Gale Cengage Something indescribable. Me, the enemy. Monologues for Females: THAT DAY (adapted from Inside/Out by Michael Scanlon). New York, NY, Linda Ray . Can you send me character analysis of characters of Sam Shepard's play "Curse of the Starving Class"? My P-39. If Noel Cowards character were chic and elegant then Sams were real rootless and raw and I like it! The plays action demands a working refrigerator and a working stove, yet there are no walls to define the kitchen, and the ruffled, red-checked curtains that are suspended in midair do little to confirm a concrete reality. He advises Wesley to do the same. At times, Wesley loses patience with his family members, as evidenced by his lack of sympathy for his sister's ruined 4-H project, to which he responds by urinating on her charts and suggesting that his sister do something truly useful with her time. Decals peeling off their wings. The central city suffers while middle-class people flee to suburbs that sprawl ever farther into what was once farmland. Ella is the mother of the family in Curse of the Starving Class. eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. Foot kicking door. Act 2 begins with the sounds of hammering. "Curse of the Starving Class - Literary Style" Drama for Students Watt, Douglas, In the End, Emptiness, in New York Daily News, March 3, 1978. Mom crying soft. He looks at his parents; they do not notice him, and he leaves with the lamb. Weston explains his new outlook: He took a bath, walked around the place naked, cleaned everything, ate a good breakfast, and decided to fix things up. Whenand where doesTheCurse of the Starving Class take place? Ella enters, asks why the lamb is back in the kitchen, and tells Weston that she has been at the jail, visiting Emma. Breakdown. Tense. 2023 . SymbolismCurse of the Starving Class uses symbolism a great deal, but Shepard uses it in a jarring way. This play cannot be decoded as an allegory in which we can reduce the refrigerator to a representation of spiritual hunger, the lamb to a representation of sacrifice and innocence, and the door to a representation of the barrier between the family and the outside world. However, many of the same issues (such as access to abortions and birth control, equal pay for equal work, and affirmative action) still remain to be resolved. Wesley then leaves and Ella begins to give a motherly talk on what happens during menstruation and what cannot be done during the cycle. Ella returns with groceries and says she knows there is a curse working against family. I listened like an animal. She appears to be the most bizarre character in the play, yet is also the most normal member of the family. Log in here. Wesley then enters and sets up a small enclosure in the kitchen. [2] The screenplay was written by Bruce Beresford, who also served as an executive producer. Curse of the Starving Class is a play by Sam Shepard, considered the first of a series on family tragedies. The eagle carried the cat away, and they fought until both came crashing down. Finding the chicken she butchered for her demonstration gone, she storms off. From a mile off I could tell it was the Packard by the sound of the valves. He begins eating everything in the refrigerator. Looking at the lamb carcass, she asks Wesley to help her remember the story Weston always told about the eagle. Whys he waiting to get out? Note: When citing an online source, it is important to include all necessary dates. Some foreigner. . Ellis is a greedy charlatan who tries to cheat the family out of their house. Word Count: 1160. New York: Twayne, 1992. . . men who came back from the war, had to settle down, raise a family and send the kids to schooland they just couldnt handle it. That was what Shepard knew as a boy. "Curse of the Starving Class - Compare and Contrast" Drama for Students [1] Others consider it part of a quintet that includes Fool for Love (1983) and A Lie of the Mind (1985). Also inevitable, and also treated as a curse, is Emmas menstruation (which is another image of the inside escaping to the outside). From a mile off I could tell it was the Packard by the sound of the valves. When the Spanish first explored the area of Los Angeles and the San Gabriel and San Fernando Valleys, the region was arid, almost desert. He is uninterested in the other crimes that Wesley and Ella accuse Taylor and Ellis of, stating that he is only there to tell Ella about Emma. publication in traditional print. During their argument, Wesley goes to Emma's posters and begins to urinate on them. ELLA ( after a while) You shouldn't be doing that. Swearing he will kill Taylor and Ella, Weston staggers against the table and falls asleep on top of it. Telling Wesley how to treat the maggot-infested lamb, Weston dumps his laundry from the duffel onto the table for Ella to wash. Start your 48-hour free trial to get access to more than 30,000 additional guides and more than 350,000 Homework Help questions answered by our experts. Sam Shepard: Yes, Yes, Yes. Esquire 93 (February, 1980): 79-86. Create and promote branded videos, host live events and webinars, and more. I could feel myself in my bed in my room in this house in this town in this state in this country. She is a small woman wearing a bathrobe, pink fuzzy slippers, hair in curlers. The Word Is My Shepard. In New American Dramatists, 1960-1980. . First gear grinding. weve done it again! Their conversation quickly turns to an issue of thematic importance: restlessness and dissatisfaction in heartland America. weve gone and left everything up to the old man again! He pulls out the $1,500, telling them that is the amount that Weston owes to some pretty hard fellas. Wesley begins a monologue narrating exactly what he saw and heard happen from the night before. Episode 10: Sam Shepards Curse of the Starving Class Sam Shepard wasnt just a playwright but an actor himself, fully into the arts. His symbolsthe lamb, the broken door, the refrigerator, the old carjump out at the viewer and almost announce I am a symbol! But Shepard uses them less as true symbols than as evocative images. On the other hand, all the members of the family, except for Ella, are given long monologues which are almost soliloquies. Beaufort, John, Off-Broadway: Tale of a Blighted Family, in Christian Science Monitor, March 3, 1978. Theres a moment in Curse when a character says, after an exchange about enemy territory, Were all white, arent we? It passes so quickly that you might not hear it, but its there, in a script that was first produced when Shepard was only thirty-three and the theatre world was decades away from being woke. Thats what I treasure about Shepard: his matter-of-fact observations about where his characters stand in the worldobservations that also tell us so much about the world they inhabit. Michael and me -- well, we're closer than most brothers and sisters. I could feel myself in my bed in my room in this house in this town in this state in this country. As Ella calls her name out in a dream, Emma quickly leaves. In addition, playwright Sam Shepard is himself an actor and can be seen in over a dozen wide-release films (many with his longtime partner Jessica Lange), including Country, Places in the Heart, and The Right Stuff. Word Count: 713. Weston tells Ella to let Emma go and then there is a bright flash and a loud explosion from outside. Having escaped jail by having sex with Officer Malcolm, Emma has decided to become a criminal. The citation above will include either 2 or 3 dates. New York, NY, Accessibility Statement Terms Privacy |StageAgent 2020. The citation above will include either 2 or 3 dates. Barnes, Clive, Shepards Starving Class Offers Much Food for Thought, in New York Post, March 3, 1978. 2003 eNotes.com When Wesley tells him that Ella is thinking of selling the house, Weston explodes and threatens to kill her and Taylor. 28 Feb. 2023 , Last Updated on May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. Curse of the Starving Class premiered Off-Broadway at the New York Shakespeare Festival, on March 2, 1978, presented by Joseph Papp. The property requirements suggest a realistic, if not a naturalistic play. I could smell the avocado blossoms. Makes me feel like were someone else. As Wesley and Ella argue, Ella speaks of the curse she sees operating on the family. The lights come up on Wesley, building a new door, and Emma, in a Western shirt, jodhpurs, and riding boots, making new charts for her demonstration. Closely connected to the symbolic structure of the play is its use of motif, or a recurring image. Start your 48-hour free trial to get access to more than 30,000 additional guides and more than 350,000 Homework Help questions answered by our experts. New York: St. Martins Press, 1986. She then pulls out a wad of cash and tells him that she's taking their mother's car and going into crime. nada! Emma hates living with her family and repeatedly announces plans to leave home. They were Second World War veterans, he said, who were disappointed in a way that they didnt understand. Emma enters, carrying her riding crop. Christian H. Moe. Word Count: 89. Then I heard him pull the brake. 28 Feb. 2023 , Last Updated on May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. Ella finally enters and says that she is going on a business luncheon with Taylor. She then becomes angry with the refrigerator and slams it shut. Then WESLEY'S mother, ELLA, enters slowly from down left. 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