Question

Which two themes of O'Neill's Beyond the Horizon are reflected in this excerpt from the play? ROBERT: Not so long when you come to consider it. You know the Sunda sails around the Horn for Yokohama first, and that’s a long voyage on a sailing ship; and if we go to any of the other places Uncle mentions—India, or Australia, or South Africa, or South America—they’ll be long voyages, too. ANDREW: You can have all those foreign parts for all of me. (After a pause) Ma's going to miss you a lot, Rob. ROBERT: Yes—and I’ll miss her. ANDREW: And Pa ain’t feeling none too happy to have you go—though he’s been trying not to show it. ROBERT: I can see how he feels. ANDREW: And you can bet that I’m not giving any cheers about it. (He puts one hand on the fence near ROBERT). ROBERT: (putting one hand on top of ANDREW’S with a gesture almost of shyness) I know that, too, Andy. ANDREW: I’ll miss you as much as anybody, I guess. You see, you and I ain’t like most brothers—always fighting and separated a lot of the time, while we’ve always been together—just the two of us. It’s different with us. That’s why it hits so hard, I guess. ROBERT: (with feeling) It’s just as hard for me, Andy—believe that! I hate to leave you and the old folks—but—I feel I’ve got to. There’s something calling me—— (He points to the horizon) Oh, I can’t just explain it to you, Andy. importance of following one's dreams importance of family commitment attraction of the land versus the sea appearance versus reality attraction of people to farming

Answer 1

The two main themes reflected in this excerpt are:

1. the importance of family commitment
2. the imortance of following one's dreams

1. The longest part of the text consists of a description of how much Andrew and his parents are going to miss Robert as he leaves, and vice versa. Andrew even explains why it will be particularly difficult in this case: the two brothers have a special bond ("you and I ain’t like most brothers ... we’ve always been together"). The stage directions also indicate how moved the characters are about this departure ("with feeling"), and so does the punctuation, with exclamation marks and short sentences which usually express emotion ("Andy—believe that!").
2. It is precisely this emphasis on the family bond that shows how much Robert's dream is important to him, because he is willing to suffer through separation to fulfill his desire to travel the world: "I hate to leave you and the old folks—but—I feel I’ve got to. There’s something calling me."