Albee, the Absurdists, and High School English?

Author(s): Herbert R. Adams

Source: The English Journal , Nov., 1966, Vol. 55, No. 8 (Nov., 1966), pp. 1045-1048
Published by: National Council of Teachers of English

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/812736

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Albee, the Absurdists, and
High School English?

Herbert R. Adams

Editor, English Language and Composition

Ginn and Company
Boston, Massachusetts

EVER since the Albee performancesunrelated questions. A good case can be

last November in Boston,' I've been made for teaching The Zoo Story in
aware of an increasing number of con- eleventh-grade; but I question seriously
versations, arguments, and discussionsjust how much genuine Absurdism
about Edward F., his plays, and hisshould be introduced there, or anywhere
contribution to dramatic literature. One else in the high school curriculum.
nearly unanimous assumption which has What Albee says in The Zoo Story
pervaded these discussions is that Albeeseems to me a significant message. At
is a playwright in the "Absurd" school. the same time, it is an obvious message
I say nearly unanimous because I have and certainly the top-power-point of all
had to dissent. There are many interest-his work. To be sure The Zoo Story is
ing things we can say about Albee, his
stark and sadistic, but it is also quite
conventional in the theatrical sense.
plays, his philosophy, his obsessions, and
his power as a playwright; but in myThere is nothing distinctly or peculiarly
opinion we should not say he is an
"absurd" about it, anymore than there
Absurdist. He doesn't belong in the sameis anything "absurd" about Winterset,
ballpark with Ionesco, Genet, Beckett,
for example.
or Pinter. Just as there is something of the ex-
When an eleventh-grade teacher asked plorer in most fishermen, I believe there
me recently, "Are you suggesting I teachis much the same thing in most actors.
As an actor,2 I feel about Albee almost
The Zoo Story in class? Isn't the Theater
of the Absurd awfully complex and as I feel about a good trout stream. When
confusing for eleventh-graders?" she I come upon a trout stream for the first
was, from my point of view, asking twotime-suddenly-there is the exquisite

1"An Evening With Edward Albee," a pre- 2The author is a former professional actor and
continues to act and direct in the Boston area.
sentation of three Albee one-acts, was produced
for the NCTE preconvention study groups in played both roles in The Zoo Story and
He has
Boston last November. has directed a production of the same play.

1045

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 1046 ENGLISH JOURNAL

Does this mean

thrill of discovery. Fresh whitethat The Sandbox,
water.
Untried pools andThe Zoo Story, and The
pockets. A American
joyous
anticipation! There is a happy
Dream are pieces of great com-
dramatic lit-
pulsion to "get involved," to get
erature? How significant "con-
are they?
nected up." Then the In mysudden strike!
opinion, the popularity of Albee
And a rush of childlike
among collegeecstasy!
and high school A de-
students
indicates
lightful participation with only a
that they like-not
new encoun- neces-
ter. My feelings weresarily much
what Albee says
the but same
the situation
as
those just described during
in which they can saymy first
what Albee says,
read-through of The Zoo
under the Story,
protection and
of an actor's guise.
They like the idea of the
they continued throughout the stage, where
early
rehearsals. A better
theyacquaintance with
can disguise themselves in order to
Albee's work might
be what very
they are. well be as
Weit
Geri Trotta described all would agree, I suppose,
in Horizon that
(Sep-
Albee is concerned
tember 1961), as having in his plays with
"a grotesque,
almost macabre effect, man's struggle to
rather communicate;
like finding with
a live tarantula at the bottom of a box alienation; with complacency. Certainly
of Cracker Jack." he writes about such concerns. Perhaps
his most powerful argument occurs in
But if you know there's a tarantula at
the bottom of your Cracker Jack box The Zoo Story. Jerry is trying to explain
to Peter the significance of the dog
(because you've found it there every
story:
time you finished your Cracker Jack on
previous occasions), the only thrill is
the semivicarious one you get as you "It's just . . . it's just that . . . it's just
hand the box to someone else. that if you can't deal with people, you
have to make a start somewhere. WITH
If you know perfectly well where the
ANIMALS! Don't you see? A person
trout is going to be, precisely what fly has to have some way of dealing with
will attract him, and exactly how many SOMETHING. If not with people ...
fish you'll get and how large each one if not with people ... SOMETHING."
will be, then the thrill is gone . . . the
sense of discovery and exploration fades As Jerry goes on it becomes more
. . the anticipation of surprise is no
and more obvious that Albee is con-
longer possible. cerned with man's struggle to communi-
cate. And ironically he seems to have
UDGING from Albee's latest drama, nothing to communicate but loneliness.
Malcolm, which opened and closedHe emphasizes and reemphasizes the
in early 1966, I would have to sayfrustration and futility facing man as
that like Tennessee Williams, Victor man struggles. In this sense, he might be
Borge, and Batman, he has become pre- included with Ionesco, Beckett, Genet,
dictable and the surprise is gone. and Pinter. But the concern of the Ab-
But surprise or no surprise, Albee issurdists is not nearly as restricted as
Albee's concern. The concern of the
a piercing social critic. The fact that his
criticism can be aligned with the think-Absurdists is deeper and much more
ing of many college students probablyfar-reaching. The plays of Ionesco, for
accounts for the fact that last year moreexample, present the most significant
ideas with which we can concern our-
college drama groups in this country
produced Albee plays than the plays of selves, or our students, namely, the in-
any other playwright. More specifically,evitable disparity between what we want
Albee's plays ranked first, second, andto be and what we are; the unavoidable
third, with Twelfth Night fourth. absurdity of meaningless existence.

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 ALBEE, THE ABSURDISTS 1047

There is a quotation pinned

student to do
asks, How myyou abolish human
bulletin board: sorrow, Miss Berman? How does one get
rid of the fear of death, Miss Johnson?
... . Let the main ideas which are in-
What is the meaning to life, Mr. Hall?
troduced into a child's education be few
Or, how does an honest teacher respond
and important, and let them be thrown
when a sincere student approaches the
into every combination possible. The
child should make them his own, and desk and says, "OK, so I'm hostile!
What can I do about it? Please tell me!"
should understand their applications here
and now in the circumstances of his Albee bothers me because he supplies
actual life. no answers. Worse than that, I'm con-
vinced he has no answers; and worst of
all, he doesn't seem to care.
No doubt many will recognize the wis-
dom of Alfred North Whitehead, takenBut we do. As teachers we do care ...
from his Aims of Education. about answers and about the students
who seek them. As humanitarians, or
CERTAINLY, if we plan to introduce as humanists, we are certainly concerned
the ideas of the absurdists into our
with the kind of questions just raised
students' education, we are abiding byand with ways of finding the answers.
Whitehead's instruction that the ideas be And if we do take our students into this
"important." If, more particularly, wesea of fire with Godot, Krapp, and the
introduce students to the premise estab-Rhinos, we'd better have some kind of
lished by Albert Camus in 1942, and safety line-some refuge-if not for the
more or less adopted by the subsequent sake of our sanity, for the sake of our
absurdists-that "a gap which is perma-students. We'd better have some sug-
nent and cannot be bridged separatesgestions for answers-for ourselves.
self from surroundings," we are intro-
ducing something important. ARE WE going to be traditional in
But my question is-and it is the ques- our solution-in our answer to the
tion of this paper-Are we prepared toabsurdists' dilemma? Are we accepting,
introduce our students, our serious, soc- or have we accepted a transcendental
ially aware, rebellious, demonstratingreference, some absolute as a solution?
students, to the boiling intellectual cal- Have we accepted God? or Truth? or
dron of the absurdists? And if we are Nature? or Destiny? If we have, and we
prepared to introduce them, are we also offer our solution to our students, we
must expect the attack that is almost
prepared to deal with the results? Should
we offer them what might be called certain
a to be hurled back at us when we
philosophical/intellectual LSD? do suggest a traditional solution. They
I fear that too few of us realize the
may well have read Caligula; they may
impact that can be made by an Ionesco well have read The Bald Soprano, The
on a vulnerable adolescent who thinks Chairs, Endgame, The Maids, The Bal-
cony, Birthday Party, Waiting for
he finds life meaningless already. I fear
Godot, The Caretaker, Thirst and
that many of us, who steer our students
into philosophical speculation, haveHunger.
no
way of steering them out when they ask Our well-read student may remind us
for guidance. I fear that the magnitude
that he cannot accept an absolute, unless
and the complexities of the absurdists'
he experiences some kind of personal
message are not comprehended by many revelation. He may point out that reli-
teachers of high school English who
ance upon any traditional absolute re-
innocently present it to their classes. quires an outright act of faith, and faith
What does a teacher answer when a is just not acceptable to him because

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1048
1048ENGLISH
ENGLISHS JOUR IiNALL
JOURNAL

sensoryevidence
sensory evidence ness?"
prohibits
prohibits If
If students
" such
such
ness? ask these
a "leap."
a "leap."
students do ask these questions,
questions,
The chances
The chancesare
are fairly
fairly good
good
what
what that
positive
positive that the
thecan
reply
reply can we
wemake?
make?What
What
dilemma we lead our students into will
dilemma of purpose
sense of purpose can
can we
we impart?
impart?
go wvith
go with them
themwhen
whenthey
they leave
leave our
our class- seems to
class-It seems to me
me that
that these
thesequestions
questionsare
are
room. It is a dilemma which, most simply important, and
important, and before
before we
we lead
leadour
ourkids
kids
stated is physical suicide or faith (which quandries, we
into quandries, we ought
ought to
toexplore
explorethe
the
is, after all, philosophical suicide). quandries
quandries rather
rather thoroughly
thoroughlyourselves.
ourselves.
Once we have brought the young am not
I am not suggesting
suggesting that
that we
wetry
trytotosolve
solve
minds to a consciousness of the absurd- the students'
the students' problems.
problems.I Iamamsuggesting
suggesting
ists' dilemma-to an acknowledgementthat we we intensify
intensify our
our own
own research
researchand
and
of the full-blown thing-what then? increase
increase our
our own
own understanding
understandingand
and
They may rise up in class and say, "But awareness
awareness so so that
that we
we may
may bebeable
ableto
to
suicide and faith would both destroyhelp them them find
find answers
answers for
forthemselves.
themselves.
my consciousness of the
consciousness of the philosophy have another
philosophy II I have another quotation
quotation on
onmy
mybul-
bul-
letin board,
have studied to gain. I don't want to do letin board, one
one by
by Bacon
Bacon which
whichbegins,
begins,
that.
that. Wrhat
What other
other choice
choice have
have I? What hold every
"I hold every man
man aa debtor
debtorto
tohis
his
can
can II do
do while
while maintaining
maintaining my profession...."
my aware-
aware-
profession....

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