The Philosophy of Absurd in The Zoo Story by Edward Albee

Absurdism was developed by the philosopher Albert Camus. Camus sees the interaction between the human being who inherently yearns to find meaning in things and the outside world as producing no meaning. Meaning, we should define, should be taken to mean purpose overlapping with linguistic semantic meaning. This conflict, this never ending struggle, generates the absurd. The only viable reaction, for Camus, is to face the absurd. Other reactions are insufficient, and Camus suggests that the other philosopher's reactions have not faced the absurd, but instead found ways not to face it. (Preston : 2015)

In philosophy, "the Absurd" refers to the conflict between the human tendency to seek inherent value and meaning in life and the human inability to find any. In this context absurd does not mean "logically impossible", but rather "humanly impossible". The universe and the human mind do not each separately cause the Absurd, but rather, the Absurd arises by the contradictory nature of the two existing simultaneously. (wikipedia.com)

When a person finds himself in an absurd situation, he will usually attempt to change it, by modifying his aspirations, or by trying to bring reality into better accord with them, or by removing himself from the situation entirely. We are not always willing or able to extricate ourselves from a position whose absurdity has become clear to us. Nevertheless, it is usually possible to imagine some change that would remove the absurdity-whether or not we can or will implement it. The sense that life as a whole is absurd arises when we perceive, perhaps dimly, an inflated pretension or aspiration which is inseparable from the continuation of human life and which makes its absurdity inescapable, short of escape from life itself (Thomas : 1971 : 718)

In the play The Zoo Story by Edward Albee, we will find the value of absurd philosophy which indicates the character Jerry is currently looking for the meaning of his life that later turns out to be cannot be found. The suggested by Preston that the only way to face the absurd is by facing it directly or not facing it at all, because either way will get you to the same unanswered place.

“Jerry : The Zoo ?”

“Peter : You’ve mention it several times”

“Jerry  (still distant, but returning absuptly) : The zoo ? Oh, yes; the zoo. I was there before I came here. I told you that. Say, what’s the deviding line between upper-middle-middle-class and lower-upper-middle-class?”

For those who already finish reading the play and see the ending will sure acknowledge that the zoo Jerry is talking about from the beginning will be not explained in the end. Then we may take the conlusion that the zoo will almost certain refers to something else which is the life, especially Jerry’s life. He is saying that the life we have, comparing to one another, basically have no difference. Comparing his life with the zoo.

“JERRY: Well, no; it isn't an apartment in the East Seventies. But, then again, I don't have one wife, two daughters, two cats and two parakeets. What I do have, I have toilet articles, a few clothes, a hot plate that I'm not supposed to have, a can opener, one that works with a key, you know: a Knife, two forks, and two spoons, one small, one large; three plates, a cup, a saucer, a drinking glass, two picture frames, both empty, eight or nine books, a pack of pornographic playing cards, regular deck, an old Western Union typewriter that prints nothing but capital letters, and a small strong-box without a lock which has in it ... what ? Rocks ! Some rocks ... sea rounded rocks I picked up on the beach when I was a kid. Under which ... weighed down ... are some letters ... please letters ... please why don't you do this, and please when will you do that letters. And when letters, too. When will you write ? When will you come ? When ? These letters are from more recent years.”

We know that Jerry is answering his own question about his condition by providing his own answer using the comparison of his place and Peter’s place and why do the two of them can ended up living in two different atmosphere. But his action does not really satisfy his own desire of questioning his current financial status but he shall feel at ease at the very least.

“She sniveled and implored me to pray for the animal. I wanted to say to her: Madam, I have myself to pray for, the coloured queen, the Puerto Rican family, the person in the front room whom I've never seen, the woman who cries deliberately behind her closed door, and the rest of the people in all rooming-houses, everywhere; besides, Madam, I don't understand how to pray. But ... to simplify things . . . I told her I would pray.”

“[PETER'S mouth drops open. He cannot move; he is transfixed.] Oh, Peter, I was so afraid I'd drive you away. [He laughs as best he can.] You don't know how afraid I was you'd go away and leave me. And now I'll tell you what happened at the zoo. I think ... I think this is what happened at the zoo ... I think. I think that while I was at the zoo I decided that I would walk north ... northerly, rather ... until I found you ... or somebody ... and I decided that I would talk to you ... I would tell you things ... and things that I would tell you would ... Well, here we are. You see ? Here we are. But ... I don't know ... could I have planned all this? No ... no, I couldn't have. But I think I did. And now I've told you what you wanted to know, haven't I? And now you know all about what happened at the zoo. And now you know what you'll see in your TV, and the face I told you about ... you remember ... the face I told you about ... my face, the face you see right now. Peter ... Peter? ... Peter ... thank you. “

How odd it is to admit that he will do something while he truth he has no idea about the things he is going to do about, in this case, how to pray. This also again, giving us another proof that Jerry is making another solution for his unanswered problem in order to make him feel good. The end of this play is just like the theme of the story which is the absurd. Jerry promise to giving the answer to Peter’s question about what was going on at the zoo but what was really going on is that jerry wanted to go north while at the zoo and accidentally meeting peter and then offering to start the conversation so that we as readers will be have known about what did really happened and what happened is not that important.

LITERATURE REFERENCE

Dr. Harith Ismaiel Turki Al-Duleimi, 2009, The Caged Soul: A Study of Edward Albee’s

The Zoo Story, University of Koya, College of Languages, Department of English 

Thomas Nagel, 1971, The Absurd, The Philosophy Inc

Preston Carter, What are the differences between existentialism, absurdism, and nihilism?, (diakses tanggal 20 April 2017), https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-differences-between-existentialism-absurdism-and-nihilism

Wikipedia,  Absurdism, (diakses tanggal 20 April 2017), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absurdism