A Disintegration Family In Eugene O’Neill’s Desire Under the Elms

What is the American family? This question was answered by John de Crevecoeur, in “what is the American?” (1782), when he said: “I could point out to you a family whose grandfather was an Englishman, whose wife was Dutch, whose son married a French woman, and whose present four sons have four wives of different nations.”1 In fact, Crevecoeur summarized the history of the American family, in particular, and the American man, in general.