The Zoo Story Essay

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Analysis: The Zoo Story by Edward Albee
The Zoo Story by Edward Albee is about Jerry, a man whose loneliness compels him to start up a conversation with another man (Peter) on a bench in Central Park. Jerry needs to know about the location of the zoo. Before Jerry arrived, Peter was reading a book and thus anxious to dismiss him. But Jerry has more questions, that Peter finds either too personal or generally annoying. The conversation goes on until Jerry demands to have Peter move over the bench while amidst several punches. Peter is very annoyed, but Jerry does not stop there. Eventually, he forces Peter to participate in an act of violence, where he kills himself. The essay analyses The Zoo Story with respect to its title, genre, setting, plot analysis, tone, writing style, as well as its effectiveness as a play.
Generally, The Zoo Story is about Jerry’s experience at the zoo before he came to the park, but it never came out in details. The Zoo Story is ridiculous because it refers to a story that is never told (Yi 20). Symbolically, The Zoo Story refers to the play in which Jerry and Peter are animals displayed to entertain the audience (Zimbardo 10). Towards the end of the play, Jerry tells Peter, “You’re an animal too”(Albee 26). In this case, it is not easy to tell what others are thinking or arguing about, just as with animals in the zoo (Bailey 34). It is difficult to how and when the action rises in the story. The plot keeps on shifting from one point to another. Therefore, The Zoo Story belongs to the theatre of the absurd, a genre whose action or conflict does not really rise (Jianbo 16). For the play, the rising action is just more talk while the climax occurs late in the play when Jerry tries to put Peter off the bench and results to the death. After being stabbed, Jerry keeps talking for a while as Peter flees. It marks an action fall as the play winds down and comes to an end. Just like any other theatre of the absurd, the play does not offer any resolution (Chun-qi 21). The audience does not know what happens to Peter. Instead, Jerry just dies and the play ends.
While developing the themes of the play, Albee uses various stylistic and literature tools. For instance, he has used a blank and contempt tone throughout...