Big Daddy and the American Dream in Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin RoofTennessee William's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a thought-provoking and explores human relationships between all kinds. Brick's character is forced to examine his relationship with his friend Skipper, his wife, his family, and himself. Other characters, Gooper, Mae, and Big Mama, demonstrate stifling marital relationships. Big Daddy, however, is one of the more interesting characters in that he illustrates the strange relationship one can have with one's possessions. Watt and Richardson, the editors, state that the play is about "acquiring." In other words, the acquisition of material goods is at the heart of the play and of this family. The Pollitts own a plantation in the Mississippi Delta. Their house is a key character in the work as much as any of the characters in that it encapsulates the family's legacy of secrecy. For starters, there's the center stage area of ​​Brick and Maggie's bedroom. This room was once shared by the previous owners, two men, a fact that seems to haunt Brick. Williams describes the decoration of the room in some detail. He is especially interested in “the combination of a console made up of a radio-phonograph, a television and a liquor cabinet”. He seems incredulous at the size and symbolism of this possession. He writes: "This piece of furniture (?!), this monument, is a very complete and compact little sanctuary which houses practically all the comforts and illusions behind which we hide from the things that the characters in the play are confronted with..." (Williams 660). Not only does Brick hide behind the booze in the cupboard, his real crutch, but the furniture exemplifies all the modern conveniences that many people p...... middle. of paper......the system he is talking about is more than the liars and liars immediately around him; it is not just about his family. The system he lives in is materialism. bought into the American dream, in reality capitalism, and ultimately found that he was lacking Yet this revelation is unlikely to truly change Big Daddy in the way he lives his final days Because Williams' words regarding Brick. ring true for Dad as well. He writes: “I do not believe that a conversation, however relevant, can ever produce such an immediate change in a person's heart or even in his conduct” (706 act 3). . Big Daddy is trapped in his American dream even though it has become his nightmare. Work cited in Williams, Tennessee. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. In Stages of Drama: From Classical to Contemporary Theater. Ed. Carl H. Klaus, Miriam Gilvert, and Bradford S. Field, Jr., 4th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin¹s, 1999.