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David Mamet is widely considered to be one of the most prolific and powerful voices in contemporary American theatre. Glengarry Glen Ross concerns a group of real estate salesmen whose company has imposed a ruthless regimen. The most successful will receive a cadillac, the runner-up a set of steak knives; the loser will be fired; that is a neat paradigm of a competitive capitalist society. The compensation in this competition is completely materialistic. Mamet’s sensitivity to language, precision of social observation, images of alienation, brilliant use of comedy, and continuing productivity account in large part for his staying power and critical respect. Under the system and discourse of capitalism and competition, salesmen’s identity is determined by their ability to employ language, that is, the ability to sell. The salesmen’s own fraudulent activities, by contrast, in deceiving their customers, is regarded simply as a good business, sanctioned by the ethics of a world in which success is a value and closing a deal an achievement.