SOURCE: D'Ambrosio, Michael A. “Is Our Town Really Our Town?” English Record 22, no. 1 (October 1971): 20-22.

In the following essay, D'Ambrosio explores the timeless, universal theme of “man's failure to appreciate life” as expressed in Our Town. D'Ambrosio concludes that this “prophetic” play continues to be relevant to today's youth and is important for teachers to introduce to their students.

Thornton Wilder's search for a value “for the smallest events of our daily life” was crystallized with the writing of Our Town, considered a paean to everyday living and its potentialities. One doesn't read or view or teach the play for its plot, nor for its scenery, characterization or linguistic excellence; and if one were to accept the Stage Manager's geographical plottings in the first scene of the play as fact, one would not find himself in Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, but somewhere off the coast of Massachusetts. However...