Glengarry Glen Ross

In the first half of the 1980s, the real estate market crashed, setting the scene for salesmen in the play to grow increasingly desperate with fewer and fewer closings. Mitch and Murray, who don’t want to take a financial hit as a result of the current recession, introduce the contest that looms over all the characters throughout the play. The first-place winner gets a Cadillac, and the second-place winner gets to keep his job. This means that the bottom two salesmen win pink slips. The board with their current placements in the contest isn’t mentioned in the stage directions—unsurprising, since David Mamet’s stage directions are deliberately sparse—so it may or may not be posted on the wall, but regardless, its significance is ever-present, and it drives the action of the play forward. Levene complains to Williamson that the prize for selling used to be money, and the commission was enough to motivate them to work hard and close. But although a Cadillac would be a status symbol for the winner, and driving it would undoubtedly impress potential customers and help sales, the car isn’t the real incentive. Being fired isn’t simply a matter of lost income, as demonstrated by Levene’s empty wallet in Act I.