Curse of the Starving Class | Style
Symbolism
Curse of the Starving Class uses symbolism a great deal, but Shepard uses it in a jarring way. His symbols—the lamb, the broken door, the refrigerator, the old car—jump out at the viewer and almost announce ‘‘I am a symbol!’’ But Shepard uses them less as true symbols than as evocative images. 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...
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