The Theme Of Alienation In The Curse Of The Starving Class?

spent a lot of time thinking how to get rid of the house and the farm and to abandon his family. The mother also wants to be free from home and her marriage life. She plans to sell the house and escape to Europe where she thinks dreams can be attainable. Family and home are no longer a source of security, tranquility, and happiness for parents; they are rather a source of misery and meaninglessness for their lives. They are unable to realize the true meaning of their lives and the intimate and warm relationship that characterizes the relationship between a husband and a wife in the space of the house. The father escapes this reality by abandoning his family. He isolates himself and drinks heavily to find himself at the end drowned in debts

The Tate family is depicted with a sense of alienation, loneliness, isolation, selfishness, and loss of love, harmony, and freedom which brings familial disintegration to the family. Shepard mentions in the opening scene of the play "four mismatched metal chairs are set one at each side of the table"(Curse of the Starving Class 135). The four mismatched metal chairs symbolically suggest the state of disharmony the family members live with. Family members do not feel the emotional attachment to each other; they do not feel the attachment to their own land on which they live. Weston is planning to sell the house and the farm and to escape his creditors to Mexico. He never cares what would happen to his family members after he sells the family's house and farm. Ella, the mother character, is also planning to sell the house and the farm to Taylor and escape her miserable marriage life to Europe. The husband and wife are unable to realize the emotional attachment to each other and the meaning of their life under the marriage bond. They lack the intimate and warm relationship that characterizes a relationship between a husband and a wife in the space of their house. The father escapes his reality by going out and drinking heavily in bars while the mother emotionally compensates herself by befriending and accompanying a Lawyer. They are

He is the protecting wall behind which the family hides to secure their lives from any outsider's attack or any probable threat. On the contrary, Weston has become the source of threat for his family. Mokbel states" patriarchal authority which is the base of the traditional family fails here [in Curse of the starving Class] because of the fathers role is opposite to that of the traditional "breadwinner" father" (19). Furthermore, David De Rose states that "[Weston] threatens the safety of his family, and leaves them defenseless" (qtd. in Mokbel 20). The family seems better off without the father character. He is no longer performing his protective role toward his family. The traditional image of a home as a shelter and a site of protection is destructed by Weston's violence (Adler 112). That is; Weston makes his appearance by breaking the main door of the house which his son Wesley tries to repair throughout the play. The door was broken by Weston at midnight in a drunken fury. This aggressive and unjustifiable fatherly act confirms that the patriarchal figure of the family has become a threat and destructive force to his family rather than a protective wall. Weston's wife becomes terribly scared by her husband violence at midnight. She thinks that somebody else was trying to break into the