Generation Gap and The Diversity Cultures Between Two Countries in "The Dining Room"

Abstract

Some episodes in this play have changed points by comparing the present, it is a generation gap. Also, it has different points when it compared with other countries. The point of this essay is the difference and diversity. To express the difference, it shows the conflicts between characters whom in the same house.- what the decision is right or wrong between mother and daughter, grandfather’s mind for a grandchild who does not try to be a self-made man, a couple has different ideas about the use of the dining room. The diversity is to compare the purpose, culture, and etiquette in the dining room of Americans with Korean. Based on the characters’ lines in this play, it analyzes what the dining room of America is, how people should behave in the room is, and what they should not do on the dining table. Also, it shows Korean cultures, rules, and etiquette in the dining room with some quotations. These countries are compared for the diversity in the essay.

The Changed Points In The Book

“The Dining Room” is composed by 18 scenes from different American households and the play shows different ideas about the dining room through the lines of characters. The author, Gurney, of this play requests casting various actors with different gender, size, race, and ages, no focused on one character. There are various humans, cultures, and traditions in the American country. Through the episodes that usually happen in the dining room, it can be compared with generation gab in the same country and different points between the two countries. Almost humans have gradually changed their thinking about the meaning of something because of time. For example, there are many traditional rules in the dining room like no leaning back in their chair and no working on the dining table. The central conflict in several episodes of this play is between old and new ones, those characters inheriting a tradition and breaking the tradition. Moreover, the purposes of the dining room can be different from Korea. Both countries have differences such as etiquette, traditional rules, and purposes. According to environment and geography, the cultures of one country are decided and rules are naturally decided by the cultures.

Even family lives in the same house, they can think of different ideas of something as the environment is changed and technology is developed over time. It is called by “Generation gap” and it has a lot of conflicts. From on pages 18 to 21, Grace and Carolyn have a conflict about her decision in the dining room. Carolyn wants to meet her aunt instead of going to dancing school. But Grace, her mother, wants she goes to a dancing school as she thinks going to dancing school helps to be able to use a good time on Saturday night. She quite enforces dancing school whenever Carolyn chooses the theatre with his aunt. She thinks that Carolyn doing something, not the dancing school, is a waste of time. “You are obviously not old enough to make an intelligent decision,” the mother said. “I knew you would not let me decide” she answered. Although the mother recommends the better decision she thinks, her daughter decides what she really wants. The mother thinks if you do not follow the way everyone follows, your life will be messed up. However, the daughter is a challenging character as she definitely knows what she likes or dislikes, she wants to go to the way she really likes.

Moreover, from on pages 33 to 37, there is a conversation with Nick and Grandfather. He went down to the club to meet his grandfather and he asked for pay about his education, and boarding school. The grandfather asks many questions to Nick. Where is the university, why does he want to go there, is not he interested in here. His question is to ask if Nick has confidence in his choices. Also, he criticizes why Nick tries to be a self-made man. “While no man is an island, it is not external help or special relationships that make the crucial difference in the self-made man’s rise.” In the grandfather’s time, he had to work it himself without any help for succeeding. In the present time, however, children want to get parents' or grandparents’ finical support. It is also the generation gap. In addition, from pages on 15 to 18, Howard cannot understand why Elie, his wife, types on the dining table. He thinks the dining table is used to have a meal and conversation so he said it is not designed for it. But Elie does not understand why she cannot work it on the dining table. Even though this episode does not mean the generation gap as they were born in the same time, they have two differences about the dining room.

“The dining room” play has many episodes and all characters appear in the dining room. The common purpose of the dining room is eating a meal, and detailed taking with family or friends. A family sits down around the dining table, they eat a meal, and have a conversation at the same time. These purposes are the same in every country but they have completely different another purposes about the dining room. In “The Dining Room” book, some character argues the dining room is for an eating and talking place so it is impossible to do others on the dining table. “I’ll tell you one thing. If there’s war, no one gets cream. If there’s a war, we’ll have to settle for top of the bottle.” This quotation shows why American people significantly think the dining room- the war. They used to talk with children about education, table manners, and religion in the dining room. If the war would happen, it is hard to be a leisurely meal and conversation with family.

On the other hand, Korean people think it is possible to work on something in the dining room. The history, the Joseon Dynasty (14th century till 1910) of the Korean dining room has two different points by comparing Americans. Firstly, almost people lived a life eating, sleeping, talking, and studying everything in one room. In the Joseon Dynasty, the structure of the house, especially the dining room, was decided by home economics. Almost houses in Korea had one kitchen, one or two rooms, external extra room, a bathroom, and a small garden. The external room was usually for guests but often there was no extra room. They did not have special purposes about the dining room, unlike Americans. But, the high-class house was totally different from the middle-class houses as well as the dining room. They ate alone in one’s room when a servant brought food on the small table. The room is like the dining room for them, they talk and eat some dessert. Secondly, Korean citizens have a more special meaning of the living room than the dining room as the living room image to them is a talking place like the American dining room. After eating dinner in the kitchen, they eat some dessert or have a conversation, watching TV in the living room. Nowadays, the concept of the dining room to Korean people is a small home party or relaxing place with family.

Everyone knows putting an elbow on the table, burping at the dining table, and talking with a mouth full of food are wrong table manners (etiquettes). The table manners are almost similar to every country but it is a different priority of those manners with each country. On pages on11 to 14, the father, one of the characters in the play, a precise, finicky man emphasizes it to his children. “I said, PROVIDED you sit quietly, without leaning back in your chairs, and don’t fight and argue.” The line emphasizes behavior when sitting on the chairs in the dining room. “Father sits at the head of the table; mother is at the opposite end. They're flanked by their docile children” Sitting on a fixed seat is also the manner for Americans. It can be guessed they are seriously concerned about their attitude toward others in the dining room.

As well as Korea, it is important to think about the attitude in the dining room. Korean people significantly think it as much as the popular account is that study etiquette starts from the attitude on the dining table. American table manners focused on their attitude but, Korean table manners focused on people. Korean people should not eat before an elderly person, also they cannot get up on the dining table before he finishes eating a meal. Joseon (the ancient f Korea) was changed with a lot of cultures because of Confucian ideas that were spread to Joseon from China, one of changing cultures is table. “Another central pillar of Confucianism is that the moral harmony of the individual is directly related to cosmic harmony”. The theory emphasizes moral harmony between humans, family, friends, and neighbors, humans should respect the household at each house due to work for the family. So, it is fixed as an ideology of the gender role and the table manner in which the elder person has to eat first, and the man is second, and his children and wife should wait for them.

Conclusion

The play has a lot of meanings into several episodes. Even though it has a good meaning or special meaning that follows to deeply think it, it can be different ideas that the author wants to say it to readers bypassing the time. “Everything changes with time. You can't predict where you're gonna be next year; you have no idea, you know what I mean?” The quotation is to tell about why the generation gap is formed. Everything has changed with time, a sense of distance between old and new ones naturally emerges. This research essay reports on the generation gap in the same country and the diverse cultures between the two countries with a story of episodes in “The dining room.”

Reference

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2. Dinner In America. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/02/16/459693979/no-place-for-discontent-a-history-of-the-family-dinner-in-america.
3. Gurney, A. R. (1998). The dining room. New York, NY: Dramatists Play Service.
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