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January 21, 1974. THE ADOPTION THEME IN EDWARD ALBEE'S 'TINY ALICE' AND 'THE AMERICAN DREAM'. Jules Glenn, M.D.
Albee's Tiny Alice encompasses fantasies with which many adopted children are preoccupied. It is postulated that Albee unconsciously used his personal experiences as an adopted child in a highly adaptive way to give intensity and special character to his artistic creation. The protagonist, Brother Julian, is caught in a situation similar to that of many adopted children. An arrangement is made to hand him over to Miss Alice, a millionairess, in return for a large sum of money. When Julian discovers this he rebels and is shot. As he dies, he awaits being enveloped by a woman he planned to marry, an unseen Alice, for whom Miss Alice is merely a surrogate. The unseen Alice is confused with God and is seen as the mother of the Christ-like protagonist.
In the course of the play the presence of surrogates and doubles, including parent symbols, are confused with one another. Glenn suggests that this derives from the adopted child's dilemma stemming from his having two sets of parents, the biological and the legal. Julian is also concerned with loyalty and identity, and has other preoccupations common to the adopted child. He is fearful of