WARNING: Contains Spoilers
Ronald Reagan was inaugurated President in 1980 and succeeded James Carter, the democrat. He would usher in a twelve-year era of Republican Party rule, which would change the shape of the USA in many ways. The US was a nation still dealing with the scars of the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam War, scars which hadn’t been healed completely by the Carter Administration. Both Carter and Reagan were elected largely because of public dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs in Washington. There was a lack of trust. They were both political outsiders; from other states and had little to do with central government until their elections to President. “Both Carter and Reagan played successfully on business or public dissatisfaction with government to get elected… Once in office they became targets. They were outsiders who became insiders, anti-Washington candidates who became, with success, the very symbol of Washington.” (Fawcett and Thomas, 1983, 140) Where Carter failed to heal the nation, Reagan partly succeeded. Instead of trying to be the ‘outsider’ after taking office. He worked on ways of making the people trust Washington again. Unlike Carter, he was an actor, and managed the public well for the most part. “Carter a conservative Southern populist campaigned under Democratic colours, who promised lower defence spending and national health insurance, raised the first and never got around to the second.” (Fawcett and Thomas, 1983, 166) Instead of continuing to heal the wounds of the Nixon era; Reagan decided to change the way people felt and what they were thinking by a series of new laws, which would radically alter the labour forces. “By partially ‘deregulating’ labour relations along with banking and transportation, Reagan has paved the way for more rapid capital flight, plant closure, deunionisation, and the proliferation of all manner of new sweated industries. In the process he has also eliminated, temporarily or permanently, the judicial supports upon which the practice of bureaucratic trade unionism has vitally depended for over a generation.” (Davis, 1986, 131) The Reagan administration - similarly to the Thatcher government – had a goal of phasing out the work unions. This was done primarily to make new work related laws easier to enforce. The new laws created a situation where low level employees were paid less, and the higher level employees were paid more. Attorneys, stockbrokers, landowners, and many other professions in the private sector all earned more. Meanwhile government workers, and others suffered from pay cuts and redundancies. One of the laws which allowed this difference in wages to expand was the ‘two tier’ system. The system was created allowed the more recently commissioned employees to be started on a lower wage than their older counterparts for doing the same job. This encouraged many employers to simply make redundant older employees and bring a cheaper and younger work force whose pensions weren’t close at hand. Another law was introduced which allowed part time workers to be paid less than the full time workers. This encouraged full time workers to be replaced by part time workers. “Involuntary part-time workers constitute the fastest growing section of the labour force – more than six million workers earning an average forty percent an hour less than their full time counterparts… Hospitals, faced with competition from cost-conscious HMOs, have defended profit levels by replacing full-time nurses with part timers.” (Davis, 1986, 151 - 152) Part timers, ‘two tier’ systems; plus hiring temporary work forces. The US civil service was given the ability to hire temporary employees for up to four years. These all contributed to gap between the economically successful and the unsuccessful. The new legislation also caused and upsurge in the amount of highly successful corporations there were in the USA. This rise in numbers caused competitiveness. Another aspect of the 1980’s American culture which stands out. “The business service, banking and real-estate sectors have doubled since 1969, with the onset of the fantastic and interrelated increases in consumer debt, real estate inflation and the costs of business services. By the inauguration of Ronald Reagan, and for the first time since the Depression, corporate interest payments comprised a larger share of the GNP than corporate profits. In 1980 corporations spent over $10 billion suing each other (an amount almost equivalent to the entire federal food stamp program); while, in the following year, $83 billion was spent on corporate take-overs, mergers, and demergers… Senior corporate lawyers earning $250 an hour, alongside $4 an hour tellers and secretaries." (Davis, 1986, 215) With the creation of this new America by about three years into Reagan’s first term. People began to notice the working classes changing. David Mamet was one of these people. Reagan’s America was a place where people craved success more than ever because it came with greater rewards and escape from near poverty. The atmosphere of consumerism and materialism for many breed out of the craving for success. Many US citizens began purchasing more, spending a greater amount of money, because they were earning more. Fast food became more popular; people could – for the first time - afford to have more meals at Macdonald’s; this was also caused by more women being employed. Some families having two partners both in professional employment and simply not having enough time to cook meals in the evening. For many US playwrights the ‘American Dream’ has often been a favourite subject matter. Mamet also decided to write about this theme, with regards to its current incarnation. The world he was writing about was a ruthless backstabbing one: “As the playwright told director Gregory Mosher during previews for the Chicago production, ‘Look, this play is not a play about love… This is a play about guys, who when one guy is down… the guy who’s up then kicks the other guy in the balls to make sure he stays down.” (Kane, 1996, xviii) The salesman has often been the professional used by playwrights to criticise the consumerism in the world. Arthur Miller also wrote about the salesman in Death of a Salesman “Mamet follows Miller in making salesmen the metaphorical victims of a ruthless, venal, and corrupt system.” (Kane, 1996, xx) The hunt for money extends in this era; instead of looking for gold or for oil under the surface they have to find the people with the money to spend and convince them to part with it. “The 1980’s atmosphere of plastic capitalism where money is invisible, the salesmen’s job has changed from the figure of a gold rush prospector, shifting to the role of a detective who seeks to solve the mystery of where money has been hidden.” (Kane, 1996, 200) This ruthlessness of the salesmen could be translated to the everyday world, in the struggle for better jobs in order to sustain the materialism of the time. This was the aspect that Mamet emphasised; he did this through the use of dialogue. There is an expletive in almost every sentence of Glengarry Glen Ross. They’re either used casually or as abuse of another character. Characters do not care for one and other, they insult each other; they compete against each other, not work together. “In its relentlessly macho, materialistic, and existential world, loyalty and trust are rare commodities, indeed, and “friends” can turn into enemies with alarming speed.” (Kane, 1996, 47) The characters do turn on each other, and betray each other. Moss manipulates Aronow to believe he’s an accomplice to a crime, which hasn’t occurred yet in an attempt to make him steal the leads. Roma praises Levene towards the end but ignores his pleas for help, as he’s man handled away by the police. Levene admits that the robbery was Moss’ idea. This competitiveness is spurred on by the board which shows how much money each salesman has made and as a result who’s made the most, and who has made the least. “To keep on the board is the all important motivator; to be top of the list is, to these men, better than sex, better even than the money it will bring. Although greed is ostensibly a prime ingredient, and certainly it is high on the agenda, money is in fact a secondary component. For them, selling has become an addiction in itself, a “high” more exhilarating the cocaine that can take them soaring above their colleagues, proof of a ruthless ability to close the deal, to “sell” the client, to be a man, to take on a hostile world – and win – against extraordinary odds.” (Kane, 1996, 48) The board is a clear representation of the struggle for wealth, and the prizes for the sales competition illustrate the situation even better. "The first prize is a Cadillac (Symbolic wealth) and the second, a set of steak knives (symbolic food). The remaining salesmen-the losers- face a metaphoric death represented by being fired. The contest encodes sales as acts of competition that are recorded on a sales board, establishing a hierarchy.” (Kane, 1996, 196) The measure of success frustratingly means that Roma who is the most successful on the board can succeed even more and the bottom men on the board have the situation get worse for them. Roma is given the ‘good leads’ because he can be trusted to use them correctly, Levene and the others are given the leads from the B list, which are useless. This is a representation of systems the Reagan administration was implementing; where by the people making money are given all the opportunities to make more and the people who are not making money are given no opportunities to make money. The gap which money creates extends further because of the policies of the men in power, in this case, Mitch and Murray the heads of the company; in reality by the Reagan administration. The materialism of the 1980’s is explored more directly in Glengarry Glen Ross; when James Lingk is convinced into purchasing a piece of land by Roma. The land is of no use to Lingk, the character wasn’t seeking a salesman out to purchase land, and he is manipulated into buying it. Which is why he realises and him and his wife change their mind. “The ideology of Roma’s imaginary Glengarry Highlands is a credo based upon self interest, which reverberates with the corporate-think of Reaganomics that prevailed in the mid 1980s when the play premiered.” (Kane, 1996, 203)
“Even Mamet himself states that the play is about ‘how business corrupts’ and about how ‘those in power in the business world… act unethically’.” (Kane, 1996, 185) They do act unethically. Almost all of the characters do at one point or another. This also seems to be one of Mamet’s main points about materialism, and money driven characters, that it leads to corruption and that the business world is full of it because people begin to love the drive for money. When Levene recounts his sale to the Nyborgs to Roma it almost sounds like he’s recalling a sexual conquest as he talks orgasmically about the sale. “And he reaches and takes the pen and signs, he passes it to her, she signs… I grasp his hand. I shake his hands. I grasp her hands… I point back at the living room, back at the sideboard. (Pause) I didn’t fucking know there was a side board there!! He goes back, he brings us a drink. Little shot glasses… And we toast. In silence.” (Mamet, 1983, 74) The salesmen define who they are through their job, if they’re successful at their occupation they feel good about themselves. Their work is all they think about, making the sale. This is what Reagan’s America drives at; a state where the all consuming desire of most people is to make money. Mamet aligns himself to the side against Reaganism, consumerism, and materialism. This is clear because by the end of the play; every one has lost. Williamson’s office has been disrupted putting him out of business for a day at least. Roma has lost the sale with Lingk. Lingk feels he has betrayed Roma and let him down. Moss and Levene will be arrested and charged with robbery and Aronow has been accused of theft as well. Mamet is efficient in communicating his message. It doesn’t ever feature a direct reference to any of his themes, but it’s setting of a real estate office offers clear metaphor. The profession is related to consumerism; and its conclusion where no one wins is the message; greed leads to destruction. M.Dawson Bibliography |
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The early 1980’s. This is the era; the time when David Mamet wrote Glengarry Glen Ross. A play about the competitive and ruthless world of a real estate salesman. A play which is very reflective of its time. The early 1980’s in the United States of America is a time of consumerism; materialism; and of competition. Ronald Reagan was the president of the country for most of the decade; as a result the trend of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer was largely due to his administration and the creation of Reaganism. A set of economic policies very similar to Thatcherism; which was rising in Britain at the same time. Reaganism centred on the individual prospering.
People of the time purchasing not only land but also all manner of things which were not nessicary to buy at all. This is the nature of materialism, but with land also comes an element of the American Dream. “Florida. Glengarry Highlands. Florida. ‘Florida. Bullshit.’ And maybe that’s true; and that’s what I said: But look here: what is this? This is a piece of land.” (Mamet, 1983, 51) Ownership of a piece of land is an important goal of the American Dream, to have a home that is owned by an average person. Mamet’s writing indicates his view on the American Dream and Materialism is that they are deeply interlinked and neither of them are doing the USA any good. The materialism ultimately leads to the distress of Lingk and of Roma, whose failure causes him to loose his temper and abuse Williamson because of his mistake. Moss and Levene are made so desperate by the situation they find themselves in that they resort to crime to help their chances. Mamet here seems to be making a statement about the out of work, or the people on such low wages, and how they sometimes have to resort to crime in order to make ends meet or to have what they desire; in Moss and Levene’s cases they ultimately want money. They are corrupted by the system. Levene’s character hasn’t committed theft before, and only does it because he feels he doesn’t have a choice.
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