True West Literary Elements

Drama

English

California foothills, 40 miles east of Los Angeles

POV is that of Austin and his brother Lee

Serious, Dramatic, Violent

Protagonist is Austin, Antagonist is Lee

Austin's script is dropped after Lee wins a bet with Saul, the producer and Saul wants Austin to write Lee's story.

Austin agrees to write the script for Lee on the condition that Lee take him into the desert. When Lee admits he isn't taking him into the desert Austin nearly chokes him to death and the brothers face off as the curtain closes.

Austin's giving his keys to his car to Lee foreshadows him giving his brother the keys to his career opportunities with Saul.

It's understated as to why Lee decided to show up at his mother's home after all of these years.

The play is an allusion to the double nature that each person has within in them.

Yapping coyotes create the imagery that the wildness of the desert and nature is impeding on the civilized lives of these men.

The mother's house being torn apart represents how when kids are left alone they become destroyers when they aren't raised to be creators.

Austin has a family, yet paradoxically he wants to leave them and go live in the desert because of his failure at getting his script made.

Austin's attack on Lee parallels Lee's sense of danger and impending attack at the beginning of the play upon his brother.

They coyotes and the crickets in heard in the play are the personification of the minds of the two men being driven insane, and the nature of them becoming primal.

The mother comes in as a temporary comic relief before running out on her boys. Shepard also uses Austin's monologue about his father's teeth in order to reveal the relationship dynamic that they have. The final square off of the brothers being the closing image of the play creates a heightened dramatic state on which the play ends on, leaving the audience to their imaginations as to what will occur next.