Towards a Universal Community: The Writing of the Everyday Life in Thornton Wilder’s Our Town

Abstract

Thornton Wilder’s Our Town displays the essence of daily life in a plain, delicate and anti-didactic writing style. Taking the daily triviality of the two ordinary families in Grover’s Corners as its basic narrative framework, Wilder realizes the everyday universality through objective and authentic depiction of everyday fragments in this traditional American town. Namely, Grover’s Corners is presented as a microcosm of each typical ordinary town where both the environment and characters exemplify the ordinary to emphasize the essence of daily existence itself. Accordingly, this thesis is devoted to focusing on the writing of the everyday life in terms of the setting arrangement, characterization and narrative strategies from the perspective of Henri Lefebvre’s critique of everyday life, thereby dissecting the essence of everyday life as well as its influence on individuals’ identity construction. When the duality, universality and constructiveness of daily life are represented through the depictions of the anti-utopian town’s environment, stereotypical townspeople and hybrid narratives, the fact that the American fail to get a genuine knowledge of the everyday life is also emerging. Gulped in the economic depression, the American citizens were consumed by everyday trivialities, failing to recognize the inherent beauty and sublimity within the everyday life. Consequently, the exploration of the nature and truth of the daily life as well as its hidden beauty and nobility became the driving force behind Our Town, aiming to restore courage and confidence to Americans dwelt in the shadow of the Great Depression in 1930s. Additionally, by critically specifying Wilder’s writing of everyday life, this thesis maps the multiple essence of the everyday life and townspeople’s constructed identity under the genuine knowledge of daily life, in turn underscoring Wilder’s nostalgia for traditional American values and a deeper community spirit embedded within his depiction of everyday life.