Individuality:: The Debauchery Of

The Debauchery of

Individuality: Thornton Wilder’s Our Town

MACKENZI BLAIS MRS. FORTUNA ENGLISH 12-H, D 29 OCTOBER 2009

Our Town Love Triangle

education

be au t

le sty

Femi nism

l a u d i iv d In ity

e lif

y

Whitene ss

Structure

Critical White StudiesCritical Post Structural Theory  P: Small town people are more likely to live in there community rather than

branch out and broaden their horizons.  E: “Yeah some say it’s even a waste of time. …And Uncle Luke’s getting old,—he’s about ready for me to start in taking over his farm tomorrow, if I could. …And, like you say, being gone all that time…in other places and meeting other people….Gosh, if anything like that can happen I don’t want to go away. …I feel that you’re as good o friend as I’ve got. I don’t need to go and meet the people in other towns.”(Wilder 70)  P: “The author has given us no more than characters posed in attitudes when humanity becomes understandable, and a stage manager who unfolds the homely chronicle of daily life, love, marriage, and death in a small New England village.” (Kohler)  I: The people of Grover’s Corners such was George do not leave the town even when they are given the opportunity to. Instead of expanding his knowledge and attending college George follows the ways of the many farmers before him and marries right after he exists high school to his next door neighbor. He is therefore conforming with the views of the society instead of broadening his horizons and following he true desires/talents .

Critical Post Structural TheoryCritical Feminist Social Theory  P: Lack of education pigeon holes people into a restricted life and discredits their

thoughts and opinions.  E: “Well, if I could get the Doctor to take the money and go away someplace on a real trip, I’d sell it like that.—Y’know, Myrtle, it’s been the dream of my life to see Paris, France.—Oh, I don’t know. It sounds crazy, I suppose, but for years I’ve been promising myself that if we ever had the chance—” (Wilder 19)  P: “Lamentable though it may be, people do not go to the theater to hear sermons or to be told that the only truth they can comprehend is that the end of all life is death and that in death they will achieve life.”(Ballet)  I: Mrs. Gibb’s hope and plan to travel to Paris, France is repeatedly shot down by her husband who believes he has a more comprehensive understanding of the world. He lack of trust in his wife and his lack to desire to comply with her wishes pushes her further away from being free and following her dreams. She is only pushed deeper into the everyday average lifestyle of the small town family and her motherly role in the household.

Critical Feminist Social TheoryCritical White Studies  P: Beauty determines a women's useful nature. Women with in the novel take

pride in there looks and see them an important component of life.  E: “But, Mama, you’ve got to say something about me. Am I pretty enough… to get anybody...to get people interested in me?” (Wilder 32)  P: “His plays celebrate human love, the worth and dignity of man, the values of the ordinary, and the eternity of human values.” (Corrigan)  I: Emily’s doubt in terms of her beauty shows her complying to the social norms on Grover’s Corners in which the women look pretty enough to attract a mate and become a mother. This shallow way of thinking takes away from Emily’s natural intelligence which she is originally so proud of.

The

rural small town

environment destroys the individuality and spirit of being an American. It

may

seem like a classic small town

American dream, but in fact the idealistic life style has left Grover's Corners fulfilling the