The Game of Cons

Abstract

In this thesis my primary goal is to study how poker is used as a trope through which Mamet criticizes the American society as a “con game” society. According to Kane, con men are actually part of America: “To be sure, America has been fatally attracted to the con artist for some time now…” (David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross, http://www.books.google.hu). As well as the con is part of the American culture, poker is part of it too. I intend to show that poker and con games function in the same way so poker functions as a means of confidence too. A poker game shows the actions of con men through gestures. Both are called games, but neither of them is really a game (in a con game world), because both are means of making money through conning another person.