After attending Yale University, Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) became a novelist and a writer of unconventional plays that engage the audience by addressing them directly, by not supplying props or scenery, and by transposing elements from one time period into another. He set his play Our Town in Grover's Corners, a fictional rural community that was distant and detached from the growth of industry and commerce occurring in urban New England at the turn of the century. The action takes place before World War I, when there was no apparent threat of global conflict and warfare. The setting allows Wilder's characters to focus on their immediate surroundings without having to contend with all the sociopolitical distractions in urban environments of the time.
Invention and growth. Given the rampant progress urban America was undergoing at the turn of the century, the fictional small town in Wilder's play did feel the effects from some of the more dynamic elements of the outside world. The period of time in which Our Town takes place, 1901 to 1913, saw an abundance of industrial advancements-the Model T, for example, was introduced by Henry Ford in 1908.
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