<Li> The Ice Age / The Great Flood / War; we are always plagued by the potential for disaster, both natural and man - made . </Li> <Li> Art and literature are ways of advancing our humanity: enhancing empathy, tolerance, vision . Improvements in technology, though, don't necessarily advance human nature at all . </Li> <P> Act one is an amalgam of early 20th century New Jersey and the dawn of the Ice Age . The father is inventing things such as the lever, the wheel, the alphabet, and multiplication tables . The family (the Antrobuses) and the entire north - eastern U.S. face extinction by a wall of ice moving southward from Canada . The story is introduced by a narrator and further expanded by the family maid, Sabina . There are unsettling parallels between the members of the Antrobus family and various characters from the Bible . In addition, time is compressed and scrambled to such an extent that the refugees who arrive at the Antrobus house seeking food and fire include the Old Testament prophet Moses, the ancient Greek poet Homer, and women who are identified as Muses . </P> <P> Act II takes place on the Boardwalk at Atlantic City, New Jersey, where the Antrobuses are present for George's swearing - in as president of the Ancient and Honorable Order of Mammals, Subdivision Humans . Sabina is present, also, in the guise of a scheming beauty queen, who tries to steal George's affection from his wife and family . Although the conventioneers are rowdy and partying furiously, there is an undercurrent of foreboding, since the weather signals change from summery sunshine to hurricane to deluge . (A fortune teller had previously attempted to warn them about this but had been ignored). Gladys and George each attempt their individual rebellions, and are brought back into line by the family . The act ends with the family members reconciled and, paralleling the Bibilical story of Noah's Ark, directing pairs of animals to safety on a large boat where they survive the storm and / or the end of the world . </P>

The skin of our teeth act 1 summary
find me the text answering this question