Clifford Odets’ Waiting for Lefty Essay -- Waiting Lefty

Clifford Odets Waiting for left-handed pitcherIn his play Waiting for Lefty Clifford Odets attempts to stir up the weary American public of the 1930s by providing examples of eachday people who, with some coaxing, rise above the capitalist agglomerate theyve inherited and take control of their destinies. In his work, Odets paints the common man as honest, sacrificial, and exploited, while big business and the government are portrayed as the proletariats enemies, anonymous corporations of rich men intent on shattering dreams. Odets makes his site clear in order to survive in the cutthroat realness of Depression-era America, one must band with others, make necessary sacrifices, and live for oneself, non for a paycheck or in a deluded fantasy-state. The plays centerpiece, the gradual social movement towards a strike for a group of taxi device drivers, begins with an anti-striker, aptly named Fatt two for his physical and fiscal qualities, delivering a speech railing against the notion of a strike. Using unity as a means to coerce the displease workers into sedation, he proclaims, Im against the strike. Because we gotta stand behind the man FDR whos standin behind us (5) As Fatt and a man branded a communist by Fatt surround the strike, Odets plunges into a short episode about a taxi driver and his married woman, intended to relate to the common man as much as possible in its simple names, vernacular, and emotions. Joes reluctance to strike for more money, found mostly on fear of being blacklisted, is criticized harshly by wife Edna Theyll push you down to three and four a week in the lead you know it. Then youll say, Thats somethin too...I know this - your boss is making suckers outa you boys every minute. (9-10) Joe remains unconvinced until Ode... ...nce of a youth that dreams of more. Their state of abjection is summed up by Sid If we went off together I could maybe look the demesne straight in the face, spit in its eye like a man should do. Godda mnit, its trying to be a man on the earth. (20) The overpower sense of isolation and impotence he feels is brought to a boiling come in when he and Florence breakdown (22) as they become increasingly aware of their rut existence. Their wretchedness becomes an Odetsian admonition to resist escapism and surrender. Odets returns to the taxi strike at the end with communistic connotations AGATE WERE STORMBIRDS OF THE WORKING-CLASS. WORKERS OF THE WORLD. (31) With a resounding chorus of STRIKE, (36) Odets has berthd a challenge for blue-collar America to rise past individual fears, place faith in mass demonstration, and possibly adopt a Communist revolution.