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

Books

Block. Anita, S M Changing World flB.jp ag|d Theatre, Boston, Little, Brown* and Company, 1939•

Brown, John Mason, fwo oa Alale. New York, W. W. Morton and Company, Inc., 19So.

Branstein, Bobert Sanford, 3&e theatre of Bevolt. Boston, Little, Brown, and Company, 1964.

Clunaan, Harold, S&g, Fervent Years. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 19^5•

, "Introduction to 'Awake and Sing!,n Six flays of Clifford Odets. New York, Bandom House, 1939.

Flanagan, Hallie, Arena, New York, Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 19^0.

Plexner, Eleanor, American Playwrights x New York, Simon and 'Schuster,' 1938*

Gassner, John W., Masters £f Modern Drama. New York, Dover Publications, 195^.

, twenty Beat Plays Qf Modern American " Theatre, Hew York,Crown Publishers, 1939.

Kempton, Murray, Part of Our Time, Mew York, Simon and Schuster, 1955.

Krutch, Joseph Wood, America Now, edited by H. S. Steams, New York, The Literary Guild of America, Inc., 1938.

, American Drama Since 1918. New York, Bandom House, 1939•

Mantle, Robert Burns, Contemporary American Playwrights. New York, Dodd, Mead and Company, 1939.

Morris, Lloyd B., Postscript £o Yesterday. New York, Bandom House, 19^7.

139

3AG

Odets, Clifford, Six Plays of Clifford Odets. New York, Handom House, 1939.

0'Hara, Frank H., Today In American Drama, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1939*

Babkin, Gerald, Drama and Commitment. Bloomington, Indiana, University Press, 1964.

Shuman, Robert Baird, Clifford Odets, New Haven, Connecticut, College and Universlty Press, 1962.

Warshow, Hobert, The Immediate Experience, Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 19&2. '

Artioles

Atkinson, Brooks, "Fresh Talent," The New York Times, March 10, 1935. Sec. 8, p. 1.

, "The Play," New York Time3. Hovember 5» 1937» Sec. 1, p. 18.

Brandon, Henry, "A Conversation with Arthur Miller," World Theatre, XI (Autumn, 1962), 229-2^0.

"Clifford Odets, Playwright, Dies," Mew York Times. August 16, 1963, Sec. 1, p. 27.

"Clifford Odets* Golden Boy." The Literary Digest. CXXIV (Hovember 27, 1937). 35.

Clurman, Harold, "Clifford Odets," lew York Times, August 25, 1963, Sec. 2, p. 1.

"An Exciting Dramatist Blses in the Theatre," The Literary Digest. CXIX (April 6, 1935)» 18.

"Golden Boy," Time. XXX (November 15, 1937)» 25-26.

Hughes, Catherine, "Odets: The Price of Success," Commonweal. LXXVTII (September 20, 1963), 558-560.

Isaacs, Edith, "Golden Boy." Theatre Arts Monthly. XXII (January, 1938}, 11-13.

Kaplan, Charles, "Two Depression Plays and Broadway's Popular Idealism," American Quarterly. XV (Winter, 1963), 579-58$,

141

Kerr, Walter, "Golden Boy." Commonweal, LV (Haroh 28, 1952). 614-615.

Krutch, Joseph Wood, "Dramai Two Legends," Nation, CXLV (November 13, 1937)» 539-540.

McCarten, John, "Revolution's Number One Boy," T£e MM. I9XMK* XIV (January 22, 1938)» 21-2?.

Mendelsohn, Michael J., "Clifford Odets and the American Family," Drama Survey. Ill (Fall, 1963)» 238-243.

, "Odets at Center^Stage," Theatre Arts, XLVII (May and June, 1963). 16-19l 28-30-

, "Social Critics on Stage," Modern Drama, VI (December, 1963)» 277-285•

Odets, Clifford, "Some Problems of the Modern Dramatist," New York Times, December 15# Sec. 11, p. 3»

"Pirandello Avoids Debate on Politics," I§J£ York T£H£S, July 24, 1935* P. 20.

Sugrue, Thomas, "Mr. Odets legrets," American Magazine., CXXII (October, 1936), 42-43.

Vernon, Grenvill®, "The Case of Clifford Odets," Commonweal, XXVIII (June 10, 1938), 188.

, "Golden Boy." Commonweal. XXVII (November 19, 1937), 106.

, "Mr. Odets' Plays Are Jewish," Commonweal, XXIX (December 16, 1938), 215.

Verschoyle, Derek, "The Theatre," Spectator. CI*XI (July 1, 1938), 16.

Young, Stark, "New Talent," Ngw Republic, LXXXIII (lay 29, 1935). 78.

Public Documents

Hearings, House Committee on Un-American Activities, lay 19. 1952, Washington, Government Printing Office, 1952.