The Rise of Material Values in the American Society and Its Effects on Family Ties in Edward Albee's The Sandbox

Abstract

Edward Albee's one act play The Sandbox reflects his pessimistic and skeptical point of view concerning the American society as the individuals are transformed into machine-like creatures while they are searching for the American Dream. This play presents a pathetic picture of human beings as they grow old and approach death. As the play unfolds, the characters reveal their point of view concerning life and death and how they look at the old people. This paper aims at discussing the theme of family disintegration in the family ties as the family members lose all sense of compassion for their grandmother. The evens of the play show clearly how family members treat the grandmother badly and leave her to live in solitude, therefore, the title of play represents symbolically the bad treatment which she receives by the other member of the family. Ironically, this disintegration of the moral values is juxtaposed with the rapid progress of the American society which throws a dark shade on family relationships and on the American individual. The play reveals how the children's cruelty and tough dealing with the grandmother reflects the change of values in a society which is rapidly developing and in which people are in pursuit of the American Dream. However, in their pursuit of this dream, they neglect certain moral values and this leads to the disintegration of the family ties. This paper examines in details how Albee's play reveals this change of human values in the society as a result of the spread other values like consumerism and greediness followed by the analyses of selected relevant quotes from the play, and it ends up with conclusions and works cited.