Our Town: A Look at the Small Things in Life

Our Town: A Look at the Small Things in Life

Our Town, by Thornton Wilder is a well-known drama and a classic piece of literature around the world. The play has three main acts, each of which focus upon a different aspect of life. Wilder portrays the importance of the small, often unnoticed things in life throughout the cycle of life, starting in the morning with birth and ending in the evening with death. Throughout the first and second acts of the play, Wilder builds a scenario that allows the third act to show that we as humans often run through life oblivious to what is really happening. Life seems to be something we take for granted and do not realize the value of till we are dead and gone.

The first act takes place in 1901 and focuses on daily life. This act opens in the morning in the small, rural town of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire. Here we are introduced to the Stage Manager, who will explain the details and background of Grover’s Corners and help us to imagine this regular town. This is where Grover’s Corners gains its universal appeal. At this point, Our Town seems the same as any other town. There are several churches, which demonstrate the importance of religion in Grover’s Corners. We also see that Grover’s Corners has a Post Office, Town Hall, Jail, and all the other regularities of a small town. It becomes everyone’s town. We, as the audience begin to relate this town to our own towns. Wilder wants the audience to see this as their town. All the characters are introduced, particularly Emily Webb and George Gibbs. We learn that few citizens of Grover’s Corner’s ever actually leave, except for the few that are specifically mentioned. Their lives are centered around this town, and therefore do not care much for the world around them. In the beginning, most do not see the importance of this scene. Some, probably, even find this act quite boring, which makes Wilder’s point more obvious. Our idea of entertainment is short, exciting, and requires no thinking. We prefer the roller coaster to smelling the roses. It is only towards the end of the play that the idea and importance Wilder demonstrates becomes evident. Sometimes the most trivial activity can be a meaningful moment. Unfortunately, we do not see these little moments until they have passed and it is too late.

The second act takes place in 1904 and focuses on love and marriage, particularly the love and marriage of Emily Webb and George Gibbs. The beginning of this act shows some change that has taken place in Grover’s Corners, but it also shows that it is a place of constant routine and repetitiveness. Things change, but not really. Just the people doing them change. The next generation comes along and takes over the duties and activities of those before them. There is a great lack of change in Grover’s Corners. Howie Newsome is still delivering the milk, and Joe Crowell takes his brother Si’s place as the paperboy. There is not much about Grover’s Corners that makes it any different from any other small town.

Also in this act, George Gibbs and Emily Webb get married. Wilder shows that the people of Grover’s Corners seem to think that marriage is what comes after high school, as though it is part of the growing up process. As though, there is no other choice of what to do after high school. It seems to be next in the order of life. Wilder also demonstrates all the anxieties