Bridging the Gap between Past and Present: Post-War Effects and Reconciliation in Sam Shepard’s Curse of the Starving Class (1976)

Abstract

The article is an attempt to analyze how traumatic experiences of the past shape the materiality of human conditions in the present in Sam Shepard’s Curse of the Starving Class (1976). Tate’s family thinks that they’re trapped in a curse that causes emotional, financial, and psychological disturbances. In reality, they are unaware of the fact that the curse is a traumatic memory of Weston. Weston as a father and husband remain detached, alienated, and aloof from his entire family. He becomes violent when the war memories remind him of his physical injury that caused impotency. He thinks that he has lost all of his power as a husband, father (upholding patriarchal beliefs), and war veteran. The text, Curse of the Starving Class (1976) has been analyzed through the theoretical lens of Trauma and Recovery (1992) by Judith Lewis Herman. The theory states the stages of recovery from a traumatized past. Also, how the traumatic incidents shatter the concept of a happy family; if not forgotten.