Theme of supression and destruction of the doing

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In Eugene O’Neill’s The Hairy Ape, the smoothness Yank is employed to show the reductions of the human being spirit and the degradation in the working class. Throughout the perform, Yank’s impression of belonging defines equally his character and his mind-set. Yank seems to describe electrical power as belonging, and although he claims to belong to various groups it really is through his own insufficient intelligence that he unavoidably finds him self isolated and powerless once again. While helpless, Yank generally acts away violently up against the environment around in an attempt to demonstrate himself. Through this constant cycle we see the tragedy of Yank’s personality and what he signifies, he cannot belong because he is unintelligent, and he is unintelligent because he is through the working category and therefore will not belong. In this manner, O’Neill can criticize the inescapable and oppressive characteristics of the American social pecking order.

The opening in the Hairy Guinea pig is the only instance through which Yank provides any feeling of that belong. However , he could be ignorant that through this kind of sense of belonging as being a fireman he can constrained both physically and figuratively. Not simply is Yank literally filled below the more exclusive traveler decks, his work is more reminiscent of a machine when compared to a man. Yank even seems proud to admit that he is “smoke and share trains and steamers and factory whistles” (O’Neill 1057). Yet simultaneously, Yank dismisses the idea of owned by a dog clipper ship because the equivalent of death. Although the dog clipper ship is usually presented as a representation of the organic community that highlights teamwork and human relationships, Pull takes peace of mind in the fact that the Ocean Boat would not move without him, which implies his part as a cog in the machine of the ship and world itself. Such as a cog in machine, Yank is unable to get away from his position in society. It is just through the presence of Mildred that Pull seems to know all that he is not. By seeing an specific on a bigger social level than him, Yank finally realizes that there is more to our lives than the oppressive lower products of his ship. Yet even then Yank struggles to rationalize his anger to Mildred, as he takes the positioning of Rodin’s “The Thinker” but is still unable to think rationally. After his perception of belonging was challenged, he remained powerless to reflect and act on the situation.

In the long run Yank chosen to leave the ship great sense of belonging not really because it oppressed him, but to seek out and challenge Mildred and the risk to his power that your woman represented. While on 5th Method, Yank turns into increasingly category conscious when he realizes just how different he’s from individuals around him. As his sense of belonging dwindles, Yank tries to assert his power above the residents of 5th Avenue. “I fit in, dat’s me personally! See dat building goin’ up dere? See sobre steel job? Steel, dat’s me! Youse guys live on it and tink yuh’re somep’n. But I’m in it, find! ” (1074). However , Yank’s sense of belonging is shattered when the higher-class people choose to disregard his rants and even his physical existence entirely, rather classifying him as just another unintelligent commoner. Ironically, all their emotionless effect is reminiscent of a machine, just as Yank was on-board the Ocean Liner. This serves O’Neill’s purpose in criticizing the social common of the time, he’s saying that you cannot find any reason for the implementation of separate cultural classes.

After striking a bystander for not any apparent purpose, Yank is definitely taken to a jail where he once again fails to belong to the environment around him. While attempting to gain a sense of control above the various other prisoners, Yank rambles upon about how they are really simply within a zoo intended for animals. This kind of causes the prisoners to reject Pull, but they do help him to once again widen his target from class intelligence to the stainlesss steel company owned or operated by Mildred’s family. A newspaper talks Yank that through physical violence he will be able to regain a sense of belonging and power inside the Industrial Workers of the World firm. The irony on this passage is particularly prevalent, Pull promises to destroy most steel though he explained himself as being made of stainlesss steel on many occasions. This shows Yank’s self-destructive and ignorant tendencies. Even when Pull tries to know his goal by of the IWW, his ignorance fails him once again as he is definitely rejected for being “too stupid” (1081). It can be here that Yank finally realizes that through his powerlessness he can being oppressed, saying “So dem boids don’t think I actually belong, neider Aw, to hell wit ’em! Metallic was myself, and I owned de woild. Now I isn’t steel, and de woild owns me” (1081).

This discord leads Yank to try and discover a sense of belonging a single last time, with the hairy ape in the zoo. Yank is able to relate to the guinea pig more than some other character in the play. Pull admires the ape for nothing more than his physical prowess and their distributed status at the end of the social ladder. “On’y yuh’re blessed, see? Yuh don’t fit in wit ’em and yuh know it. Although me, I actually belong humor ’em-but I don’t, observe? Dey no longer belong humor me, dat’s what” (1083). However , even the ape rejects Yank when he tries to fit in, choosing rather to physically and figuratively crush him. At this point Pull finally discovers his place of belonging in the last moments, isolated and alone in the cage from the hairy foumart.

The key issue with O’Neill representation of the working class through Yank’s character definitely seems to be its almost hypocritical nature. Yank is usually oppressed like a human being, yet through the textual content it seems that he deserves little better. Yank is without a doubt unintelligent and barbaric, and throughout The Hairy Ape this does not change. Due to this, O’Neill seems to be criticizing both working and upper class. Nevertheless , this is not the case. In a way, Yank is certainly not responsible for his actions as a result of his deficiency of intelligence. Dr. murphy is the only persona that remains open to that belong in almost every circumstance in which he can placed, it’s the members of that environment that choose to decline and suppress him.

This leads to O’Neill’s main critique in The Furry Ape, the fact that inclusive mother nature of American world leads to the oppression in the working course. Yank’s finish and ful lack of intelligence seem to place him in a below-low category, to the point where he is unaccepted possibly by the furry ape in the last scene in the play. Yank’s journey can be tragic, intended for despite his lack of brains he has the potential and will to belong to the contemporary society around him ” only if society could have him.