Jerz: Am Lit II (EL 267) (Draft): Rice, The Adding Machine
This play was... well... pretty quick and annoying given the overall message. The idea of an eternity of servitude and slavery being justified with the hope of a better future seemed kind of played out, although in Zero's case they emphasized the fact that he could have done something to make his life better along the way, and instead he just kept taking it from everyone.
I notice the obvious play on words with Zero's name, both in the name-calling, "loser" definition of the word, and also the fact that he had no substance, especially compared to Mr. One through Mr. Seven. They all did things, even if they were mundane, while Zero did nothing.
Zero's death and rebirth achieved nothing. Sure, he met a friend and learned he could have made somehting else out of himself, but it was too late to even try which is why I think he just left the Elysian Fields and moved on. That's all he could do, really, was just keep going to the next job/location/place, since he never stopped to smell the flowers or did anything besides work. The revelation that he was born a servant reflects that, and as Charles alluded to, Zero will just have the idea that there is something worth it by going through the same hell over again.
Posted by at January 31, 2005 04:00 PM | TrackBackOf course, he does do SOMETHING -- he kills his boss. That's pretty much what the communist revolutionaries had done in Russia a few years earlier. Why did Rice choose this action, rather than, say, having him leave his wife and have an affair?
In the end, does Zero have any redeeming factors?
Posted by: Dennis G. Jerz at January 31, 2005 05:02 PM