Glenngar, Glen Ross-David Mamet

In the play Glenngary, we see a lot of real world things that happen to business people, especially sales people. The play consists of a little bit of failure, success, lies, deceit, and just how much people can learn and take from one another. I personally really like this play. It was a very smooth flowing play, not too much stage actions and I think the writer did this on purpose. I think the author sees the business world as a place where things happen on a day to day basis. This being said, he wants the words to speak louder than actions. I feel like man of the characters in the play, really struggle to move on and make a living. They want to make as much money as possible, just like any person would, however there is so much effort and power in making it in sales. For example when Roma says, "I swear it's not a world of men it's not a world of men, Machine it's a world of clock watchers, bureaucrats, officeholders what it is, it's a fucked up world there's no adventure to it." Here I feel the sales people think of themselves as a type of people, and that they stand out or like they are a minority. I also think when Roma talks about its a world of "clock watchers, bureaucrats, and officeholders" he talks about what the "big shots" do in a corporation. There are defiantly a lot of people who get handed many things, whether it be money or a business. And many of these people take what they have for granted. This being said sometimes getting up in the business world takes a bit of selfishness. However when Roma complains about this, he I think is being ignorant. He should do something about it, and stop complaining, work a bit harder.
In the novel we see a lot of different themes from each character. For example, Levene is more of the type of person who is constantly struggling to make ends meet and basically at the brink of failure. Levene always talks about how good he was in the past, and yes that may be true but the past is the past and now is now. Just like for many college students, we were all good in high school but it really doesn't matter anymore, college is different and we need to adapt to things we face. Roma is more of a successful person in the play than most other characters. Roma is smart and a bit sneaky. Williamson is the manager and who everyone seems to somewhat dislike. Many of the sales-men feel like Williamson's job is secure and so he wouldn't push any envelopes. However Williamson does give in at some point when bargaining with Levene to break company policy by selling him two leads for 100 dollars plus 20 percent of Levene's commissions. Moss is an older man as well, who seems not to be in such a struggle as Levene but just mad at some things. Being that he is older, I think makes Moss more independent than the other workers and he realizes he has to do the work. Somebody can complain and yell at him but it is really up to himself to build yield and make a good deal of commission. He is basically the persona of a person who is just trying to get ahead in life. Another character is Lingk, who basically is oblivious to much of Roma's sneaky techniques. Lingk is every sales persons dream, Roma takes advantage of Lingk and Lingk seems to know how he has a weakness. The last character is Aaronow who is struggling as well. However Aaronow knows what his problem is and wants to fix it a bit. But he can't get out of his same old habits, which I defiantly can relate to. When I worked at a Thrifty Car Rental, we had to sell coverages, and almost 90% of the people declined it and I was told I need to change something I was saying or how I was saying it to up my yield. However I just got into a habit of saying only two sentences on trying to sell coverages, either it worked or it didn't i never pushed the issue. For me commission wasn't to important but I still wanted a bonus.
In conclusion this play is a great play and shows plenty of different personalities that are in any businesses. I think these different types of personalities keep the business world moving. Nobody does things the same or else nothing would function, people have to innovate, that is what the real world is all about.