Analysis of Sam Shepard’s True West Essay
The American dream influences the minds of the young Americans during the decades, and this idea can affect people’s dreams, intentions, and life goals along with their vision of the sense of living. In his True West (1980), Sam Shepard presents his vision of the American dream’s role in developing the society with references to the contradiction of opinions on the Old and New West.
This opposition is accentuated with references to the characters of two brothers, Austin and Lee, who have rather different opinions on the sense of life, but their visions are incomplete because they cannot feel satisfaction in relation to their achievements or lifestyle. Furthermore, in his play, Sam Shepard also discusses the role of a family in developing the personality and in influencing the aspects of the person’s life.
Differences in the behaviors and ideals of two brothers are presented in their combination with rather strict similarities because these persons were brought up in one family. The characters of Austin and Lee can be discussed as the opposite sides of one product of the American culture in its combination of old traditions and new tendencies.
Thus, Shepard develops the topic of the American dream and variety of its aspects with the help of discussing Austin and Lee’s different attitudes to success, glory, wealth, and independence which are the reflections of one approach shared not only in their family but also in America.
The characters of Austin and Lee are depicted as antagonists who change their roles and visions during the development of events in the play. Austin can be discussed as the rational and successful American screenwriter who knows what he wants in this life. This brother is the embodiment of the new America with its ideals and revised vision of the American dream.
Wealth, success, and rationalism are the main concepts of this period, and Austin knows the rules of living in this reality. The problem is in the fact that he cannot accept the visions which are typical for his brother Lee who embodies the Old West oriented to the principles of independence and liberty. Lee does not follow any frames according to which Austin’s life is organized.
Thus, Lee chooses the life of a thief, and he focuses on freedom as the main value in his life which is full of chaos. That is why, the brothers experience significant difficulties while trying to communicate after the years of living apart. Austin and Lee follow different truths in their lives, but their interests are traversed when they become to pay more attention to each other’s activities.
Thus, Lee’s intentions to try the career of a screenwriter can be explained not with references to the idea of destroying the brother’s perfect life, but with Lee’s desire to play a new role which is perceived as the successful variant. Moreover, Austin begins to dream about the life in deserts because this lifestyle seems to be more real than his familiar life with planned projects and scheduled meetings.
As a result, the brothers guess that their approaches to life cannot provide them with the real sense of living. In this case, Shepard rethinks the idea of the American dream with the help of presenting two opposite views on the problem demonstrated by Austin and Lee. Focusing on differences in the brothers’ characters and providing the illustrations for Austin and Lee’s exchange of life roles, Shepard states that there is no only variant to follow a successful life.
Both the brothers begin to experience difficulties when they reject their identity and their true nature. However, it is not important to be rational and ambitions or independent and unstable in order to be happy and achieve the American dream. In spite of the fact that Austin and Lee can feel a kind of jealousy in relation to each other’s lives, they are not successful while trying to perform the activities typical for them.
However, their visions of the world change, and it is possible to speak about the impact of the family on their lives although both the brothers can reject this fact. Austin and Lee choose life in deserts and drinking as the most available ways to avoid the impact of the family and break the circle according to which the life can be framed.
Along with discussing the topics of the American dream and the impact of the family on the people’s life, Sam Shepard’s True West demonstrates the author’s attitude to the real and artificial life with references to the example of the world of art business.
Austin and Lee intend to sell their works not because they try to reveal their aesthetic visions and messages to the public, but because this approach is the right way to receive more money and become successful. Representing the brothers’ conflicts, Shepard also discusses the deeper conflict of the real and artificial worlds as they are provided in the visions of the Old and New West.
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Sam Shepard’s Authentic West Anonymous College
Growing up on a dusty ranch in rural California, a young Sam Shepard was accustomed to a hardened and seemingly fabled nature of the American West, one that seemed to breathe the kind of utter wildness one might only think imaginable in a John Wayne film. Even before he was widely known as one of the greatest playwrights of his generation, Shepard spent the freedom of his adolescent days placing for blue ribbons on cattle roping teams at local rodeos. “The first team roping that I won gave me more of a feeling of accomplishment and pride of achievement than I ever got winning the Pulitzer Prize”, Shepard testified in a 1984 interview, “there’s more drama that goes down in a rodeo than one hundred plays you can go to see. It’s a real confrontation, a real thing going on. With a real audience, an actively involved audience. You should go to a couple of rodeos after you go to the theatre.”[1] Shepard’s westerly upbringing grounded his earliest perceptions of entertainment and performance, perceptions which most likely influenced the bleak poetics of his nearly-surrealist black comedies, narratives that feature rootless characters who live on the outskirts of American society.
Specifically, in Shepard’s 1980 masterpiece, True West ,...
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The desert is where the real West exists, the West as imagined by the American consciousness. The desert is where all the legends live, where all the mythic stories we have written for ourselves have been played out. The suburbs afford safety, but a very antiseptic one. The desert, on the other hand, offers danger and chaos.
Dive deep into Sam Shepard's True West with extended analysis, commentary, and discussion. ... Mark Twain's essay, "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses (1895)," is a classic example of the ...
True West study guide contains a biography of Sam Shepard, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. True West essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of the play True West by Sam Shepard.
The Nature of Myth. As critic Frank Rich pointed out in his New York Times review of the original Off-Broadway production of Shepard's play, " True West is a worthy direct descendant of Mr ...
True West is the second of a series of plays, starting with Curse of the Starving Class (pb. 1976), that break from Sam Shepard's earlier nonrepresentational works such as The Tooth of Crime (pr ...
True West by Sam Shepar Essay. This is an American play written by Sam Shepard. The play seems to be more of a traditional narrative inspired by American life and culture. The play is about contention between two brothers, Lee and Austin, who get reconnected after a period of separation. The younger brother, Austin, acts as a Hollywood ...
True West Summary. These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. Written by people who wish to remain anonymous. Austin is at his mother's house 40 miles east of Los Angeles. He is house-sitting while she is away on vacation, and taking the ...
True West study guide contains a biography of Sam Shepard, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. True West essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of the play True West by Sam Shepard.
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Analysis of Sam Shepard's True West Essay. The American dream influences the minds of the young Americans during the decades, and this idea can affect people's dreams, intentions, and life goals along with their vision of the sense of living. In his True West (1980), Sam Shepard presents his vision of the American dream's role in ...
From a general summary to chapter summaries to explanations of famous quotes, the SparkNotes True West Study Guide has everything you need to ace quizzes, tests, and essays.
True West. Growing up on a dusty ranch in rural California, a young Sam Shepard was accustomed to a hardened and seemingly fabled nature of the American West, one that seemed to breathe the kind of utter wildness one might only think imaginable in a John... True West essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily ...
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Study Guide for True West. True West study guide contains a biography of Sam Shepard, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. True West essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of the play True West by Sam Shepard.
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Join Now Log in Home Literature Essays True West Sam Shepard's Authentic West True West Sam Shepard's Authentic West Anonymous College. Growing up on a dusty ranch in rural California, a young Sam Shepard was accustomed to a hardened and seemingly fabled nature of the American West, one that seemed to breathe the kind of utter wildness one might only think imaginable in a John Wayne film.
True West Full Play Summary. Austin, a neatly dressed screenwriter, house-sits for his mother in southern California while working on a screenplay. His brother, Lee, a scruffy drunk, arrives to the house and pesters Austin. Lee is not there for house-sitting, however, but for stealing. Lee's only interest at first is to rob the houses in his ...