How I Learned To Drive By Paula Vogel

How I Learned to Drive: A Critique of Abuse and Morality in Society Child abuse is regarded as one of the most heinous crimes in society. During the past few decades, social awareness regarding child abuse has reached a new high. In the award winning play How I Learned to Drive, Paula Vogel explores the subject of child abuse through the life of Lil Bit. In the play, Lil Bit recalls her journey to adulthood through a broken chronology revolving around driving lessons. The play is centered on the increasingly intimate relationship between Lil Bit and Uncle Peck through her teenage years. The play provides a complex and realistic insight into the relationship between child and abuser, as well as the enduring effect the abuse creates on the child.

In society, only certain sexual crimes seem to be denounced, while many others are chosen to be ignored. The play uses the juxtaposition of Lil Bit and her grandmother in order to illustrate the way in which different circumstances that embody the same moral corruption are regarded differently within society. When recalling the union between Lil Bit’s grandparents, Lil Bit’s mother states, “you were a child bride when Big Papa came and got you” (Vogel 1678). The play compares, Lil Bit’s grandmother’s relationship with Lil Bit’s own relationship with Uncle Peck. The wording “got you” used in this scenario seems give a tone of coercion and lack of romance involved around Lil Bit’s grandparents union. The nature of this relationship is then contrasted with the seemingly tender relation between Lil Bit and Uncle Peck. It is important to note that, contrary to some people’s claims, the play does not condone pedophilia. By portraying the relationship between Uncle Peck and Lil Bit in a tender way, the play allows the public to recognize the wrong of this relationship not based on an evil character, but rather because of the act it self. Pedophilia is condemned because children are not emotionally or physically mature for a sexual relationship. It is immoral to corrupt a child’s innocence. However, the sexual consummation between Big Papa and Grandma does not receive the same condemnation and stigma as Lil Bit and Uncle Pecks relationship even though the same moral principles are violated. The play uses this contrast to highlight the hypocritical nature of society’s perceptions as they allow certain immoralities to prevail in society. The play uses the contrast between the coercive undertones in the grandparents’ relationship against the romantic ones in Lil Bit’s relationship with Uncle Peck to highlight the way that people’s condemnation of a