The Tooth of Power: A Study of Sam Shepard’s Plays and American Popular Culture

Power is a dominant theme in human relationship and social interactions. This work is an attempt to study the theme of power-struggle in the selected plays of Sam Shepard. It also aims to discuss how Sam Shepard has used American popular culture in his plays to give the individual’s quest for power a sense of multi-dimensionality. The motif of power and the game of power-struggle form the basic structure of his plays. This study focuses on how Sam Shepard integrates American Popular Culture into his plots and characters by juxtaposing the contemporary situation with the folk-lore tradition.