This Is Our Youth

The young characters try to function autonomously without having to do any work. Dennis lets his parents pay his rent, Warren steals money from his father, and Jessica seeks a man who can provide her with a certain lifestyle. The play demonstrates how the characters’ unrealistic and immature view of money harms them and holds them back in their development as human beings. 

Dennis treats money like a game, the way a child would. For example, he panics when he learns that Warren stole so much money, but then begins thinking of ways that he can take advantage of the situation without bringing himself any harm. He invents a scheme to spend and then make the money back in two days, and Warren has no choice but to agree. 

Warren’s thievery reflects his sense of entitlement. He stole the money because he doesn’t respect his abusive father and because he felt he was owed something for having to leave the family home. Dennis ends up failing in his scheme, which forces Warren to sell his collection against his own desires. Doing so is a sacrifice and an act of Letting Go of the Past; he admits to himself that his choices have led him nowhere.

Drugs define Dennis and Warren’s existence. They serve as a welcome distraction and escape from painful memories of the past, the challenge of coming to terms with adulthood, and the eventuality of death. Drugs also represent the indifference that the characters feel toward their own futures: “What’s gonna happen to anybody? Who cares?” (17). 

There is a brief moment of levity when pot takes effect on Dennis’s mind. His thoughts show the way that he views his privileged world and its pastimes as absurd: “Brunch. (Pause.) That’s a wild concept: It’s not breakfast and it’s not lunch. It’s brunch. (Rolls the words around in his mouth.) ‘Brunch.’ ‘Let’s serve brunch …’ It’s something you serve” (19). There is a thick tension in the air that has to be broken, so Dennis suggests getting cocaine. 



Drugs are used to break tension again when Warren and Jessica discuss Warren’s dead sister. When Warren knocks the cocaine on the floor, it symbolizes the futility of his and Dennis’s efforts to stay afloat on temporary solutions like selling drugs. This futility is further emphasized by Stuey’s death and Dennis’s monologue about his fear of wasting his life. Seeing someone die so young, without having accomplished anything, is startling. It makes Dennis reconsider his choices to use drugs and coast through life.