How I Learned to Drive

by Paula Vogel

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B.B.

See Cousin Bobby

Big Papa
Li'l Bit's grandfather, the father of her mother and Aunt Mary, is a boorish and offensive man who demands to be waited on by his wife. He boasts about taking his wife away when she was fourteen, despite her family's objections. His wife describes him as a "big bull," always wanting sex in the morning and evening, even coming home for it at lunchtime. Early in the play, the family jokes about Li'l Bit's developing breasts when she is seventeen, and her grandfather makes crude comments about her going to college: "What does she need to go to college for?" "She's got all the credentials she needs on her chest—" and "How is Shakespeare going to help her lie on her back in the dark?"

Cousin Bobby

He has no spoken lines and does not appear onstage, but the actor playing Uncle Peck addresses him in a monologue. In a scene titled "Uncle Peck teaches Cousin Bobby how to fish," Bobby catches a pompano and cries until Peck releases it. Peck then asks if Bobby wants to visit a secret tree house, drink beer, and eat crab salad. Peck's behavior towards Bobby mirrors his treatment of Li'l Bit, as he gives her alcohol, driving lessons, and makes her swear to secrecy. The timeline of this scene is not clear. Bobby is first mentioned early in the play as an example of the family's genitalia-centered nicknames. His nickname is "B. B." for "Blue Balls."

Grandmother

Li'l Bit's grandmother is resigned to serving her husband, Big Papa, which she does begrudgingly. Despite him constantly having sex with her, she has never experienced an orgasm and believes her daughters fabricated the concept. When they discuss sex with her, she becomes almost violently irritable, suggesting her repressed sexual drive. She purposefully makes sex sound dirty, painful, and disgusting to Li'l Bit, hoping to discourage her, despite this tactic failing to prevent her daughter, Lucy, from getting pregnant.

Greg

Greg is a short, shy, and polite boy who often asks Li'l Bit to dance at the sock hop at Francis Scott Key Middle School. She is hesitant to dance with him, fearing that he only wants to do so to watch her breasts.

High School Senior

During a bus trip to Upstate New York in 1978, when Li'l Bit is nearly thirty, she encounters a boy who introduces himself as a senior at Walt Whitman High School. He is awkward, with large ears and a high-pitched voice. After some conversation, she takes him to her hotel room and has sex with him, which reminds her of how Uncle Peck seduced her when she was young.

Jerome

In ninth grade, as Li'l Bit's breasts are developing, Jerome, assisted by a female classmate, pretends to have an allergy attack and collapses. When Li'l Bit bends down to help, he claims his allergy is to foam rubber and then grabs her breast. Later, after gym class, a female classmate examines Li'l Bit's breasts in the shower and, realizing they are real, informs her that Jerome owes her fifty cents from a bet.

Li'l Bit

The play centers on Li'l Bit, chronicling her life from age eleven to nearly thirty-five. It delves into her relationship with her uncle by marriage, Peck, highlighting how their bond becomes increasingly sexual and how Li'l Bit's life spirals into chaos as she grows older. At eleven, despite her mother's concerns about her being alone in a car with Peck, she reassures her mother that she "can handle" him. She enjoys the attention he gives her over the...

(This entire section contains 1237 words.)

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years, posing for his photographs and accepting his gifts. As she hits puberty and her breasts develop, her family makes her self-conscious, and her schoolmates ostracize her, but Peck speaks to her with empathy. When she goes to college, Li'l Bit stops attending classes and develops a drinking problem; distanced from Peck, she gains clarity about their relationship and tells him they must stop seeing each other, which devastates him. In her late twenties, she picks up a high school boy and has sex with him to feel the same power over a younger person that Peck felt. At the end, as she drives away, she sees Peck's image, long dead, in her rearview mirror.

Lucy

See Mother

Aunt Mary

Aunt Mary is Li'l Bit's mother's sister and Peck's wife. Li'l Bit describes her as "beautiful." In a monologue titled "Aunt Mary on behalf of her husband," she addresses the audience, highlighting Peck's positive traits: his willingness to help neighbors, his hard work to provide for her, and his gifts of furs and diamonds. She explains the psychological trauma Peck endured during the war. She acknowledges the relationship between Peck and their niece, Li'l Bit, and places the blame on Li'l Bit: "She's a sly one, that one is. She knows exactly what she's doing; she's twisted Peck around her little finger and thinks it's all a big secret." Aunt Mary's plan is to wait until Li'l Bit leaves for school to reclaim her husband.

Mother

Li'l Bit's mother, Lucy, harbors a deep skepticism towards men. While advising Li'l Bit on how a lady should drink, she warns against certain drinks, saying vaguely, "Believe me, they are lethal ... I think you were conceived after one of those." During a conversation about sex with Li'l Bit, Lucy counters her own mother's fearful warnings, saying, "It won't hurt you—if the man you go to bed with really loves you. It's important that he loves you." She resents her parents for abandoning her when she became pregnant, telling her, "You Made Your Bed; Now Lie on It." Ironically, she does something similar when Li'l Bit, at eleven, wants to go on a long car ride with Uncle Peck. Despite suspecting Peck of having inappropriate intentions, she reluctantly agrees, warning, "All right. But I'm warning you—if anything happens, I hold you responsible."

Uncle Peck

Uncle Peck is the sole family member who treats Li'l Bit with respect while others mock her, and she reciprocates by taking him seriously. His wife, Aunt Mary, claims to understand his struggles but avoids talking to him when he is down. At thirteen, Li'l Bit hears him say that their conversations help him cope and give him the strength to fight his alcoholism. She agrees to meet with him regularly, leading to a quasi-sexual relationship: their meetings must remain secret, and she must have the freedom to "draw the line." All subsequent encounters between them have a sexual undertone. He photographs her in his basement, anticipating the day she will be old enough to pose for Playboy. After she gets her driver's license, he takes her to a restaurant that serves her alcohol. As her eighteenth birthday nears, Peck sends letters counting down the days, expressing his excitement. When he visits her on her birthday and she ends their relationship, he relapses into drinking. "It took my uncle seven years to drink himself to death," Li'l Bit tells the audience. "First he lost his job, then his wife, and finally his driver's license."

Waiter

The waiter at a restaurant on the Eastern Shore is the only character in the play who interacts with Peck and Li'l Bit as a couple. He hesitates to serve alcohol to a sixteen-year-old girl, especially when she orders a martini, but ultimately does so, hoping for a generous tip.

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