미국의 억척어멈과 극복의 알레고리

American Mother Courage and Allegorical Overcoming in The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden

Thornton Wilder's one-act play The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden (1931) deals with an automobile trip made by the Kirby family. Kate, wife and mother of the family, appears to be a protagonist in terms of her role in the family relationship and the plot development in the play. She settles family conflicts with strictness and flexibility, disciplines her children by using the carrot-and-stick approach, and heals the family's pain with the wisdom in life. Such personality of the female character suggests an image of 'American Mother Courage' who plows her way squarely through all difficulties. What is worth noting is the significance this American female image has in the context of the Great Depression in the 1930s. Kate, the American Mother Courage, embodies the moral virtues of citizen requested in the time of economic crisis. The time's demands for the 'model' citizen are justified in the levels of everyday life, historical memory, and religious sentiment. In that the story of a specific family's overcoming the difficulty is expanded to nationwide counterpart, the play presents an allegory of overcoming. Kate's embodiment of the Mother Courage image resolves itself into an archetypal dimension of motherhood centering on the allegory text.