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The Idea of Secrecy and the Damage It Causes in Plays and Film

Good Essays

Throughout several plays and films analyzed in this class, the idea of secrecy and the damage that happens from it is highly involved. Secrecy is the habit or practice of maintaining secrets or maintaining privacy or concealment. This is a key part to many plays and movies because keeping a secret can have severe consequences. Some works that I have analyzed in this class that have this relevant idea are as follows: Buried Child, How I Learned To Drive and Suddenly, Last Summer. All of these works show that hiding the truth and keeping secrets can do damage to other people. This damage can be physically, emotionally or mentally. In Buried Child, the idea of secrecy is present throughout most of the play. This is because of the child who was buried in the back of the house. Dodge drowned this child to death. The real secret of this play starts with the affair that Halie and Tilden had with each other, causing the birth of the child who is buried in the back of the house. This secrecy of the buried child in the backyard tears apart the family. In the beginning, Tilden says, “I had a son once, but we buried him” (37). When Tilden says this, it shows me that there is some sort of secret that the reader doesn’t know about a son that Tilden had. The secret ends up being that Tilden and Halie, Tilden’s mother, conceived the child. In the play, Dodge says, “It wanted to pretend that I was its father. She wanted me to believe it. Even when everyone around us knew. Everyone. All

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