Buried Child

If the reader isn't familiar with the actions of a dysfunctional family, they may be confused as to what, and/or why, the characters are behaving in such ways. If you look at dysfunctionality (I’m not sure if that's a word) from a medical stance, it's caused by a chemical imbalance within the human brain, resulting in an abnormal sense of the way of life. To make that more simple, they live by different rules; sometimes, no rules at all. Take the relationship between Tilden and his mom for example. They broke quite a few moral codes "sane" or "normal" families and people live by. If you look at it from a human sociology outlook, dysfunction within a family as a unit can be caused by one "unusual" incident between family members as a means of coping with the action(s), or the therein result of the action(s). I believe as a result of the relation between Tilden and Hailey, everyone – meaning Tilden, Dodge, Bradley, and Hailey – formed their own world within the physical play as a way to handle the offset of norm within their lives, and the secret they plan to take to the grave. Think about it.

When the play first starts off, you have Dodge ignoring most of what Hailey is saying, and Tilden who is in his own little world. When Vince and Hailey come into the picture, they too are ignored and shunned by Dodge and Tilden. It isn’t until Vince and Hailey embraces the psychotic ways of the other two men that they are allowed into Dodge and Tilden’s world. They first have to accept that off ways about them before they can interact with them. This allows for control in Dodge and Vincent’s worlds. They may not be able to control the actions of the people, but they can control the conversation, and whether or not to acknowledge the people around them.

They refuse to acknowledge any change in the world around them until they share their secret with all the people intruding on their territory. For example, at the begging of the play, Hailey said that there was nothing outside, just rain. However, Tilden was coming in with armfuls of corn and carrots. It isn’t until the end of the script after the cat’s been let out the bag, and the child has been dug out of the ground, that Hailey actually acknowledges the bountiful fields outside the window. Whether or not they are actually there, I’m unsure. However, she did come out of her own little world after she let her secret be known to the guest of the house.

In conclusion, I would say that this play is a mixture of truth & deception and realism. If there’s a word for that then it’s unknown to me. Truceptism. That’s what I would call it if it needed a name.