Contemporary American writers of desperate survival: Edward Albee, Maya Angelou, Pat Conroy and Leslie Marmon Silko

A strong correlation exists between the works of the four writers of the title and external influences exerted upon him or her. Albee's adoptive mother worked incessantly to shape him as a conformist with exclusivist values. Angelou felt and examined rather than denied the myriad hurtful small and large unfairnesses of daily life as a black American. Conroy absorbed opposing messages from his mis-matched parents; he tried to reconcile them and to satisfy the requirements of both. Silko, with her mixed heritage, felt entitled to both European-American and Native American cultures but embraced by neither.; Painful awareness of a negative reality characterizes each of these writers' works; however, they and their central characters refuse and expose illusionary thinking.; In the last analysis of each writer's works, an underlying optimism prevails over a possible nihilism.