Warren 1 Averi Warren Cheryl Hall THR 100-2D 2-23-2016 My World or Real World In Sam Shepard’s Buried Child, Shepard creates a family of characters that like to be separated from the outside world. This family’s desire of solitude becomes one of the central themes throughout the play. However, there are a few characters that come in and break this form of isolation and reveal that their world is not real. It is the presence of Shelly that causes the rest of the family to fall into complete turmoil due to the fact that they were coming to the reality of how the real world is. As Dodge said, “Things keep happening while you’re upstairs, ya know. The world doesn’t stop just because you’re upstairs” (Shepard 15). Although the family is secluded from the world at their present state, they were not always like this. They were once a happy and prospering family. As Shelly said, “All the kids are standing out in the corn. They’re all waving these big straw hats. One of them doesn’t have a hat” (Shepard 54). While the family was happy at one point in time, it was that baby that was not wearing a hat that ruined it all. As Dodge said, “Halie had this kid see. This baby boy. She had it. I let her have it on her own. All the other boys I had the best doctors, the best nurses, everything. This one I let her have by herself” (Shepard 66). Dodge knew the child not his, but his own son’s. As Dodge said, “All the boys knew. Tilden knew” (Shepard 66). Dodge could not get to accept the fact that his first grandson was his wife’s own son. He was so enraged that he felt the need to murder the child. As Dodge said, “I killed it. I drowned it. Just like the runt of a litter”