Sam Shepard

Sam Shepard

Sam Shepard is a contemporary American playwright and actor whose plays deal with modern social concerns. He was influenced by Beat Generation writers such as Allen Ginsberg who rebelled against a society of economic affluence and social conformity following World War II. Insatiable consumerism became a central trait of postwar life, "driven by the mass media, advertising, and generous loan terms" ("Sam Shepard"). From this atmosphere the Beat Writers came forward to declare their alienation from what they saw as the "creed of suburban conformity in favor of what Ginsberg called ‘the lost America of love’" ("Sam Shepard"). It was from this generation of writers that Shepard was inspired to address the issues of alienation from society, loss of identity and the deterioration of the family structure.

The themes explored by Shepard may be described as "the picture of America torn between the idealistic values and painful realities of a frontier paved over by a parking lot" ("Sam Shepard") . In other words, progress and change are destroying the collective values of America as the former replaces the latter. Having grown up in the 50’s and 60’s, a period of social metamorphosis, Shepard must have observed for himself that the apple-pie family of popular culture was far different from the changing face of society’s real life family whose members struggle for identity and connection. As television presented an idealization of suburban family life, reality suggested otherwise.

Shepard is known for his oblique story lines, slightly mysterious characters, and use of surreal elements with images of popular culture ("Sam Shepard"). The majority of his plays deal with the betrayal of the American dream, the search for ...

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...iculate enough to compose his thoughts, and Austin does not have the adventurous spirit to survive in the desert. Therefore, they realize their identities are not found in each other.

The characters in each of these plays grapple for identity and connection, which Shepard recognizes as true in modern American families. As they assert themselves, family tension is the result and the Brady Bunch dream is only that: a dream.

Works Cited

Gilman, Richard. Sam Shepard: Seven Plays. Introduction. New York: Bantam Books, 1981. xi-xxvii.

"Sam Shepard." Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 99. Microsoft Corporation. 1993-1998.

Shepard, Sam. Sam Shepard: Seven Plays. New York: Bantam Books, 1981.

Williams, Megan. "Nowhere Man and the Twentieth-Century Cowboy: Images of Identity and American History in Sam Shepard’s True West." Modern Drama. 40 (Spring 1997): 57-73.