The Zoo Story - Commentary

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Valentin Benoit March 2013 Commentary on “The Zoo Story” By: Valentin Benoit “The Zoo Story” is a one-act play written in 1958 by American playwright Edward Albee (born March 12, 1928). It was first rejected by American critics and so it was played firstly in Europe and due to its positive reviews, the play was later performed in New York City. The play consists of two very different characters meeting in a Central Park bench: Peter (a successful wellmannered man living in New York along his wife, two daughters and pets) and Jerry (a low class citizen from the South who shows an incapability to interact normally with other humans due to his animalistic behavior). Both of these characters are impressed by the other’s nature and Jerry (who comes out as a rather idiotic character) gets to stimulate Peter’s mind to question his conventional and structured life. During Jerry’s monologue throughout pages 33-39 called “THE STORY OF JERRY AND THE DOG” we are portrayed with many aspects of this play regarding Jerry’s characterization (his animalistic behavior and lack of social skills) through the use of techniques from the Theatre of the Absurd, with the motive of criticizing American society, raising awareness of the lack of communication and at the same time this passage aims to foreshadow how will the story between Peter and Jerry conclude. In following extract from “The Zoo Story” we can appreciate that Jerry’s character (which apparently is rather simple due to his roots and financial situation) it has its complexity as we can observe that this character is torn between the animal and human world. “The dog is black, all black; all black except for the bloodshot eyes, and ... yes ... and an open sore on its ... right forepaw; that is red, too. And, oh yes; the poor monster, and I do believe it's an old dog ... it's certainly a misused one ... almost always has an
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