In my paper I am traveling to analyse one of the Sam Shepards drama. Its name sounds depressive but it wholly fulfils the chief thought of the drama – Buried Child. From the information I read about the writer I deduced that he wrote it on the footing of his ain personal experience in his childhood. Sam Shepard grew up on the farm in California and was a member of a broken household because his male parent was an alcoholic. The drama was foremost produced in the twelvemonth 1978. From this and from the narrative itself implies my given that the whole narrative is set in the 1970’s when the USA was in a difficult economic state of affairs caused by the war in Vietnam. To be more concrete it is set in Illinois on the farm where nil grow any longer. I think that merely through the description of the characters you would be able to see the chief points of why I titled my work American Nightmare. Dodge is supposed to be the caput of the household but he is broken by things that happened in the yesteryear.
He is an old death adult male and he is paranoiac but he has a ground to be. He is considered hapless adult male whom doesn’t like even his household. He failed in constructing his American Dream because his household is no more on the job and the farm he built up many old ages ago is left without any involvement. He left everything after the biggest secret of the household happened. He killed his wife’s boy but non without ground. as his boy Tilden in the drama says. “He said he had his grounds. . . He’s the lone 1 who knows where it’s buried. ” ( Shepard 104 ) The grounds I found out in the text were that she. Halie. had the babe with another adult male. There are some intimations which led me to believe that the adult male might hold been Tilden. her ain boy. Then it would hold been much worse because the act of incest is wholly against the modern society.
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We don’t cognize the background. how everything happened. if Halie was raped by her boy or he was seduced by his female parent. Nevertheless killing the babe was no solution because the household fell apart anyhow. Halie. the lone adult females in the household. is the 1 who tries to hold a normal life but it is full of lip service and fright of that other will happen out the household secret. Interesting is that even though Dodge killed her boy she lives and communicates with him like nil happened. Even though it is obvious that she is holding an matter with a Protestant curate Father Dewis. This is besides an sarcasm because he should be a symbol of temperate life. Alternatively of that he drinks intoxicant and seduces adult females. In the drama I feel that the fright of non being relieved have everyone in the household. They made a trade that they won’t speak about the yesteryear and they are trusting that they will merely bury. Halie’s merely light in the life was her son Ansel who was murdered in a motel room after get marrieding a Catolic Italian miss. Halie hated that miss from the beginning and she argued that she was a “Devil incarnate” ( Shepard 74 ) .
Ansel had no clip to travel bad so he looks like an ideal boy in Halies eyes. She is so haunted with him that she wants to unveil his statue. She remembers him as a boy who played hoops and was a soldier. a hero. an All-American. In her soliloquies so we can happen the importance of making some athletics in young person and being a Protestant. The character of Tilden is really interesting and cryptic for me. He is the oldest boy and he was supposed to take attention of the household. the parents. which is affair of fact in the American Dream ( kids should take attention of their parents ) . Nevertheless he got into problem someplace in New Mexico. possibly he was kept in prison. because he returned back to his parents’ house after 20 old ages wholly broken. particularly mentally.
His autonomy had to be taken off from him because in one of his soliloquies about driving he described how it was like to hold a auto. which is besides one of the symbols of American independency: I drove all twenty-four hours long sometimes. Across the desert. . . I drove past towns. Anywhere. Past thenar trees. Lightning. Anything I would drive through it. I would drive through it and I would halt and I would look around and I would drive on. . . There was nil I loved more.
Nothing I dreamed of was better than driving. ( Shepard 102 ) Freedom is defined in American Ways as “the desire and the right of all persons to command their ain fate without outside intervention from the government” ( Datesman. Crandall. Kearny 33 ) and precisely this was in Tilden’s life broken. He was in prison and he is under the control of his parents now. Besides his brother Bradley is non independent due to the accident where he lost his leg. With the character of Bradley I connected one inquiry: Why he could populate and the other babe non? Because from the narrative it is obvious that Bradley besides isn’t Dodges boy. The lone solution I have is that the murdered babe truly had to be a birth from incest.
The lone visible radiation in the narrative. at least at the beginning. is Shelly. She came to see his fellows grandparents house and she had the typical American. that means ideal. image of how it would be like: “I thought it was traveling to be turkey dinners and apple pie and all that kinda material. ” ( Shepard 91 ) Obviously she was confused from all these people in the house and she was the 1 who forced them to speak about things. Nevertheless it was to much for her and she left the house and her fellow Vince. To be honest there were some symbols in the drama I didn’t understand. For illustration the act of symbolic Dodges burying on the terminal of the two Acts of the Apostless. The lone thing that came up my head was that his boies blame him from everything and they think that killing the babe was the chief ground why the household autumn apart.
In my sentiment that’s non true because each member of that household has his ain guilt. Another enigma for me is the character of Vince. Tilden’s boy. I didn’t acquire the message of his character particularly at the terminal of the drama where. after Dodge is dead. he puts on Dodges cap and lay down on the sofa. wholly out of his head. Possibly he was so aghast and ashamed of the household secret that he merely adopted to the fact and started to populate the same life as his gramps lived. The drama absolutely describes the antonym of the American Dream which is the life end of most Americans and it besides shows what a large difference is “between idealism and world. ” ( Datesman. Crandall. Kearny 34 )
