“Fun at the Beach”: A Historicist Reading of Act 2 of <i>The Skin of Our Teeth</i>

Abstract This article discusses act 2 of The Skin of Our Teeth in light of the changing culture of the U.S. in the early and mid-twentieth century in order to contextualize Wilder’s choice to set the act in Atlantic City. Drawing on Wilder’s experiences in Atlantic City throughout his life, the article argues that the setting is used in order to critique shifting societal dynamics. Atlantic City, from Prohibition into the beginning of World War II when Wilder was writing The Skin of Our Teeth, was a site of gambling, philandering, and other unscrupulous activities, making this location an ideal choice to set “the fall” of the Antrobus family and for Wilder to criticize the moral corruption of American society.