Sam Shepard Essay -- Biography Biographies Essays

surface-to-air missile Shepardsurface-to-air missile Shepard is a contemporary the Statesn playwright and actor whose plays deal with advanced(a) affectionate concerns. He was influenced by Beat Generation writers such as Allen Ginsberg who rebelled against a society of economic affluence and social conformity followers World War II. Insatiable consumerism became a central trait of postwar life, driven by the mass media, advertising, and generous loan terms (Sam Shepard). From this atmosphere the Beat Writers came forward to decl be their alienation from what they saw as the creed of suburban conformity in favor of what Ginsberg called the lost America of love (Sam Shepard). It was from this generation of writers that Shepard was inspired to address the issues of alienation from society, freeing of identity and the deterioration of the family structure. The themes explored by Shepard may be described as the picture of America torn between the idealistic values and agonising real ities of a frontier paved over by a put lot (Sam Shepard) . In other words, progress and change are destroying the collective values of America as the former replaces the latter. Having grown up in the 50s and 60s, a period of social metamorphosis, Shepard must have observed for himself that the apple-pie family of common culture was far polar from the changing face of societys real life family whose members deal for identity and connection. As television presented an idealization of suburban family life, reality suggested otherwise.Shepard is cognise for his oblique story lines, slightly mysterious characters, and use of surreal elements with images of popular culture (Sam Shepard). The majority of his plays deal with the betrayal of the American dream, the reckon for ... ...iculate enough to compose his thoughts, and Austin does not have the adventurous affection to survive in the desert. Therefore, they realize their identities are not found in each other.The characters i n each of these plays grapple for identity and connection, which Shepard recognizes as aline in modern American families. As they assert themselves, family tension is the outgrowth and the Brady Bunch dream is only that a dream.Works CitedGilman, Richard. Sam Shepard cardinal Plays. Introduction. cutting York Bantam Books, 1981. xi-xxvii.Sam Shepard. Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 99. Microsoft Corporation. 1993-1998.Shepard, Sam. Sam Shepard Seven Plays. New York Bantam Books, 1981.Williams, Megan. Nowhere Man and the Twentieth-Century Cowboy Images of Identity and American news report in Sam Shepards True West. Modern Drama. 40 (Spring 1997) 57-73.