Sam Shepard's Buried Child

The Past and Present We all have things we don 't talk about we call them secrets. Secrets can do a lot to a person. Keeping secrets with friends can be fun and or helpful when you need to confide in someone. However secrets can sometimes do more harm than good. They can live inside you and cause endless guilt and pain. In Sam Shepard’s Buried Child is a case where a family of hard work, loyalty, strong family values and morals is turned into complete hatred, regret and sin due to a deep dark family secret. Author Cassandra Clare once said, “Lies and secrets they’re like a cancer in the soul. They eat away what is good and leave only destruction behind” (Clare 1). And unfortunately that’s exactly what lies and dark secrets did to
Psychology Today states that “Deciding not to reveal a hurtful secret is usually easy, while deciding to reveal it is hard. But if it 's a secret you 're withholding from someone with whom you have an intimate relationship with if it need never come up, it still represents a barrier, a schism, between you and that person”( Lickerman 1). And that’s exactly what happens to this family the once strong, honest and loyal relationships they once all had with each other is no longer there. The trust, love affection turned to hate, guilt and bitterness. Shelly confused on what to think of this picture perfect family Vince once told her about. She asks Dodge “What’s happened to this family anyway” (Shepard 90). Dodge who can sense Shelly suspects something isn’t right becomes very defensive. “You’re in no position to ask! What do you care? You some kinda social worker?”(Shepard 90). Having to hide this secret Dodge is always having to be on his toes not being able to live comfortably or have any kind of
Dodge, Halie, Tilden and Bradley are all have this pain and disappointment in each other. They were all hurt so badly that they want to hurt other people just to spread it around to make other people just as miserable as they are. Television character Meredith Grey once said that “It’s one of those things people say. ‘You can’t move on until you let go of the past.’ Letting go is the easy part, it’s the moving on that’s painful. So sometimes we fight it, trying to keep things the same. Things can’t stay the same though. At some point you just have to let it go. Move on. Because no matter how painful it is, it’s the only way we grow” (Grey). The family has no desire in facing the truth because they know pain of facing the truth won’t be easy however; the pain of trying to ignore it ultimately ruins