Previous
Rain
The vegetables that Tilden finds in the back yard during the rainstorm represent the unearthing of the family’s past secrets. As more of the family’s past is revealed, the family’s barren farm seems to grow more fertile, more prosperous. Once Dodge admits to the murder and dies, Halie observes a full field of crops, indicating that what’s left of the family may have a future just as the farm itself now seems to, and that both the family and the farm may be able to move beyond their sinful past.
Vegetables Quotes in Buried Child
The Buried Child quotes below all refer to the symbol of Vegetables. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Act 1
Quotes
Things keep happening while you’re upstairs, ya know. The world doesn’t stop just because you’re upstairs. Corn keeps growing. Rain keeps raining.
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Act 3
Quotes
Good hard rain. Takes everything straight down deep to the roots. The rest takes care of itself. You can’t force a thing to grow. You can’t interfere with it. It’s all hidden. It’s all unseen. You just gotta wait til it pops up out of the ground. Tiny little shoot. Tiny little white shoot. All hairy and fragile. Strong though. Strong enough to break the earth even. It’s a miracle, Dodge. I’ve never seen a crop like this in my whole life. Maybe it’s the sun. Maybe that’s it. Maybe it’s the sun.
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Vegetables Symbol Timeline in Buried Child
The timeline below shows where the symbol Vegetables appears in Buried Child. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Act 1
...man in his forties, enters, wet with rain and holding an armful of freshly picked corn. He simply stares at Dodge as Dodge’s coughing fit subsides. Dodge asks Tilden where he...
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Dodge commands Tilden to return the corn to where he found out, but instead Tilden dumps the ears of corn on Dodge’s...
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Tilden returns with a chair and pail and begins to husk the corn. Dodge asks Tilden what his plans are for the future, but says that he’s not...
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...notices the husks on the floor of the living room. Halie asks Tilden where the corn has come from, claiming that she can see fields from her bedroom window and that...
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...falls asleep. Tilden steals Dodge’s hidden whiskey, and then covers the sleeping Dodge with the corn husks and sneaks away.
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...he walks with a limp. He notices Dodge on the couch under the mess of corn husks. Bradley laboriously kneels beside Dodge, violently removes Dodge’s cap, and begins to shave Dodge’s...
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Act 2
...forces her to stay. Dodge calls for Tilden, who then enters with an armful of carrots, apparently from out back.
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As Vince grows even more confused by the situation, Shelly offers to take the carrots from Tilden and begins to help peel them. Dodge asks Vince to get him a...
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Act 3
...asks him about a photograph depicting the whole family standing on a farm full of corn and wheat, with Halie holding a baby. Shelly says that Halie looks lost in the...
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...for Dodge, telling him that Tilden was right, and that the field is full of vegetables. Tilden enters, covered in mud, holding the rotted corpse of a small child. He ascends...
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