The Zoo Story by Edward Albee

The Zoo Story is play written by American playwright, Edward Albee. The Zoo Story is an absurd drama which mentions some symbol on the dialogue. Those symbol actually reflect to social problems in the real life, such as class and loneliness. The Zoo Story takes Central Park, New York as its setting.

The characters of this play are Peter and Jerry. Peter described as a man in his early forties but his dress and his manner make him look younger.  Peter always come to Central Park to read some books everyweek. Peter has a wife and two daughters. In the contrary, different from Peter, Jerry descibed as the one who live alone, isolated by his loneliness. Jerry wants deep conversastion with someone, he once stated “I don’t talk to many peopla but every once in a while I like to talk to somebody, really talk; like to get know everybody, know about him.”

The Zoo                                                             

In The Zoo Story, the zoo itself is a symbol. Before I explain what kind of symbol the zoo is, firstly, I want you to read the dialogue between Peter and Jerry bellow:

“Peter: The zoo; the zoo. Something about the zoo.

Jerry: The zoo?

Peter: You’ve mention it several times.

Jerry: (still distant, but returning abruptly): The zoo? Oh, yes. I was there before I came here. I told you that. Say, what’s the dividing line between upper-middle-middle-class and  lower-upper-middle-class?”

The zoo is a symbol about social classification. The zoo symbolizes people who live their live separately, separated by social classification, lower class, middle class, and upper class. The zoo represents how people are isolated by their class. Upper class people only know people in their class, so do middle class people and also lower class people. People live fragmentarily just like animal in the zoo who live inside the cage, people live inside “their cage”.

Bench

Bench in The Zoo Story symbolizes honour and ownership. Just like what written on the script:

“Jerry: Listen to me, Peter. I want this bench. You go sit on the bench over there, and if you’re good I’ll tell you the rest of story.

Peter: (flustered) But... What ever for? What is the matter with you? Besides, I see no reason why I should give up this bench. I sit on this bench almost every Sunday afternoon, in good weather. It’s secluded here; there’s never anyone sitting here, so I have it all to myself.

Jerry: (softly) Get off this bench, Peter; I want it.             

Peter: (almost whining): No.”

“Peter: (his fury and self-consciousness have possed him) It doesn’t matter. (He is almost crying) GET AWAY FROM MY BENCH!

Jerry: Why? You have everything in he world you wnat; ypu’ve told me about your home, and your family, and your own little zoo. You have everything, and now you wnat this bench. Are these the things men fight for? Tell me, Peter, is this bench, this iron and this wood, is this your honour? Is this the thing in the world you’d fight for? Can you think of anything more absurd?”

When Peter said “GET AWAY FROM MY BENCH!” it clearly represents the ownership. Peter claims the bench is his bench, and Jerry wants the bench because he thinks Peter already has everything.

From the explanation above we can conclude that absurdity in absurd plays actually do represent something real in the real life more than what rational play can do. Just like what Martin Esslin says on his essay, The Theatre of the Absurd:

“If the dialogue  in these plays consists of meaningless cliches and the mechanical, circular repetition of stereotyped phrases--how many meaningless cliches and stereotyped phrases do we use in our day-to-day conversation? If the characters change their personality halfway through the action, how consistent and truly integrated are the people we meet in our real life? And if people in these plays appear as mere marionettes, help- less puppets without any will of their own, passively at the mercy of blind fate and meaningless circumstance, do we, in fact, in our overorganized world, still possess any genuine initiative or power to decide our own destiny? The spectators of the Theatre of the Absurd are thus confronted with a grotesquely heightened picture of their own world: a world with- out faith, meaning, and genuine freedom of will. In  this sense, the Theatre of the Absurd is the true theatre of our time.” (P.6)

The absurdity in The Zoo Story play represents problem in the real life, such as loneliness (Jerry’s miserable life) and the disctinction of social classes.

Works Cited

Albee, E. (n.d.). The Zoo Story.

Esslin, M. (n.d.). The Theatre of the Absurd.