artichokes out of his way.

The lamb is heard before the lights come up on act 3. Clean laundry is stacked on the table; the room has been swept. Weston, sober, neatly dressed, folds laundry while talking to the lamb. He remembers a time he was castrating sheep and appeased an eagle by throwing testicles up on a tin roof where the bird could get them. Wesley returns, bloodied by Ellis. Weston explains his new outlook: He took a bath, walked around the place naked, cleaned everything, ate a good breakfast, and decided to fix things up. He advises Wesley to do the same.

Ella returns from jail, exhausted, to find Weston cooking breakfast for Wesley. She and Weston argue heatedly. Pushing the clothes to the floor, she falls asleep on the table. Wesley wanders in, dazed and naked, wet from his bath. He looks at his parents; they do not notice him, and he leaves with the lamb. When he returns, he is wearing Weston’s overcoat, tennis shoes, and baseball cap, and he says that he butchered the lamb for food. He begins eating everything in the refrigerator. Wesley assures his father that the gang will get him, and Weston takes off for Mexico. Having escaped jail by having sex with Officer Malcolm, Emma has decided to become a criminal. Ella sits up and screams, and Emma departs.

An enormous explosion is heard. Emerson, a hit man, enters giggling, followed by his partner Slater, carrying the skinned lamb carcass. They have blown up Weston’s car, unaware that Emma was inside. Ella mistakenly calls Wesley Weston. Emerson and Slater warn him to pay up. Wesley protests feebly. Slater drops the lamb inside the fence; laughing, the two men leave, issuing another warning. Ella looks at the carcass, remembering Weston’s story of the eagle. Wesley finishes the story, how a big cat climbed onto the roof and began fighting with the eagle. The eagle carried the cat away, and they fought until both came crashing down. The play ends as Wesley, his back to his mother, concludes the story. Ella stares at the lamb.

The use of the artichokes in Curse of the Starving Class suggests both the realistic and mythic aspects of Shepard’s dramatic strategy. They are realistic as stage properties, but the sheer quantity Weston brings home is obsessive, imparting a meaning beyond their food value. So many artichokes seem bizarre in a household where there is never enough to eat. The set similarly incorporates both realistic and mythic elements. The play’s action demands a working refrigerator and a working stove, yet there are no walls to define the kitchen, and the “ruffled, red-checked curtains” that are “suspended in midair” do little to confirm a concrete reality.

The property requirements suggest a realistic, if not a naturalistic play. Among other things, in act 1, Sam Shepard calls for the table and chairs, the refrigerator and stove, the remains of the broken door, the wheelbarrow, the duffel, the bag full of artichokes, and the live lamb and the collapsible pen. At the end of the play, the skinned lamb carcass symbolically suggests the sacrifice of Wesley, or perhaps Emma, to a malevolent force. Shepard makes similar realistic and mythic use of costumes; the clothes in which Weston is first seen also “fit” Wesley.

The conventions of dialogue in the play again present this mixture. Acts 1 and 2 both begin with characters engaged in simple question-and-answer conversations which serve to provide expository information necessary to an understanding of what has occurred before the start of the play or between the acts. On the other hand, all the members of the family, except for Ella, are given long monologues which are almost soliloquies. In act 1, while Ella prepares her breakfast, Wesley has a long speech in which he recounts his sense of life while lying in bed, not simply on this night but also on many other nights. 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. When he pushes the wheelbarrow off, Ella begins a conversation about menstruation that seems directed at another person, but no one is there. When Emma enters, she joins in that conversation, and Shepard creates the sense that this conversation has been going on for some time. Later, when Weston enters and finds only the lamb at home, he naturally begins a conversation.

Emma, by way of contrast, often shouts her lines from offstage. She appears to be the most bizarre character in the play, yet is also the most “normal” member of the family. She participates in 4-H, she is an excellent student, and she wants to make something of herself. The dramatic means Shepard uses to present her underlines the theme of the play, the failure of communication, the failure of love, the failure of these individuals to nurture their young. Like so much else in Curse of the Starving Class, she is presented realistically, but there is a mythic quality to her character.

Urban Sprawl
The United States, with its vast expanses of land, has always relied on this abundant resource for settlement and growth. The typical pattern involves new territories—whether it's Plymouth Rock, California, Alaska, or anywhere in between—being settled and developed for agriculture or industry by pioneering individuals. As these areas become attractive, more people move in, establishing towns. These towns then expand to the point where the original settlers feel confined by urban life or face economic challenges, prompting them to seek new frontiers.

California, particularly the southern region, serves as an ideal example of this development process. When Spanish explorers first surveyed the Los Angeles area and the San Gabriel and San Fernando Valleys, they found an arid, nearly desert-like landscape. With the advent of large-scale irrigation in the late 1800s, the region transformed, making the desert flourish. It quickly became one of the nation's most fertile agricultural zones, producing crops such as citrus fruits, melons, berries, and even water-intensive produce like lettuce. During the Great Depression, this agricultural boom attracted migrants from the Dust Bowl states, leading to an influx of impoverished people into southern California. Concurrently, land speculators were acquiring properties in Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange, and Riverside counties, preparing them for residential development. They advertised widely, inviting people to relocate to "Sunny California!" to retire or escape the harsh northern climates and unwholesome eastern cities. Consequently, Los Angeles experienced rapid growth in the mid-20th century, emerging as one of the largest cities in the United States.

However, many newcomers to Los Angeles were not interested in living in densely packed urban environments similar to those they had left behind in the East. They desired spacious homes, automobiles, two-car garages, and both front and backyards. Yet, with the city's swelling population, space within Los Angeles became scarce. Developers and speculators responded by constructing subdivisions in the areas surrounding the city. As a result, more land was required, leading developers to target the agricultural lands around Los Angeles. City residents, in search of lower taxes, reduced crime, and less congestion, flocked to these suburban areas, thus giving rise to "urban sprawl" in Los Angeles.

Today, Los Angeles ranks among the largest urban areas globally. Some population geographers consider the U.S. cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, along with the Mexican city of Tijuana, as one vast "megalopolis," a mega-city home to tens of millions of people. The open spaces that once separated these areas have mostly vanished. Likewise, farmland, which was once the region's primary economic asset, has been replaced by other industries. Families like the one portrayed in Curse of the Starving Class find themselves trapped in this transformation, as developers like Taylor covet their land for subdivisions. Both in the play and in reality, such families often fell victim to exploitation, selling their land for far less than its market value, leaving them with no place to go and insufficient funds to support themselves.

SymbolismCurse of the Starving Class heavily employs symbolism, yet Shepard presents it in a striking manner. His symbols—such as the lamb, the damaged door, the refrigerator, and the old car—are so prominent they almost proclaim, "I am a symbol!" However, Shepard uses them more as powerful images rather than straightforward symbols. This play cannot be easily "decoded" as an allegory where the refrigerator represents spiritual hunger, the lamb signifies sacrifice and innocence, and the door symbolizes the barrier between the family and the outside world. While these objects carry symbolic weight, they are intended to impact the audience with their intensity. Witnessing a live lamb on stage, and later seeing it bloody and dead, is startling. Similarly, the constant presence and use of the refrigerator in every scene underscores the theme of hunger and starvation, yet Shepard deliberately leaves its full meaning open to interpretation.

The interplay of symbols serves to challenge the play's realism. Realism, a dramatic style aiming to depict the world on stage as it exists in real life, was not in vogue during the 1960s when Shepard began his career. Symbolic dramas were more fashionable, and Shepard initially wrote such plays. With Curse of the Starving Class, Shepard shifted closer to realism, akin to the social dramas of classic realists like Ibsen. Nonetheless, he retains the symbolic elements of his earlier works. These characters are not intended to be precise reflections of real individuals; nor are we expected to believe this family actually kept a lamb inside and slaughtered it. Much like the stereotypical gangsters whose appearance marks the play's conclusion, these symbols disrupt the illusion of reality. The drama aims to create an impact: while the realistic family narrative appeals to our intellect and emotions, the symbols engage us on a subconscious level.

Motif
Tied closely to the play's symbolic framework is its use of motif, or recurring imagery. Two motifs, closely related in meaning, appear throughout Curse of the Starving Class: images of inside/outside and images of disease and illness. These motifs are clearly connected, as disease represents the intrusion of something that should remain outside the body. However, Shepard does not solely define the family’s curse as a disease; this "curse" also carries historical and supernatural connotations, reminiscent of the curses that plagued the great families in Greek tragedies.

The initial motif nearly dominates the play with its constant presence. The play begins with an image of the breakdown of the barrier between the exterior and interior, symbolized by the shattered front door that permits all manner of undesirable elements to enter the home. As the play progresses, this theme is repeatedly highlighted: conversations in the kitchen are carried out in a normal tone, but exchanges between someone in the kitchen and another person outside the room often escalate into furious shouting matches. The refrigerator's relentless opening and closing serves as a reminder that the "inside" is devoid of substance. Even the lamb, when Wesley brings it onstage, is confined to a small penned enclosure. The interior has become an empty, void place for the family, prompting their desire to escape—Ella dreams of Europe, Emma of Mexico, Wesley of Alaska, and Weston seeks solace in alcohol.

The motif of disease and illness, along with imagery of poison coursing through the bloodstream, complements the inside/outside theme. The family's curse is described by both women as something that festers internally within Weston and Wesley and is unavoidable. Similarly inevitable, and also regarded as a "curse," is Emma's menstruation, which serves as another image of the inside escaping to the outside. Ella cautions Emma that swimming during her period could be fatal. Even the lamb is afflicted by an internal invasion of a harmful force: maggots have infested its digestive system. When the body's defenses fail and intruders are allowed to thrive within, the play suggests, the body will eventually succumb to these threatening forces.

• 1970s: The United States experiences an energy crisis due to oil and gas shortages. Long lines form at gas stations, prompting President Ford to appoint an "energy czar" to oversee energy policy. As the crisis subsides, it becomes evident to both politicians and the public that these "shortages" were artificially created by oil-producing nations and companies to increase profits.

Today: The U.S. is once again facing an energy crisis, but this time it involves electricity shortages and high prices. California experiences "rolling blackouts," and major East Coast cities are cautioned about potential blackouts or brownouts. President George W. Bush suggests an energy policy focused on increasing production, but many citizens are skeptical due to his and Vice-President Dick Cheney's connections to oil companies and the energy sector.

• 1970s: Suburbanization in Los Angeles continues without slowing down. The central city suffers as the middle class moves to suburbs that extend further into what used to be farmland.

Today: Despite facing riots, fires, a significant earthquake, landslides, and flooding, Los Angeles keeps expanding. However, many people are returning to the central city to work in the expanding entertainment industry.

• 1970s: During the "first wave" of feminism, women start demanding equal treatment from the law and their husbands. Laws against marital rape begin to gain traction in many states that had previously resisted them. However, conservatives criticize feminism, blaming it for increasing divorce rates and what they perceive as the "breakdown" of the nuclear family.

Today: Feminism is in its "third wave." While many issues that feminists initially fought for have been addressed legally, feminist groups are now focusing on other concerns. Nonetheless, several issues, such as access to abortions and birth control, equal pay for equal work, and affirmative action, remain unresolved.

• The play Curse of the Starving Class was turned into a film in 1994 by Sam Shepard and Bruce Beresford, with Breakheart Films as the producer. Additionally, Sam Shepard, the playwright, is also an actor and has appeared in more than a dozen major films. Many of these films feature his long-term partner, Jessica Lange, and include titles like Country, Places in the Heart, and The Right Stuff.

Sources
Barnes, Clive, "Shepard’s Starving Class Offers Much Food for Thought," in the New York Post, March 3, 1978.

Beaufort, John, "Off-Broadway: Tale of a Blighted Family," in the Christian Science Monitor, March 3, 1978.

Bottoms, Stephen J., The Theatre of Sam Shepard: States of Crisis, Cambridge University Press, 1998.

DeRose, David J., Sam Shepard, Twayne, 1962.

Eder, Richard, "Theatre: The Starving Class," in the New York Daily News, March 3, 1978, p. C4.

Hart, Lynda, Sam Shepard’s Metaphorical Stages, Greenwood Press, 1987.

Kaufmann, Stanley, "What Price Freedom?" in the New Republic, April 8, 1978, pp. 24–25.

Kissel, Howard, Review of Curse of the Starving Class, in Women’s Wear Daily, March 3, 1978.

Lahr, John, "A Ghost Town of the Imagination," in the Village Voice, July 25, 1977, pp. 61–62.

Lyons, Charles R., "Shepard’s Family Trilogy and the Conventions of Modern Realism," in Rereading Shepard, edited by Leonard Wilcox, St. Martin’s Press, 1993.

Watt, Douglas, "In the End, Emptiness," in the New York Daily News, March 3, 1978.

Further Reading
DeRose, David J., Sam Shepard, Twayne, 1992. This book, part of the highly valuable Twayne’s U.S. Authors Series, offers a brief introduction to Shepard’s life, concise summaries of nearly all of his works up to States of Shock, and explores the themes and techniques that define Shepard’s body of work.

Randall, Phyllis R., "Adapting to Reality: Language in Shepard’s Curse of the Starving Class," in Sam Shepard: A Casebook, edited by Kimball King, Garland, 1988. Randall contends that, although Curse of the Starving Class is a more realistic play compared to Shepard’s earlier works, he maintains a use of language that "we do not ordinarily associate with realistic drama."