The Shadow: Anger

Introduction

Why was All In the Family such a popular television program? I suspect it was because the "love-hate" relationships between Archie, Mike, Gloria and Edith helped us better to understand the ways in which our love is mixed with anger, our joys are mixed with pain, and our laughter is tinged with sadness and pathos. Even longsuffering Edith with her good-natured naivete could get angry. Who can forget the time when she tells Archie to "stiffle!"? Or the episode where Archie accuses her of being a saint, of not being human, and Edith, hurt and angry, cries out "I am too human! I'm just as human as you are! I got feelin's just like everybody!" I think also of the time that Archie and Mike are locked in a cold storage room and Mike comes to see Archie in a much …