In the end he was cheering for the eagle. Weston tells Ella to let Emma go and then there is a bright flash and a loud explosion from outside. Emma and Wesley keep opening the fridge and looking for something thats not therea crystal ball filled with absence. Ella is the mother of the family in Curse of the Starving Class. Foot kicking hard through door. He tells her it was the night's sleep on the table that fixed everything. . 28 Feb. 2023 , Last Updated on May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. The Tates live on a farm where they formerly raised sheep and grew avocados. As the crisis ends, both politicians and the public realize that these shortages were created arti- ficially by oil-producing countries and oil companies in order to boost profits. I was lying there on my back. The curtain falls as Wesley and Weston discuss how to rid the lamb of the maggots that are infesting its digestive tract. Man going insane. While Ella eats her breakfast, Wesley urinates on Emmas charts. Word Count: 958, Curse of the Starving Class begins with Wesley, in sweatshirt and jeans, tossing pieces of a door into a wheelbarrow. Emma goes to the refrigerator and begins to look for her chicken. Los Angeles grew dramatically in the middle of the twentieth century, becoming one of Americas largest cities. Curse of the Starving Class is a 1994 American drama film directed by J. Michael McClary and starring James Woods, Kathy Bates, Randy Quaid, Henry Thomas and Louis Gossett Jr. [1] It is based on Sam Shepard 's 1977 play of the same name. Kauffmann, Stanley. The play ends with Ella and Wesley staring at the lamb carcass. Taylor arrives for his luncheon date with Ella; the children treat him rudely. He then came inside and took a bath, made a big breakfast, drank some coffee, and did everyone's laundry. [5] The cast was as follows: Wesley - Ebbe Roe Smith Ella - Olympia Dukakis Emma - Pamela Reed Taylor - Kenneth Welsh Weston - James Gammon Ellis - Eddie Jones Malcolm - John Aquino Hes slept there before. Bottoms, Stephen J., The Theatre of Sam Shepard: States of Crisis, Cambridge University Press, 1998. They say that they blew up Westons car. Suzie tells a new friend about her older brother. Wesley then leaves and Emma returns, covered in mud after being thrown from the horse and dragged through the mud. He then suggests that they move away to some place safe, like Alaska. He enters, drunk, and begins yelling at his son, Wesley. Shifting unconsciously. Gale Cengage He tells Weston that he has butchered the lamb for food. Property he had there has proved worthless, so he decides to sell the familys home. publication online or last modification online. They menace the family a little and leave. My listening was afraid. publication in traditional print. Jump-start your essay with our outlining tool to make sure you have all the main points of your essay covered. "Curse of the Starving . We dont see Weston for a while, but hes everywhere in this run-down home, or everywhere that violence and destruction have taken place, including in his sons and his wifes consciousness. When he pushes the wheelbarrow off, Ella begins a conversation about menstruation that seems directed at another person, but no one is there. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. I listened like an animal. Upgrade to PRO Sign Up for PRO to view suggested audition pieces! "Curse of the Starving Class - Literary Style" Drama for Students He is a wicked man, a villain in the story. The men tell Wesley, still calling him Weston, that he is to pass on the warning to his father and they leave. As Wesley and Ella argue, Ella speaks of the curse she sees operating on the family. 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. As Ellis talks to them, they learn that Weston owes money to some pretty hard fellas. Wesley offers to take the money to those men, but Ella forbids it. Decals peeling off their wings. Center stage is a table, downstage a refrigerator and stove. When Emma enters, she joins in that conversation, and Shepard creates the sense that this conversation has been going on for some time. New landPlymouth Rock, California, Alaska, or anywhere in betweenis settled and cleared for farming or industry by rugged individualist pioneers; more people move near that newly desirable land, and towns spring up; the towns grow so big and encroaching that the rugged individualists feel crowded by city life (or are unable, economically, to survive) and move on to find new frontiers. . Weston stumbles in, drunker than before, announcing that he has sold the house to Ellis. . Floating. As the play continues we constantly see this theme emphasized: conversations in the kitchen are conducted in a normal tone of voice, but conversations between one person in the kitchen and another person outside the room are almost always furious screaming matches; the refrigerators constant opening and shutting reminds us that inside is an empty place; even the lamb, when brought onstage by Wesley, is placed into a small penned enclosure. Note: When citing an online source, it is important to include all necessary dates. [1] Others consider it part of a quintet that includes Fool for Love (1983) and A Lie of the Mind (1985). Emma explains that her father broke the door down the night before in a drunken rage. Sam Shepard: The Life and Work of an American Dreamer. The cast was as follows: The play was revived Off-Broadway at the Promenade Theatre, running from July 30, 1985 to February 16, 1986. Join the StageAgent community Hello, this is Emma's monologue from Curse of the Starving Class by Sam Shepard. Dad's a foul talking drunk, and Mom is desperately trying to save what's left of their family life. When Ella asks what Emma is carrying, Emma tells her that they are the materials for her 4-H demonstration on how to cut up a frying chicken, and then she immediately starts looking for her chicken in the refrigerator. Shelves: plays, aty20. But Shepard retains the symbolic structure of his earlier plays. Hes plastered and doesnt want to move. Maggie Siff, as the wife of an abusive man, in Shepards story of a broken family. Ella enters, asks why the lamb is back in the kitchen, and tells Weston that she has been at the jail, visiting Emma. Log in here. The citation above will include either 2 or 3 dates. She then decides to steal her mother's car and take up a life of crime, claiming that it is the only way to make a real living in this world. Language. Conservatives, however, decry feminism, blaming it for rising divorce rates and what they see as a breakdown of the nuclear family. While Ella takes steps to get away by trying to sell the old homestead, through a lawyer named Taylor (Andrew Rothenberg), Wesley cant imagine his life as anything other than what it is: he moves and speaks as if bewitched by the awfulness; his existence is a Daddy-dominated dream. Then no sound. 28 Feb. 2023 , Last Updated on May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. New York: St. Martins Press, 1986. Finding the chicken she butchered for her demonstration gone, she storms off. Ella, in curlers, wearing a bathrobe, is angry with Weston for having broken the door during the night, but brightens at finding bread and bacon in the refrigerator. Word Count: 494. Curse of the Starving Class Jan 26 2023 Tells the story of a dysfunctional family living in a farmhouse they are planning to sell in the hopes of moving on to bigger and better things. I could feel this country close like it was part of my bones. Word Count: 1530. eNotes.com, Inc. Watt, Douglas, In the End, Emptiness, in New York Daily News, March 3, 1978. eNotes.com Continue with Recommended Cookies, Home | The Curse Of The Starving Class Monologue (Wesley). But the people who came to Los Angeles did not want to live in the same kinds of overcrowded cities many of them had left back East. I could feel the presence of all the people outside, at night, in the dark. Heart pounding. As his mother fries him some bacon for breakfast, he recalls the images going through his mind as he lay in bed listening to the splintering of the door. The first motif almost overwhelms the play with its omnipresence. Weston then tells them that he has already found someone who will buy the land and pay in cash. Randall argues here that, although Curse of the Starving Class is indeed a more realistic play than the works that preceded it, Shepard retains a use of language in this play that we do not ordinarily associate with realistic drama., "Curse of the Starving Class - Bibliography and Further Reading" Drama for Students Emma returns, still furious, and the three begin an argument about the starving class and whether or not they are part of it. Emma walks out. Alone, Ella stares at Weston asleep on the table; he sits up, they look at each other, she runs off, and he lurches toward the refrigerator, kicking artichokes out of his way. He and Slater, another minor character, only appear at the end of the production when they blow up Weston's car for compensation. Wesley enters and they discuss Weston's laundry and the best way to help the lamb with the maggots. Gale Cengage Vol. Wesley wanders in, dazed and naked, wet from his bath. Dad calling Mom. weve done it again! Dogs. When Weston comes to, he starts up again where he left off, rejecting Wesleys suggestions that they plant avocados on their land. Act Two opens with siblings Emma and Wesley hard at work on tasks that are interestingly, stereotypically gender appropriate: Emma is recreating her charts on how to properly cut a frying chicken (since her brother pissed on them in the last act), and Wesley is rebuilding the door that his father broke down. 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