American business ethic in David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross and American Buffalo

In general, the socio-cultural, political and economic transformations of the United States of America are historically conveyed and its contemporary state and overtones are revealed in the thesis. This thesis is basically focused on the analysis of American business ethic and anomie in two of David Mamet?s `business trilogy?; Glengarry Glen Ross and American Buffalo. It is put forward that how the socio-cultural merits and values turn out to be exploitable commodities in the free market mentality of the system, in the course of the character?s struggle of survival in American Buffalo and Glengarry Glen Ross which are designed as the microcosms of American capitalist system. Specifically, the anomic characters, in the labyrinth of the American business system, who are constantly oriented by the pressures of the American dream, are observed.In the introduction chapter, the emergence of modern American drama in relation to the emergence of modern America in an historical context and David Mamet?s distinguished place as a dramatist are revised. In Chapter I malpractices and aftermaths of the American business system as tragic imperatives on Mamet?s characters are examined. In addition, the norms of survival in Mametian business world and further ramifications are presented. In the second chapter, the very results of the ethics-lacking setting referring to the anomie theories of Emile Durkheim, Robert Merton, Steven F. Messner and Richard Rosenfeld are mentioned. Durkheim?s thesis of `insufficient normative regulation? of individuals? activities and social standarts, Merton?s deinstitutionalization, spring from the detachment/imbalance between `culturally approved goals? and `institutionally approved means of achieving these goals?, and Messner?s given socio-cultural panorama in which high crime rates are related to the excessive cultural emphasis on the American dream of financial gain, are used to explain the Mametian sense of anomie. In general, beyond the commodification of the socio-cultural values in the name of the business, in the thesis it is also aimed to reveal how this process itself and all its deviant extensions are normalized and justified by the characters. Both chapters are concerned with the conflicts and inapplicability of the norms of the American business system and its deleterious effects on individual and social terms. General deductions, obtained in the light of aforementioned theories and the presentation of American business world in Mamet?s plays, are presented in the conclusion part.