What Do I Read Next?
- Over a career exceeding three decades, Sam Shepard has crafted numerous one-act plays, full-length dramas, and screenplays. Some of his notable works include The Tooth of Crime (1972), Curse of the Starving Class (1977), True West (1980), Fool for Love (1983), and A Lie of the Mind (1985). These plays are compiled in collections such as Sam Shepard: Seven Plays and The Unseen Hand and Other Plays.
- Buried Child mirrors the plots, characters, and themes found in some of the most renowned plays in Western dramatic literature. For example, consider reading Sophocles' tragedy Oedipus Rex (c. 430-425 B.C.), which deals with themes of murder and incest in ancient Greece.
- Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (1949) is a modern tragedy that tackles themes of mediocrity and the struggle with the American dream. Buried Child reflects many similar themes, such as disillusionment, delusion, and broken aspirations.
- Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1962) presents a dark and twisted depiction of a middle-aged couple's conflicts and fantasies involving their imaginary son.
- Like many of Shepard's works, Buried Child incorporates elements from popular myths and legends. The play is rich with symbolism and characters that evoke figures from the Bible, childhood tales, and myths from various cultures. For an in-depth study of the importance of myths in human society, consider Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949). Campbell analyzes stories from Oedipus the King to Beauty and the Beast, and discusses the archetypal hero that resonates across human cultures.
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