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