Antidote for the Dehumanizing Effects Of War:

A Reading Of Neil Simon’s Biloxi Blues And Lost In Yonkers

Abstract

Man is the crown of God’s creation predestined for an exuberant, glorious and fulfilling life. By his unique nature and unusual skills, he was meant to be the uncrowned king of all creation having sovereign power and authority to reign supreme and unchallenged. True to his nature, man did amaze the world with his discoveries and inventions. He took the world in his stride by his progress and developments measured in terms of leaps and bounds. From being a wanderer to a settler, he reached the pinnacle of success. Sadly, though the wheel of life has reached its full cycle. Knowledge and wisdom that helped him achieve heights of success and gratification have also become the reasons for his downfall. Indeed what a great fall it has been! The inventions of weapons and tools aid in mass annihilation threatening the very foundation of humanity and survival. The word ‘war’ sends cold shivers down the spine and the fear and the subsequent alarming aftermath of war have been well pictured in Neil Simon’s plays Lost in Yonkers and Biloxi Blues. Writing social or political plays is not his cup of tea. Repeatedly he returns to the dynamics of marriage, family and human relationships about which he is concerned the most and he deals with the problem quite prevalent in these spheres. Taking a retreat from his usual trodden path he writes extensively about war and its horrifying consequences in the two plays taken up for reference. After graduating from high school, he signed up with the Army Air Force Reserve at New York University from where he was sent as a corporal to Colorado and the fact that his relatives in Europe suffered from Nazi persecution left indelible marks in Neil Simon. Marvin Neil Simon was born on 4th July 1927 in The Bronx, New York, to Jewish parents – Irving Simon, a garment sales representative and Mamie (Levy) Simon, a homemaker. He is an American playwright, screenwriter and author. He grew up with Danny Simon, his elder brother, in Washington Heights, Manhattan during the period of the Great Depression and graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School. The uncertainties, insecurity, instability and unhappiness which were the resultant consequences of his parents’ tumultuous marriage and financial hardship caused by the Depression made him what he is today. Irrefutable is the fact that he was an accomplished comedy writer in American drama and the rate of his success was phenomenal. He entertained his audiences with strings of comedies year after year. His comedies that were thin and fragile suited audiences perfectly and completely and so he was the success story – the Clyde Fitch – of the sixties and the seventies.