Edward Albee's play The Zoo Story is a play about communication, or rather, the lack of communication between people who believe they are communicating. The play is both comic and tragic, for the same lack of communication which brings laughter can the next moment bring pathos as the consequences of isolated human beings (human beings who cannot or will not communicate openly and honestly) brings death, even murder, or murder by suicide.
The play features two men, Jerry and Peter. Jerry is either mad or so eccentric and troubled that he might as well be mad, and Peter is conservative and completely ignorant of the world beyond his little married life. On one level, the men appear to be trying to communicate, although there are obvious roadblocks to that end.
From the beginning, Jerry is a rather pushy, if not obnoxious fellow, who seems intent on slyly mocking the traditional values and thoughts of Peter. Peter is withdrawn and alternately suspicious and compliant. They are opposites trying to communicate. On the other hand, are they truly trying to communicate? And, if so, is it truly possible for them to successfully communicate?
Peter is probably too locked inside himself and his conservative outlook on life to open up enough to show himself willingly, and at the same time he is not aware enough to listen intelligently, especially to such a contradictory and devious character as Jerry. He never really knows what is going on in his bewildering communication with Jerry, and certainly never understands that he is being manipulated from the moment Jerry first declares "I"ve been to the zoo" (5).
Therefore, we have an encounter which seems perfectly constructed for non-communication. Jerry is probably capable of communicating with Peter, if he could set aside his deviousness and his judgmentalism and his low self-esteem, but perhaps he is incapable of setting aside those obstacles to open and honest communication. Jerry...