Paula Vogel's How I Learned To Drive

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Since How I Learned to Drive premiered Off Broadway at the Vineyard Theater in 1997, critics have praised Paula Vogel’s work for “select[ing] sensitive, difficult, fraught issues to theatricalize and to spin them with a dramaturgy that’s at once creative, highly imaginative and brutally honest”, driving the work to winning the 1998 Pulitzer Prize (Dolan). The play’s opening production featured Mary Louise Parker as Li’l Bit and David Morse as Uncle Peck, both of whom brought to life the story of sexual abuse in which a young girl transitions from a victim to a survivor. Morris brought an aurora of “cool and casual sincerity [that was] frightening [to the audience],” while Mary Louise Parker’s performance provided dramatic range “from the cautious, …show more content…

This play is especially important today, when American culture is propagated with sexualized movies and advertisements that have altered how abuse is viewed. Often times, society blames the women for “seducing” the man. Aunt Mary exemplifies this notion, saying Li’l Bit is to blame for her husband’s erotic behavior. Although Li’l Bit is a symbol of rebellion against traditional values, her mother and grandmother propagate early marriage and misogyny, making Li’l Bit seem complacent. For instance, Peck describes the car as a “she” he says, “when you close your eyes and think of someone who responds to your touch—someone who performs for you and gives you just what you ask for—I guess I always see a ‘she’”(35). In her relationship with Peck, Li’l Bit seems to take a different attitude toward traditional gender roles but ultimately they are ingrained in her mentality. Nevertheless, the work itself speaks to female inequality shown through characters telling Li’l Bit how to behave as a woman, “Rage is not attractive in a girl” (36). Although Li’l Bit has never been taught to challenge gender roles, her character does so by surviving her Uncle’s abuse, which translates to a bigger picture of fighting America’s victim culture and sexual

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