The Long Christmas Ride Home Play Analysis

The Long Christmas Ride Home by Paula Vogel is a play about a family of five, and their experience on Christmas day, as well as the future of the three children. I believe that this was meant to take place in the early-sixties to the late-seventies because of the mother’s housewife role in the play, and the way the grandfather would accept the mistreatment of his own daughter from her husband, but would stand up for the mistreatment of his grandson—a clearly sexist view that would not be accepted in today’s society. Another hint about the time period is that Stephen died from a disease contracted during sex, one that eventually killed him. This makes me think that this was before or during the AIDS epidemic. The children are Rebecca, age twelve,

There were several elements of the script that impacted me, but their father’s affair with Sheila is what stood out to me the most. We are able to know his thoughts and feelings throughout the play, and he spends the majority of his time thinking about Sheila rather than his wife and children. The parents do not see the impact they have on their children, who will grow up to reflect their parents in different ways. The father’s affair is not secret, but nobody in the family says it out loud either. The children know, as does their

I liked that Paula Vogel did not hold back and let all of the emotions of the play loose. I am anticipating that I will enjoy the play. I personally think I would like it more if the characters were portrayed by only people rather that people holding puppets, but they have too much symbolic meaning to be left out. I think the puppets are meant to resemble the fact that we really have no control over our own lives as children. The release of the real people from the puppets into adults symbolizes the freedom from their