The Skin of Our Teeth

George, the patriarch of the Antrobus family, is a suburban father in the fictional town of Excelsior, New Jersey. He is a flawed everyman figure who leads his family through disasters, always determined to protect the knowledge and philosophy of humankind to remake the world as a better and more enlightened place. George is responsible for the foundational innovations of humanity, such as the wheel and the alphabet. He represents the patriarch of humanity, Adam from the Book of Genesis. He also represents the American Dream, pulling himself and his family up by his bootstraps each time the world ends around them, forcing them to restart with nothing.

However, George is prone to temptation, particularly by Sabina, and has a tendency to lose his temper when his family doesn’t behave perfectly. George occasionally considers letting humanity die when his children disappoint him. George needs his wife to encourage him and prop him up, but he allows Sabina to seduce him away from his family, taking her as a reward for what the fortune teller calls his “Great Man dizziness” (59). George rises to become the president of the Order of Mammals, Human Division, and he nearly allows Sabina’s appeal to his ego destroy his family.