The Zoo Story as an Existentialist Play

 The Zoo Story is not a conventional play: rather, it depicts the current scorching difficulties of two separate psychological standards such as lower and higher class. In the play, Albee picked a fictive setting called Central Park, which depicts various communal living conditions conditioned by individuals who congregate during the open public reception, “there are no formal opening festivities.” There will be no invitations. There are no tickets available. Central Park is a public facility that is open and free to the public” (13). The dramatists express his societal concerns in public parks, where individuals are said to live in animals’ cages since current generations lack social interactions, leaving them alienated, biased, and irritated in their own lives. As a result, American multicultural residents are confined to civilized cultures and religions. They are now existing under the shadow of cold morals and animal culture for utilizing violence, although enlightened hearts have wants to do such. Jerry is in physical decline while just in his late thirties. His sadness is clearly a result of his tumultuous personal history: he is the orphaned son of a promiscuous, alcoholic mother and a weak father, the child of a broken, shattered family. Jerry appears to be unable to form strong, meaningful connections since he is deprived of a typical family environment- his adoptive puritanical aunt dies suddenly. His homosexuality isolates him from others, and his shabby rooming exudes alienation. Its most vivid elements are manifestations of a condition that Jerry perceives as pathological contamination of modern life.
This one-act- drama follows the narrative of Peter and Jerry, two New Yorkers who meet for the first time in Central Park. Albee sets everything off with a bang.
Peter, the calm, introverted, middle-class, writer is sitting on ‘his” seat in New York’s Central Park, reading a book.
This one-act play follows the narrative of Peter and Jerry, two New Yorkers who meet for the first time in Central Park. Albee kicks things off with a bang. Peter, the clam, insular, middle-class publisher, is sitting on “his” seat in New York’s Central Park, reading a book. Along walks Jerry who isn’t out for a stroll but is desperately seeking someone to chat to. He notices Peter, approaches him, and begins the intricate process of convincing Peter (who wants nothing more than to be alone) to put down his book and give in to Jerry’s urge to converse.
Jerry proclaims that he has visited to the Zoo, and when no one responds, he screams it. Peter hardly answers this, so Jerry switches tactics and starts asking Peter questions about where they are in the park and which direction he has been going. Peter fills his pipe in an attempt to avoid Jerry, who, upon witnessing this, accuses Peter of cowardice: “Well, boy; you’re not going get lung cancer, are you?” (14). When Peter does not take the bait, Jerry becomes more forceful and graphic; “No way sir. You’ll probably develop mouth cancer, and then you’ll probably develop mouth cancer, and then you will have to wear one of those devices Freud wore when they removed one whole side of his jaw. What are those things called?” (15)
Suddenly Jerry starts asking Peter questions and although it is obvious that Peter is not interested in communicating with a man like Jerry, Peter's answers became of his politeness.
When Peter tries to stop the conversation, Jerry switches to a new topic and gives him the impression of being intolerant or haughty if he does not respond. While they are conversing, Jerry is the active one since he asks questions all the time. Peter is the one who sits back and does nothing. Jerry’s great need for communication becomes obvious very quickly.

“But every once in a while, I want to talk to somebody, really task; like to get to know somebody,” he adds. “I know everything about him.” (16)

The action is linear and takes place in front of the audience in “real-time”. When Jerry brings his victim to his own brutal level, the elements of sardonic comedy and intense dramatic tension reach their peak.
Peter eventually gets out of his weird company and decides to go. Jerry pushes peter off the bench and challenges him to battle for his land. Jerry unexpectedly draws a knife on Peter and then drops it for Peter to grasp. Jerry attacks Peter and impales himself on the knife when he wields the weapon defensively. Jerry ends his zoo story while bleeding on a park seat by bringing it into the present: “Could I have planned it all? No…no, I couldn’t have done
Peter eventually gets out of his weird company and attempts to go. Jerry pushes Peter off the bench and challenges him to a battle for his turf. Jerry unexpectedly draws a knife on Peter and then drops it for Peter to grasp. Jerry attacks Peter and impales himself on the knife when he wields the weapon defensively. Jerry ends his zoo narrative while bleeding on a park seat by bringing it into the present: "Could I have planned it all? No... no, I couldn't have done that. But I believe I did." Fearful, Peter flees Jerry, whose dying words, "Oh...my...God," are a blend of mocking imitation and plea.
Jerry attempts to teach Peter the truths of life that Peter has chosen to overlook through his talk. He also attempts to teach Peter about the nature of human life and relationships, but fails and acknowledges his own inadequacies.
The play’s setting is magnificent. “A very respectable young businessman,” Peter, “sits alone in the park on a Sunday afternoon reading”. (17). The play’s seeming peace does not last long, however, as Anita Stenz writes, “without warning, on a nice summer’s day, the cozy self-reflective activity of man shelters everyone around him”. (18). Indeed, by the play’s end; Peter will have taken a man’s life and had on his own inexorably transformed. Peter seemed to be living the ideal life. He has an apartment in Manhattan’s east 70s, a housewife, two children, two parakeets, and a job on Madison Avenue. For Albee, Peter represents the American bourgeoisie: a man who is typical in every sense and whose life might have been torn from the pages of a magazine.
Jerry, the play’s protagonist, is designed to be diametrically opposed to Peter; although Peter has an ordinary, albeit fit body, Jerry displays evidence of determination. His “previously sleek and finely muscled frame has begun to fatten; and while he is no longer attractive, it is clear that he once was.” (19)
From the beginning of the play, these two seemingly disparate lives of Peter and Jerry are destined to collide. They meet in Central Park, a cultural wasteland sandwiched between Peter’s east side utopia and Jerry’s west side jail. The play’s finest triumph, however, is that Albee” presents them as having a terrible sense of isolation” rather than focusing solely on their differences. (20)
Jerry’s life is defined by solitude, as reflected by his small collection of worldly goods, which comprises, among other things, numerous empty picture frames and a pack of obscene playing cards. He has no friends and is completely incapable of achieving intimacy with another individual. When talking about his previous sexual experiences, he says, “I wonder if it’s reported I never see the small girls more than once.” I’ve never been able to have sex with, or, to put it another way, I’ve never been able to have sex with?....... make love to someone more than one…. And now; oh, I adore the little women; I adore them. For around an hour.” (21)
His interactions with these women are solely sexual. He has no genuine emotional connection with them- definitely nothing worthy of being memorialized in one of his empty photo frames. The imagery of imprisonment characterizes Jerry’s opinion of American life. Jerry creates a picture of a world in which individuals are confined and divided from one another by socioeconomic and interpersonal obstacles, from his explanation of his hive-like rooming house to his account of the play’s namesake zoo. In reality, the zoo serves as the greatest symbolic paradigm for human (non) interaction:

“I went to the zoo to learn more about how humans interact with animals and how animals interact with one another and with people. It was probably not a fair test, with everyone separated from everyone else, the animals mostly isolated from each other, and the people always separated from the animals. But if you’re at a zoo, that’s the way it is.” (22)

For Jerry, life in America is a zoo, and he is an animal trapped within it. He is so anxious to get out of his solitude that he approached Peter, a complete stranger, and starts talking to him.
The adolescent publishing executive represents a society that effectively dismisses Jerry's existence. For Peter, pictures on television and in Time magazine adverts define reality. Jerry is astounded by his dreadful landlady's description: – Peter – It's...unthinkable. I find it difficult to accept that individuals like them exist.

Jerry- (mockingly) Isn't it for reading about? Yes, Peter.

Jerry- And fantasy is better than actuality. You're correct, Peter.

Jerry begins the allegoric “Story of Jerry and the Dog” (p.30)

 Throughout the novel, Jerry tries to assuage his landlady’s dog fury by first attempting to befriend the dog (unsuccessfully) and eventually resorting to poisoning.
When the dog becomes very ill, Jerry discovers he has a genuine fondness for it. Jerry says:

“Jerry-I loved the dog now, and I wanted him to attempt to kill, and both had failed on their own…. It’s only that…. It’s simply that if you can’t handle people, you have to start someplace.

WHERE ARE THE ANIMALS? And where better to communicate a single, simple-minded notion than in an entrance hell?...... as opposed to A Dog. “It’s only a dog.” (23)

According to Rose Zimbardo, Jerry and the Dog are “a great example of most human relationships”.
Finally, a true relationship between the two men has been established, as Zimbardo correctly observes, “Jerry dies for Peter.” He dies in order to save Peter’s soul from spiritual famine.” (25). Jerry’s suicide has been dubbed a “meta-theatrical shock effect” by Bailey. (26)
Albee produces a moment of stage violence that will be engraved indelibly on the audience by persuading Peter to kill Jerry.
Some early writers and reviewers criticized The Zoo Story for being extremely pessimistic or dystopian. In a review of the original performance (which was produced with Samuel Beckett’s play, Krapp’s Last Tape), a critic stated, “Nothing in either play is spoken in full value.” “Each of them portrays the pessimistic attitude that pervades many authors nowadays.” (Atkinson: 2006:37). A reading of The Zoo Story in this manner reveals a  misunderstanding of the play: “The Zoo Story is neither nihilistic nor gloomy, “the author once said.
This masterpiece by Albee is both delicate and complicated, reflecting the struggle between reality and the Theatre of the Absurd. Thus, until Jerry’s death, the action and language in The Zoo Story are disjointed, arbitrary, and ludicrous. Jerry spends his dying breaths explaining the meaning of the performance to the audience. Jerry illustrates the comedy and
The anguish of human solitude to Peter. Jerry went to the zoo because human isolation is so severe, and the “contact” that would end it is so painful and impossible to acquire. He found that the entire human predicament is a zoo story in which people and animals are permanently divided by bars.