Family Ruins: Symbolism and Decay in Sam Shepard’s Buried Child.

Abstract

                Sam Shepard’s Buried Child employs symbolism as a central dramatic device to interrogate the fractured realities of the American family and to examine the disintegration of cultural values in contemporary society. The play presents a domestic setting that appears ordinary on the surface, but gradually reveals unsettling layers of secrecy, denial, and moral decay. Shepard’s symbols range from everyday objects to natural elements resonate with the American audience by transforming familiar realities into unsettling metaphors for cultural collapse. At the heart of these symbolic strategies lies the concept of decay. The erosion of familial bonds, the weakening of patriarchal authority and the suppression of truth are dramatized not through abstract discussion but through material objects, gestures, and silences that embody disintegration. Shepard ridicules the contradictions of a society clinging to myths of fertility, continuity, and the American Dream while concealing its failures and traumas. Ultimately, Shepard’s symbolism transforms the familiar domestic world into a stage where the collapse of values is exposed and the possibility of renewal lingers uneasily, leaving the audience to reckon with a society in decline.