TEACH: You know what is free enterprise? DON: No. What? TEACH: The freedom… DON: …yeah? TEACH: Of the Individual… DON: …yeah? TEACH: To Embark on Any Fucking Course that he sees fit.

“Cause there’s business and there’s friendship, Bobby…”

  

The freedom of the Individual To Embark on Any Fucking Course that he sees fit. This principle seems to be a driving force for Teach, Don, and Bobby’s actions in American Buffalo. Teach conflates the tenets of the Declaration of Independence with the principles of Capitalism, turning Free Enterprise into an inalienable right, up there with Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. It is an understandable conflation, so embedded in our country’s most powerful myths that it is difficult to keep them separate. After all, the American Dream proposes that the key to happiness is success and ownership, and insists that they are possible for anyone who works hard enough. The case could be made that one has a right to success, and may obtain it by any means necessary. Teach pushes this line of thought to its cynical conclusion: crime is necessary to obtain success. Not only that, but it is acceptable. More than acceptable: it’s business. Says Teach, “the country’s founded on this, Don. You know this…Without this we’re just savage shitheads in the wilderness.”

In fact, according to Teach and Don, in order to be successful one must separate business from friendship. You cannot think of your business partner as a friend, as someone for whom you have empathy. You must negate or ignore their humanity in order to use them however you need to use them. Much like a predatory animal, stalking his prey.

Yet, despite their talk, can these characters actually separate business from friendship? Don treats Bobby, his supposed business partner, like a son, worrying about his well-being and lecturing him on everything from surveillance techniques to dietary needs. Teach proclaims, “Friendship is friendship…but let’s just keep the two apart, and maybe we can deal with each other like some human beings.” But he can’t get through a business planning session without asking Don: “Are you mad at me?” More like a needy lover than a predatory animal.

These moments of affection may endear us to the characters, but they also call to mind a question: are these men ruthless enough to claw their way out of the junk shop? Or will they watch wealthier people with beautiful girlfriends and three-piece suits swarm around their homes; letting their frustration brew until it explodes; blaming each other, themselves, everyone and everything but the real culprit—the systems that are stacked against them? Perhaps more cruel than the permission Teach’s principle gives him to behave like an animal is the hope it offers; the hope that by Embarking on Any Fucking Course They See Fit, Teach, Don, and Bobby will end up somewhere other than (at best) right where they began. @#!