Our Town

3 Pages 697 Words

Our Town

In the play Our Town, Thornton Wilder uses the commentary about certain social issues to further exemplify the point that the people of Grover’s Corner are really quite conservative and rather passive while they let life pass them by. The commentary of the people on a few issues such as suicide, alcoholism and religious faith show the people’s attitudes. A couple specific situations of a few people symbolize the perspective that the entire town has on the situations.
Religious faith is one of the issues used by Wilder. Most everyone in Grover’s Corner is religious, and a member of one of the churches in town, all being Christian in one form or another. They are also very conservative republicans that don’t like change. Mr. Webb, publisher and editor of the local paper informed the audience, “Politically, we’re eighty-six per cent Republicans ... Religiously, we’re eighty-five per cent Protestants ... Very ordinary town, if you ask me... But our young people seem to like it well enough. Ninety per cent of them graduating from high school settle down right here to live.” The town’s people’s religion sets the standard for their morals and behavior in everyday life. Everyone goes about their daily routine day after day with a kind of faith that it will continue without changing unless they make the change themselves. When Emily is watching her funeral from above after she dies, she wants to go back to how it was and relive just another day of her life. “But mother Gibbs, one can go back; one can go back there again … into the living. I feel it. I know it.” pleaded Emily.
One of the issues used by Wilder is suicide. Since suicide is very rarely seen especially in a small town like Grover’s Corner, one would expect that the town’s people would attempt to keep it a secret. Joe Stoddard, the local gravedigger, was speaking to Sam Craig, a man who grew up in the town, about one of the head stones...