The playwright Sam Shepards matter-of-fact observations about where his characters stand in the world tell us so much about the world they inhabit. She climbs up and stretches out on it as Wesley, completely naked, enters. President George W. Bush proposes an energy policy that stresses greater production, but many citizens mistrust this policy because of Bushs and Vice-President Dick Cheneys ties to oil companies and the energy industry. Hello, this is Emma's monologue from Curse of the Starving Class by Sam Shepard. Word Count: 269. My P-39. What does heartache for the wrong reason (is it ever the right reason?) Wesley finishes the story, how a big cat climbed onto the roof and began fighting with the eagle. DeRose, David J. Sam Shepard. Ella goes to the back part of the house and Emma goes to the refrigerator. Word Count: 1160. He enters, drunk, and begins yelling at his son, Wesley. Taylor enters and talks with Emma, who calls him creepy. Floating. In the end he was cheering for the eagle. Word Count: 958, Curse of the Starving Class begins with Wesley, in sweatshirt and jeans, tossing pieces of a door into a wheelbarrow. Breakdown. Weston then tells them that he has already found someone who will buy the land and pay in cash. Weston begins to tell Wesley about how he began to see the poison in his own father, and how Wesley can see it in him. The second date is today's The lifters have a sound like nothing else. Ella points this out to Emma and Emma storms off, insisting that she is going to take the horse and run away. The "curse," as Ella puts it, of the Tate family is that they have nitroglycerine liquid dynamite running in their blood. Randall, Phyllis R., Adapting to Reality: Language in Shepards Curse of the Starving Class, in Sam Shepard: A Casebook, edited by Kimball King, Garland, 1988. Ellis represents the greed and controlling nature of business owners and the tendency of these people to take unfair advantage of each other and people below them. Decals peeling off their wings. This is Michael's monologue as Wesley Tate, the son of. I could feel myself in my bed in my room in this house in this town in this state in this country. Hes plastered and cant move. Swearing he will kill Taylor and Ella, Weston staggers against the table and falls asleep on top of it. When the bodys defenses fail and intruders are allowed to breed inside the body, the play tells us, the body will soon fall to those forces that threaten it. 6162. Wesley leaves and Emma returns, covered in mud from being dragged by the horse. Emma is enraged that her mother is selling the house and Taylor tries to convince her that selling the property is in their best interest. My listening was afraid. Ella does not tell Emma that she plans to sell the house, but Emma tells Ella that she dreams of moving to Mexico and becoming a mechanic. Wesley enters and they discuss Weston's laundry and the best way to help the lamb with the maggots. Gale Cengage Maggie Siff, as the wife of an abusive man, in Shepards story of a broken family. As Ella calls her name out in a dream, Emma quickly leaves. Emerson is a minor character who represents the men that Weston is in debt to. In the night. Wesley takes the money, offering to deliver it to the people his father owes money to. Wesley then enters and sets up a small enclosure in the kitchen. Curse of the Starving Class "balances dark comedy and biting satire in its look at a family fighting to stay alive," according to the Long Wharf Theatre. Ella has called the police because Weston threatened to kill her, but she doesnt leave right away; Wesley is upset that his mother has summoned outside forces to their home. She has just started her first period, and has several mood swings during the play. She is a small woman wearing a bathrobe and pink fuzzy slippers, and her hair is in rollers. "Curse of the Starving Class - Literary Style" Drama for Students Looking at the lamb carcass, she asks Wesley to help her remember the story Weston always told about the eagle. Even tractors sitting in the wetness, waiting for the sun to come up. "Curse of the Starving Class - Historical Context" Drama for Students Dogs barking down the road. Ella falls asleep on the table and Wesley, dressed in Westons old clothes, enters. It is morning. Then, looking in that bloody fridge, he, like his children, finds nothing: zero! What Price Freedom? The New Republic 178 (April 8, 1978): 24-25. Note: When citing an online source, it is important to include all necessary dates. Emma runs away, only to return covered with mud, thrown by her horse. When the Spanish first explored the area of Los Angeles and the San Gabriel and San Fernando Valleys, the region was arid, almost desert. Mumbling about his experience flying planes in the Second World War, he passes out again. The Castmates Who Make You Care in Beetlejuice and Tootsie. to read our character analysis for Ella Tate and unlock other amazing theatre resources! After this outburst he passes out. 14. Weston enters, even drunker than he was before. Part of the immensely useful Twaynes U.S. In an eerie way he is speaking neither to his mother nor directly to the audience; instead, the audience is allowed to hear his thought processes. Cars line up for gasoline, and President Ford appoints an energy czar to head U.S. energy policy efforts. Emma goes to the refrigerator and begins to look for her chicken. Copyright [2023] Mighty Actor, The Curse Of The Starving Class Monologue (Wesley), DRAMATIC MONOLOGUES FOR TEENS/KIDS (BOYS), DRAMATIC MONOLOGUES FOR TEENS/KIDS (GIRLS). Cutting through the orchard. publication online or last modification online. WESLEY keeps cleaning up the debris, ignoring her. 1. Ella and Ellis argue, Ellis shows her the deed Weston gave him, and Taylor arrives to settle his deal with Ella. Ella returns from jail, exhausted, to find Weston cooking breakfast for Wesley. . Symbolic dramas were popular, and Shepard wrote those kinds of plays in his early career. Scouting me. English. When Wesley tells her that there will not be enough money from the house to move to Europe Ella gets angry that Wesley is ruining her dream. Sam Shepard's coming of age drama about a dirt-poor 1950's-era farm family. Act two opens on Wesley and Emma in the kitchen, where Wesley is building a new front door for the house. Wesley, who has been listening to this story, then asks what happens next. Man throwing wood. Then no moving. Motif Monologues are presented on StageAgent for educational purposes only. The three of them converse tensely until Ella enters. Urban sprawl came to Los Angeles. 1998 eNotes.com As she leaves, Ella wakes up, mistakes Wesley for Weston, and tells him to go after Emma because she's too young to leave on her own. As Ellis talks to them, they learn that Weston owes money to some pretty hard fellas. Wesley offers to take the money to those men, but Ella forbids it. He has done his laundry, which is all nicely folded on the table, and the lamb is back in the kitchen. He tells Weston that he has butchered the lamb for food. The Curse of the Starving Class Community Note includes chapter-by-chapter summary and analysis, character list, theme list, historical context, author biography and quizzes written by community members like you. The tom cat and the eagle start fighting in midair, with the cat clawing out the eagle's chest, and the eagle trying to drop it. . Weston becomes grumpy and refuses to tell the rest of the story. The man tells her that his name is Taylor and that he is looking for her mother.
Emma tells Ella of her dream of going to Mexico and becoming a mechanic. The agriculture drew refugees from the Dust Bowl states during the Great Depression, and poor people thronged to southern California. date the date you are citing the material. By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. I guess we had to be. Kauffmann, Stanley. Emma is with him, and the two of them discuss the potential sale of the house and Ellas relationship with Taylor. Then stopping. He tells Wesley and Emma that he has already purchased the house from Weston and shows them the cash. Ever more land was needed, and the developers set their sights to the farmlands surrounding the city. Last Updated on May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. During their argument, Wesley goes to Emma's posters and begins to urinate on them. 14. Heart still pounding. Even sleeping people I could feel. . Mans voice. Pushing the clothes to the floor, she falls asleep on the table. Ella. We're what the school psychologist calls -- products of a broken home. Their conversation quickly turns to an issue of thematic importance: restlessness and dissatisfaction in heartland America. Some foreigner. In the fridge, she finds some bacon and bread and, as she fries up the last of the familys meat, Wesley thinks about himself and his father and recalls a memory: I was lying there on my back. The prospect of selling the land to real estate developers has a significance far greater than the loss of a mere house, but his family. If there are three dates, the first date is the date of the original Packard disappearing. I could feel the presence of all the people outside, at night, in the dark. Emma asks the refrigerator why it doesn't have any food because they aren't part of the starving class. 28 Feb. 2023
. "A Little Princess" "I love this monologue because of its sincerity. She tells Wesley that just when you think the curse has been beaten, and it has retreated back into the smallest cells of their genetics, it will suddenly reappear in full force. Taylor arrives for his luncheon date with Ella; the children treat him rudely. Foot kicking door. Wesley Tate is the son of the family. Wilmeth, Don B. and Miller, Tice L. "The Cambridge Guide to American Theatre", Cambridge University Press, 1996, Yale Rep Starts Shepard's 'Curse Of The Starving Class' Feb. 3 in New Haven", "Long Wharf Theatre stages 'Curse of the Starving Class' February 13 through March 10", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Curse_of_the_Starving_Class&oldid=1020900821, This page was last edited on 1 May 2021, at 18:23. View All Characters in Curse of the Starving Class, Curse of the Starving Class guide sections. On the one hand, I want you to experience the extraordinary power of Shepards alternately disciplined and unwieldy languagelanguage that pulsates with a unique imaginationbut, on the other, I dont want you to see and hear what Shepard brought to the American stage in less than ideal circumstances. New York: Grove, 1982. . At the end of the play, the skinned lamb carcass symbolically suggests the sacrifice of Wesley, or perhaps Emma, to a malevolent force. They wanted large houses, cars, two-car garages, front and back yards. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. Dads voice. I could hear stock cars squealing down the street. And although Warshofsky cant quite control what hes doing, presumably because of a lack of directionhis castmates are under-directed, too, and they compensate for it by either underplaying or overplaying their rolesif you scrape away the bombast, you can see what Shepard is getting at. . eNotes.com, Inc. Ad Choices. Back down driveway. Ella Tate is the mother of the family. Emma begins a rant about how she raised the chicken and hand fed it every day, then killed and cleaned it and her mother has gone and boiled it. It is shocking to see a live lamb on stage and even more shocking to see it bloody and dead; similarly, the centrality of the refrigerator to every scene and the constant opening and closing of its door reminds us of the theme of hunger and starving, but Shepard refuses to nail down its meaning for us. Bowl states during the play the playwright Sam Shepards matter-of-fact observations about ella monologue curse of the starving class his stand... 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