Piano is a Marion Brittain Fellow in the School of Literature, Communication, and Culture at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. In this essay, Piano considers how the character Cleo Singer embodies the competing impulses of personal and economic pressure in the play.

Rocket to the Moon is generally understood to mark Clifford Odets's move from explicitly political subject matter, dealing with the social and economic conditions affecting Americans during the Great Depression, towards a drama more interested in interpersonal relationships and, more specifically, the subject of love. While there is undeniable evidence to support this claim, it is arguably overstated. Indeed, while plays such as Rocket to the Moon and Odets's previous play, Golden Boy, certainly focus on the personal rather than the political, a focus on the economic and social conditions that affect the lives of Odets's protagonists is never far beneath the surface. As...