that's a big percentage. If I
If, 2
picked a winner every day..."} and, as his mind reverts to
a favorite image of a financially secure future, he begins,
"Just look: at that—a cake walk. We can m a k e — B e s s i e ,
however, interrupts, and turns his thoughts "back to reality?
"It's enough talk. I got a splitting headache, Hennie, fall
go in bed, I'll call Dr. Canton."
When Hennie's pregnancy is discovered, the dialogue
brings the action to several intense peaks, each more
strained than the previous one, and each marked by a diction
which intensifies the atmosphere by revealing the agitated
emotional states of the characters. First Hennl© and Bessie
argue. The girl cries out in anguish, "Shut up! Shut up!
I'll jump out the window in a minutef Shut u p f M y r o n ,
still unable to accept the reality of Hennie's pregnancy, hf.
can only mumble tearfully, "It's like a play on the stage..."
Bessie presses ruthlessly on: "To a mother you oouldn't
say something before. I'm old-fashioned—like your friends
I'm not smart—I don't eat chop suey and run around Coney
Island with tramps." ' But the mother then proposes a
characteristic solution which will be fully "respectable" **2Ibld., p. 52. 4^Ibid., p. 53. ^Ibld. 45jfeia... p. 5«. h 6 s m - k l Ibid.
38
("Tomorrow night bring Sam Felnschreiber for supper"!*® as
well as financially suitable (since "In three years he put
enough la th® bank, a good living")
Hennle weakly protests Bessie's deolslon, tout she Is
abruptly silenced by Bessie's verbal attack. The girl1®
sllenoe at this point la most tailing, for It demonstrates
to what extent she ha® been tyrannized by her mother. Her
affair with an unknown lover shows» adds Balrd Shumans that
she "lacks understanding and Is utterly unable to face life
reallstleally# Bomance ha® replaced reason In her.*-*0
Hennl©1s temperament and attitudes toward Ufa mark h«r as
"the antithesis of Ealph and Jacob, for to than It Is b
Important that •llf© should have some dignity*' while to
I#»nl« this Is unimportant. She wants to be comfortable
physically and materially."-^1
Thus Jacob, not Hennle, faces Bessie to protest the
suggestion of suoh a marriage. The short, hard-hitting
speeches again build In intensity to record the clashs
JACOBi Sueh a thing you can11 do. BESSIE! Mho asked your advice? JACOB» Suoh a thing— BESSIEt Mevar mind! JACOBi The lowest from the low* BESSIE: Don't talkI I'm warning youf A man who
donft believe In Sod—with crazy Ideas—
^Ibld. ^Ibld.. p. 55.
5°Shunsan, M & M * P* 61.
^IMd.. p. 60.
39
JACOBs So bad I never Imagined you could "be. BlSSHt Maybe If you didn't talk to auoh It wouldn't
happen like this. Xou with your ideas—Vm a mother. I raise a family they should have respeet.
JACOBs Bespect? (Spite) Hespectl For the neighbors' opinion! You insult ae Bessie
But Bessie's torrent of words la too auoh for Jaoob» and he
retreats to hia room exclaiming in a speeoh which directly
prefigures hi§ death, . But Ralph you don't make like
you. Before you do lt» I'll die first. He'll find a girl.
He'll go in a fresh world with her. This is a house? Harx
said it—•abolish such families.
There is a momentary pause in the action as Jacob
leaves the room in humiliation and as Hoe returns carrying
a box. Hi® simple one-word refer trice to food at this moment
("Cake,"^ he notes putting the box on the table) seem® at
first insignificant. let Odefcs here use# the apparently
trivial remark at the precise instant when the oharaoters
are about to make a moral compromise. Subsequent comments
about food and drink in this act, as well as in the following
aats, ooour at the precis® time the oharaoters experience a
moral concession. The coincidental recurrence leads one to
oonolude that such verbal references are both deliberate and
meaningful.
"Awake and Singf Six Plays. p. 55. 53Ibld. ^^bid.. p. 56.
**0
When Bessie prematurely announces Hennie's "engagement,"
Hot1® repeated questions demonstrate further his Interest In
the girl.
BESSIE« We're soon losing our Hennie, Mo#* MOEs Why? What's the matter? BESSIEJ She made her engagement* HOSt . S5»t so? BESSIEi Today it happened*..he asked her. W&i Did hef Who? Who*® the 00rpse? BESSIEf It's a «©er©t* MOEi In the bag* huh?55
But then h@ attempts to cover hie true feeling with cynical
comments 1
BESSIE 1 When a mother gives away an only daughter it's no joke. Wait, when you get married you'll know •..
MQE (bitterly) i Don't make me laugh—when I get marriedI What I think a women? Take 'em all. out 'em in little pie©©® like a herring in Greek salad. A guy in Pranee had the right idea—dropped hi« wife in a bathtub fulla sold. (IMfiSMs*) Sss, down the Dipel Pfft—not even a ©orset button left!
Here the reference to Hennie*s future husband as a "oorpae"
and the descriptions of a brutal murder add to th® death
motif. And Moe's remarks to Hennie, with their mention of
"suicide," also contain ironio connotations Important to the
dramas Hennie's marriage does, in truth, lead to Jacob's
"shield©," for Jacob'® act proceeds directly from his
acquiescence to the match:
MQE (to HBNHIS): What's the great idea? Gone big time. Paradise? Christ, it'® nuicid#* Sure, kids you'll have^gQld teeth, get fat, big in the tangerines—
55Ibld. 56Ibld. 57Ibid.. pp. 56-57.
kl
As Hennie and Mo® argue, the increased tempo of the sharp,
angry exclamations projects forcefully the ©lash of tempera-
ments :
HENNIEs Shut your facet 10®i Who*s It—some dope pullin* down twenty buck®
a week? Cut your throat, sweetheart. Save time.
BESSIE: Never mind your two cents, Axelrod. 101 i 2 say what 1 think—that's m i HEHHIEt That's you—a lousy fourflusher who'4 steal
the glasses off a blind man. MOIs Get hotI BBHJIZB* My God, do I need it-*to listen to this mutt
•hoot hi® mouth offf^o
r«t Moe's verbal assault on Hennie proves to be but a aatirlo
mask for his true feelings. After Heimle leaves the room,
Hoe's words show hi® real concern and longing for heri
"Pretty, pretty—a sweet gal, your Eennie. See the look in
her eyes?"j^ and "Like a battleship she's got it. Not like
other dames—shove 'em and they lay. Not her. I got a yen
for her and I don't mean a Chinee /slo7 ooln"i^° and,
finally, admitting his love, "Vhen 1 think about It*,.maybe 61
I'd marry her myself."
But when Bessie warms, to the Idea, exclaiming, "Why
don't you, Moe? An old friend of the family like you. It
would be a blessing on all of us,w Moe again quickly aovers
his feelings of disappointment and self-pity {"2ven if I
asked her. She won't do it! A guy with one leg—it gives
^8Ibld.» p. 5?. *9Ibld. 6°Ibld.
6lIbid. 62Ibid.. p. 58.
§2
her the heebie-jeebies")^ with interspersed cynical
oomments (ttX need a wife like a hole in the head...What*& to
know about women, I know . . . I know what she's looking for. * &k
An arrow-collar guy, a hero, tout with a wad of jack . . . .").
Once again at the Instant when Moe compromises by
suppressing his sensitive feelings O&ets associates Hoe's
action with a reference to foods BESS Hi It's right—she wants a millionaire with a
mansion on Biverslde Drive. So .go fight City Hall. Cake?
HOEi Cake. BESSIEI 1*11 make tea . . .
Harold Clurman suggests that It is fitting that Hoe should
eat eake when told that he is losing the girl he loves, since
life-long economic pressures produce "a certain lack of
order, a confusion of physical details with spiritual 66
crises . . . ,w Gdets, however, as previously noted,
teams to u»« references to food to identify specifically such
momenta of spiritual crisis and moral compromise.
The author uses the diction of Moe'a speeches to create,
vary, and sustain the concluding moods of the act to reflect
inner feeling®, which are given a haunting musical amplifi-
cation by a Caruso la»ent from The Pearl Fishers playing in
the background. In consecutive speeches, Hot'* emotion® 63Ibld. 6**Ibld. 65Ibld.
Harold Cluraan, "Introduction to 1Awake and Sing!'" Six Flayg g& Clifford. Odqtg (Hew York, 1939)» p. **22.
^3
©oae full cycle before the audience. Plrat his hesitant,
sinoere words evoke a softened atmosphere as ha rental® his
attraotlon to Bennies wMo wet ®aaok...a fine g i r l . -
But, as he attempts la his disappointment to mask his true
ftiUngs, the cynical phrases oontaln images suggestive of
pleading humility (»3he wantsa see me crawl—" )^8 and of
sacrificial dedication ( n—my head on a plat# she wants
Indicating inner tension. And finally, in a concluding
speech, the heavlly accented, monosyllabic words produce a
heightened mood refleoting Hoe's intense frustration, as the
diotion explodes into a single passionate outburst! "What
the hell kind of house Is this it ain't got an orange11
{Again the reference to food here seems deliberate and
significant.) The final violent eruption is underscored, by
the alow ourtain, and, in effeot, the aot concludes with the
same mood of frustration that was Illustrated in the play's
opening speech.
The dramatic dialogue 1® used effectively in Aot 1 to
reveal the individual and distinct personalities of all the
characters. Without forolng or obviousness of exposition,
the diotion of eaoh exhibits his unique psychological make-
up and his particular desire or stifled hope which is denied
fulfillment. It is evident also that the aot never becomes
670d«t». "Awake and Sing!" & & Plar«. p. 58.
68ttia. 6 9 i m - 7 ° u m -
Ml *f*T
static precisely because there Is a continual dramatic
progression established through the conversations t the
Introduction and presentation of eaoh personality reacting
to the tense and confining atmosphere of the house. The
diction of the character® specifically amplifies the mood
of Individual frustration, for romantic references to peaceful
dreamy lands contrast sharply with the bitter outbursts
which reveal the taut strain of actual conditions* Further,
even the stage movement of the characters, a eonstant visual
action as they enter and leave the apartment, complements
the concurrent dramatic advancement through dialogue.
fhe opening lines of Act II continue the mood of
frustration from Act I. 4s Jacob is Gutting his son Marty's
hair, Bessie enters and confronts hl» with the sharp command,
"Don't get hair on the rug, fop. (Gogs tg t ^ i M S l S M ~ 1
wills down shade.) What's the aatter the shadefs up to the
©elllng?**^ fhe words not only re-establish Bessie*s position
as tyrant but oontinue the atmosphere of oppression and
antagonism as well.
Jacob's terse cooment and accompanying action—he pulls
the shade up again—place his personality once again in
drsoatic confrontation with Bessie's* "Since when d© I give
a haircut in the dark? (g§ mlmios her tone.)"?2 Bessie meets
71Ibld., p. 59. 72Ibld.
kS
his challenge with a response which indicates that* after a
year*® Interval, aha Is atill the overbearing matriarch
concerned with her faaily ant with keeping up appearances s
"When yom»re finished pull it down. I Ilk® ay house to look
respectable,"7^ The comment haa subtly Ironic overtones in
th« light of Bessie's efforts to maintain family
"respectabi 11 ty " in Act I.
The dialogue proceeds slowly in quiet domestie conver-
sation* To Jacob's question about the news in the paper.
Hoe's reply seems merely a casual, cynical observation. But
in reality the exchange, filled with images of Depression-
eaused suicides leaping from high buildings, seems deliberately
to foreshadow Jacob's cum act of self-destructions
MQEj Still jumping off the high buildings like flies—the big shots who lost all their ooooanuts* ftft I
JACOB: Suicides? MOEi Plenty can't take it—good in the break, but
can't take the whip in the stretch* MOHTX (without looking UP)t I saw it happen Monday in
»y building. My hair stood up how they shoveled him tog® the r—1 ike a pancake—a bankrupt manufacturer*
MOEi No brains* 7j, KOHTXi Enough***all over the sidewalk.'
Following the comments about suicides, the diction hold®
the scene's pace In check, aa subdued conversation refers to
Jacob's artistic skill as a barber, and the Depression loss
of £obs and working conditions* But when the characters argue#
73Ibld* 7VIbld*. p. 60*
tension ia created through heated exchanges which Juxtapose
contrasting attitudes and temperaments s
IfBOHi 1*11 tell you the nay I see lt« The country seeds a great man now—a regular Teddy Hoosevelt.
MOSi What this country needs Is a good five-cent earthquake.
JACOB: So long labor /slc7 Hires It should increase private gain—
BESSIE {jgg JACOB)i Listen, Poppa, go talk on the street corner. The government *11 glv® you free board the rest of your life.
MOSTXi I*m surprised. Don't I send a five-dollar eheck for Pop every week?
BBSSII» Xou could afford a couple sore and-not miss it. HOBfiti Tell ae jokes. Business Is s© rotten I eomld
|ust as soon lay all day la the Turk 1st bath.?5
Such dialogue demonstrates Odets's precise blending of
the technical elements ©f the play, for the speeches control
the paee and the mood, reiterate an essential aspeet of each
character*® temperament, and provide an initial insight into
Morty»s feelings. Myron1s unrealistic solution to the
Depression troubles further characterizes him as one lost in
aenories of the past, and his second reference to Teddy
Hoosevelt demonstrates his attraction to a man who, Balrd
Shusan notes, "stands in polar opposition to his tempera-76
mentally.*1' Moe'a single eoajment in the short exchange is,
typloally, a cynical onei and Jacob's one line begins a
larxlst Interpretation of conditions. Bessie1 s speeches
again illustrate how instinctively she moves to argue in
^ibid.. pp. 61-62.
76Shaoan, Clifford Odets. p. 62.
personally Insulting terms and how swiftly she responds to a
mention of finances. Morty1 a statement that he sends a "five-
dollar cheek" each week Ironically betrays an absence of any
genuine love or feeling for his father. And this comment is
followed immediately by a phrase whioh Implies his financial
security ("lay all day in the Turkist bath")«
Further speeches build upon this initial characterization
©f Morty to illustrate to what extent his temperament is on#
of utilitarian practicality. His comment to Hennle makes
clear that the lives of others do not affect him: "To raise
a family nowadays you must be a damned fool."77 And he
advises Bessie not to worry about Ralph's love for Blanche
with words which expose the materialistic aspeet ©f hla own
characters "When it's time to settle down he won't marry a
poor girl . . . In the long run common sense 1# thicker than
love * « . .m7®
Morty's personality, like Moe'm, demonstrate® the
compromise that he has made within himself to meet the
demands of material success.7-^ Morty's speeches contrast
such aspects of his practicality with the essentially passive
qualities of the BergersP temperaments. He tells Hennle» for
instance, that "when they start arguing, I don't hear*
770dets, "Awake and Sing!" Six Playa. p. 62.
78Ibld., p. 65.
79Shuman, ffUfiCayfl flfliftl* P. 5<S.
kQ
$*10
Suddenly I'm deaf, I'm a great "boy for the practical side."
When Hennle expresses the disheartening effects of her life
with Sua, "Maybe I got the "blues. You can't tell,*®1
Marty confidently counters with a material solution to
Heaale'a spiritual problem "You could stand a mew dress."
The interplay of personalities through dialogue controls
the pace of the drama throughout the scene, The speeches
Increase the dramatic tempo as Morty and Moe argue about
Ho* *9 wooden leg, relax it as Jacob quietly gives Morty
instructions about his insurance policy, quicken it again as
Ralph and Bessie clash, and bring it to a swift climax as
Hennle and Ho® exchange heated words and she slaps him--one
of the few violent physical gestures In the drama.
The dramatic mood builds also In accompaniment to the
tempo# for the language intensifies the feeling of frustration
through a contrast of images of wealth and beauty with
allusions to depressing realities. In Ralph's speech, for
example, the material worth of the "Chrysler Building" is
set in Ironic contrast to the small sum of money needed for
dental work or for a new suiti BALFHi I been working for years, bringing in' money
here—putting It In your hand lilce a kid. All right, I o&n't get my teeth fixed* All right, that /alc7 a new suit's like trying to buy the Chrysler Building. You never in your
®°Odets# "Awake and Sing!" Six Flays, p. 67.
81Ibid. 82Xbld.
49
life bought m a pair of skates even-~thlnga
1 died for when I was a kid . . . .°3
Mo® expresses his lore for Hetmle with an image which repeals
figuratively his sensitive attraction to hen in Heiml®'®
eyes, Mo® say®, he sees (really feels), '"fed Lewis playing git
the elarlnet— some of those high crazy notes In AM, again,
Hoe's diotlon mixes the images In Illustration of the
contrast between what life ©ould be and what it actually 1st MQI: . . . (Beada)s "Ten-day luxury cruise to
Havana!"That's the stuff you ooulda had. Put up at ritzy hotels, frenchie soap, champagne. low you"re tied down to "Snake-Eye" here. What for? What's it get you...a 2 X % flat on 108thft3treet...a pain In the bustle it gets you.8*
The Images of wealth and success in Bessie's speeches
further amplify her desire for economic security and aocial
prestigei "Balph should only be a success like you, Morty.
I should only lire to see the day when he rides up to the
door In a big oar with a chauffeur and a radio* I could die 86
happy, believe me.M let these images ©ontrast sharply with
her fear# that Balph will not marry a wealthy woman» "A
girl like that he wants to marry. A skinny consumptive-
looking. ..six months already she's not working—taking
charity from an aunt. You should see her. In a year ©he's
dead on hie hands.
83Ibld.. p. 66. ^Ibld., p. 68. 85Ibld.
86Ibld.. p. 66. 87Ibid., p. 65.
50
Jacob's speeches also contain Images of wealth and
luxury; and his words, condemning the economic system which
holds up only "success" as a goal for Ralph, set these dream
images in contrast to the real and depressing facts of his
daily life:
JACOB: He dream® all night of fortunes. Why not? Don't it say In the movies he should have a personal steamship, pyjamas for fifty dollars a pair and a toilet like a monument? But in the morning he wakes up and for ten dollars he can't fix the teeth. And millions more worse off in the mills of the South--starvation wages. The blood from the worker's heart • • • #^€w
The contrast of such images also provides theaatic progressions,
for as Baird Shuman notes, "it is with such juxtapositions
that Odets achieves his highest social dynamism. This, to
89
Odets, is the great American lie." 7
As Jacob continues to speak out against the economic
system of capitalism which Morty espouses, the seen© builds
in intensity. Bessie and Myron enter and side with Morty,
When Halph agrees with Jacob, ther© is a brief linking of
attitudes which foreshadows Balph'a later conversion to
Jacob's beliefs, and there is the obvious contrast of their
gantl© temperaments with the aggressive personalities of
Bessie and Morty. The dialogue at this point specifically
stresses Ralph's and Jacob's passive qualities, as Bessie
88Ibid., pp. 71-72.
Shuman, Clifford Odets• p. 63.
51
and Morty, triumphant, humiliate Jacob and rudely silence
Ralph<
MGBTX; I'll getting sort. Pop, with all this sweatshop talk*
BESSIE< He don't atop a minute. The whole day, life:® a phonograph.
IGB£Y< I'm surprised. Without a rich man you don't have a roof omr your head# low don't know it?
MIHON: How you oan't "bite the hand that feeds you. RALPH: Let him alone—he's right I BESSIE i Mother oounty heard from# BALPHi It's the truth. It's**
MOBSPYj Keep quiet, snotnoseK
Jacob'a speeches throughout the play are filled with
suggestions of death caused toy an economic system whioh curbs
development of the individual personality. When, earlier in
the scene. Jacob exclaims concerning Balph, "In a house like
this he don't realize even the possibilities of life. 91
Economics comes down like a ton of ooal on the head,w y
the image of a alow death toy suffocation most appropriately —
expresses Balph»s predicament. And, when Jacob's vehement
tirade brings the scene to it® climax, the diotlon contains
references to death to contrast the longed-for happiness as
found in the "sun" with the frustrating realities as actually
lived "la this dark corner" {the Bergea? apartment): JACOBt So you believe in God.yon got something for
It? lowI You worked for all the capitalists. You harvested the fruit fro* your labor? You got GodI But the past comforts you? fhe present smiles on you, yesf It promises you
^°Odets, "Awake and SingIn Six flays, pp. 72-73•
91Ibld.. p. 71.
52
the future something? Did you found//siio7 a piece of earth where you could live like a human feeing and die with the sun on your face? Tell me, yes, tell me. I would like to know myself. But on these questions, oil this theme— the struggle for existence—you can't make an answer. The answer I see in your face...the answer Is your mouth can't talk. In this dark corner you sit and you die. But abolish
private property}92
But Bessie quickly demolishes his argument with a
scornful dismissal, "(settling the Issue); Hoo, /slc7 go
fight City Hallt"93 And she and Morty effeat their
humiliation of the old man, for Jacob's faltering responses
Indicate that he is a man of Ideas, not of practical actions
MOfiTY: He's drunk! JACOB: I'm studying from books a whole lifetime. MOBTXs That's what it is—he's drunk. What the hell
does all that mean? JACOBi If you don't know, why should I tell you. MOHTI (triumphant at last); You see? Hear him? I*lke
all those nuts, don't know what they're saying. JACOBt I know, I know. M03TY: Like Boob McNutt you know! Don't go in the
park, Pop—the squirrels'11 get you. Ha, ha, ha...9^
Broking a softened mood to accompany Jacob's complete
mortification, the short, quiet phrases, marked by a series
of hesitant pauses, emphasize Jacob's pathetic Ineffectually
and his frustrated senility;
JACOBs Go eat, boychio£. (3ALPH cornea to him.) He gives me eat, /slo7 so I'll climb in a needle. One time I saw an old horse In summer...he wore a straw hat...the ears stuck out the top. An old horse for hire. Give m® back my young
92Ibid., p. 73. 93Ibld. 94Ibld.
53
days...give *• fresh blood....arms...give me—» (SM iSlSB$l28E IlSSS • • ->«95
Stag® effects combine with the dialogue to continue this
atmosphere of frustration. Whan Ralph answers the phone
©all from Blanche» Jacob switches 011 th® radio and, th#
stage directions indicate, "music comes and u£, a tango.
m B a s niSk m Th« ®®«»«
concludes with the symbolic pose of Jacob and lalph, each
overwhelmed by the encumbering circumstances of his life,
looked in an embrace which prefigure# Halph's eventual
acceptance of Jacob's doetrine. The ending is made even
more compelling because the silent embrace takes place against
the menacingly harsh background noises of the «bappy"
domestic setting:
JACOBs Don't cry, boychick. (Goes over to BAX>PH.) Why should you make like this?Tell me why you should cry, 4ust tell me. ...(JACOB
~" jy& Ills, arms and both, trying Jjs> _ tefi lug, c t P M t t m & M
M heardbyihe o^iSSS Hi | M » , ! » ' Mite ftyylnsTT Ion m m tn 't ory... (p* tg -M U M M * II&M& Ql^tteg of dphes _ the clash of cutlery g W
S M M a 9 7
The quiet opening of scene two with Jacob in his lighted
room beyond the darkness of the living room offers again an
expressive tonal contrast to the noisy close of the preceding
scene, yet it, too, presents a visual portrayal of the man's
S J M - p- 7». 96ai4- "ifcii-. p- 75.
5^
psychological state of frustrated Isolation. The opening
mood Is strong and unified, as Jacob reads from a Marxist
sheet which milltantly Indicts the ©Tils of the capitalistic
system*
JACOBi They are there to remind us of th« horrors*—• under those crosses lie hundreds of thousands of workers and farmers who murdered each other In uniform for the greater.glory of capitalism. (Cornea out gf room*) The new imperialist war will send millions to'their death# will Taring prosperity to the pockets of the eapitalist-aie, Horty—and will bring only greater hunger &nd misery to the masses of workers and farmers, The memories of the last world slaughter are still TlTld in our minds.5'®
The old man's reading of the Marxist pamphlet oontributes at
least two elements to the soenei its words again evoke the
Images of death and violence and subtly foreshadow the
sacrificial death of Jacob.
Jacob's stage movements—h® retreats back into the room
upon hearing a noise—betray the fast that he is not the man
of strength and action that his Marxist words sometimes ______
present him to be. When, In fact, he admits sadly the
futility of his life to Balph, the phrase "old man polishing
tools* describes just such an Ineffectual existence. Here
Odets uses the food Image of drinking "glass tea" to
signify explicitly a passive acceptance of frustrating
circumstances:
"ibid., p. ?6.
55
JACOB« Look on me and learn what to do, boychick, Hen» sits an old man polishing tools. Ion think maybe I'll use them again! Look on this failure and see for seventy years he talked, with good Ideas, but only in the head. It's enough for me now I should see your happiness, this is why I tell you—BO 1 Do what is in your heart and you Garry in yourgelf a revolution# But you should aet. Not like me, A man who had golden opportunities tout drank «« instead a glass tea. Ho. •«(A jyuse, 2l lUfflftft. >,y
k parallel device which illustrates Balph's desire for
a type of aetlon whlsh he is at present incapable of is the
sound of the Boston mail.plane passing overhead* Moments
before, at the opening of the scene, Balph's words had
expressed his desire for aetlon in terms 6t images of
movement and transportationt "When I was a kid 2 laid /alo7
awake at nights and heard the sounds of trains.. .far-away
lonesome sounds....boats going up and down the river. 1
used to think of all kinds of things I wanted to do. What
was it, Jake? Just a bunoh of noise in my headf1,100 Implicit
in these image® from the commercial world, as Balrd Shuaan
notes, is Mthe sense of going somewhere and to Halph it la a
sort of wish fulfillment . . .
The play ascends to its first major climax through a
dramatic dialogue whloh builds an atmosphere of intensifying
oonfllot. First Sam Feinschreiber arrives in nervous
agitation, for Hennie has |ust told him that the ohild is
"ibid.. pp. 77-78. 100Ibld., p. 76.
101Shu«ian. Cliffora Odets. p. 58.
56
not his. A® Jaaob offers hla an apple {again the food Image
points to the spiritual compromise that the husband Is about
to make), Sam relates, in heavy dialect, the story of hie own
father's death, The reference to an old man's dying of a
broken heart Is plaesd effectively by Odets, for, besides
revealing Sam's sensitive and over-delicate feelings, it
specifio&lly foreshadows the sense of shame which later
precedes (and leads to) Jacob'§ suioldet
SAMt Cossaoks. They out off his beard. A Jew without a beard! He came hose—I remember like yesterday how he m m home and wont in bed for two days. He put like this the eover •on his f aoe. No one should set. The third morning he died.
HALPH* Wtm what? 3AMi Prom a broken heart*« .Some people are like
this. ,K« too. I oould die like this from shame.*®*
When Beetle and Myron enter moments later, Bessie soothes
Sam*a upset feelings about Hennie and the baby, sayings
BESSIE* Take off your coat and hat. Have m seat. Exoltement don't help. Myron, make tea. Iou'11 have a glass tea. He'll talk like olvlllzed people(MXBON goes.) What Is It, Balph, you're all o ^ a s M u p for a party? ( M lookj A& KM ifUfflW M& SMM • • • > • • • ^
To the audienoe, the verbal suggestion here of a **glass tea0
1« aignlfleant, for it brings to alnd Jaoob's speeoh earlier
whloh likens the taking of a "glass t«a*» to the compromises
that the individual wake® within himself. Sam, of course,
1020dets, "Awake and Slngl« Six Plain. p. ?f.
103Ibld.. pp. 79-80.
57
makes Just such a compromise, as he leaves fortified by-
Bessie's assuranoes that Hennie really loves him and by what
Myron offers as sag© advioe, "Teddy Boosevelt used to say. 1 Ajk
•When you have a problem, sleep on it.«"A
As the ©lash of personalities Intensifies, the mood Is
amplified by the music of a Caruso record. Bessie stead-
fastly reject® her son Halph's pleas to let Blanche .move in
with them# basing her arguments on "respectable" financial
considerations! "With me it's one thing—a boy should have
reapeot for his own future.*10^ Jacob's ringing declamation
of a line from Isaiah punctuates the mood with its Imagery
of death and resurrections " 'Awalce and sing, ye that dwell
in the dust, and the earth shall oast out the dead.
The speeoh prophetically foreshadows Halph's "awakening"—a
course towards enlightenment whioh begins when Myron absent-
mindedly reveals the truth of Seimle*s marriage. The sharp
stichomythio line® refleot the intensity of Halph's angers
BALPH: What did he say? BESSIEi lever mind, MLPH: I heard him. 1 heard hla. You don't needa
tell me. BESSIE» Uever mind. BALPH? lou trapped that guy. BESSIE! Don't ©ay another word. MLPHt Just have respeot? That'# the idea? BESSIEi Don't say another word. I'm boiling over ten
time# inside. BALPHj You won't let Blanche here, huh. I'm not
sure I want her. lou put one over on that
i0**IM4., p. 82. 105Ibld.. p. 83. i06Ibld.
58
little shrimp. The cat's whiskers, Mom? BESSIE: I'm telling you something!1"?
In fury Balph then turns on both Jacob and Myron:
BALPHi I got the whole Idea. I get it so quick my head's swimming. Boy, what a laugh! I suppose you know about this, Jake?
JACOBS Yes. BALPHs Why dldn*t you do something? JACOB* I'm an old man. BALPH: What's that got to do with the price of bonds?
Sits around and lets a thing like that happen! You make me sick too.
MYB0N (after a -pause) j Let me say something, son. RALPHi ""Wake your hand amy! Sit in a corner and wag
your tail. Keep on boasting you went to law school for two years.
MYRONs I want to tell you— BALPH: You never in your life had a thing to tell
fH€l«
Bespondlng to Balph's accusations with an emotional
outburst, Bessie turns maliciously on her father. Her words
bring the play to a dramatic pitch climaxed by her deliberate
destruction of Jacob's phonograph recordsi BESSIB (bitterly)t Don't ®ay a word. Let him, let
hia run and tell Sam. Publish in the papers, give a broadcast on the radio. To hi® it don't matter nothing his family sits with tears pouring from the eyes. (£3, JACOB): What are you waiting for? I didn't tell you twice already about the dog? You'll stand around with Caruso and make a bughouse. It ain't enough all day long. Fifty times I told you I'll break every record in the house. (She brushes m i M s . Pimp, JEM g,SM§> aSMS The next time I say something you'll maybe believe it. Now maybe you learned & lesson. (Pause.)109
Hurt deeply by Balph's invective and benumbed by the shattering
107Ibid.. p. 8*K 108Ibld. 109rbld.. pp. 8^-85.
59
of bis most cherished possession, Jacob quietly replies# 110
"Bessie, new lessons.. .not for an old dog" — a speech
which ominously anticipates his forthcoming suicide.
The heightened tension is then eased through low-key
speeches as each character reveals his inner longing or
frustrated desires. There is no logical progression ©f
conversations thoughts are spoken as they cose to mind.
Moe sings softly of his escapist dream lands «'Good-toy to
all your sorrows. You never hear the® talk about the war, n i
in the land of lama Xama...'w* The words not only expose
Moe's visionary longing but also provide a tonal contrast
to the violence which has Just transpired.
Myron, rubbing his head* mentions pointlessly, "My 112
goalp Is impoverished." But when Mo# speafcs of the snow
outside, Myron, too, divulges his thought# of peace and
solitude through nostalgic recollections of the past?
•'There's no more big snows like in the old days . . . No
one hardly remembers any more when we used to have gaslight
and all the dishes had little fishes on them."*1-* As Myron
continues his apparently whimsical musings, his diction,
filled with images of death and starvation, evokes a sense
of forebodings MYRON: I was a little boy when it happened--*the Great
Blizzard. It snowed three days without a stop liQIbld,. p. 85. mXbid.
112Ibid. 113Ibid., p. 86.
60
that time. Yes, and the horse oars stopped# A silence of death was on the city and little babies got no allk...they say a lot ©f people died that year.11^
In ironic juxtaposition. Mo®'® song of the happy,
peaceful Xama Xama land underscores the longing of eaoh
character for a place without sadness* without violence;
HOB (lAflfite pi M Mfte) I , , "Mghts are blinking while you're drinking* That's the place where the good fellows go. Good-by t© all your sorrows, Xou nwer hear them talk about the war, In the land of Yama XSEB *** Funioalee, funioala, funlcalo..
Refrain® from the song are sung and hummed throughout the
conclusion of the scene, and Its haunting melody ease® the
previously strained atmosphere. With the mood thus prepared,
the announcement that Jacob has fallen from the roof comes
with stunning abruptness:
MOE: "In the land of Yama Yama, Funioalee, funioalo, funle—H
CffiM ss&sm WXmA M Jssi&as* m mm i p « i m m$sspsv I IE outs in from the other side.) [ ' Mho's ringing like a lunatio? BESSIE: Mho's ringing 1Ike a lunat1o?
BA&PIi Ifh&t's the matter? MXEOHi Momma... BESSIE: Hoo, what's the matter?
BALPHs What's the matter? BESSIEt Veil, well.».? MXHONJ Poppa.... BESSIEs What happened? SCHLOSSEH: He shlipped in de snow. RALPHj Who?
11^Ibld. 115Ibld. U6Zblft>» p. 88.
6l
Odeta uses the dlotion to reveal Bessie's character.
First* reacting inatinotively, «h® moves to notify Jacob's
son;
BESS IB (dazed): Myron.. .Call Morty on the phone.,# call him. (MYBOM start® for phone.) So. 'XI do it myself. lUl.TTdo it. (ETBOH
Mils,*)117
But suddenly sensing that her own actions have led to Jacob's
fall from the roof, she gropes desperately to rationalise
his death, seizing on Schlosser's comment m the explanations
BESSIE: He slipped...118
The word, however, is reproachfully and accusingly re-echoed
by Moei
MOE (deeply moved)i Slipped?11^
The episode ooncludes with Hoe's eoomful rejection of
Bessie's request for helps
BESSIE: 1 oan't see the numbers. Make it-, Hoe, make it...
MOEs Mate it yourself • (fit M a M ft£< M £ SM. glowly
and with his last disdainful taunt which again, implies her
guilt J
BESSIEt Hiverside ?—...(Unable talk she dials slowly.
t& fi&l H M g l i g ' /tt ^ ^ . n't...make-me laugh.•*(fig, turns over cards.)
Curtain121
117Ibid. U8Ibld. 119Ibid.
120Ibid. 121Ibid.
62
It seems evident, then, that throughout Aet II, 04® ts
uses effeetiTely both dlotion and dialogue to prob© and to
oontrast th© psyohologloal attitudes of all ah&raoters. Th©
Introduction of Morty as a representative of th# oapitallstlo
system seems also significant at this point, for Morty'&
economic Ideas are antithetical to Jacob's Marxist tenets,
and Morty's complete laok of feeling Is directly opposite to
Ralph's emotional character. Th® dramatic dialogue thus
continues th© Interplay of personalities and sustains the
mounting oonfllot. The confrontations of personalities
advance the play structurally, since the episodes progress
with Increasing Intensity toward th® dramatic elim&x In
seen© tiro. The atmosphere Is further heightened by images
of death and violence whloh foreshadow Jacob's sulolde. The
prevailing sens® of frustration Is in large part sustained
by dlotion whloh intertwines contrasting roaantlo images of
wealth and references to Utopian lands with the oppressive
real faots of a spiritually meaningless present. Following
the ©llaax, the dialogue allows a release of tension, but
the general feeling of frustration Is maintained as both Hoe
and Myron expose in their self-absorption the Inner longings
whloh possess them. The aet concludes with their quiet and
numbed acceptance of the news of Jaoob's death*
The opening of Aofc III provides an effective tonal
oontrast to the quiet mood of stunned bewilderment on whloh
63
Act II concluded* The Initial lines of the final act stress
the aheeae© of emotion in Morty and Bessie and their unfeeling
practicality as they conspire to deprive lalph of his
inheritance. The dialogue again moves the characters through
a series of disputes to advance the drama to its second high
point, the thematic climax of Balph'a discovery and final
affirmation of Jacob*s Marxist doctrine.
As Morty and Bessie argue near the opening of the scene,
Morty'g sudden outburst illuetratee the "built-up tensions
still existing within the family*
MYRON: Balphle don*t know Papa left the Insurance money in his name•
IQSTX« It»s not hl» fruslneis. And I'll tell him* BESSIE.* The way he feels# * . He* 11 do aoaething orazy.
He thinks Poppa jumped off the roof. MOBTYi Be practical» Bessie, lalphle will sign when
X tell him* Everything is peaches and cream. BESSIEt Walt for a few minute®... MOHTIs Look, 1*11 show you In black on white what
the policy says. Jggg Qod'a sake, leave m Urol (AQgrUy «rp£ fcltohw). Js £iSs£. B M i a W r • • -J 1"
This Instance of moral compromise Is again emphasized by the
uate of an image of food, "peaches and cream," connoting in
terms of the physical appetite the extreme pleasure and
satisfaction that Morty derives from swindling his nephew.
At Balph's first appearance in the scene, however, the
diotlon reveals that he is still 'bewildered and confused lay
Jacob's death. As he and Moe talk, the boy*a comments are
122Ibld.. pp. 89-^0.
6k
limited to simple# brief questions# and his "I'm not sure
what I think" explicitly demonstrates hi® mental uncertainty.
MOIt
HM*PHs MOEt
BALPHs HOB i
HALPHi mm i BMiPHt MOEs
HALPHj 1011
B&MSi MOM:
RALPH: KOI i
Malt a minutet (£rogap m m * ) They're trying to rook you-n& freeze-out. Who? That bunch a tuff In' their gut with hot pastrami, Morty in particular, Jake left the Insuranoe— three thousand dollar*—for you. For me? low you got wings, kid* Pop figured you could us# it. That*8 why.*. That's why what? It ain't the only reason he don® it. He done It? Xou think a breeze blew him of ft m%9M M i iMtfh) I'm nol not sure what 1 tbink. The Insurance guy's coming tonight. Morty "shtupped" him. Xeah? I'll back you up, Xou're dead on your feet. Grab a sleep for yourself. Hoi 1 2 1 Go ont (Pushes boy into rooiu)
Moe's reference to the eating of pastrami» "©tuffin' their
gut," when he describes the swindle, under®©ores the Instance
of aoral compromise. Balph, driven by family# circumstances,
a&d a ruthless economic system# is "force# Into "Jacob's
room#" a visually symbolic action foreshadowing his conversion
to his grandfather*® dootrine*
The sub-plots also begin to surface and resolve them-
selves In this act, Jka loe and Hennie talk* Moe's hesitant
pauses soften the aood and slow momentarily the pace of
the action. Odet® uses Hennie*s repeated one-word questions
123 'Ibid. * p. 90,
65
to Illustrate her real concern for Moe, this toeing their
first conversation la the play without sarcastic or oynioal
exchanges:
MOB: Don*t rim away*..J ainft got hydrophobia* Walt. I want to tell you....If» leaving.
HEHMIEs leaving? MOEj Tonight.. Already packed.
HENNIE; Where?*^
This quiet dialogue is abruptly interrupted, however,
fes Morty enters, exclaiming crudely, wMy oar goes through
snow lifce a dose of salts.«12^ And when he sighs with
satisfaction, »I didnft have a piece of hot pastrami in ay 126
mouth for years,8 the oomment on food is again used Just
as he is about to expose the callousness of his nature* He
offer# an unf#iling eulogy on his father which displays a
complete lack of understandings "Personally, Fop was a
fine man. But I'm a great boy for an honest opinion. He
had enough crazy ideas for a regiment. J'12'7 But .when Morty
continues to speak disparagingly of his fatherrs dedication,
Balph' a angry intersection re-reals an aroused temperament
and plaoes his attitude in dramatic opposition to Morty»a: MOHPY: Marxt Some say Karz is a new God today.
Maybe I'm wrong. Ha ha ha*..Personally 1 counted 1ay ten million last night...I'm sixteen cents short. So tomorrow 1*11 go to Union Square and yell no equality in the countryI Ah, it's a new generation.
BALFHt You said it!
12**Ibld.. p. 9i. 125Xbld. 126Ibld.
127Ibid.. p. 92. i28Ibld.
66
As he turns to argue with both Morty and Bessie, the
hard-driving, staccato sentences reveal Ralph's first
emergence as a forceful personality!
B&&PH C M hla mother) s The insurance man's coming tonight?
MOOTXi What*© the witter? M M U t I'm not talking to you* ($$1 M i IftlMiS)«
Why? BESSIEi 1 don't know why. BALPHs He don't come in this house tonight. MOKEI* That's what you say. RALPHs I'm not talking to you, Uncle Morty, but
I'll tell you, too, he don't come here tonight when there's still mud on a grave* (Jo his mother)» Couldn't you give the house a chance to oool off?
MOSK* Is this a way to talk to your mother? EALPHs Was that a way to talk to your father? MOHPXj Don't be so smart with me, Mr. Ralph Bergerl
HALPHs Don't be so smart with me.12"
He wins this dispute with Morty and Bessie because he
receives unexpected support from Moe, who produces a paper
which he claims is Jacob's suicide note. But following this-
Balph'a first viotory in any family argument--the diction
and dialogue swiftly project hie "awakening" as a forceful
mid effective character.
Moments later, when Bessie tells him, "Please don't
have foolish idea® about the money,f,i^0 Balph answers
abruptly, wI#t's call it a day."1-*1 She presses on,
pleading in a lengthy speech which demonstrates how she has
turned her role of mother into that of martyrt1^2
129Ibid., pp. 92-93. 13°Ibld., p. 94. 131Ibld.
i;32Shuman, P. 62.
6?
BESSIEs Balphle, I worked, too hard all my years to be treated like dirt, It's no law we should be stuete together like Siamese twins. Summer shoes you didn't have, skates you never had, "but I "bought a new dress every week# A lover I kept'—Mr. Gigolo I Did I ever play a game of cards like Mrs. Marcus? Or was Bessie Berger's children always the cleanest on the block?! Here I'm not only the mother, but also the father. The first two years I worked la a stocking factory for six dollars while Myron Berger went to law school. If I didn't worry about the family who would? On the calendar it's a different place, but here without a dollar you don't look the world in the eye. Talk from now to next year-—this Is life in America.133
Balph1s sharp, monosyllabic words indicate the reversal of
his former passive acceptance: "Then it's wrong. It don't
make sense. If life made you this way, then It's wrong!
In harmony with his expanding awareness, the firmly
spoken lines, filled with strongly accented words, increase
In tempo to a final declamation:
RALPH: No, I see every house lousy with lies and hate. He said it, Grandpa—Brooklyn hates the Bronx. Smacked on the nose twice a day. But boys and girls can get ahead like that, Mom. don't want life printed on dollar bills. Mom!135
Suggesting his approaching acceptance of the Marxist Ideal,
his words echo Jacob's command in Act I ("Go out and fight
so life shouldn't be-printed on dollar b i l l s " ) . T h u s when
Bessie utters the same type of sarcastic rebuttal which was
1330dets, "Awake and Sing!" Six Plays, p. 95*
13**Ibld. 135Ibld.
136Cf. p. 33,.
68
so effective against Jacob, "So go out and change the world
If you don*t like it,"*37 Balph announces his conversion to
the met It® Marxist life with the abrupt exolaoatlont "I
willI"138
Another example of (Mete's continued us® of the imagery
la Balph1s speeches to reflect the progressive changes of hi®
temperament 1® provided by the boy's comparison of his newly
dedicated llf® to the straight direction of the mail plane
patslug overheadj « . . . There...hear him? The air sail
off to Boston. Day or night, he flies away, a Job to do#
That*® u» and It*a no time to dl©."*3^ it refers directly
to those earlier Images of transportation used In Act II to
suggest hi® former vague and undefined desire for action.
The progression of the action is momentarily slowed by
the thoughtful pauses in Balph'a speech when he talks quietly
with Blanche over the phone# "Hello...Blanche, I wish.. .1
don*t know what to say...£••••«.Hello..(tuts Bhone down.)
She hung up on »e.«^° But, a few line® later, as Balph
brings an araful of book® from Jacob*® room, hi® exuberant
words create an air of urgency and vigor to demonstrate his
aroused Intellectual awakening1
BALPH« . . . Uptown, downtown, 1*11 read them on the way* Get a big lamp over the bed. (Picks up one*) My eye» are good. (Puts book » 5 a i £ » t . )
137Ibid.. p. 95. 138Ibld.
I39lbld. ^Ibld.. p. 96,
6$
Sure, Inventory tomorrow. Colettl to Briscoll to Berger—that's how we work. It's a team down the warehouse. Drisooll's a show~off, a wlseguy# and Joe talks pigeons day and night* But they're lite© ma* looking for a ©hanee to get to first base to©. , . . Get teams together all over. Spit m your hands and get to work. And with enough teams together maybe we'll get steam in the warehouse so our fingers don't free«# off. Maybe w<s'll fix. it so lift won't be printed on dollar bills.
The baseball imagery used 1» the apeeoh makes explicit Balph's
dedication to a soolallstle movement, at .the references to ~
teamwork, double plays, and effort® to "get to first bastw
stress an active group undertaking. The seooad speelfi®
repetition of Jacob's words (",..so life wott't be printed
on dollar bills") underscores Salph's Ideologloal oonversion
to Marxist socialism.
Bringing the sub-plot back into foous, Gdets relaxes
momentarily the pace of the dramatic dialogue. After Ealph
leaves# Moe declares his love for Hennle and suggests that
they too might'break with the present life. His quiet speech
contrasts images of pme@ and happiness associated with
Hennle's love ("« . . you're home for »©,.,*) with those
denoting the frustrations he suffers without her'love (". • .
eating out your heart . . .*'}*
MOls So you're it—-you're home for me, a plaoe to live* That's the whole parade* sickness, eating out your heartt Sometimes you meet a girl—she stops It—that's love.,.So take a .n9 ohanee! Be with me, Faradise. What's to lose?
l4lIbld*. p. 97. 142Ibid.. p. 98.
70
But as Ho® baoones aoin desperate, th® diotlon increases
the lnt®nalty of th® aood by th® lnoluelon of laag®® whloh
r@fl®ot his emotional agitation* The rsferenoe to th©
aotlir®. pulsating notion of the tttango" dano® (sugg«stlir#
of Mo®1# desperate longing for Heimle) Is a«t In oontraat
to th# eold» unmovlng image of io@ (indloatlv® of her
rajaetlon of his lov©)i
MOB (grabbing i What do you want? Say th® word.— I'll tango on a dim®,^Bon*t glume la® when your heart1® on fire t w
Punctuated by on«-word exclamations, the dialogue inore&ges
In tampoi
SEMHUi Imt ae got (He atopg hor.) NOB i WBSBB7H HSMHIEs What do you want, Moe, what do you want? KOSi Tout HSMtfXBi Xou'llbe sorry you ever started— MOE i XoufW
Mo@»# allusion to his "fever" and his vloltnt words of
d«ap®ration whloh follow It (". . . blow this whol# damn
tow» to h®llM> ar® Indication® of an lnn®r ©motional tanalon
whloh 1® abruptly relaxed as he stumbles backwardss
KOI« Not I got enough fever to blow this whol® damn torn to he 11. (g® suddenly rilaasea
«b& m i i i a i k v i g i i i ! T & S t t l S £a illtl flfflBh): You wanna go back toliim Say th© word, 1*11 know what to do.
Th® sudden shift to a lyrlo pleading for ©soap© to a
peaceful land and th® Images of restful quiet and relaxation
msm- lk5im-
71
reveals the momentary calming of his exalted state:
HOli Listen to me. HENNIEJ What? HQSs Com# away. A certain place where it*is moon-
light and roam* We'll lay down, count etars. Hear the big ocean making noise, Xou lay under.the trees. Champagne flows like— • * »
However, as th© sub-plot moves to its ©llaax, Moe's agonized
speeches transform th®.calm Interlude Into a mood•of acute
urgency. Hoe's desperate allusions to escapist lands
differentiate sharply "between the suffocating vacuum of their
present Uvea ("life in a coffin,H "pins and needles la your
heart," and "snake 3ulc© squirted In your arm") and the
Utopian existence where "th® whole world's green grass and
when you cry it's "because you're happy":
HOEa , Make a break or spend the rest of your life in a ©offIn.
HENHIEt Oh God, I don't know where I stand. MO!i Don't look up there. Paradise, you're om a
big boat headed south. No more pins and needles in your heart, no snake juice squirted In your arm. The whole world's green grass and when you cry It's because you're happy.
HENNIE! Hoe, I don't know*... MCEi Nobody knows, but you do it and find out.
then you're soared the answer's ssero. HENHIE« Xou're hurting ay arm.**'
But as Heimie hesitate® In her lndeciaion, ioe grabs
her arm forcefully—a physical gesture which la significant,
for, as Balrd Shunan notes, with this latter action Hennle
capitulates, because "this has been Hennle'» whole life*
146Ibid, l47Ibld.. p. 99.
72
capitulation, compromise, uncertainty, regret# Circumstances
have been * hurting her aim* for as long as fill® can remember,
and she 1ms had no control over this."1^8 Finally Hennie
signifies Iter decision with a on#-word exclamation, "Hoef
mumbles. "The Ban I love..,"^® and exits to get her ooat«
Building intentionally upon Hennie's capitulating
dealsIon to flee and upon Myron's apparently meaningless
mumblings* ©det® sets Balph*s speeches in purposeful contrast
moments later. Such an eaphatlo juxtaposition dramatizes
not only aalph»s responsible and unselfish choice in staying
to fight for a tetter life, but also his mature foreefulness
of character. The father's continued references to Teddy
Boosevelt and to Hooa@veltfs life of activity are once more
placedin opposition with th# fact of his own unproductive
life, and the stage action of paring fruit lends symbolic
amplification to the final characterisation of a mm whose
years have been wasted through moral compromises with reality*
MXBQUs Don't wake her up, Beauty. Momma fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. X san*t sleep. It m s a long day. Hmum. I Examines his tongue in buffet mirror)j I was reading the other day a person with a thiek tongue Is feebleminded. I ©an do anything with ay tongue. Make it thick* flat. No fruit in the house lately. Just a lone apple. (g£ efea amle s M s M & m tela, m & s J m M Musit *>® something wrong with me—I say I won't eat but
1^8Shuiaan, Clifford Odets. p. 65.
^Odets, "Awafee and Sing I* Six Plays, p. 100.
15°Ibld.
73
C M aalf,?! ,toi«gl M Where you going, little Bed
HENNIE:
X 6ftti. - — , _ . , . r f T T n.Tl m tiding
Nobody knows» Peter Babbit. MIHOH? You're looking very pretty tonight* You were
a beautiful baby too. if 10, that ms the year you m s bom. The same year Teddy fioosevelt eome back from Africa.
HEMNXEs Gee, Popj you're such a funny guy. IXEOIt He was a boisterous man, Teddy, Good night.
(It fliiJS» B u t e
At the play1® conclusion, however, Balph's spirited
speeches dissipate the atmosphere of frustration and
compromise, His diotlon Is aarked by vigorous accents and
short phraslngs which express his surging eaotlona. And,
bringing the drama to an intensified thematic climax, the
aeries of positively spoken ejaculation® indicate Balph's
transformation to a firm and dedicated personality:
BALPHj When I look at him, I'm sad. Let me die lik« a dog, if I can't get more from lift.
mmjMt Whore? BALPHj Eight here In the house! My days won't be for
nothing. Let Mom have the dough. I'm twenty-two and kiokln'I I'll get along. Did Jake die for ue to fight about nickels? Noi "Awake and sing," he said. Eight her© he stood and said it. The night he died, I saw it like a thunderbolt t I daw he was dead and X was bora! I swear to God, I'm one week oldI I want the whole oity to hear It—fresh blood, arms. We got 'em. We're glad we're living*
MGEt I wouldn't trade you for two pitchers and an outfielder. Bold the fortI
RALPH* So long. 101f So long.
sto slid ItHii our BSmwXI
U SMSM,
SltiBM152
151 152 * t pp. lOO-iOi.
Here the concluding images tighten up and complete former
allusions, at the same time specifically revealing Ralph's
changed attitudes. The phrase "die like a dog" suggests the
dog-like passivity of Myron's character, for in Act II H&lph
had exclaimed la anger to his father, "Sit in a corner and
wag your tall,"1^ Yet this reference to a resigned death is
set in Immediate contrast to Jacob's sacrificial one which
leads to intellectual rebirth and resurrection ("The night
he died, I saw it like a thunderbolt! I saw he was dead and"
1 was bornl"). The zeal and actitlty of Balph's new life
("I'» twenty-two and kiokin'!") procesd directly from this
intellectual ©oarer®ion (likened to a flashing "thunderbolt")—
the invigorating effects of which are made explicit through
the images of physical rejuvenation ("fresh blood, arms"),
Moe's final reference to the world of baseball. "I wouldn't
trade you for two pitchers and an outfielder," suggests further
the complete maturation of Balph's character and awareness of
reality, for in Act II Moe had referred to Balph disparagingly
as a "bush leaguer#"1^ the slow curtain at the conclusion
underscores this final atmosphere, as Salph stands symbolically
triumphant in the doorway, left alone in the full visual
focus of the audience*
"^Ibld. , p. EMf (See thesis footnote number 108.)*
15^Ibld., p. ?0.
75
Throughout the last act Odets employs dramatic diction
and dialogue to project Balph1 s saturation and gradual
conversion to the Marxist Ideal—the revelation offering a
final heightened thematic climax to the play* MM abrupt,
positively spoken lines replace hesitant and confused
comments, Salph's speech reflect® his Intellectual trans-,
foraatloni and his diction, sharpened by images of rebirth,
further illustrate® his spiritual awakening.
Thus In Awake and SInset Gdets evokes character skillfully
through a' deft control of diction and dialogue* Bessie* the
mother and aatrlaroh of the family, reveal# her obsessive
concern for' family unity and security through a flow of
Jewish idioia and colloquial speech rhythms which are as
colorful as they are personal. With equal effectiveness the
diction of Myron, with Its pauses, its autobiographical
musings, and its sudden irrelevancle®, portrays him as one
unable to ©ope with the present, Odets Is so less sure in
hi# characterization of Jacob# whose speeches reflect his
tense of personal dignity* of lalph# who expresses poignantly
his struggle® to establish an identity and to find a aliasing
in life? and of Moe and Morty, whose words show that they
have lost faith in nearly all but themselves.
let It Is olear that diction accomplishes much acre
than a simple cataloguing of the economic or social frustration
of these lives. Through speeches rich with poetic imagery
76
and lyrie exclamations, th® playwright gives depth and
dimension to the characters, disclosing how each longs for
some symbol of personal fulfillment and. how each is denied
attainment. The individualizing language thus reveals, with
a Chekhovian tenderness, how life in the Bargar apartment
of Depression America is a spiritual death.
Odets's mature and deliberate handling of dialogue
contributes structural unity to the play# as explosive
confrontations of character and juxtaposition© of con-
flicting attitudes advance the drama in rhythmic sequence«
lad Odeta been less th© master of dramatio dialogue, had he
lean skill in projecting character through diction, Awake
and Sinai would have failed as an integral whole.
Odets, moreover, is equally oertain in. his handling of
dramatic language whan ha departs from the loosely plotted
"Chefchorian* dramatic pra sen tat ion and chooses a tighter
plot and swifter-moving structure, as is the case in golden
SSI*
CHAPTEB III
GOLDSN BOX
Is 1937 Clifford Odets returned from Hollywood and gave
the Group Theatre golden Boy. a flay destined to become hi®
greatest commercial success, Although orltlos of this play
often hare occasion to praise Odets's able handling of
dialogue» there exist differing orltloal opinions ©OBoemlng
Odets*i use of rhetoric la Golden Boy, unlike the unanimity
of the reviews of Awake and Sing t. which generally praise that
play*8 language* The reviewer for %he Literary M&eat
states? "Hard criticism and violent differences of opinion
1
are Inevitable results of a Clifford Met® play." Grenvllle
Vernon, for Instance, feels that It ican time Odets learned
that "vulgarity of expression is not dram. Some of the
line® of Golden Boy are lamentable"$2 while on the other
hand. Joseph Wood Krutch says that "his dialogue Is often
brilliantly suggestive, especially when he puts It into the
mouths of Ignorant or uncultured people * * * and he involves
lwClifford Odets' Golden Boy" {author not given), The M l S « Z BSSSS. CXXIV ftovSher 2?, 1937), 35.
2Grenvllle Vernon. "Golden Boy." Commonweal. XXVII (loveaher 19, 1937). 196
77
78
the spectator in the agonies of his characters."*^ Edith
Isaac® is impressed by "that gift of rhythaio speech which
k Is the mark of a more-than-on®-play author"5 yet she
l&elieve® that Odeta did not allow his characters to M speak
out of their own m o u t h s . B u t the reviewer for Time feels
that "Odeta* characters are most forceful when they speak
the salty Idiom of the street."
These contradictory views generally fall to note the
effects of the author1s experience as a film writer upon his
method of dramatic presentation in Golden Boy—a fact
rather Important in one1® consideration of the author*s
selection and usage of dramatis diction* The characterization,
plotting, and structure each reflect a marked influence of
the cinematic technique! and in turn, the language of the
play is adapted to this new method of presentation.
Bather than recreating the "etual-slzed roleaM of the
characters in hie earlier dramas, Odeta specifically traces
the character development of only one central protagonist,
Joe Bonaparte. This i® not to imply, however, that Odets no
^Joseph Wood Xrutch, "Dramast Two Legends,® Hation. CXLV (November 13, 1937), 5^0*
^Bdith Isaacs, "Golden Boy," Theatre Arts Monthly. .XXII (January, 1938)* 12.
5Ibld.
^wGolden Boy" (author not given), Time. XXX (November 15,
1937). w r ™
79
longer uses dramatic diction t© reveal characters; for In
golden he uses language skillfully to bring to lif© a
wider and more varied assortment of characters than in
either of the previous full-length plays, Awake and ain*t
and Paradise Lost. The,essential difference la that these
characters are not each studied in elaborate, penetrating
detailj only $|£ character, Jo# Bonaparte, undergoes any
significant personality development and peyohologloal change
within the drama. Joe is surrounded, however, fey such
diverse characters as an unemotional racketeer, m philosophical
candy-store owner, a sympathetic fight trainer, a loud and
eomio taxi driver, a desperate fight manager and his
attractive mistress* and an ethical though inarticulate "old
world" father. let here again Odets's mastery of vernacular
brings to life what Eleanor Flaxnor praises mm a "long and
rioh gallery of characterizations* j7 for, as Derek
Versohoyle notea, "their ambitions and sympathies and lusts
are personal to themselves. They speak the language of lift,"8
The dxwaatio structure and plotting also reflect the
author1® experience with einematle technique, lather than
the long unbroken acts of Awake and Blnmi and Paradise Lost.
Golden Boy's three acts are divided into twelve short
„ . n ! S w ' W W m M W (New xor&, 1930/, p# jOQ*
g Derek Versohoyle, "The Theatre," Spectator. CLXI
(July 1, if38), 16,
m
©llsaetio soene#» And, finally, the plot of Golden Boy
differs from the seemingly "loose" Chekhoviim design of
the earlier works, as there Is an easily discern&ble pattern
of develajwent in the protagonist*s personal deterioration,
la 1938* Bleanor Flexaor stated that Odets1s "talent has
m m r been seen to better a&rantage than in the construction
and swift unfolding of Golden gSflt*»9 and the following year
John Gassner exclaimed that this m s Odets*a ""best
sonstrueted and leagt rampant play."10
The author1® ©hole© of diotion and hie dramatic dialogue
follow from his use of these methods of plotting and tight
dttnatlo construction, for as Walter Cera? note#, *Uhe speech
of the play adapted itself to the lean and hard-driving
urgency of a thoroughly theatrical structure."11 Thus the
speeches of Gol&m g^I «*« filled with the lyrlo, near-
postic language ant rioh imagery which so marked the
passages of 4mke and a tag! although the dialogue doe® reveal
the intense artistio aenaitivity of the main character, Joe
Bonaparte.
The drama relates the story of » twenty-one year old
violinist, Joe Bonaparte.# who turns from a life of artistic
9Fle3cn©r, Playwrights, p. 300.
* ** * * " » i f f lSEl2aa
m2) l %6il t 9 T K e r r' c^onweal. LV (March 28,
81
dedication to a boxing career in an attempt to achieve fame
and fortune. The choice to fight is posited as one anti-
thetical to an artistic career, glnee by boxing, Jo© faoes
the poeelblllty of ruining his hands. He fights for torn
Moody, a small-time manager who dreams of discovering
another contender for' a boxing title so that he might
divorce hi# wife and marry Loraa Moon, his mistress* Lorna,
who ©alls herself a "tramp from Newark," lores the fight
manager for helping her and In gratitude -urges Joe to fight
aggressively. The love triangle evolves aa she is attracted
by the sensitive aspects of hi® personality.
Joe*» artistio sensitivity is understood by both his
father and by a philosophical neighbor, Mr# Carp. Subsequently
the father withhold® permission from his son to fight. Aa
Joe breaks with his family to fight for fame and financial
success, the drama traces his movement amy fro* -the realm of
art and the spirit to that of the senses and the material, a
change marked by the gradual development of a hardened, and
egotistical attitude. At the same time, Joe1® spiritual degen-
eratlos 1# paralleled by his rising success in the fight
game whleh, mm Anita Bleak points out, epltomlies the battle
for gain shorn of all pretense—at Its most brutal and at the 12
same time at its most lucrative and spectacular."A
12Anlta Blo©k» Ihe Changing World £3#ya Theatre (Boston, 1939). F* 2 ™
82
Finally, when Joe kills an opponent la the ring, he
realizes with sudden insight Just what he ha# really become.
The revelation is too muoh for hl», and sine® he cannot
return to an artistic career with his broken hands, he
speeds away into the night with Lorn, whs has alternated
between love for Moody and tender feelings for Joe. The
high-speed flight from reality In the Duesenburg, the1 symbol
of Joe*© ooaaerolal success, ends in death. The drama
eonoludes with a short epilogue soene at the Bonaparte home
as the new® of the wreck Is received.
Although golden Boy Is about an Italian-American, and
Italian dlaleot Is apeolfleally used In Mr. Bonaparte*e
speech, Grenvlll© Vemoa feels that wthe idea® and Idioms of
the Italian® are completely Jewish.111-' Vernon's point,
though a minor one, seems oorreot* but even though both Joe
and Mr. Bonaparte are essentially Jewish in their mode of
thought and expression, this fact does not detract from
Odeta's power to oharaoterise—from his ability, as John
Mason Brown states, to "see the characters with his own
plerolng eye«» He lays their secret torments bare by means
of his own extraordinary ear for what is unmasking in their 14,
speech*"
^Grenville Vernon, "The Case of Clifford Odeta," >, XXVIII (June 10, lf38). 188.
1 Jl* A John Mason Brown, "Clifford Gdetsi Golden Boy.*
Two m, i M Aiale 1938). p. 221.
83
Similarly, Odets handles the charac ter izat ions of the
minor figures with what Baird Shuman ©alls Mr«spect and
understanding," for each Is brought to life through a
dlotlon which starks him as Individual and distinct. Xet
Gdets so places these characters within his strict theatrical
structure that they are subordinated In order to focus full
dramatic* attention upon the play*s protagonist, Joe's
speeches progressively repeal his spiritual Isolation, and
thus the atmosphere which surrounds his ©hanging personality
becomes increasingly harsh and violent. let In a more
subtle' manner Odets uses the speeches of his minor characters
to further Intensify the tone by ©resting a mood which
parallels the specific mental agitation or Indecision of
the protagonist at that very moment, even though he sight
not be on stage, through the alternation of low and quiet
speeches with highly charged explosive lines* Gdets thus
allows a rhythaio unfolding of mood within each episode.
It Is one ©f the main contentions of this chapter*
therefore# that Odets*s effective handling of diction and
dialogue, particularly for the creation of mood and dramatic !
rhythm, contributes significantly to his successful use of a
new and different method of presentation in Golden Boy.
Its purpose, then, is to demonstrate how by carefully selecting
*%alrd Shum&n, Clifford Odets {Hew Haven, Connecticut, 19^2), p. 82.
m
and arranging his diction to reflect the changing moods of
his characters and "by rhythmically alternating the
presentation of these moods through dialogue soenes, Clifford
Gdets oommunieates to his audience a felt tension which
prepares them for the ©motional climax the resolution of
Jo#1® conflict.
As Tom Moody and Lorna loon argue at the opening of
Golden Boy, the terse stiehoiaythic lines indleate an Initial
aoo4 of hostilityi
MOODY» Pack up your olothes and goI Go! Who the hell's stopping you?
LOHNAi You mean It? MOODYi You brought up the point yourself. LQSHAJ Wo. I didn't! MOODYs Didn't you say you had a good mind to leave me? LOHMAt No, I said— MOODY t You said you were going to pack! LOHNAt I said I feel like a tramp and 1 don't like it.
I want to get married, I want— MOODYt Go home, Lorna» go home! I ain't got time to
discuss It. Glwoe some air. Xt*« enough I got ay wife on ay neck.
kOBIAt lhafc does she say? SOODYi Who? LOHNAs Your wife—your sweet goddam Monica! MOODYs She want# .five thousand dollars to glve ae the
divorce* (LOBNA laugha») I don't see that It's funny.10
Indeed, the dialogue more® with what John Mason Brown calls
"telegraphic brevity*^ and provides the audlenoe with an
immediate sense of impending conflict a® well as with
necessary exposition.
^Clifford Odets, "Golden Boy," Plays of Clifford Odets (Mew York, 1939). PP. 237-238. '
17 'Brown, "Clifford Odets: Golden Boy," p. 220.
85
The drama Is not yet fifty lines old when Moody,
speaking of the proaperoua years of the past* utters *
comment which, seemingly unimportant, aotually foreshadows
the ©oming violence» "Those were the days when I had Marty
Welch, the heavyweight contender—Cy Webster who got himself
billed In a big, red Stutz. In '27 and 8 you oouldn't g© to 18
sleep—* the town was orawllng with attract ions." The
statement deliberately prefigures Joe's death fey oar
accident at the play's conclusion. Further, Moody'® linea
not only Introduce a motif of violence whloh runs throughout
the play hut alto subtly relate It to the Imagea of apeed
and the automobile which figure Importantly in later
thematic development* Loma's laoonio reply, nly mother
died in *28,w1^ adds a second reference to death to the
suggestive undercurrent.
At Joe1 e entranoe, his first speeches demonstrate his
cockiness and apparent over-oonfIdenoe. His worda provoke
an immediate antagonism In Moody, and the manager's loud
outburst sets the Initial mood of their meeting aa one of
oonfllot, providing an early foundation for their later, more
violent relationshipI BOY ( M s a m n s aiiuM) t m&m (laMBfe 5
In an office?
Mr. Moody... Don't you ten®ok when you com©
1®Odets* Golden Boy,M Six Flays, p. 238*
19lMd.
BOX i MOODX:
Sometimes I knook, sometimes I don't 20 Say your piece and got the hell outt'
0d@ts continues the atmosphere of conflict throughout the
episode, as Joe persists In arguing for an opportunity to
fight, offensively calling the manager "Tom." Moody's
discovery of Joe's optloal disorder, and his subsequent
21
remark, "You're eook~@yed» too," intensifies the direct
clash of personalities. The mood of violence is further
sustained toy the rhythmic alternation of calm quiet and
excited outburst, each outburst being more angry and
intense than the preceding one. In the following exchange,
for example, the dialogue builds through two verbal explosions
by Moody to a final violent eruption* BOXi . . . I need a good manager, Mr* Moody* Xou
used to be top® around town—«everyon© says so, I think you can develop me. I can fight. Xou don't know it, bat I ©an fight. Kaplan's been through for years. He may be the best fighter In your stable, but he's a stumble-bum for the younger boys growing up. Why don't you give me this chance, Torn?
MGODXs 1 don't want you oalllng me Torn! (ge glares at the BOX and then returns? jfcg the desk telephoneTT
BOX* Lng for your answer# (3 an glwgft as M&tne to
Dhere are forty-threethousand minutes in a month—oan't you give me five?
HOODXi I'll give you this phone In the head in a minute! Who are you? What the hell do you want? Where do you fight?
BOX (with oool persistence)t We ought to get together, Tom.
M00DXj I don't want you oalllng m® Torn. Xou're brash,
20 Ibid., p. 239, 21 "Ibid., p. 2&0.
8?
you're fresh, you're oallow—and you're ©ook~ eye&t la faot, you're an insult to my whole nature! Mow get outI . .
When Joe finally identifies hl»self W name, the manager's
laughter offers a moeking insult to the My 1® personal
identity*
BOX» Did you ever hear ©f me? MOODY (sarcastically)* Ho, who are rou? I would honestly
like to know—who are you? BOY (quietly)! My name is Bonaparte. (Iffl & £ & & & &
BOY, laughs* fjy BOY oonfcliro»i«)!TAon*t think It'sfunny,
MOODYi Didn't that name used to get you a little _ la school? , fell the truth, Bonaparte. Didn't it?
BOY* Call me Joe. MOODY (laughing)t And your eye«...Didn't they u«ed to
get a little giggle tool**
Joe*« hard, sharp reply, "I don't like it*..I don't want you
to do it,*2^ and hie stage action, as he seizes Moody W the
coat lapels, demonstrate, a hypersensitive temperament whleh
flares out heatedly when provoked. Thus, later when the
thematic examination of Joe's artistic individuality, frus-
trated as a musician, is begun in scene two, the $u»stloa of
his personal identity has keen alluded to in such harsh
terms that it is apparent that the study will fee a brutally
penetrating one.
Moody's angry outburst at the oonoluelon of the so&m
follows an interval of calm built up by four consecutive
22Ibld.. pp. 240-241. 2 3 i m - * PP- 241-242.
2 W . P. 242.
88
quietly spokan speeches, and thus it "brings the episode to a
sharp climax. The final threat of violence, "I'll break your
neck!" adds another ominous Image of death to the implicit
undercurrent of destruction, as well as establishing the
conflict "between the two.
M0GP3Tf . . . C H jspgi BE M i , B B S ftMSt' IIS It ih# fc|ftyf of all eyes,3 It's revenge on some-body—maybe Odd..
JOE (quietly)i I think you*11 toe surprised, MOODY (sadly)i Do your worst, kid. I*Ye been surprised
by expert®. JOE: Don't worry, Torn, MOODYi Call me Tom again and 1*11 break your neoki
Saiak DftAtStti2-*
lather skillfully, Gdets uses the qulek f&deout here to out
the aetlon to prolong the effect of the scene's final angry
mood*
The opening mood of scene two offers an effective
oontr&et to the taut atmosphere of scene one, m the low-key
conversation of Mr. Carp and Biggie refleete the quieter home
surroundings and the less volatile personalities. let the
argumentative mood of scene one Is continued on a relatively
minor «esl#,®.a the aotion moves from Mr. Carp*! sigh of
contentment through a mildly angry dispute about social
positions
Aft Hit Ilgillg I * MBe Ismmsm . tiapffi ~
'MMtUM fc©
CT/WftjSMBi. «mm* -.yT ~ _ M l ; M p l p » fit . m undershirt, trouier^
25Ibld.. pp. 2*3-2W.
89
2 $ M i m a . M i m &ss£ p& siasa. »nich m wins fU&aafisEaEilsaia- a a s « u f i r f f i r ® t laaa. aaelsie at toss «oanin«a with «aurmSsf a Buraur of rallsh.
CARP (finally): I don't take It easy. That*a ay trouble*-If I could only leam to take It easy...
S100IE5 What do you call It now* what you're doing? Say* ^ , J 0 after business hour®*
SXSGlEt fhat*® a business? A man who nois a &andy store is an outoast of the world. Don't even »•}! candles—penny candies!
GABPj And your taxioab business makea you higher in the social scale?'*0
Mr. Carp'» final question in the argument Introduce® into a
quiet atmosphere an issue which bears direat thematic
relevance. Later in this seen# Joe himself argue® heatedly
for a life based upon such social prestige.
As in seene one, the method of alternating quiet
speeches with loud outbursts is used to create recurrent
mood® of violence and foreboding. First Slggle and his wife
Anna argue humorously with Mr. Bonaparte for money with which
to buy a new cab. But their pleadings end in a mock-conic
fight as they begin swatting each other with rolled-up news-
papers. Finally, an Siggie lose® his temper» the shortt
explosive monosyllabic words build up to the threat of
physical violence# echoing exactly To® Moody's outburst!
"The next time I'll break your neck—I'm super-disgusted
with you."^
26Xbjld.. p. 2&k,
27Ibid., p. Zk7,
90
After Anna and Stggle exit, Mr. Carp and Mr* Bonaparte
casually introduce the subject of Joe's skill with the violin.
Here Mr. Carp*® pessimistic comments are set In deliberate
contrast to Old Bonaparte's happy praise of Joe's artistic
ability, and Carp's repeated allusions to war quietly
contribute to the atmosphere of impending violence, directly
prefiguring Joe's later personal conflict*
ME. BONAPARTE: 1 feela good. Like-a to have some music t Hey* where'sa my boy, Joe? (Look® at M l mMki is SHBEised.) On® o'olookTTTdon't come home yet. Hey# he make»a a® worry!
C A E P J YOU think you got worries? Malt* you're a young man yet. Xou got a son, Joe. He practised on hi® fiddle for ten years? B® won a gold medal* the best In the ©ity? They gave hist a scholarship In the Ericsson Institute? f©morrow he's twenty-one, yeah?
MB. BONAPABTE (emphatically)i Xeaht
OAst OssMiss xamsi sm SBSABS Ms x&isz) > Suppose a war comes? Before you know It, he'® in the army!
Ml. BOMAPAHPE: Maw, nawt Whata you say I Maw I CAHP (waging jug, head imitation) t Lock in the papersi
On every side W e clouds of war-IE. BOEAJPAHKEs My Joe gotta blga talent. Yesterday I
buy-a him present! (With & dramatic flourish
it SM. bottom sasl But the exuberant mood which accompanies Mr. Bonaparte's
speech is sobered quickly by Carp's Ironic words with their
fuggtatlon of deathi "It looks like a coffin for a baby."2^
The deliberate shift of mood at a time when Joe's artistic
skill is being discussed further foreshadows a change in
Joe's temperament in this same scene.
28lbld», p. 2^8. 29Ibid, 99PPWV>IMB|piR*¥P>r
n
As the two continue to talk, the juxtaposition of suoh
word® as "competitive civilization." "millionaire," "bread,
and butter" with suoh terms as *good life" and «Et*»e«M
creates an implicit tension between the materialistic* and
the artistic ways of life teefore Jo® himself asks the same
questions »
CABP (sitting)i Ask yourself a pertinent remark: eS3d a boy make a living playing this in-strument in our competitive civilisation today?
HE. BONAPAHTSt Why? Don't expect for Joe to be a millionaire. Be don*t need it, to be' & millionaire. A good life'sa possible—
CABP: For men like us, ye®. But nowadays ts it possible' for a young man to give himself to the Mus©®? Could the Muses put bread and butter on the table?30
To Carp1a question# concerning the commercial value of musio,
Mr. Bonaparte•s reply illustrates Joe*a former attraction to
musioi
IE, BOMAPAHPE 1 $0 millionaire is necessary. Joe love muslo. Musi© is the great oheer-up in the language of all countries. 2 learn that from
let as Mr. Carp presses his point, he argues from a
philosophic tenet which adds still another warning of death
to the undercurrent of violence and destructions
CAHP* But in the end, a# Sohopenhauer says what's the me to try something? For every wish we get, ten remain® /ilo7 unsatisfied. Death is playing with u® ma a oat and her mousePz
30UU4»» P- 2*9. 31Ibld. 32Ibld,
92
0X4 Bonaparte•s reply in heavy Italian dialect reveals
M s happy and inetinotive Approach to life, a philosophy
clearly unaffected lay the pressure of commercial success
which so troubles Jot in the same scenei
HB. BGNAPAIHJE: Xou make-a me laugh, Mr. Carp. You say Hfe*sa bad# Mo, life4i8a good# Slggie and Anna fight—good r They low—good I lorn say life«sa bad.».well, is pleasure for you to say so# No? The street®, winter a* summer— tree®, oats—I love-a them all. The gooda boys and girls, they who sing and whistle— (Bhts^S M t £ a moment M X mtUtlimr^wnr goodl 1 gone around, on ay wagon and talk to many peoples-aloe! Howa you like the big buildings of the oity?^
And through such speeches as this one, Odets establishes
Joe*® family as, Baird Shuman notes, "a potent force in the
background of the action of golden Boy, la this background
are the representatives of the real values In life . . .
the presence of Frank Bonaparte* a union organiser,
gives further amplification to the family*® role as
representative of moral standards. Mr. Bonaparte tells Carp,
"Prank, he fight-a for eat, for good life. Why not!"35
Thu® the presence of the older brother offers an effective
contrast in character to Joe, for whereas Frank "fights'5 for
the rights of otheri, Joe ©hootses to "fight" only to
gratify his own ego# This point is subtly re-emphasized
33Ibid.
3^Shi»an, Clifford Odets. p. 82.
350det®,"Golden Boy," Flays, p. 250.
93
through the conversation of Mr. Bonaparte and Carp. Her®
Odets deliberately uses references to a professional athleti©
career In such a m y as to connote a purposeless, noil-
creative existence. The phrase «hit a ball, catch ® ball"
suggests Just auoh a monotony, specifically foreshadowing
what Baird Shuman oallss Hthe falseness of the sort of
nativity in which Jot is engaging,
CAHP (Blptes « p t newspaper) i For • instance, — look i playing baseball isn't foolish?
ME. BONAPAHTE s lo, if you like-a to do* CAHFi Look I Pour or five pages—baseball—tennlsball—
it gives you an idea what a civilization! • You ever seen a baseball garnet
HE* BOHAPABTSj MO. (ffifiSlM head)i lit a ball, oatoto a ball...
believe me, my frlend—-nonsense{^!
When Joe arrives home from his first professional
fight, he answer# evasively questions concerning hi« where~
about®. But when Frank pointa out that the news of the
fight Is already in the paper {"Truth la ©heap* fe bought
it for two oente,»)Joe speaks, as the stag# directions
indioate, "belligerently" and "ohallengingly." Following
hard upon the interval of tulet conversation, these outbursts
heighten the tension of the atmosphere. The hard explosive
worts, spoken in rapid succession, ahift the mood to
accompany Joe's aroused psychological state after the fight*
^Shuman, Clifford Odets, p. 83.
3?Odeta, "Golden Boy," Plava. p. 250.
38Ibld>. p. 251.
9^
JOB (ilsrill. *»u. what are you going to do about It?
MB. BONAPABTE (still puzzled) t Abouta what? JOS (challenftin&ly) t Tomorrow* s ay birthday! FBANKsWhat's that got to do with being a gladiator? JOE (turning to g p g , ll|H | p e g ISteEIE&h Mind
your business! You don't know me—-I see you one© a yean what do you know about me?3"
Bringing the smm to an abrupt climax# Joe's speech,
fIliad with rhetorloal questions, sharp phrasings, and
exclamations, quickens the pace and Intensifies the mood as
Jo® declares his intention to fight. The use of such phrases
as "wonderful thing®," "better than a®," and "no possessions"
directly reveals Joe*s concern with and desire for material
suooees, thus bringing out the same thematic question which
had been prefigured earlier In a parallel, though nuoh
calmer, confersation between Carp and Mr. Bonaparte;
JOS: Don't want to lit. Every birthday X ever had I sat around. How'sa time for standing. Poppa, I have to tell you—I don't like myself, past, present and future. Do you know there are men who have wonderful things from life? Do you think they're bettor than me? Do you think I Ilk© this feeling of no possessions? Of learning about the world from Carp's encyclopaedia? Frank don't know what it means-he travels around, sees the world! (turning to FB4HK) lou don't know what it meant to sit around her® and watch the months go ticking by! Do you think that's a life for a boy ay aggf Tomorrow's my birthdayf I change ay life!40
The tension is eased by Mr* Bonaparte'# words at the
close of the seen®. Spoken softly with quiet pause®, his
speech creates a gentle, quizzical mood. The slow fadeout
39Ibid.. p. 252. **°Ibld.
95
allows this mood to linger* as the episode ends with an
ominous questioning of Joe's motivess
CABP (sadlar) i Fortune®! I used to hear it In my youth—the streets of America are pared with gold. Say, you forgot to give him the present.
MB. BOHAPABXE f slowly. railed) • X don>t« ta»w..h. say ho gonna fight...
mm Mssai1
In scene three the action reverts to Moody's office in
the gym. There the opening mood Is apprehensively set by
MoodyJ« nervous paolng back and forth and by Boxy Gottlieb's
anxious words, for Joe has not been the aggressive fighter
that they had hoped fori
BOXI* They don't like him. They seen hint in five fight® already. He's a ©lever boy, that Bonaparte, and speedy—but he's first class lousy In the shipping department f I bought a piece of hla, so I got a right to say it: a mosquito gives out better! Did you read what he wrote In his ooluan, that Drake? He writes he's a regular "brain trust."*2
Although the opening speech of this scene continues from the
final words of scene two the question of whether or not Joe
will be a fighter, the diction Illustrates that Boxy's
feelings toward Joe proceed from sentiment# quite unlike the
genuine concern expressed by the father, fioxy's words, MI
bought a piece of him, so I got a right," shift the tone to
the pragmatic and commercial. The shift in mood Is here
significant, since It directly parallels Joe's mental decision
to enter Into the callous world of commercial success.
4 lIUU.. p. 253. k2m&-. pp. 253-254.
96
Even though the fighter is not on stag#, the dialogue between
characters from his old and from his new way of life reflects
the tension of Joe's inner oonfllot.
Mr. Bonaparte enters the office hesitantly wad Inquires
timidly about Joe's future as a fighter. After he tell# the
shooked listeners of Joe*a skill with hi® hand® as a
violinist* hi® words reveal his ©onfuaion and sorrow at Joe's
decision to fights
TOKIO: Why did you come and tell u# this? MR. BOMAFAHPE t Because I like-a to help lay boy. I
llke-a for htm to try himself out. Maybe thisa better business for him. Maybe not. He mu«' try to find out, to am what® h® want...I don't know. Don't help Joe to tell him I oome here. Don't say It#. alowly walks to the door.)^3
But this mood of indecision and sorrow 1® shifted qulokly
after his departure as Hoody reacts "joyously," exclaiming,
"I'm beginning to #e# the light1 Joe's mind ain't made up hh,
that the flat is mightier than the fiddle." How convinced
that he ean persuade Joe to risk hi# hands to fight
aggressively, Moody speaks out in positive declarations.
Here Odets uses the image of the "Hesurreetion" for deliberate
effeet, suggesting Moody's suddenly awakened confidence and
enthusiasms MOODY» HightI The Middle West tour Is on! Toklo
goes along to build up a real offensive. I take oar® of the newspapers her®. Chris*» I thought It waa something serious! I'm. getting
*°Ibld». p. 257. **Ibld>
97
to feel like, 1928 again. Call It Intuition: I feel Ilk® the Heaurreotion. (Hg, gets UP and J M M & iteJA iSSBi-) 0»©« *•**• J^t of the tunnel, with thirty bouta behind us—1*5
Si® exclamations, however/ prove to fee Ironic and prophetic,
for in underscoring the earlier reference to his fighter who
died in the Stutc In 1928# his words subtly link allusion® to
death and destruction with Joe's forthcoming decision to
fight wholeheartedly.
But as the various questioning and Indecisive moods have
suggested, Joe Is not fully convinced that he should continue
his "boxing career. The words, "Maybe I won't be there. I
might give up fighting as a ted Job. I'm not over-convinced U6
it*® what I want, I ©an do other things..." make explioit
hla irresolution. The diction at the conclusion of the
scene extends Joe's depressed unoertainty to the other
characters, as Moody tells Lorna sadly, "Don't Brisbane me,
Lonuu I'm licked. I'm tired. Find ae a mouse hole to
crawl in.. The concluding mood of the scene hints of
Joe'# forthcoming compromise, a® Lorna vows to persuade hla
to fight>
LOBNAs I'll make hla fight. MOODXs How? LQBNA? How?...I'm Ma tramp from Newark," Tom...1
teow a dozen ways... »,« m m Fadeout
**5Ibld.. p. 258. **6Ibld.. p. 260.
**7Ibld.. p. 261. ^8Ibld.. p. 262.
98
Through the dialogue in seen® four, where Joe and Lorna
converse ©a a bench la the park, Gdets achieves subtly
controlled, varied moots. Lorna*s opening words directly
foreshadow the ©hole© that Jo® must matee in this scene t
"Success and fame! Or just a lousy living. Xou're lucky
you won't hate to worry about those things,..through-
out this episode Joe's speeches reveal his inner feelings,
hi® ©oaflloting emotion® of hop#, longing, fear, and
frustration, the dramatic diction sustains each mood
momentarily. Then, Moving in accompaniment to the changing
traffic light in th® "background, th® words quickly reproduce
th® varying moods indicative ©f Joe's unstable psychological
state.
As Jo® tells Lorna of his childhood loneliness, hi®
statements reveal a temperament alienated from human society:
LORNA* Mwren't you ever a kid, for God's sake? JOEi Mot a happy kid. LOffiJA: Way? JOE: Well, I always felt different. Even my name
was special—Bonaparte—and my eyes..50
fhe reference here to his crossed eyes a# a determining
factor in Joe's self-imposed isolation carries deliberate
thematic significance, since the affliction suggest#, as
Baird Shuman notes, "his inability to focus on one goal at
a tlme."^ Further speeches in this scene manifest Joe's
^ibia. 5 0 i^ia.
513huw», Clifford Odeta. p. 85.
99
simultaneous attraction to the irreconcilable . careers of
music and boxing.
ku Jo® expresses his identification with music» the
dialogue evokes a softened mood, aaoGaip&nylng his sens it IT®
shift in feeling and wising from hi® expression of a h&ppy
and harmonious union with lifea
JOE: With music I'm never alone when I'm alone— Playing music.•*that*a like imping, *X am mem• 1 belong here# How do you do* World-good evening tM When I play music nothing le closed to me* I'm not afraid of people and what thty say. There•s no war in sutlo. It's not like the streets . • •
Xet in subsequent speech®s the diction, filled with images
of violence, subordinate© these sensitive feelings to more
callous and commercial emotions. As Jo® divulges his
frustrations, he speaks again of the struggle for existm&®
outside the confines of his room as Mwar,exclaiming that
"Music oan1t help me there. Continuing this motif
through such allusions to violence as "hurt," "get even,"
and "shot bullets,M he reveals his desire for a career based
on public acclaim2
JOEi People have hurt ay feelings for years. I never forget. lou can't get even with people by lilaylnt the flMte* if. must a shot Mllftfcs I'd Ilk© it better—artist® and people like that are freaks today, world moves fast and they sit around like forgotten dopes.55
520dats, "Golden Boy** Sly flays, p. 263.
^Ibld., p. 26^. ^Ibld. ^Ibld.
100
Loma's blunt statements help sustain the iaood, as sh©
analyzes Jo©*3 attraction to commercial successt
LOBNAj Xou're a miserable creature. Xou want your arm In gelt /slc7 up to the elbow. Xou'll take feme so people won1t laugh or scorn your fa©©. Xou'd give your soul for those things* But every time you turn your back your little soul kicks you In the teeth. It don't giro In so easy.5®
By juxtaposing thes© gentle and harsh moods In aoco»pan latent
to Jot*b shifts of feeling, Qdeta stakes explicit the fighter's
Intense psychological conflict.
The w e technique la again used effectively moments
lateri for, as Joe Indicates hi# oholee of a boxing career,
the two moods whioh accompany this decision point further to
the conflicting attractions of his temperament. First there
is the gentle atmosphere evoked from Joe's softly spoken
word® as In disappointment he understands Lima's purpose,
let when Joe utters his Intention to fight, his quiet words
carry little of hi® earlier conviction* but instead suggest
an underlying sensitive awareness of L o m t
JOE (quietly): Moody sent you after ae—a decoyI You made a mistake, Loma, for two reasons. I make up ay own mind to fight* Point two, he doesn't know you don't love him.
LOBMs You're a fresh kid. JOEj In fact he doesn't know anything about you at
all.57
After Joe le rebuffed by Loma, Qdets uses the diction
to reveal the fighter's decided turn toward the materialistic.
56Ibld.. p. 265. 57Ibld,
ioi
In consecutive speeches the sudden, though rather general,
desire to purchase an automobile Is followed by the specific
Attraction to that type of vehicle which la symbolic of
financial success—the same model oar driven by a wealthy
movie star. Finally Joe's concluding explosive exclamation
links the desire for wealth and security with his decision
to fight aggressivelyi
JOEs Go horn®, Ldnm, If you stay# I'll know some-thing about you.*.
LOBKAt Xou don't know anything. JOE? Now'e your chance—go home I I&BM&t Tom loves a®. JOE (after & lon^ jUftHftt* A&&&)*
buy a car. LQRHAs They make wonderful oar® today# Even the
llsglaa**-* JOEJ Gary hooper's got the kind I want. I saw it in
the paper, but it costs to© much—fourteen thousand. If I found one second hand—
LORNA: And if you had the cash— JOEs I'll get it— LOHNAs Sure, if you'd go in and really fight I JOS & auddan burst) t fell your M*• loody I'll
dazzle the ©ye® out of his headpo
As Joe continues to express his fascination with the
automobile and its speed, the diction modulates the mood in
accompaniment to hi# aroused emotions. Evoking former
allusions to de&th by automobile with the admission that
"Those cars are poison in my blood, hi® words establish
an aura of violence about his decision to pursue material
profits, Hi® allusion to the insulating effects of speed#
58Ibld., p. 266. 59Ibid.
102
"When you sit in a ear and. speed you're looking down at the
world. Speed, speed, everything Is ape ed—-nobody gets
met w^° prefigures his forthcoming spiritual isolation.
Yet this soen© concludes with a mood of doubt and
lingering apprehension which deliberately parallels Joe1©
mental indecision. "Something's wrong somewhere," • Lorna 62
senses as the curtain begin# to fall. "I know... ,M ' Joe
murmurs ominously as they slowly walk out.
As scene five opens in the Bonaparte home two weeks
later, the drunken Siggle, in describing Joe's unsuspected
aggressiveness, likens the boxer t© a "man with germs" who
suddenly undergoes "a crisis": SIGGIEs I was fit to be knocked down with a feather
when I heard it. I couldn't believe it until I seen hi® fight over at the Keyatcae last week. You never know what somebody•s got in hlm—like a ©an with germs—suddenly he's down in bed with a oriels!6^
The implicit comparison of Joe's new vlclousness in the ring
to the unsuspected germs of a possibly "fatal disease" seems
to carry a double meaning! a general foreshadowing of Joe's
death but also a specific comment on the immediate psychological
effects ©f his decision to fight. The diction nonetheless
continue* the air of uncertainty which concluded «eene four,
as Joe again wrestles with the question of artletic geneltlvlty.
60Ibld. 6lIbld.. p. 267.
62Ibld, $ 3 W A »
103
Handling the violin which hi® father gives him, Joe
utters two simple words which ©vote a softened and gentle
mood J
HE* BGKJlPAHXS C M violin) i^Take him with you, Joe, JOE: It*® beauMrufT..
The "boy1 s stage action, as he plays the delicate Instrument*
followed by his hushed and carefully restrained comment,
«B®tum It, poppa, Illustrate further his sensitive love
of music, As Jo® attempts to break with the family, the
impassioned speeches build In Intensity, again suggesting
that the boy Is not completely settled in his deoltlon to
fight:
JOE? I have to do this, poppa. ICR. BOKAPABTE {Jg JOB) s Be oareful forts. your hands. JOE: Foppa, give me the word—* MH. BOHIFABTIi What word? JOE: Give me the word to go ahead. Xou're looking
at yesterday—»I see tomorrow. Maybe you think I ought to spend, my whole life here—you and Cart) blowing off steam.
MR. BONAPAHSE (holding himself back) i Oh, Joe, shut your mouth!
JOSs Give me the word to go ahead! MB. BQNAPABTEs Be ©areful fora your hands! JOEj I want you to give a# the word! ME, BONAPAHEE (crying out) * mi Nfc wordt Xou gonna
fight? Allrightr Okay! But! don't gonna give no word! No! ••
JOEi that*a how you feel?00
The boy'a -choice of career—an intellectual decision at this
time and not a completely moral one until late In Act Il-
ls Indicated by rhetorical pleading for parental permission
^Ibld., p. 271. 65Ibld. 66IM&.. pp. 271-272,
10*f
to continue the fighting career. The scene and act conclude
la a mo@d whloh parallels J@e*s unsettled state, a® Mr. Carp's
final lines ©all quietly and sadly for a definition of mam
"Xes# my friend# what is man? As Schopenhauer says* and la
th® last analysis.•*M falow fadeout)
The dramatic dialogue of the flrat five scenes establishes
moods whloh reflect tooth the sensitive and the materialistic
aspects of Joe's personality. Joe's words, as well as
speeches toy certain minor characters, often ©yoke a relaxed#
quiet atmosphere whenever the conversation reveals his
attraction to music and to an artisti© career* Xet# m
contrastthe argumentative, explosive speeches of both Joe
and secondary personages establish harsh# severe moods as he
inclines toward a career a© a fighter, the dramatic under-
current of references to death and destruction# particularly
associated with allusions to the automobile and to its speed,
further Guilds up an atmosphere of violence whioh prefigures
Joe'a eventual annihilation. By using dlotion# speech
rhythm, and word oholoe to suggest contrasting relaxed or
tense atmosphere reflective of Joe's aesthetic or mercenary
moods# Qdet® achieves a flowing yet alternating rhythm through
the Individual soenea, whioh implicitly dramatizes the
successive changes in the "boy's temperament. The final
quizzical mood in which the a®t ©loses is a significant one#
67
10
for it specifically suggests the wavering indecision and
unsettled mental state of the protagonist.
Moreover, the dialogue in Act II picks tip and oontinues
ii lingering mood of uncertainty through three of its four
scenes, tracing Jo©fs oonoern about his decision to risk M s
hands in fighting. At the conclusion of the act, Joe,
having decided against an artistic career, asserts his
deliberate choice of the mercenary world of prize fighting.
At that moment, Joe's exultant speeches resolve the uncertain •
and questioning moods into one of harsh viol m m *
Permeated by a sense of activity* scene on® opens in the
energetic atmosphere of the gy», as fighters enter and exit
and Joe spars off stage. The conversations of Boxy, Tofelo,
Moody, and Lora* establish the initial mood as a happy one,
for Joe* fighting aggressively, has been winning Impressively,
let here the diction is implicitly suggestive5 Moody1®
rimed ditty not only expresses his exuberance but Illustrates
his interest in future security 1 Boxy* s phrase, »!I«m tickled
to death," links an allusion to death {though a "happy** one)
to Joe*s hard fighting) and Toklo's description of Joe as
"king" not only directly refers to the boy's boxing ability
but also subtly connotes a person of proud and haughty
temperaments
IOOCX ( a n t e M & taoflft p rain, let it pourt It aln*t gonna rain where we're headed for!**
106
HOXIs I'm tickled to death to see the canary birds left his gloves.
TOKIQt He's the king of all he surveys.
Beneath the apparently happy and unconcerned atmosphere,
however, the dialogue re-establishes the mood of doubt and
uncertainty about Joe's fighting abilitys MOOKSfi Boy# oh, boy* how he surprised them in the
Bronx last night!...But on® thing I can't explain—'that knockout he took in Philly five weeks &go.r°
Tokio's expository comments then specifically identify the
reason for their doubt to be the fighter's ever-present
concern with a musical career;
fOKIO: Here*s what happened therei m run into some man whan we're leaving the hotel. Joe goes pale. I (&,sl£ him what It is. "Nothing," he says* But I see for myself—a man with long hair and a violin oast. When wt turn the corner, he says* after me,** he gays.
As if it's oops and robbers! . . . .7°
though the fighter Is still offstage, the dialogue
continues to reflect uncertainty concerning his decision to
fight. When Jo® does appear, however, he makes no mention
of a musical career. Instead his nine brief speeches display
an ever more belligerent attitude. Once more Gdets ueis here
the dialogue of minor characters to anticipate a major change
in Joe*© temperament, for their speeches quickly dissipate
the air of doubt and assert a more positive mood, suggestive
of Joe's callous feelings. To this end, Odets introduces
68n>ld.. p. 273. ^9XMd. ?0IMd.. p. 2?^.
10?
gangster Eddie Fuselt, a visual symbol of Joe*s increasing
spiritual Isolation, sines he represents, as Baird Shuman
notes, 51 the materially oriented and motivated person^ * «
The gunma»,rs presence creates a certain tension in the other
characters, and his repeated emotionless offers to "buy a
piece" of the fighter as though he were a simple commodity
evoke a sense, of impersonalityi
KDDXB FUSSL1 (approaching the group)» Hello. mix (nervously):Hello, Eddie, M0©0Y fturning) t I haven*t seen you for a dog*® age, ' '
fusel!. EDDIE (Rgiflttaft <j££ l$g|>« *®u got this certain -boy-
Bonaparte. i like hi® looks. American bom?
SDDXBt Could I buy a piece? MOODX t Jfo. „ 0
EDDIE (coolly) t Gould IV*
Following Fuseli's appearance, the mood is continued through
an exchange of comments about Joe's purchase of a Deusenberg,
the symbol, says Balrd Shuman, of the "type of materialistic
goal which Is driving Joe on so forcefully . . .
At the mention of the car, the manager flares up. The
short, sharp phrasing and the metaphorical image "lost my
scalp,* establish the aura of callous violence surrounding
the fighter and, at the saiae time, subtly associate the
purchase of the Deusenberg with Joe's attraction to destructive
71Shu*an, Clifford Qdets. p, 85.
720d®ts, "Golden Boy,» Plays, p. 275• 73Shuman, Clifford Qdets, p. 8*.
108
speed, again prefiguring his final catastrophet
MOOBIt He drives lite® a maniac t That time we drove to Long Beach? I almost lost my scalp t We can't let him drive around like that! Boy, to>« getting a "bushel of bad habitsf We gotta be careful • * . J *
Fusell*s impersonal words, the reference to the purchase of
the Deusenberg, and comments about Joe's wild driving with
their suggestion of impending violence all work to create
an atmosphere of hard inflexibility around the fighter even
before his appearance on stage*
Upon Joe's arrival, Odets makes use of the fighter's
dlotlon to continue further the sense of tension. The
forceful exclamation, the repetition of explosive sounds,
and the two guttural demands ("Get me some fight®*.,Get me
some main bouts") point to the hardened egotism of his new
temperament:
JOE (stm-Mm M X l | l ' i , a M i m i u If you' on his mind)i If you're vitally Interested in
my future, prove it. Get me some fights— fights with contender®, not with dumb-bunny club fighters* Get me some main bouts in the metropolitan area!—75
Moody's heated explosion re-establishes In this act the
earlier atmosphere of personal conflict between the two—an
argumentative mood which Odete heightens subtly by the
addition of background fight sounds:
7^0dets, "Golden Boy," Six Plays, p. 276*
75Ibld.. p. 277*
109
moody (lariffi Us. &SBS&)! F°r ® *** w h o sot kayoed fire weeks ago, your mouth is pretty bigI (1M general §®mMi Mm. M a Mslfif*)'
A series of sharp, angry retorts sustain the taut atmosphere
as wall as reveal the fighter's impatient desire for public
recognition;
JOE $ That won't happen again! And how about some mention in the preset Twenty-six bouts—no one know® I'm alive. This ian't vacation for me—it's a profession! I'm staying more than 7 7 a week. Match me up against real talent. • • •
Whereas earlier in this same scene dialogue has pointed to
Joe's attraction to family and music, the fighter's upeeohea
now Indicate only his attraction to material gain. Joe
himself »ake« no mention of music or of his family in this
scane, yet these attractions are suggested by th© dialogue
near the soene1 s close, where Moody pleads with X»orna, to
keep Joe away from hia familyt
MOODY: Peace, for chri' sake, peace! Lorna, we're in a bad spot with Joe. He's getting hard to manage and this is the time when everything's gotta be right. I'm seeing Lombardo's manager tomorrow! How that gunman's on my tail. You have to help me* You and I wanna do it like the story books, "happy ever after"! Then help me*
LOBHAi How? MOODYs Go after the boy. Keep him away from his folks.
Get him away from the buggies—7°
The scene concludes with Moody alone, exclaiming in confusion, 79
"Boy, I still don't know anything about womenI...7 Though
these word® refer to hie bewilderment about Lorna, they
76ibld. 77Ibid. ?8Ibid., p. 280. 79Ibid., p. 281.
110
nonetheless establish an atmosphere of puzzlement and
uncertainty at a time when the protagonist Is similarly
troubled#
Joe*s speech opening scene two, filled with excited,
half-articulate phrases, reveals his mental agitation. Hit
second speech associates this confusion with his attraction
to Lorna, and the quiet tone of his simple declaration •
brings forth a momentarily gentle atmosphere e&pretslve of
his remaining tender feelings:
JOEs Some nights I mice up—my hearts beating a mile a minuteI Before 1 open my eyes I know what it is—the feeling that someonefs standing at my bed. Then X open my eyes*.* lt*s gone—ran away!
LORNAi Maybe lt*s that old fiddle of yours. JOEs Lorna, maybe it's you.#..®0
Yet when Lorna mentions Joe*s music* Odets introduces a
quiok series of angry rhetorical questions to explode the
©aim atmosphere and makes us# of Joe*s sardonic reference to
the small ehlid with a violin to show the fighter1® movement
away from his former Identification with music:
LQBNAj Don* t you ever think of It any more—music? JOEi What1re you trying to remind me of? A kid
with a Buster Brown oollar and a violin case tucked under his arm? Does that sound appetizing to you?®1
The author uses the alternating currents and moods
throughout this scene to illustrate that Joe still retain® a
sensitivity of character, even though this sensitivity is no
80sm> 81xbid,
Ill
longer Identified with the artistic indication. The $ui«t»
tlnoere words and the hesitant pauses In Joe* a ipetch alow
the pace of the action and soften the mood to parallel his
tender declaration of love for Lornaj
JOE i What* e on your mind, Lormf LQENAj What's on yours? JOB (simply) s Xou**. .You're real for me—the m y music
was real.82
The ©aim atmosphere continues as Joe states his dis-
satisfaction with fighting. The diction makes explicit hi®
realisation that as a boxer* his life la barren and unpro-
ductive t
JOE: I develop the ability to knock down anyone my weight. But what point have I made? Don't you think I know that? I went off to the war® ' cause someone sailed me a name—'because 1 wanted to b® two other guys. Mow it*a happening. .. .I'm not sure I like it.°3
Then# after Joe acknowledges that h® Is losing his personal
identify (exclaiming resentfully that Moody "treats me like gk
a possesion*B)» a sequence of pleading t^«stlons presents
a softened' mood in accompaniment to his romantic desire for
a new life through loves JOBt . . . Why don't you belong to me every night
In the week? Why don't you teach me love? ...Or am I being a fool?
LQBM; Xou're not a fool, Joe. JOSi 1 want you to be iay family, my llf@«*-Why don't
you do it, I*oma# why?*5*
82Xbld. 83Ibld.. p. 282.
84Ibid. 85lbid.
112
0£
But Lorna's brief reply "He loves me," momentarily shifts
the ourrent to Indicate the real cause of her indecision In
her relationship with Joes she Is attracted to Moody because
as she exclaims: "He loved me In a world of enemies, of
stages and bullst...and I loved him for that • * * The
sudden appearance of Images of primitive violence and
elemental passion reflects Lorna1s basic attitude toward
existence. The words also anticipate how Joe, later lacking
in love, turn® to the same type of life.
At the conclusion of the scene, Lorna's words spoken In
a "low voice" continue the softened mood, as she admits her gg
attraction to Joe, "You make me feel too human, Joe,"
And when she declares her love the images suggest a rebirth
from a life of suffocation ("I've been undersea a long
tlme!M)8^ through love (" . . . Joe, I think you»re itl I
don't know why, I think you're it!")90 And it Is this same
hope of love which represents the one remaining opportunity
of sensitive expression for Joe.
The final speeches of the scene, however, add an under-
current of doubt to the atmosphere. Immediately following
her unreserved declaration of love for Jo®, Lorna reveal*
her still-persisting concern for Moody through th* simple
exclamation, "Foor Toa!"^1 With Lorna's final words, Odets
87J£ia., p. 283. 88Ibld.. p. 284.
89Jfel4.. P. 285. ?0JE£ia- n l M d .
113
achieves a two-fold effect: they not only foreshadow an
impermanent relationship with Joe, but they also provide an
important tonal link between scenes two and three. In scene
three the dramatic dialogue establishes an Identical mood of
shifting uncertainty about Lorna's attraction to Moody,
resolving it momentarily as she tells the fight manager that
the will not leave him.
When Joe and Puseli enter and see Lorna and Moody
embracing, Odets uses the brief stlchomythio line® to oonvey
the mood of conflict. The sentences build toward Joe's sudden
outburst, creating an atmosphere of gradually heightened
tension, as well as moving the action forward with impetust
308t The first time I walked in here that was going on. It's one long duet around here.
MOODYi Hello. EDDIE (sardonically): Hello, Partner...(LOBNA is
«». S w A f c MOODY: Six weeks from tonight, JQSi He's gonna be surprised. MOODY (coolly)I Ho one doubts it. Q O
3®® (sharply); I didn't say It was doubted^2
The words, "He's gonna be surprised," are used here with
subtly ironic implication, for Joe himself is somewhat
dumbfounded by Lorna's presence with the manager. The
fighter's confusion Is expressed when he abruptly questions
Lorna, "Why did you kiss hlm?**^
92Ibid.. pp. 28^-290.
^Ibld.. p. 291*
11**
The sharp staccato accents of Moody's Instantaneous
reply further tighten the atmosphere of conflict:
MO0DX (J& JOE)i It's about time you shut your mouth and minded your own goddam business. Also, that you took some orders.
Joe's sarcastic* question, "Who are you# God?M^-* sustains the
violent ©lash of personalities! and Moody answers In a
series of short, explosive exclamations which Mild up
rhythmically through a catalogue of Insults to a final
cynical challenge:
MOODY; lest I'm your maker, you cock-eyed gutter rati Outa sawdust and spit I made youl X own you—without me you're a blank I Tour Insolence is gorgeous, but this 1® the end! I'm a son of a gunI What're you so superior about?"6
Odets's handling of the diction in Moody's speech is
partioularly skillful. The insults, of course, sustain the
conflict of temperaments by illustrating how Moody, when
challenged for Loma's love, instinctively battles for her.
Moreover# the repeated phrases ("I'm your maker...1 made
you....I own you") suggest Moody's Impersonal handling of
the fighter—words whloh sustain Joe's earlier complaint that
he was treated like a "possession." The sharp Images wouta
sawdust and spit" and "you're a blank" point to the de-
humanising aspect of boxing. And finally, Moody's sarcastic
reference to Joe's optical affliction ("you cock-eyed gutter
rat"), when unanswered by the fighter, demonstrates how as
s>5lbld. 96Ibid.
115
tfe# play progresses Joe becomes, Baird Shuman suggests, "less
and less sensitive about his eyes and, corr espondingly, he
loses that sensitivity which an artist must have In order to
achieve success.*'^
Moments later, the remnants of Jot's- sensitivity are
shattered a® Lorna professes her love for Moody before the
fighter. Odets makes effective us© of the boy1® frigid
silence at this point, for the quiet, though still intensely
©barged, atmosphere places a heightened dramatic focus upon
hit stunning hurt*
At the conclusion of the scene, however, Lorna's, "I
feel like the wrath of 0od,w suggest® still a deep feeling
for the fighter, and her final words explicitly reveal her
affectioni
MGODXi What's wrong, Lorna? You can tell me... LOBNA: 1 feel like the wrath of God. KOODIt You like that boy, don't you? LOHHAj 1 love him, Tom.
Use MssaS 9 8
Thus the seen® ends with an air of uncertainty and suspense,
arising fro® Lorna's indecision and from the tension of Joe's
psychological state*
However as scene four opens six weeks later in a dressing
room before the Lombard© fight, beginning the scene with "the
97Shuman, Clifford Qdets. p. 86.
^Odets, "Golden Boy," jgjj; Plays, p. 292.
116
distant Boar of THE CBQWD and the clanging of the bell,"^
Odets creates a turbulent atmosphere In expressive contrast
to the unresolved mood whloh preceded, Though stag# effects
could not tie properly considered diction, It Is nonetheless
Interesting to note that here as well as later Odete stakes
similarly effective use of the roar of the raucous crowd
and the clanging of the fight bell to produce tension and
violence suggestive of Joe*® new world and change In
peruoiuality. Also in this scene Odets once again employs
m alternation of explosive speeches with quiet comments to
build an intensity of mood finally climaxing in Joe's
exultant dedication to boxing.
& brief conversation between Pepper White*' another
fighter using the dressing room, and Mr. Bonaparte, who
represents Joe's former m y of life, is ominously suggestive
of impending violences
BOTES . . . . tea p . SQMFAPgb So fon*m Bonaparte's little boy, Buddy? Why didn't you say so before? Goae over here and shake my hand. (MB. BOHAPAHTg d?.g go.)
PEPPEEs Tell Bonaparte 1 like to fight him. «R. B0NAPABTE t Why? 1Q0
PEPPIRt I like to beat him up. w
But when the father speaks with Loma, their ©aim speeches
provide an Interval of quiet, as the father reveals his genuine
concern for his »on«
"ibid., p. 293.
100Ibid., p. 29^.
117
HE, BQNAPAHEE (glad to see & familiar face)t Hello, hello, Missa Moon! Howa you feel?
LOBNA: What brings you to this part of the world? MB. BOHAPAOTE (somberly): I come-a to se® Jo®*.. LOHSAj Why, what*® wrong? ME. BONAPAHTE (with & glow shrug) t He don't come-a to
see me... LQHEAs Does he know you're her#? MH. BGNAPABTEs No. (LOBHA Iqo.ks, gt him
MB* BONAPAHTEs I gonna see how he fight# LOHiJAt I owe you a report. I wish I had good news
for you, but I haven't.101
In sharp contrast to this quiet scene, as Joe suddenly
enter® the room, his brief greeting to his father is
followed by an abrupt orders
JOEs Hello, poppa. ME. BONAPAHTE5 iello. Joe*.. fOE (turning to TQKIO)s Throw out the girls—this Isn't
.1 vrrrvioioTHHr-'m ' " f ™ ' ! ™ § 4 A J>
ho w0X arooaif
Sere Odets deftly uses the ourt command and the sarcastic
comment to Illustrate the boy's hardened temperament, for
without Loraa's love-*the last stronghold of his sensitivity-
Joe has given himself up without reservation to egooentrlo
and materialistic desires, The quick series of short exchanges
between Joe and the managers further demonstrate the fighter's
changed manner* Each of Joe's agitated exclamations builds
upon an Initial phrase of egotism (ttI talk," "I don't want,**
and "I'm Important"), the grating repetition pointing to a
tough, self-©entered personalitys MGODX: That's no way to talkI
(coolly)* I talk as I please I
101Ibld.. p. 295* 102Ibid., pp. 295-296*
118
MOODX (angrily): The future Mrs. Moody— JOE: X don't want her heret JLOBNAi He's right, Tom. Why fight about It? (3he
JOS (Jai MOODX)s Also, I don't want t® see writers again before afig£it.j It makes me nervous I
H0X3C (softly, for a wonder)'t They're very important, €!#*»**
JOE: X*m Important! My mind must be clear before t Q 1 I fight. I have to think before I go la . * . . J
The taut atmosphere about Joe suddenly explodes Into
physical violence. Upon Pepper'® reference to Joe's crossed
eyes, Joe strikes out at him. Following the sudden silence
at gunman Puseli's appearance, Moody's explosive exclamations
re-establish the strained atmosphere of conflict:
MOODY: Who the hell wantsa understand yout X got one wish—for Lombard© to give you the business! The quicker he taps you off tonight, the bettert Xou gotta be took down a dozen pegsI I'm versus yout Completely versust*0*
Fusell* s "quiet deadlinessM silences Moody, but the gangster's
angry commands with their image® of death and violence
further intensify the undercurrent of destruction in this
scene?
EDDIE ? Forget that Miss Moon. Stop lookln' down her dress. 6o out there and kill l»ombardot Send him out to Woodlawnt Tear his skull offf... as I know Bonaparte ©an do it! (EDDIE gives ,n<
M * & jftm issK naii * * • •> 5
Although oaoe again a quiet conversation between Joe and
Mr. Bonaparte softens this mood of violence, Joe's hesitant
pauses illustrate that there is no real communication between
103Ibld.. p. 296. i0^lbid.. p. 2$?. 105. 'Ibid.
119
him and his father. The fighter's reference to his father as
"conscience," in fact, makes clear hie present inner tensions
(Sot quite knowing what to say): How is Anna, poppa?
MB. BONAPABTE: Fine. JOS: Slggie watching the fights? MB. BONAPABTE: Yea. JOE: You look fine... MR. BONAPABTEi Yes, feela good... JOE: Why did you send that money hack? (There Is
no answer.) Why did you come here? ...You
sit there like my conscience....
When Jo® declares his dedication to a boxing career, however,
there are no hesitations--the phrases roll forth swiftly
and positively; MB. BONAPABTE» Why you say so? JOE: Poppa, I have to fight, no matter what you
say or think1 This is my profession! I'm out for fame and fortune, not to "be different or artistic! I don't intend to "be ashamed of my life 11"?
Joe's "brusque explanation of his materialist goal (the trite
"I'm out for fame and fortune") and the accompanying "blunt
rejection of the musical career (". . . not to be different
or artistic") demonstrate effectively the transformation of
his character; for in Act 1 he had described with feeling
these artistic desires as "Playing music...that's like saying,
'I am man. I belong here. How do you do, World—good
1 nft evening!' When I play music nothing is closed to me."
106Ibld. 107Ibid., p. 298.
108St. P. 99-
120
Mr. Bonaparte, suddenly aware of th® materialistic
ambition which grips Jo®, understands that without th®
artist*s sensitivity it is "too lata for music" and ©adly
gives Joe permission to fight. Through placement of th®
father's quiet sadness against th# oscillating roar of th#
fight orowd outside, Odets suggests th© fighter*# own
pulsatory agitation*
MB, BONAPABTE (standing up)i Xeah, X understands you*•. JOSs Go out and watcnthe fights. MB. BONAPABTE (somberly)8 Xeah...you fight* Now I
know...is*a too late for music. Th© sen musta be free an* happy for music...not like-a you. low I see whatta you are...1 give~a you every word to fight...! sorry for you... (Silence. The distant roar jg£ 2§E CIQTO climbs up and falls downs thq bell clangs
ai;aln.)TO '
The author oontlnues this dramatic device at th® moment
when Joe, left alone with the trainer, ponder# his separation
from his family and the artistic life. There Is first the
quiet atmosphere which accompanies Joe'® uncontrollable
breakdown, his body shaking with "silent sobs.11 Out of this
Intense silence, Joe*s sharp# heavily-accented, monosyllable
words express an increasingly rigid mood of dedication to a
life of materialism. Identifying his isolation, he ironio&lly
likens himself t© an Instrument of destruction, a deadly
speeding bullet—a peculiarly appropriate Image Indicative
of the transformation that has taken place. The frenzied,
109Ibid., p. 298.
121
Inhuman scream of the fight orowd In the background accompanies
his decision, adding symbolic vooal approval to the oho Ice t
JOE: . . . . Now I'm alone. They1re all against me— Moody, the girl...you're ay family now# Tokio— you and M&iet I'll show them all-—nobody stands In my wayI My father's had hi# hand on a® for years• No more. No more for her either— she had her ohanoe! When a bullet sings through the air It has no past—only a future—like me! Nobody, nothing stands in my my! (In a sudden
§£mte iMmum. a w y w M fi, S M 2 H MtiSS 22B
reaches a frenzied
As Jo® boxes offstage, Mr. Bonaparte returns to the
dressing roca to talk to Pepper White, who symbolizes the
destructive aftereffeots of the fight gaae. When Mr, Bonaparte
looks at the broken hands of the fighter, his sympathetic
questions modulate the hard mood, suggesting also a gentle
resignation to the Inevitable results of Joe*® decision:
MB, BONAPABTEj Broke? PEPPERs Not broke, flatf —pushed down! ME, BQNAPASTE s Hurt? PBPPEHt You get used to it, ME, BONAPAEES i Can you use them? PEPPEB: Go down the hall and look at Pulaski. Ml, BQNAPABTI: Can you open thees-a hands? PEPPEBs What for? MB. BONAPASTE (gently tomehiiM the fists.) « So strong
so hard. H i
But the quiet seene is suddenly Interrupted by the roar of
the orowd as It gives its consent to Joe*® violent battle in
the ring. Mr, Bonaparte recognizes in the orowd'© roar that
U O i r " V » p, 299. 1UIbld.. pp. 301-302.
122
hypnotic appeal which so attracts his ton, and he In turn
reacts murderously against Its
HE. B0MPAB3JE (£& strong*•.so useless. &§ BE and calls for
s n l
Jm of
st EHyd®.TOlLg es his clenohe • l|e an of • aloud
is
S U t t l M ' ' together
WSU M
However, as the roar subsides and as Mr. Bonaparte quietly
questions Pepper's second, the tension is gradually r elj& ced.
happen in the fight? ME. BONAPABTEt What*! SUli Knockout. KB. BOMPAHTE t Who? SAMi Lombardo^s et||| ( BOHAfABTB alogly
$.381. . . . .)1
Through the alternation of gentle and violent moods the
soene builds toward a ©lima©tie release in Joe's Joyous
outburst at the conclusion. As anticipated by his father,
Joe*s victory (a spiritual defeat) is aohleved at the
expanse of a broken hand? and, now giving reign to his
112 Ibid.. p. 302. 113
aaa.
123
feelings, he gloats over his final parting with the artistic
and aesthetic m y of llfti
JO® M l MMfll) s x-®»* broke... ansMf. XfiS & teltf,* & lUStM out the etofftt)
JOE i HalleluJlahTT It •stheeeg Inning of the world! " ||SS» teas
w a t c ^ £lth .foayf I i||y§ i ^ASwSSSB# & * %»«ir «bsw% ij&Msgga- s „ j&iaCS „ iilM—ilM & Iggi Jjgffl ££
Slow gadeout3"3^
The slow fadeout Is used once again for heightening the
effect, as it captures the full impact of Joe1 s triumphant,
exultant laugh, closing the scene and act upon.it*
With an economy, ease, and sophistication of technique
not often surpassed in American d i m , Gdets has used dialogue,
dlotlon, as well m sound effect® throughout Ait II 'to create
moods which either parallel or reflect the psychological
ambiguity of the protagonist. Eecurrent Images of violence
and destruction further illustrate the decreased sensitivity
of the fighter m well' as prefigure his eventual violent
destruction.
In Aot 111 the fighter*)? Initial speeches re-create that
violent and discordant atmosphere which reflects his state of
spiritual degeneration. When he sharply addresses a sports-
writer, Joe'® over-confident words reveal his brash egotisms
U**Ibld.» p. 303.
i 0
(m&MMM M M Jtofe) * Listen. Brsk®, I'm not the boy I used to be~~the honeymoon's oyer. 1 don't blush and stammer these toys. Bonaparte goes in and slugs with the best. In the bargain his brain Is better than the best. that's the truth} why deny it?l*5
Indicating non» of the former mm md genuinely human aspacts
of his temperament, his speeches throughout make obvious the
growth of a belligerent attitude within the hardened
personality. In the following speech, the qui ok eeriest of
heated rhetorical question® and the hard isiage of physical
violence (»*.. .breaking your face in'1} point to his toughened
attitude. These words most vividly contrast with the
phrase ". . . conscience and a meek sails" whioh Is suggestive
of his former quiet and peaceful m y of life with music:
JOE« What good it modesty? I'm a fighter! The wtifl® essence of prizefighting Is immodesty! «I»® better than you are—I'll prove it by breaking your fas© in!" What do you expect? a conscience and a meek sail#? I don't believe that bull about the meek'11 Inherit the eartht*16
The atmosphere Is sustained not only through Joe's
callous speeches* although certainly this Is the primary
swans, but also by the filter's stage appearand© (he Is
dressed like the gangster Fusel!) *nd by statements of minor
characters which, since they are spoken with warmth of feeling,
offer expressive contrast to Joe's hardened outbursts.
Tokio, the trainer, advises Joe to forget about Lorna, and
115MM P* 305. ll6ibid.
125
he notf>e syapathetioally the oause of the fighter's
alienation—the feet that Joe I# now driYen by a bitter
animosity toward® life:
TOKIO: . * . Jo©, you're loaded with love. Find some-thing to gives It to. lour heart a in't In fighting...your hate is. But a san with hate and nothing els®.,.he's half a nan...and half a man...is no man. find something to love, or someone , . »
Lorna, too, remarks on this unfeeling element ©f Joe's
character, ©sparing his ehanged attitude to that of the
gunman Puseli's. Her aroused speech is filled with phrase®
of daath and self-extinction, "getting to be a killer,"
"like Fueell," "you aurdered," and "hid the body." The speeoh
is literally eorreot, as well as ironically prophetio, for
Jo# has "murdered" hie artlstlo self, and later he does
"kill" both hlaeelf and Lorn in a oar wreok. With further
ironlo oontraet, Lorna'a oooment, "You're not the boy I
oared about, not you," parallel® Joe's earlier comment, "I'm
not the boy 1 used to be"--a statement indicative of the
trantforwition of his temperament from artistic sensitivity
to egocentric materialism
LOBE&J I know I ©ould do worse when 1 look at you. When did you look in the mirror last? Getting to be a klllert You're getting to be like Fuseli! lorn*re not th® boy 1 oared about* not you# Xou murdered that boy with the generous faee—God.knows where you hid the bodyf I don't know you.11®
U7Ibld.. p. 306. u8Ibld.. pp. 307-308.
126
Joe's words carry this atmosphere of violence even
further. In a brief moment of self-examination, he angrily
likens his barren existence to that of a mechanical object
("What the hell do you think I am? A machine?")
Ironically, he compares his we 11-trained, boxer's body to a
deadly weapon, gangster Eddie Fuseli's guns
JOE: I want some personal life. BDDIE: I give Bonaparte a good personal life. I got
loyalty to his cause •.. JOE: You use me like a gun! lour loyalty's to keep
me oiled and polished!120
Thus Odets makes u®« of a deliberate sequence of images to
Indicate Joe's successive changes in personality and, at the
same time, to suggest the destructive course of his life. In
l?i Act II Joe claimed that he was used as a "possession"
and later defined his isolation by comparing himself to a
122
"bullet"j now in Act III he likens himself to an unfeeling
"machine" and, finally, to a well-oiled "gun."
Odets again Illustrates his mastery of dramatic
technique in scene two, combining stage sound effects with
dialogue to heighten the tension and to carry the action
toward its second dramatic climax at the conclusion of the
scene. The air in the empty dressing room is charged
ominously by the crowd's roar and the bell*® clanging
"menacingly," as Joe battles in the ring offstage.
P. 309. 120sm-121Cf. p. ill. l22£f. p. 121.
12?
The atmosphere within the room changes from the intense
silence of the scene's opening moments to Eddie's violent
outbursts of rage against Lorna. Pusell's speeches become
more vehement and threatening as the delirious roar of the
fight crowd builds In Intensity calling for a "kill" of
his fighter. The deliberate use of such words of destruction
and death as "slaughtered," "murdered," "coffin," "sold
him down the river," and "bleeding" further Intensifies
the violent mood. As the dialogue brings the atmosphere
inside the room to a peak, the mood is carefully timed to
parallel Joe's destructive release of aggressive fury in the
fight ring outside:
EDDIE: Get outa town! (THE ROAR §f THE CROWD mounts to a. demand for a kill*)
EDDIE (listening Intently!; He's like a bum tonight.... and a bum done itt lout (The roar grows fuller.) 1 can't watch him get slaughtared...
LORNA: I couldn't watch It myself...*(The bell clangs loudly several times. THE BOAR of pjTCROWD hajags high la the air.) What's happening now?
EDDIE: Someone's getting murdered.... LOHNAs It's me... EDDIE (quietly. Intensely): That's right...if he lost...
the trees are ready for your coffin. (THE ROAR of THE CROWD tones down*) Xou can go now. I don't wanna make a scandal around his name ....I'11 find you when I want you. Don't be here when they carry him in.
LORNA (at §. complete loss): Where do you want me to go? EDDIE (suddenly releasing his wrath): Get outa my
sight! You turned down the sweetest boy who ever walked in shoes! You turned him down, the golden boy, that king among the Juven-niles! He gave you his hand—you spit in his face! You led him on like Gertie'a whoore! You sold him down the river! And now you got the nerve to stand here, to wait and see him bleeding from the mouth f
128
LOBNAs Fuseli, for God's sake— EDDIE $ Get outa my sight! LOBNAt Puseli, pleaae— BDDIE: Outa ay sight, you nickel whoorej C
w&m&sl mm.
' &a¥Wmt23
But the violent mood sparked by Eddie's uncontrolled
rag© Is quickly shifted. Following a sudden silent pause at
Joe's notorious entrance, Boxy'@ happy word® are exuberant,
and his deeoription of Joe as "the monarch" la ironically
fitting. In th@ light of the fighter's proud "bearings
LGEMA (quietly)s What happened? BOXTi What happened? (r
up JOE's arm In t| drops back |11bp1T > (
slim fi£x and picks
_ „ ____ _ fhe k m The aonaroh of the
Joe's remarks maintain the hilarity, while repealing his
unrestrained egotismi
JOE:
MOODY: BGXX: JOl!
•Tma a straight right—with no trimming® or apologies! Aside from fouling we in the second and fifth— I called them on It— I »##» the bastard— That second time I nearly went through the floor. I gave him the fury of a lifetime in that final punch! (EDDIE has taken the goi ' M l M fijgTCM tm, M & mm mmmB. 'rnKW ublng tl^briuie under J08«s aye.) And 4J
*» (l you hear them eheerr~7&j6fg|ijt» M if reading ;) Flash I As thousands cheer, Le whirlwind Bonaparte—that
veritable cock-eyed wonder, Bonaparte—he comes from behind in the eighth stanza to slaughter the Chocolate Drop and clinch a bout with the champt Well how do xou like me, boys? Am I good or am I good?12-*
123Ibld., pp. 310-311. 12**Xbld.. p. 311. JNPMPittPPiM ^ w w ^ w 125 'Ibid., p. 312.
129
The ©affluents are, of wots, again Ironic, for the punch
whloh Jos desoribes as containing the pent-up "fury of a
lifetime" does actually cause the "slaughter" of his
opponent* Joe's vehement nxelamatlon, "I'd like to go
outside a|r weight and beat up the whole damned world!n
shows also that he Is, as Balri Shman notes, "more and more
consumed by resentment of the society whloh has driven him
into boxing . . . ."i2?
Although the boisterous mood is suddenly sfeeofeed as a
fight official brings news of Chocolate Drop's death in the
ring* tension is quiokly re "-established as Barker. the dead
fighter's manager enters, hysterically aoeasing Joe of
murder»
BAHKBHj tou murdered my boy I He's dead! Torn killed him I
TDHX0 (getting between J01 and BABKBB) * Just a minute I BABKSR plptef M g B M P ' He's dead I
Chooolate»s deadI T0KI0» We're very sorry about it. Now pull yourself
together. (EDDIE MfotBii the room and alamo the A w shut "'Is BABKBB points mmmMtx. "
fi|' iM SM. soreamilt BABKEEf This iirfy little wop Killed my boy! EDDIE (oomiM M BABKBB) t So back in your room. BAREEHt Y@s he did?* (IDBXB'a answer is to shove
Barker's outbursts, filled with allusions to death and
12^ld,. p. 313. 127Shuman. Msll« P» 86. 12^0dets, "Golden Boy," Six Plays, p. 31^.
130
destruetion Murdered," "dead," "killed?), and Fuseli' s
threat of violence {"Get out before I slug your teeth
apart!")set off Jo®1 a thoughtful, "That poor guy.. .with
those sleepy little eyes...
l*ft alone is the dressing room with I*©rna» Jo#
expresses his concern in muffledwsmrds which oontinue the
©aim, though charged, atmosphere, "Gee, that poor boy.. .w1^1
he murmurs. But when he realises the waste of his own life,
the sharp accents and the short terse sentences coamuntcate
his nervousness and excited confusions
LOBHA (holding herself off)i But it wasn't your fault. JOEi That's right—it wasn't my faultI &Q8KAt Xou didn't mean it! JOE: That's right—I didn't mean it! I wouldn't
want to 4© that, would I? Everybody taows I wouldn't want to kill a man. Lorna, you know it!
LORNAt Of course! JOSt But I M i it! That's the thing—I § M i*»
What will my father say when he hears I murdered a nan? Lorna, I see what I did. I murdered myself, too! I've been running around in circles. How Xf» smashed! That*© the truth, leg, 1 was a real sparrow* and I wanted to be a fate© eagle! But now I'm hung up by my finger* tips—I'm no good—my feet are off the earth! J
The diotion of Joe's last speech reveals most poignantly hi®
mental bewilderment. The Mtmmm to his father at this
moaent ("What will my father say . . .") illustrates the
instinctive oonoem arising from both fear and lore for the
129Ibid. 13°Ibid.
P. 315. i32Ibld.
131
old Ban's judgment, since earlier Joe had referred to tils
fa ther @0 "my conscience•*HI® excited "I murdered
jay self, too!H not only echoes Lorna's accusation from the
previous scene "but a l s o demonstra tes h i s penetrating s e l f *
a n a l y s i s . The comment "I've been naming around In circles'*
acknowledges the f u t i l i t y of h i s non-creative l i f e as a
flghteri and h i s comparison t o a "real sparrow" who "wanted
to be a fake eagle1* discloses h i s new self ""awareness *
Finally# in the concluding teft ("But now I'm tamg up by
lay f i n g e r tips.. .my fast a r t o f f the ground.rt), Jo® lament®
his present Isolation from the human ooawinity.
Loraa, aoved "by Jo®'a acute suffering, suddenly reveal®
her love in curt monosyllable words which further sustain
the moodj "Joe, I lor# youI f® love each other. Need
each other!1,1 ' Odtts then uses an antiphonle series of
stiohomythio exchange© t o project their expanding awareness
and excitements
JOE j X»orna darling, I see what's happened I JuOBMj You wanted to conquer the world-* JOB: les— LOBES. 1 But It*a not the kings and d i c t a t o r s who do it-
it's that &id la the park— JOS5 les. that boy who sight have said. "I have
myselfs I m what I m a t to bet* LOBNAj And now, tonight* here, t h i s a inute—finding
yourself again—that1 s what makes ym a champ. Bon't you see that?
JOS? les, Lorim—ye®I
^ I b l f l , . p* 29? {See t h e s i s footnote number 106. ) •
13^Ibld,, p. 315.
132
LOHNAt It Isn't too late to tell the world good evening again!
JOE i With what? These fists? LOBNAi Give up the fighting business! JOE i Tonight!
LORHAs Yes, and go back to your music— *3-5
Though Joe'® despondent reply, "But ay hands are ruined. I'll
never play again. What'® left, Loma? Half a man, nothing,
useless.. momentarily slows the rhythm of the scene,
Lvrnt'i excited declaration of hop# qulokly restores its .LOMAs Ho, we're left! Two together! We have each
otherI Somewhere there must 1# happy boys and girls who can teach us the m y of life! We111 find some city where poverty*®- no shame—where music is no crime!--whore there's no war la the streets—where a man 1® glad to be himself, to live and Bake his woman herself I 1™
Joe's question, "No more fighting, but where do we go?"13®
reflect® onoe more hie inner uncertainty and confusion.
Lorna's suggestion of a wild ride into the night is
immediately seized upon by Joe. The fighter's short
sentences, spoken in rapid, nervous succession, mirror his
emotional tension and carry the aotion forward to a heightened
climax:.
' JOE (talOn^ MUflg f M ja his trefflWJ^ handa) « Hide! That's it, we ride—clear my headTWe'll drive through the night. Vhen you mow down the night with headlights, nobody gets you! Xou're on top of the world then—nobody laughs! That's it—speed! We're off the earth—unconnected I We don't have to think!! That's what speed's for, an easy way to live! Lorna darling, we'll
135Ibld. 13^Ibld.. p. 316.
137Ibid. 138Ibld.
133
to up the night f (H& turns and m begins j | t g p W MM MMSSM W l M of M S jSBSf
MnUm The earlier recurrent images of violence and allusion to death
by automobile are a w linked explicitly to Joe* s wild ride
by such phrases as "mow down the night" and "bum up the
night," which not only prefigure his death but also Associate
it with his fatal attraction to speed, fhu® the repetition
of "speed" is of slgnifloanoe, for it is through rapid flight
that Joe seeks isolation C . . . nobody gets yout You're
on top of th© world then—nobody laughs!. • . We're off the
•arth—unconnected t *) and avoidance ©f responsibility ("We
don11 have to thinkt f That's what speed's for, an easy way
to lire t * > On this atmosphere of violence wad excitement,
the curtain closes.
Odets uses the calm dialogue In the final seen# to ease
the tension of the preceding episode, as Eddie, Moody, and
Boxy quietly celebrate Joe's victory in the Bonaparte home.
The presence of Prank Bonaparte contributes also to an
atmosphere in dlreot contrast to that surrounding Joe, for
Frank's speeches repeal modesty and a sense of responsibilityt
IDDXg {J& FBAHK): Xou got a good build—you oould be a lighter,
FB&NKt I fight*.. B&DSSi leahf For what? PMNIi & lotta things I believe in » • • •
139Ibid.
13^
EDDIE: Whatta you get for it? H0X3C (laughing) t Can* t you a©#? A busted head I Flffii l'ii not fooled by a lotta things Joe's foolid
by. I Aon1t get autos and ®ustom«»ade suits. But X get what' Jo© don't.
EDDIE« What don't h@ get? . . . FE&NK (modestly) s The pleasure of aotlng as you think:I
fhe satisfaction of staying where you belong, being whatyou are. •. .at haraony with millions of ethersl**5
Yet Mr. Bonaparte's words anticipate the announoement of his
son*® death by adding a note of foreboding# as he suddenly
comments, "Maybe Jo® don't gonna fight no sort, after
tonight..
Although the subdued ton# of the atmosphere seems
momentarily threatened by Moody's concern for 3k>ma and by
an argument which arises between Mdl© and Moody, only one®
does the dialogue burst forth into vlolenoe In this soene,
the eruption coming when Prank received the mwa of the
oouple's death, ' fflV.re MteSS 1* 1 4 2 explodes,
bringing the epilogue to its highest peak. Odets then
brings the draaa to a controlled oonolusion, as eaoh
character is struek by m personal sense of griefi
Ml. BOUAPABTE: frank...Is It...? Fl&Mt I don't know how to tell you* poppa... KB. BONAPARTE (^pefr^y) I Jmt... PlAMi Me *11 have to go there— EDDIEs 0o where? FBAMi Both of then,...they were killed in a erash— EDDIE: Who?! Wimttt PHANKi They're waiting identification--Long Island.
Babylon. EDDIE (moving to FBAKK) * What are you handing me?!
l£fQIbld.. p. 318. lMXbld.» p. 319. l42Xbld., p. 320.
135
(EDDIE, suddenly knowing the truth, stops in his tracks . . .)
MGODX: I don1t believe thatI Do you hear me? I don't believe it—
FHANKj What waste I.,. MQGBTj It's a goddam lieH MB. BOKAPASXB* What have-a you expect?... MOODY (suddenly weeping) s Loraa!... MR. BONAPARTE {standing, his head high)» Joe...Come,
we bring~a him home...where he belong...
S3se Eagssis1^3
Throughout Act III, as in the entire drama, Clifford Odets
has demonstrated skill in the handling of diction, dialogue,
and sound effects to create alternating moods of violence and
calm which mirror the stages in Joe's spiritual alienation.
Images of death and destruction amplify further the implicitly
o&inous foreshadowing of disaster by exemplifying his
increased egocentricity and insensitivity. The tragic and
seems inevitable.
Thus through his continuous command of dramatic language,
Odets has proved himself to be a flexible artist, capable of
adapting his creative energy to a new and different method of
theatrical presentation. Through selection and arrangement
of his diction to evoke moods which parallel and prefigure the
psychological degradation and spiritual isolation of the
protagonist, and through creation of a dramatic dialogue
which rhythmically alternates these moods, Odets reveals his
instinctive dramaturgy and mastery of theatrical effect.
l43Ibid.. pp. 320-321.
CHAPTER BT
CONCLUSION
The drama of Clifford Odets unquestionably reflects
his concern with the Immediate issues raised "by the Depression
and "by the rise of Fascism, In the 1930's, when he addressed
the themes of his plays to the social, political* and
economic difficulties of the poverty-stricken and of the
destitute middle class, Odets wrote, of course, for a
theatre much more relevant to Its social context than Is the
theatre today. It was a period of the proletarian play, of
the Federal Theatre, of acting troupes calling themselves
"collectives" or "unions,n and of the slogan "Theatre is a
weapon." It seems apparent* then, that Odets*s social aware-
ness In this decade was both timely and topical.
Odets, moreover, succeeded where other revolutionary
playwrights failed. With his ability to create warm and
memorable characters through dynamic stage language, Odets
achieved wide-spread acclaim and the recognition of Broadway
critics, as well as Marxist. These professional theatre
critics were so much Impressed with Odetsfs early skills in
diction, dialogue, and charaoter creation, that in the
thirties he gained renown as one of the most exciting and
promising new dramatists of the decade.
136
137
It Is Ironic, therefore, that Clifford Odets actually
outlived his reputation as versatile dramatist, since "by
the time of his death in 1963 most modern commentators
remembered him only a® a social critic and minority spokesman.
In fact, due to his lack of success In the fifties and the
sixties, the present reputation of Clifford Odets, "based
mainly on the four or five dramas of the 1930*s, has come to
he that of leftist reformer of Depression society.
The present study contends, however, that the ourrent
Judgment of Clifford Odets only as a social reformer is
Inadequate and that because of his skillful use of diction
and dialogue he deserves re-evaluation as a playwright. To
support this point, the author's handling of dramatic
language in two plays from the Depression period, Awake and
Singt (1935) Golden Boy (1937) # has "been examined through
close textual analysis. Prom this analysis it seems evident
that Clifford Odets offers an enduring aesthetic, as well
as social, contribution to the American Theatre.
It Is unfortunate, therefore, that In his later work
Odeta limited himself to those themes which he had already
treated so successfully In the thirties and that his acute
social awareness and class consciousness failed to adjust to
the changing present. His later efforts continued to wane
In relevance to the times, until after 1954 he could give
nothing at all to the stag®, although he vigorously prophesied
his return.
138
Such thinning of a once-considerable talent eliminated
on® of the most fertile contributors to American drama.
Indeed, Odets*s earlier plays, like O'Helll's, portray
effectively the psychological maladjustiaents of his
characters. And It seems probable, as Daird Shuaan notes,
that Odets*s "poetic use of language, his accurate
capturing and reproduction of the vernacular, as well as his
keen understanding of human motivation, have led the way to
such modern playwrights as Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams,
and Truman Capote."* Yet in spite of his innovations in
the use of language, Odets has failed to receive the
recognition that he so rightfully deserves.
Odets* s instinctive blending of dynamic, evocative
language with the themes of social significance was hailed
by the Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello, who Insisted in
1935 that Odets*s plays were good, "'not beoause they are
social, but because they are artistic.*"6* The present study
re-affirms Pirandello's early judgment, for It demonstrates
that as he manifests his creative talent in Awake and Sing!
and Golden Boy. Clifford Odets, the poet-lyricist, the creator
of sharp, true diction and dialogue, remains a living part
of our theatrical heritage today.
^Shuaan, Clifford Odets. p. 1^8. "?
"*Luigi Pirandello cited in "Pirandello Avoids Debate on Politics,M New York Times. July 2*f, 1935. p. 20.
B XBLIOGEA.PHY
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141
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