In The American Dream and The Sandbox Albee concentrates on the alternative to an authentic existence. In both works human relationships are meaningless and human affection has frozen. Making Mommy and Daddy into caricatures only heightens the absurdity of their lives. Mommy and Daddy appear to show concern for Grandma, but this is less an expression of their humanity than of their sense of social obligation. In the person of Grandma Albee creates a character whose vitality and perception contrast with Mommy and Daddy. She knows the appearance of a solid family is but a sham. Although Grandma is treated with disrespect, she has a clear grasp on her values and maintains her sense of humanity. The ultimate force of The American Dream and The Sandbox resides on a fundamental existential level. Albee exposes the inauthentic lives of his characters, but stops short of creating a Beckett-like sense of hopelessness. His thematic point dramatizes man``s potential for self-awareness and self-change. The originality of both The American Dream and The Sandbox lies in the fact that while employing some of the techniques of the absurdists Albee has retained his own vision. To Beckett``s and Ionesco``s characters he adds a crucial self-awareness which establishes the existential basis of his work.