In the foreword to Our Town, Donald Margulies argues that Thornton Wilder's play is still representative of the "microcosm of the human family, American genre" ( Marguiles xvii). Margulie's statement about the plausible modern application of Our Town is easily seen across the three acts with Wilder's themes of ritual and time. Enduring notions of ritual and time are specifically addressed and reinforced by Wilder's use of hymns and specific music in the three-act play. Our Town still belongs to the 21st century American family by capturing the "universal experience of being alive" and through Wilder's themes of ritual and time through the hymns and music that appear throughout the play (Marguiles xvii).Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Wilder depicts the American family accurately, with hypocrisies and fallacies as well as the rituals of daily life. Our city shows that family life is centered on rituals that denote time, such as breakfast, starting high school, weddings, and church. These events and rites of passage ultimately provide a sense of comfort in their tradition, with some rituals leaving a more lasting imprint than others on the participants' memories. Over time, the little things fall through the cracks, leaving only the big events as glaring monuments to the past. These life events and general state of mind still belong to our modern culture, even though breakfast may be skipped, weddings, graduations and funerals remain ritualistic and are seen as markers of time, whether it is the beginning of a new phase of life or the final chapter of a life. While there's certainly a small-town feel around the room, modern city dwellers can still relate to family life in Our Town, which offers all the comforts of home. Even in cities, people stick to their rituals, alarm clocks go off, read the newspaper or turn on the news in the morning and strap on a watch to know the time. This ritual begins each morning, and time passes, and things are missed and realized later, just like our city. To advance his main themes of ritual and time, Wilder integrates music into everyday ritual life and the passage of time. Some of the music used is associated with rituals, such as Mendelssohn's wedding march, still a staple of weddings. Music such as Wedding March and Handel's Largo, which are referenced in unity with the start of high school, not only mark time and are part of a rite of passage, but the music itself is a ritual designating a certain time for which it is used. Unlike a singular moment of event represented by music, the anthem Blessed Be the Tie that Binds constantly reminds Emily of happy days and is used in all three acts, becoming a meter by which to gauge the passage of time. Each time Blessed is the Tie that Binds is used, it serves a different purpose, but produces the same effect of consistency, passage of time, and ritual. The first time it is used is when "the choir...in the orchestra pit began to sing 'Blest Be the Tie That Binds'", which is the background music for the scene in which Emily and George talks to each other from their windows (Wilder 34). The anthem is later used at Emily and George's wedding and at Emily's funeral, both of which are rituals and markers in..