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.He notices that Patricia is looking good,he thinks it is a pleasant place.They compare theirand she admits she is feeling better.They talkwives’ conditions, when they first began and howabout their children, and Leroy tells her that hethey have been coping.Both wonder why Patriciaupped his price on his last job and got it.Feeling023-354_Miller-p2.indd 2165/3/07 12:52:38 PMThe Last Yankee 217better able to live in the present, Patricia says thatported the Union, but its meaning remains unclear.she is thinking of coming home, but Leroy leavesIt could mean “last” as in “no more”—despiteit up to her.He suggests that it was her family’sthe fact that Leroy has seven children—or “theunrealistic expectations that have made her so dis-most recent type.” As a Yankee, with no othersatisfied.She begins to see what a terrible time heethnic background, in one sense, Leroy becomeshas had in dealing with her illness, but he refusesisolated.As Patricia points out “they’ve got theirto blame her.She complains that he is too iso-Italian-Americans, Irish-Americans, Hispanic-lated, and he grows angry with her view of him asAmericans—they stick together and help eacha failure.Trying to lighten things, he recalls herother.But you ever hear of Yankee-Americans?”father’s response to him.As a Swede, he had hatedShe goes on to insist that all a Yankee can do inYankees, so Leroy declares a hope that he is the lastAmerican society is to “sit there all alone gettingYankee so that people will let such hatred go, andsadder and sadder.”he reminds Patricia of his belief in a noncompeti-But being a Yankee also has value, evoking tra-tive life to which she feels drawn.ditional Protestant virtues of modesty, sacrifice,Patricia tells him that she has stopped her medi-perseverance, and hard work.Leroy comments oncation; he is delighted.She asks how has he copedthe way that men like Frick dismiss laborers likewith her illness, suspecting that he has seen otherLeroy as “dumb swamp Yankee[s]” and highlightswomen, but he denies this, saying that he justthe irony of such views since without such men,played the banjo and kept hoping that she wouldAmerica mostly likely would never have been built.get better.She needs to know why he has stuckFrick refuses to get his point, however, and loopsby her, and what the future will hold; he explainsback to the start of their conversation as if to blockthat it is useless to look to the future but to enjoyout all that has passed between them.They end,the here and now.He tries to teach her somethingsitting in silence, a point that Miller emphasizes inabout spirituality, insisting that she must love lifethe longer version, clearly unable to communicateas it is, not as she wants it to be.He takes his banjoto each other what they believe or feel.to play a tune, and the Fricks join them.To Leroy’sHowever, Leroy does not offer an ideal, and eachamazement, Frick thanks Patricia for helping hisof the play’s four speaking parts, with their mixwife, while Karen goes out to put on her tap-danc-of negative and positive attributes, contributes toing attire.Frick is embarrassed about her hobby,the overall solution.The husbands are only partlybut Patricia encourages him to lighten up and payto blame for their wives’ conditions for the wivesmore attention.Karen returns and asks Frick tothemselves have some responsibility and must learnsing “Swanee River” for her, which he reluctantlyas many lessons as their respective husbands.Aattempts.While Patricia and Leroy are complimen-number of critics have described the precision oftary, Frick loses his patience and explodes withthe play’s construction in musical terms in an effortanger.Karen tries to defend him, and he apologizesto show how each character contributes to theand tries to be nice, but it is too late.He leaves,overall impression.frustrated by Karen’s unresponsiveness.Leroy triesLeroy and Frick seem to be in complete opposi-to pick out the tune, and Karen begins to dancetion.One is poor with many children, the otherbut cannot continue and leaves.Patricia reachesrich with no offspring.Where the motivating forceout to Leroy; they connect, and she is ready now toof Leroy’s life is love (although their relatives haveleave with him.As the two walk out together, theoffered to finance a better home, his wife is herepatient in the bed finally stirs but then falls backbecause it is close enough for him to visit) forinto stillness.Frick it is money (Frick can afford to send his wifeto a nicer place but refuses to do so to save theCRITICAL COMMENTARYmoney), and money comes first in Frick’s everyThe “last Yankee” of the title seems to refer toconsideration.While Leroy, unconventionally, car-Leroy, as the descendant of Hamilton who sup-ries a banjo, Frick carries the more practical valise023-354_Miller-p2.indd 2175/3/07 12:52:38 PM218 The Last Yankeeof clothing for Karen.While Leroy exhibits toler-can be reborn, and the strength to go on can beance and patience toward others, Frick is impatientrenewed.Leroy sees the spirituality in “ice skating”and is clearly prejudiced.Our first view of the twoas it allows you to forget yourself and to “feel happypatently emphasizes their difference, with Leroy sit-to be alive.” His work building church altars and histing quietly reading and Frick pacing and on edge.profession as a carpenter, like Jesus, further empha-Yet Leroy also isolates himself, has little ambition,sis his spiritual aspect.Patricia desperately needs toand keeps apart from society, while Frick, albeitdiscover some spirituality in her life.True spiritual-materially, seems more a part of his community,ity is a natural thing, not imposed dogma, and asas well as demonstrating that inspiring AmericanLeroy declares: “We are in this world and you’redream of rags to riches [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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