Author(s): Reeba Suleman Saiyed

Abstract: This study surrounds the existential crisis that Yank and by extension, every man suffers due to industrialization and the fast-paced growth of society. Through Yank's descent from being the man who seems to be in control of his world to a man who is nothing but a hairy ape, O'Neill wants to portray the reality of modern life. The researcher intends to explore Yank's existential crisis due to the mechanization of society. Existential and Marxist lens are the primary lens’ used in building the argument that Yank's ultimate death is a product of the dehumanization of the modern working class at the hands of the bourgeois.Yank is the mirror image of the modern man who has worked all his life but never found a place of belonging of his own Yank’s existential dilemma stems from not only having a place of belonging, nothing to call home but also a result of the exploitation he suffers in his labour due to the exploitative strategies of the bourgeois class that is ultimately contributing to his existential dillemma.

Keywords: Alienation, Authentic self, death as a place of belonging, Existential Crisis, Social self.

Article Info: Received: 11 Jun 2026; Received in revised form: 06 Jul 2026; Accepted: 10 Jul 2026; Available online: 14 Jul 2026

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.114.10