Buried Child
Andrea Oh, Ashleigh Plummer, Cara Roth
Ms. Nicole Wilson
AP English Literature and Composition
30 October 2013
2007, Form B. Works of literature often depict acts of betrayal. Friends and even family may betray a protagonist; main characters may likewise be guilty of treachery or may betray their own values. Select a novel or play that includes such acts of betrayal. Then,in a well-written essay, analyze the nature of the betrayal and show how it contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
I have read and understand the sections in the Student Handbook regarding Mason High School's Honesty/Cheating Policy. By affixing this statement to the title page of my paper, I am certifying that I have not cheated or plagiarized in the process of completing this assignment. If it is found that cheating and/or plagiarism did take place in the writing of this paper, I understand the possible consequences of the act, which could include a "0" on the paper, as well as an "F" as a final grade in the course.
Rationale
The 2007 B AP prompt focuses specifically on acts of betrayal. Because Dodge’s betrayal of his family played such a central role in the progression and outcome of the play, we felt this prompt would allow us to grasp the essence of the work as a whole. The prompt mentions how “family may betray a protagonist.” Although Buried Child does not single out any one member of the family as the protagonist, several members betray each other, firstly with Halie cheating on Dodge with their own son, and later with Dodge killing the resulting child . The prompt worked best with this main idea, and helped to tie the second theme of the disappearance of the west and the loss of the American dream which, in the play, occurred due to betrayal among the members of the family.
We chose the first excerpt from Act 1 because it portrayed the hidden emotions of the family. Tilden’s symbolic “burial” of Dodge shows a sense of revenge that he, in his mentally deadened state, cannot fully express: in part because he knows that he has also betrayed the family. The empty corn husks also serve to represent the central theme of the loss of prosperity among the family after said acts of betrayal. The second scene we used, at the beginning of Act 3, showed the dysfunctionality that had been set among the family after Dodge’s actions. This dysfunctionality is a key part of how the characters in the play interact with and affect each other. The final scene shows the change throughout the play and the final result: the renewal of the family through Vince, who intends to restart the farm, and Tilden, who literally unearths the family’s dark secret, giving them a chance to reconcile.
For our framework, we decided to mirror the familial situation found in Buried Child, with our own version of a dysfunctional family. It is a modern, and relatable, example of how the high grade expectations of parents affect the child. By utilizing a situation familiar to many, we are able to both engage the audience as well as provide a narrator that will explain the scenes. The choice of puppets was to make a clear indication between the memories of the daughter and the happenings of the play. The usage of puppets as well as live actors creates divergent casts of characters, that allow a command of the different mood that the kitchen table setting and actual play require. Puppets also resolved the issue of casting actors, since the play contained more characters then we had group members. Finally, the usage of puppets mirror the childish nature of the family.
Buried Child
General Synopsis:
The play follows Dodge, Halie, Shelly, Tilden, Vince, and Bradley as the dark secret they share is revealed. Dodge, an alcoholic septuagenarian in ill health living his final days on a decrepit sofa, share a marriage with Halie comprised almost entirely of yelling through different floors of the house. Tilden, their son, lives at home because of his tendency to get into trouble. He often carries in crops from the backyard, but scorned for this because Halie and Dodge insist that nothing has grown there in decades.
When Vince decides to pay his grandparents a visit with his girlfriend Shelly, he is surprised to find his father, Tilden, living at their house. This initial surprise quickly morphs into shock when nobody in his family seems to recognize, or even remember him. Shelly is skeptical about Vince's insistence that they are his family, but stays behind when he goes out to pick up some whiskey for Dodge. It is during his absence that she learns about the secret that drove the family into ruins:Tilden and Halie’s bastard child, dead and buried in the backyard. Shelly also meets their third son, an amputee with a temper named Bradley. All hell breaks loose when Haile returns home arm-in-arm with Father Dewis. Halie, angered by the state of her husband and sons as well as the stranger in the house, fuels a family quarrel by removing Dodge’s blanket. Just as Shelly is about to have a mental breakdown due to the dysfunctionality family, Vince staggers in drunk, pushed to his limits by his relative’s alienation. They drop the act once Halie acknowledges him, and Dodge confesses that he was the one who murdered and buried Tilden’s child.
The damage has been done, and Vince continues to terrorize his family by smashing bottles and kicking Bradley’s wooden leg out of reach. Shelly finally reaches her limit and leaves Vince, while Dodge, sensing his life approaching its end, grants Vince possession of the house. Tilden emerges in the final scene, carrying the unearthed corpse of his son. He lumbers upstairs with it to Halie as her voice is heard: finally recognizing the abundance of crops in their own backyard.
Playwright Background Information:
Born in Illinois in 1943, Sam Shepard wrote almost 50 plays in his lifetime. He also took on the roles of actor and director, sometimes even for his own works. His work, Buried Child, won him the Pulitzer prize in 1978 and was second in a series of plays he wrote on self destructive families. The subjects of his plays were often dark and influenced by his own experiences with his alcoholic father. He also concentrated on the idea of the disappearing west and the loss of the American dream, incorporating heavy symbolism into his writing.
Primary Characters:
- Dodge, in his seventies
- Halie, Dodge’s wife; mid-sixties
- Tilden, their oldest son
- Bradley, their next oldest son, an amputee
- Vince, Tilden’s son
- Shelly, Vince’s girlfriend
- Father Dewis, a Protestant minister
Setting: The living room of a squalid farm home in the 1970s
Key Plot Moments:
- Tilden’s burial of Dodge with corn
- Arrival of Vince and Shelly
- Tilden’s revelation to Shelly about his dead son
- Hailey’s arrival with Father Dewis
- Vince’s drunk return
- Dodge’s confession to the murder of Tilden’s child
- Vince’s inheritance of home
- Tilden’s unearthing of child
Key Quotes:
- Halie: “He can’t look after himself anymore, so we have to do it. Nobody else will do it.” (Shepard 17)
- Dodge: “He’s not my flesh and blood! my flesh and blood’s out there in the backyard!” (Shepard 21)
- Dodge: “You go lay down and see what happens to you! see how you like it! They’ll steal your bottle! They’ll cut your hair! They’ll murder your children! That’s what’ll happen!” (Shepard 37)
- Bradley: “Everything’s turned around now. Full Circle. Isn’t that funny?” (Shepard 49)
- Dodge: “It made everything we’d accomplished look like it was nothin’. Everything was canceled out by this one mistake. This one weakness.” (Shepard 66)
- Vince: “We’d think we were getting farther and farther away. That’s what we’d think.” (Shepard 69)
- Vince: “I’ve gotta carry on the line. It’s in the blood. I’ve gotta see to it that things keep rolling” (Shepard 71)
- Halie: “Good hard rain. Takes everything straight down to the roots. The rest takes care of itself. You can’t force a thing to grow. You can’t interfere with it.” (Shepard 73)
Symbols/Motifs: Crops, rain, buried child, bloodline
Themes: American dream, broken family, failed expectations, strength of familial roots
Stylistic Devices: Shepard uses choppy syntax to mimic normal speech and, more specifically, the erratic nature of the characters who are constantly chattering and fighting with each other. Shepard also utilizes a large amount of symbolism in the play. For example, crops in the play display the family’s journey from death to rebirth: starting from the empty corn husks in the first act to the reveal of a prosperous field of fruits and vegetables in the final scene.
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