Read the excerpt from Brighton Beach Memoirs.
EUGENE They're clean I'm wearing a glove (He throws
the bal into his glove again. then he looks out front and
addresses the audience) I hate my name! Eugene Morris
Jerome is the second worst name ever given to a
male child. The first worst is Haskel Fleischmann How
am lever going to play for the Yankees with a name like
Eugene Moms Jerome? You have to be a Joe ora
Tony or Frankie Fonly I was born talian. All the best
Yankees are Italian My mother makes spaghetti with
ketchup what chance do I have?
He siams the ball into his glove again)
In this excerpt Nei Simon helps the audience best
understand Eugene's
o imitation he feels toward his mother for cooking
spaghetti
O desire to be like his idols the Yankees baseball
players
annoyance at being asked to clean his hands
frustration he feels because his middle name is
Morris
