The Skin of Our Teeth

The second act takes place in Atlantic City, and the announcer returns to narrate the slides and set the scene, which is a convention of the Ancient and Honorable Order of Mammals, Subdivision Humans, which is celebrating its 600,000th yearly convention. George has been elected president of the order; the other orders, including the orders of Wings, Fins, and Shells, are holding concurrent conventions and have sent two of each kind of animal as delegates to the human convention. Lights reveal George and Maggie, and George accepts the presidency. Now that the ice is gone, he reminds everyone that it’s better to focus on celebrating than on the losses. Yesterday, they had a memorial service for “our friends and relatives who are no longer with us, by reason of cold, earthquakes, plagues, and […] differences of opinion” (51). Maggie starts to prompt George as he forgets what he is supposed to say. He says that the old motto was “Work,” but the new motto for the future is “Enjoy Yourselves” (52). Before sitting down, he dispels rumors that he previously considered being a different kind of animal of another order, as he has been “viviparous, hairy and diaphragmatic” (52) for the last million years.