Reading Modern literature can sometimes be a frustrating quest for coherence and meaning. Modernist authors tend to omit explanations, interpretations, connections, and summaries that we are accustomed to in traditional literature.
O'Neill's method in The Hairy Ape demonstrates a striking departure from traditional stage drama since audiences are faced with an exaggerated and stark realism, and with dialog that is crude, natural, and slangy. How do you react to the play?
What happens to Yank that leads him to expose his primitive interior self? What happens at the end, and how are we--the reading or viewing audience--to interpret his death?