Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing

Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing Analysis

The play opens with Zachary asleep on Big Joey's couch. He has just slept with Big Joey's wife, and when Big Joey finds out he uses it to blackmail Zachary into helping him to get his radio business going. This opening scene contrasts starkly with the closing scene where Zachary has woken up from his bad dream, which was the plot of the play, to realize he never slept with Big Joey's wife and the women of the reservation did not start a hockey team. The final image is Zachary standing naked holding his son up who is also without clothes.

Highway's play takes us through a journey with a group of misogynistic men, who sleep with one another's wives and have children they don't claim all while being willing to cheat one another to get ahead. The point is that this view of the American Indian man must be contrasted with the final image of a man with his child. Everything that was dreamed is possible; it could become reality or a different future could be created. The opportunity to have a new future is created from the child's infancy. To know values and morals is to live and love in a way that accepts the rights of men and women equally.

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