In five pages this paper discusses how Sam Shepard presents the American family in his plays Buried Child, True West, and Curse of the Starving. Four sources are cited in the bibliography.
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Father Knows Best. The people in those short comedies certainly knew what was right and how to live. The same people are around today, only they are in color and
not black and white. They make mistakes but cover them up in order to appear normal like those black and white versions of life in America. Indeed, the American family
has been elevated to a point where the intact nuclear family appears to be morally superior to any other prototype. And while many embrace that ideal--trying hard not to fracture
the family--there are others who mock the concept. There is no one moral authority that can be responsible for the way in which families are portrayed. These are remnants
of normalcy as conveyed by the majority. Little by little, ideation built upon ideation creates what is deemed the norm, and while that is generally accepted as fact, artists and
writers have tried to show the American people the absurdity of it all. Sam Shepard, the noted sixties playwright, is one of those people who challenge the concept of normalcy
and ordinary portrayals of American family life. Shepards plays provide examples of vision of the family as it exists, not as people think it should. His plays thus provide an
understanding of family life, much as do shows like The Simpsons and Malcolm in the Middle. Families are not always polite to one another. In fact, the reality is they
are not polite at all, and what Shepard does is to break through the myth of the nice family paradigm and replace it with outlandish stories of families and family
members who have gone awry. Three plays help to exemplify this point . In "True West" the plot surrounds two brothers who are completely different. It is something tried in