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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page paper examining the plays of this award-winning playwright, in terms of his abundant profanity. Looking closely at Edmond and Glengarry Glen Ross, the paper concludes that Mamet's characters cannot really do anything about their powerlessness; the only thing they can do with impunity is swear. Bibliography lists six sources.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_Mamet.doc
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
are precisely the same ones one can hear on any American street corner, in any public school corridor, or in any corporate boardroom behind closed doors. There is no creativity
or poetry here. Why, then, does Mamet use profanity with such abandon? Arent there better ways to express rage, hurt, or injustice? This paper will look at several Mamets plays
themselves to analyze precisely what (if anything) the use of foul language contributes to the development of the authors themes. First it might be instructive to look at the broad
scope of Mamets work in order to determine what points he is trying to make. Mamet, as Jack Garner points out, espouses in Glengarry Glen Ross and American Buffalo a
"cynical view of heartless American business, examining dog-eat-dog betrayal in the world of high-powered competition" (Garner, PG). Ross Wetzsteon writes that Edmond is about "the bitter resentment of a
middle class white man at the encroaching demands of the underclass -- of blacks, of women, and of homosexuals in particular" (Wetzsteon, 21). The common denominator here is intense, searing
anger, but moreover, frustration. Mamets characters cannot really do anything about their situations; the only thing they can do with impunity is swear. And this futile swearing both underscores
their helplessness and articulates it for us. In an article in Town and Country Monthly, Jonathan Alter observes that "Language, as George Orwell explained so well, is all about power,
and profanity has become a means of ascent. On an almost instinctive level, men -- and, increasingly, women -- use it in social settings and the workplace as a shorthand
to prove that they are tough, savvy, streetwise. Swearing seems to represent a knowingness and a candor that can equalize (or at least neutralize) certain relationships. Some people even think
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