description Buried Child Overview
Buried Child is a 1978 play by American dramatist Sam Shepard and the winner of the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Set in an Illinois farmhouse, it depicts a deeply dysfunctional family whose members conceal the death and burial of an infant, a secret that has poisoned their relationships and sense of identity. Shepard combines domestic realism, dark humor, and mythic imagery to examine family disintegration, violence, and the collapse of rural American ideals.
insights Ranking position
Buried Child ranks #44 of 203 in the Play ranking, behind The Book of Mormon, ahead of The Homecoming.
help Buried Child FAQ
What family secret is buried in Buried Child?
The household has concealed the killing and burial of an infant born to Halie and her son Tilden. Dodge says he drowned the child and buried it in the field, turning the literal crime into the source of the family's long decay.
Why does Vince's family fail to recognize him?
Vince arrives expecting a family homecoming, but Dodge and Tilden initially treat him as a stranger. The failure of recognition deepens the play's themes of broken inheritance, erased identity, and a family unable to acknowledge its own past.
What does the corn brought into the house symbolize?
Tilden carries in corn from fields that Dodge insists have produced nothing for years. The impossible harvest suggests that the suppressed secret is returning and that the land may revive only when the buried truth is exposed.
Why was Buried Child important to Sam Shepard's career?
Buried Child won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and established Shepard as a major American playwright. Its Illinois farmhouse setting turns the idealized family and fertile heartland into images of violence, failure, and damaged inheritance.
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