True West: Sam Shepard's Use of Setting and Props

Even before the reader delves into the context and dialogue of the play, Shepard is sure to draw one's attention to the importance of the props sounds of the play. He takes care to explain the difference between real and Hollywood coyote howls. The sounds the coyotes make in this play are more realistic and maddening.

The costumes that Shepard gives to his actors reflect the personality of the characters quite nicely. Austin he decorates formally , as Austin is the most level headed of the characters in the play. Lee is dressed lazily and without style, which reflects his rough and tumble nature. And the intriguing Saul is dressed almost eccentrically. Saul's high status allows for this, which gives him an edge on the other characters, as he is already successful. The mother is dressed, as Shepard says, "conservatively" which goes along well with her nearly apathetic reaction to the wild scene that takes place at the end of the play.

As the characters change and suffer as the play goes on, so do the props. For instance, when the play begins, the house is in pristine condition. It is a typical, clean, suburban California home that is being looked after by a screenwriter who is already hard at work when the audience is introduced to him. The houseplants are mentioned several times and are key symbols that stand for the order that Austin and his mother live in, and the order of Western California. Austin has been asked to take care of them and does so, but after the arrival of Lee, Austin questions his own ideals and identity and in his revelations, neglects the houseplants so that they finally die along with his lifestyle at the end of the play. Mom misses the houseplants because she missed the order of her home life, and comes home to find the plants dead. This also signifies the death of her lifestyle.

As things go haywire for Austin at his brother's interference in his career, the audience should notice the change within the house and the sounds outside of it. The crickets become abominably loud and the coyotes madly distracting. The plants slowly die, the kitchen spirals into a state of disarray, and the typewriter, the one thing that kept Austin stable and focused on his work, is eventually destroyed after Lee tries his hand at screenwriting and becomes frustrated with it.

The destruction and decay of the props corresponds beautifully with the destruction and decay of Austin and Lee. Both of their lives become infected by the presence of one another. Austin is annoyed at Lee's brutal attitude toward life while Lee cannot understand Austin's tight fisted ideas. Order is thrown into chaos when Lee's screenplay idea is chosen over Austin's and the two characters switch status for a while. The crazier Austin acts, the more defunct the kitchen becomes, and by the time Mom comes home, the typewriter is smashed on the floor, the phone ripped from the wall, beer bottles are strewn everywhere and all of her plants are dead. Yet, orderly Mom does not seem to have much of a reaction to it. Even when Austin nearly strangles Lee to death with the telephone cord, she does very little to stop it. Whether or not she'd have acted that way if she had returned and the house was as she'd left it is up to the audience and reader to decide.

Shepard's choice in having his stage props coincide with the characters and the direction of the play was interesting and even inspiring. It is difficult for a writer to make use of his or her environment so cleverly, and I believe that Shepard did an outstanding job with such an idea.