August: Osage County Lesson Plan

Discuss the quote from Robert Penn Warren that prefaces the play. What does the quote communicate about the nature of parent-child relationships?

The quote casts the parent/adult-child relationship in an unusual light, stating that parents lose a part of themselves when they have a child, so they impose this loss on their children for the rest of their lives. This is why parents urge their children to come back home and visit them—not because of "love," but because of "a kind of blood greed." The quote is discussing the parent/child relationship at a primal level, at which there is desperation, greed, obsession, and revenge instead of the love, pride, and happiness that...