The Zoo Story (Masterplots, Revised Second Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Edward Albee
- First Published: 1959
- Type of Work: Drama
- Type of Plot: Absurdist
- Time of Work: Late 1950’s
- Setting: Central Park, New York City
- Principal Characters: Peter, Jerry
- Genres: Existential literature, Drama, Absurdist literature
- Subjects: 1950’s, New York, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, Suicide, New York City, Communication, Alienation, Death or dying, Publishing or publishers
- Locales: New York, NY, Central Park, NY
The Story:
Peter, a successful upper-middle-class man in the publishing business, was reading on a bench in Central Park in New York City on a sunny summer afternoon. Another man, Jerry, an aimless, rootless outsider who described himself as a “permanent transient,” declared that he had come from the zoo and insisted on talking to Peter. Peter did not want to be bothered. He tried to brush off Jerry and get on with his reading, but Jerry confronted him to examine his life. In the course of their conversation, the audience discovers that Peter was married; had two daughters,...
[The entire page is 2063 words long]
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