Zoo Story Analysis

Albee used many literary devices in The Zoo Story. The first device is the anti-hero. An anti- hero is the main protagonist but lacks qualities of a hero. Jerry is an anti- hero and accepts his position as social outcasts. Along with the anti-hero, Albee uses satire. Satire adds humor to comment on human nature and social constructs, Albee uses these devices in The Zoo Story to comment on the way different social classes choose to view and ignore each other in American society, especially the really poor and rich classes. The only thing that separates these two groups is their money, and for either to characterized as outcasts or “animals” would be unfair. This is illustrated with the character of Peter, who is very rich. who Albee uses as an example by having Jerry bring him down to an animalistic level so that the reader can see that he is just like everyone else even though Peter is rich. These characters completely contrasted each other and their differences can be seen by the way they converse and act. Jerry is very rude while peter is almost gentleman like but that is only because the rich condemn the poor. Jerry represents the percent of the people that are forgotten, (dare I say the 99%). Peter represented the other percentage of people that hold the most wealth.
One of themes is absurdity and reality. During the beginning of the play, Jerry begins the conversation with Peter and carefully chooses topics Peter would be familiar with, such as family and career. However, Jerry soon begins to say ridiculous things and questions This is apparent during the moment when Jerry, assuming that Peter does not like his daughters’ cats, asks if Peter’s birds are diseased. Peter says that he does not believe so and Jerry replies: “That’s too bad. If they did you could set them loose in the house and the cats could eat them and die, maybe.” These unreasonable and ridiculous, or absurd, moments in the play begin to shake Peter’s sense of reality. Even so, he is careful