True West

True West by Sam Shepard shows us a snippet of a family’s dynamic in an interesting way. There is no clear statement that the two brothers, Lee-the eldest and Austin-the younger, are jealous of each other but Shepard is able to convey this through their interactions. An interesting way Shepard shows this is through Austin, the more stable and successful brother of the two with a career goal and a family of his own, getting easily lost in Lee’s stories of his life in the dessert. There is an interesting role reversal near the middle end of the play where Lee tries to take on the job of a screen writer and Austin takes up the life of a thief for the night. This enforces the idea that the brother are not happy with the lives that they have and …show more content…
True West takes place in a four night time period with the brothers spending the majority of the time alone together in their mothers’ kitchen after years of being apart. This creates a high stress situation that fuels the play along. The mothers’ house is in California near enough to the desert for Lee to easily come for a visit. The year is around the late 1970’s to early 80’s as a type writer is what is used and the film industry has a focus on westerns. The economics isn’t a main part of the play but it definitely affects the characters personal issues. Lee is a run of the mill low life that is getting by with stealing what he needs. Austin is working hard to earn a living for his family back in the northern, nicer part of California. Saul even though he has hardly any issues and is there to just further the story along can be considered the embodiment of a wealthy higher class induvial. The mother lives in a nice house all on her own proving that she was at least smart with her money unlike the brothers’ …show more content…
It was created to be a snippet of our reality to explain issues of family while focusing on the idea that even though we may think other people have a better life that is not always the case. As with many plays however, the playwright has a tendency to create situations which although close to life are a bit extreme. This can be rooted into the idea even though people in our society lead very different lives, having an extreme situation presented before us allows for a larger number of people to connect some piece of their lives too it. I feel like Shepard, even with creating characters and situations that require the audience to work a bit harder to understand does create a script that is engaging for the audience. The mixture of the absurdity with the relatability at least can give the audience a good laugh with its comedic