e smugness to come. Also, throughout the play, Albee allows his characters the ability to relay such harsh realities, with no fervent emotion. As seen when Grandma explains the murder of the first son to Mrs. Baker, “What did they do? Well, for the last straw, it finally up and died; and you can imagine how that made them feel, their having paid for it and all.” Mommy also goes on to ask Grandma, “How can you be so old and smug at the same time? You have no sense of proportion.” Grandma is complacent in the sense that she knows her time has come. She understands that she has “ran her course” in the family and accepts this to the point of ridding herself from the family. Mommy and Daddy are most content in the fact that they want satisfaction for the death of their child. Once they have been repaid, the tone of the play changes and the parents are now satisfied with their “form” of satisfaction.One of the minor themes Albee also touches on is the portrayal that Americans are cruel. Albee depicts Mommy and Daddy as both physically and mentally cruel. The entire story of the first son is the most obvious account of the cruelty of Americans. The parents have an idea of how they want their son to act; when he defies them or acts “abnormally” they resort to extreme measures to halt his behaviors. The cruelty is evident in the fact they want to be repaid for their son’s death, for which they were the direct cause. They believe that they received a faulty “son” from the adoption agency and inevitably are asking for a refund. Grandma describes their actions to Mrs. Baker, whose comments seem just as cruel, “But first, they cut off his you-know-what.” The parents also proceeded to gouge out his eyes, cut off his wrists, and severe his tongue, all because he did not meet their expectations. The cruelty of the parents is transposed to the crue...
