What we experience in this passage, particularly in the last sentence, is an insight into the search for the true meaning of life and the unveiling of the “fog” that does not allow individuals to live life . This “discovery” or unveiling of the unsaid has triggered a turning point in his life and Edmond wants Glenna to undergo the same process, but she is scared and tells him: “[don't] hurt me. No. No. I can't deal with this” (Edmond: 77). In short, Glenna is not prepared or does not want to be enlightened either by the unsaid or by the truth, because she knows she couldn't face something like that. The point is that sometimes living in the darkness as if we are not alive is less painful and comfortable than living in the light. My thesis is that all plays come very close to saying something unacceptable about society, something that is very difficult for people to hear and internalize because it shakes the foundations of our existence. This is why we can postulate that “it is in the interstices between the fragments of his speech that we perceive the plight of Mamet's humanity.” (Piette: 174). Secondly, as I mentioned before, I will explore Mamet's use of language. As in Beckett and Pinter, there is a distrust of language as a vehicle of communication. We will build on this idea and explore how the atmosphere of anxiety that pervades his works can then be understood as the result of the ambivalent economic and social structures that lead to the breakdown of language in his works; in other words, to the total loss of the validity of language as a communication tool. This is encapsulated almost explicitly in Mamet's play Oleanna:“JOHN (at the same time as 'notes')....... middle of paper ......xcess. Pauses and silences encourage others to fill in the gaps, but at the same time they also suggest the possibility of something very different being said. Thus, silence can operate on many levels: as a means of omitting information that might make characters vulnerable, as a means of challenging other characters in a power struggle, as a defense mechanism, or as a means of hiding what it really means from say. A telling example of silence and pauses occurs in American Buffalo, when Teach argues that his only way to teach Grace and Ruthie how they should behave is to kill them: “TEACH Then let them talk about it, then. No, I'm sorry, Don, I can't ignore this. They treat me like an asshole, I'm an asshole. Break. The only way to teach these people is to kill them. Break. DON Do you want some coffee?" (American buffalo: 11-12)