Similar and Different Waiting s [604284]

Similar and Different “Waiting s’’
—A Comparative R eading of Waiting for Lefty , Waiting for Godot , and The Bus
Station
Zhao Luhua
School of Foreign Languages, Chongqing Three Gorges University , Wanzhou 404100, Chongqing,
China
[anonimizat]
KeyWords: waiting; Clifford Odets; Samuel Beackett; Gao Xingjian; life; hope

Abstract . These three plays are in a degree involved in the same theme of "waiting". In the broadest
sense, the three " waiting s" share some conceptions, but in a narrow sense, each waiti ng in each of
the three plays reveals different meanings. This paper discusses the different symbols of the three
waiting s according to their different cultural backgrounds, explores the same meaning of them on
the basis of the same background —in the same world of great lifism, and finally puts forward the
rational attitude towards life and the waiting in life.

1. Introduction
The theme of "waiting" is embodied in American playwrig ht Clifford Odets' Waiting for L efty,
Irishman dramatist Samuel Beckett 's Waiting for Godot , and Chinese (now French) writer Gao
Xingjian's The Bus Station . The three authors come from three countries, that is, from different
cultural backgrounds, so, naturally, they reveal different connotations of waiting in their play
respectively. However, in the broadest sense: great lifism, the ultimate purpose of concern of all
literature of various national backgrounds is the same: life and the fate of the whole mankind. Thus,
it is safe to say that the three plays must share something profound and universal.

2. The summaries of the three plays
2.1 The summary of Waiting for L efty
Clifford Odets placed Waiting for lefty on Broadway in 1935. This was the year in which
Clifford Odets won recognition as one of American leading dramatists. Waiting for lefty is about a
tax-drivers strike. A union meeting is going on. The drivers are trying to decide whether to strike or
not. The union boss, who has sold out to the companies, is trying to keep them from striking. These
drivers are waiting for Lefty, a character fighting against the corrupted union boss and trying to get
the people to strike for higher wages. In the course of waiting, people, all the time, come up on the
stage and tell their stories, while the union boss is smoking a cigar. Thr oughout the play, the people
are waiting for Lefty before they make a decision to strike, but he never appears. Meanwhile, they
keep talking about their bitter lives. Finally, there comes a shout from the back of the meeting hall
which interrupts everythin g. Someone runs in and says, "Wait a minute! We've found Lefty! We
found him in an alley with a bullet in his head!" In the end, some of them get conscious that they
can unite and fight by themselves. [1]

2.2 The summary of Waiting for Godot
Samuel Becket t's Waiting for Godot was published in book form in 1952 and was put on stage
Joint International Social Science, Education, Language, Management and Business Conference (JISEM 2015)
© 2015. The authors – Published by Atlantis Press
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in 1953. Two tramps, Estragon and Vladimir, meet near a bare roadside tree as they daily meet.
They are waiting for Godot. Estragon fusses with his boots and Vladimir with his ha t. Estragon naps
but cannot recount his dreams because Vladimir will not listen. They discuss separation but make
up, suicide but delay it, and discuss vegetables, religion, Vladimir's urinary troubles and Godot.
Passing by are two travelers, Pozzo and his serf Lucky. Pozzo with a whip in hand, who owns the
surrounding land, introduces himself, discussing selling the surf. Lucky on a leash, carrying Pozzo's
coat, etc., weeps but kicks Estragon when Estragon offers him a handkerchief. After a stop, Pozzo
and Lucky resume their traveling. A goatboy comes and brings a message: Godot will not come
today but come tomorrow. The two tramps decide to leave, but stand still. The next day the withered
tree has four or five leaves. Estragon and Vladimir restart waiting with games, light gymnastic
exercises, and philosophical talks. Pozzo, now blind, and Lucky, now dumb, return and collapse.
The tramps deliberate on whether to help or not. Finally, they help Pozzo up. Pozzo drives Lucky
into traveling on. Vladimir solilo quizes on his predicament. They wait and wait. The goatboy brings
the same message: Godot will come tomorrow. Night falls again. Agreeing to go away, Estragon
and Vladimir stand still. [2]

2.3 The summary of The Bus Station
Gao Xingjian published his The Station in 1983. This play is about eight people, including a
silent middle -aged man, an old man in his sixties, a girl of twenty -eight, a hothead of nineteen, a
man with glasses, a mother, a master, Director Ma, waiting at a bus station for bus to the cou nty seat.
These people, except the silent man, all have something, important or unimportant, to do in the
county seat. The old man, a chess player, is going to play chess with a member of national team; the
mother goes there to take care of her son and hus band; the master, a cabinetmaker, is hired by
someone in the county seat to pass on his fine skills; the man with glasses plans to do reviewing for
college entrance examination; the girl goes to make a date with her boyfriend; the hothead just goes
to drin k a glass of sour milk; Director Ma is invited by a party of connection to attend a banquet.
The silent man is just reading a book, or looking on uneasily, not getting involved in other things. A
bus comes, but does not stop to pick them up. Then, a second , a third one comes by, without
stopping yet. They still continue to wait for next one. In the meantime, they criticize the hothead for
his not getting in proper order when trying to get on the bus, and shout curses for not getting on.
They talk about thei r own troubles. They talk and argue about other various topics. They discuss
whether they should leave, but not agree on it. Many buses pass by, and no one stops. Only the
silent man with music of different themes walks toward the county seat. The others k eep on waiting.
Ten years has passed. All has changed. It is just then that they find that the station where they wait
for bus has been abandoned for long. They, finally, agree to walk to the county seat, with the help of
one another. [3]

3. The similarit ies of the waiting in the three plays
Firstly, all the three waitings end in disappointment. In Waiting for Lefty , People rest their hope
on Lefty, a courageous and radical man, but Lefty is shot dead when he is finally found. Likewise ,
in Waiting for Godo t the goatboy brings again and again the message that Godot will not co me
today, and it is unknown when Godot will come and whether he will really come; obviously, such a
person named Godot will never come and actually never exists. Actually, we know that Lefty and
Godot both are the incarnation of God. God is always the great and ready helper that those who
believe in Christianity turn to when they get into trouble. Taxi drivers wait for God to help them out
of the sad and exploited life and with the strug gle against the greedy and cruel bourgeoisie. The two
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tramps wait for God to tell them who they are and what the meaning of life is . Unfortunately, "God
is dead". [4] God will bless no one any longer. That is to say, there is factually no one who can help
them out. Similarly, in The Bus Station there are eight people who together wait for a bus at one
station. They have been waiting there for ten years, b ut no bus once stopped for them. In fact, no
one will stop forever at the station where the eight people are waiting for a bus to the county seat,
since the station was abandoned long before. What they all await for so long a time will never come
up. Therefore, all the waiting s in the three plays end hopeless ly and thus meaningless ly.
Secondly, the waiting s, at least, in Waiting for Godot and The Station are absurd. In Waiting for
Godot , the two tramps do not know who is Godot, what Godot looks like, and why they wait for
Godot. They just wait mindlessly and foolishly. They cannot decide to give up. They do not know
how long they will continue to wait. In like manner, i n The Bus Station , of the eight people, no one
finds that the station where they stand has been abandoned for a long time until they have been
waiting for ten years there. During the longtime w aiting, those who just go to do really unimportant
things in the county seat should have made their mind to stop waiting. The two writers, through the
absurd waiting, reveal the absurdity in real life of the modern society.
Thirdly, the three dramatists, i n their plays, show their strong concern with life and the fate of
man. They are trying to explore a better way for human life. It can be legitimately said that the three
plays all reveal that waiting is in the process of life, is another form of life, tho ugh waiting may be
of different natures, of different forms and of different results, and that the three " waiting s" leave us
pondering in real world what we wait for, whether we should wait or not, and where and how long
we should keep waiting. All these q uestions are directly and closely relevant to the process and the
meaning of life.

4. The differences of the waiting in the three plays
Waiting for Lefty happened during the period of the Great Depression in America. And then, the
international communist movement was surging forward. Odets himself, as a member of the
American Communist Party since 1934, is positive and optimistic. He believes in Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels and reveals in his play the ill effects of capitalism and discusses the ways the
common man can combat them. [5] Although the taxi drivers themselves cannot decide whether to
strike or not and wait for Lefty to come to ma ke a decision and to lead them. W hen they discover
Lefty has been murdered, rather than deflate them, the news rallie s the men, and they finally realize
that they should unite and rely on themselves to fight for a new world. The ending is positive.
People do not get into despair because of Lefty's not coming and death; they do not have to wait for
the god -like Lefty to s ave them, but depend on themselves to make a new world. So the waiting of
Clifford Odets is not completely meaningless and blind. It offers people a stirring vision of hope.
There is a result of waiting, and the result is that waiting is no help and that i t is time to get united
and take action.
Samuel Beckett's philosophy is one of pessimism. This is fully revealed in this play. Waiting for
Godot is the criticism of capitalism and, further, is the doubt and negation of the whole mankind.
The two tramps wa it for a man named Godot who never comes. Godot is so extremely significant to
them and is the spiritual prop of them, but they do not know who is Godot and what he looks like.
Most importantly, they do not know that their waiting is meaningless. Through t his play, Beckett
regards the social disaster of capitalism as the one of all, the existence of the world and the hope for
the future as absurd, and holds that the future of man is uncertain and unknown. Samuel Beckett in
the play discusses the absurdity o f human life. He tries to explore an answer to such questions as
"Who am I?" or "What am I living for?", but in this world of absurdity he cannot find the answer.
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So the waiting of Beckett is thoroughly meaningless and hopeless. Time is killed in the waiti ng;
moreover the meaning and value of life is killed. Waiting is obviously fruitless, but waiting, actually
passive waiting is going on, no any action taking place.
People live in unrealistic hope. The hope is misty and cannot be realized. However, man doe s
not despair because he often gets disappointed; on the contrary, he suffers more disappointment, he
feels more hopeful. Finally, life runs out in the waiting. Hope is no hope, but man does not give up
the waiting for it even in despair. Thus time becomes insignificant. Life seems repetitious, empty,
boring, with no meaning in the sense of "purpose" or "progress". It is safe to say that this kind of
waiting is irrational, absurd and passive, and this meaningless waiting is the reflection of the
negative an d pessimistic outlook on life and on the world of Beckett.
The Bus Station is the criticism and rethinking of too -lefty politics and the ten -year Cultural
Revolution which took place from 1966to 1976 in China . In The bus Station people know clearly
what t hey wait for and why they wait —the waiting is not blind, not like the waiting of those two
tramps. Besides, though the eight people's waiting is absurd and hopeless , it is not fruitless, because
the waiting finally leads to action : going on foot to the dest ination . The ten- year absurd waiting
results in the fact that they finally got to know that their waiting was meaningless, just wasting their
precious time, which, very early, the silent man had been aware of. Fortunately, they were not so
blind, negative, pessimistic and passive as the two tramps, and they gave up waiting as the silent
man did previously. In the end, the rest of them helped one another to walk toward to the county
seat on foot. It goes without saying that the people who are waiting in Gao Xingjian’s play is
realistic, rational and fruitful, no t pessimistic and despair ed, although they get clear after
undergoing a ten -year-long waiting. Through this play, the writer conveys such ideas as not idling
away time, not blindly following others, no t negatively waiting, and urges people to actively
progress, to make up for the wasted time and to struggle for their goals.

5. Conclusion
Writers of all cultures and of all historical stages have never stopped concerning themselves
with the fate of man a nd never stopped exploring the meaning of life. But some are pessimistic, and
some are optimistic. Through the three waitings, it is apparent that writers of different cultural
backgrounds and of different periods of history do not have the same ideas towa rds life and the
value of life. Indeed, life is the course of waiting, and the value and meaning is also in the waiting
with a clear and significant goal. But life should not be waiting only, especially, passive and
negative waiting only. In the modern wor ld, where cross -cultural communication and impact
frequently happen, we should be sensibly faced with the pessimistic philosophy from the western
materialistic society. The value of life can only be fully realized in the optimistic progress with a
clear an d meaningful purpose. In the long and short process of life, we should take timely and
valuable actions while waiting.
References :
[1] Quinn, Arther Hobson, 1943. A History of the American Drama: From the Civil War to the
Present Day [C]. New York.
[2] Luo Jingguo ，1996, A New Anthology of English Literature (V olume II) [C]. Beijing: Beijing
University Press.
[3] Gao Xingjian ，1985，The Collection of Gao Xingjian Drams [C]. Beijing: Qunzhong Press
[4] Nietzsche, Friedrich, 2005. Thus Spake Zarathustra. Tran. Thomas Com mon. Shanghai:
Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.
[5] Chang Yaoxin ，1990， A Survey of American Literature [C].Tianjing, Nankai University Press.
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