I'm kind of curious as to what really is in that garbage bag's of Jason's.
Since we never get any definitive answer, and since we never see the contents of the bag, it's clear that Tammy Ryan wants it to be ambiguous, but to my mind it's not just between a pig and a dog.
Yes, Jason says it's a pig, and yes Santos says it looks like a dog, but is he necessarily telling the truth? There's a recurring undertone of cannibalism throughout the play. The whole family cannibalizes itself; there's a reference to cannibals when Jack talks to Maureen about the Peace Corps, and as Maureen says to Jack, " 'them cannibals' are more humane than you are." I'm not saying that it definitively is a chopped up human corpse that Jason got duped into buying, but I think the possibility is there. If nothing else, it just adds another level of surreal creepiness to the whole play. Add to that the fact that when Jason dies, he falls into the roasting pit, and I'd say the cannibalism motif is pretty unarguable.
I just think that's kind of interesting. Also interesting: you can actually check out Jamaica Avenue and 118th Street on Google maps street view (where Jason bought the pig) and oh boyyy is it sketchy. In all the best ways.
I'd be interested to hear what you guys think about the garbage bag thing.
I really love that you pointed this out. I was discussing it with some people before we left and some felt that it was definitely a dog but I really like the ambiguity. I always felt like there was a chance it was a person. Especially because of where he bought it and how he reacted to it; when he was talking about getting duped and not getting a pig I didn't understand his responses, it definitely seemed like more than a dog or a pig was in the bag. He actually seemed troubled by its contents.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think that's really interesting. Like, even the very first reaction to it is Peggy saying it's a "dead body."
ReplyDeleteAnd I like the idea that Jason tries to bring this thing home to feed his family but he's just feeding them their own kind... the way cattle used to be fed ground-up cow-bits.
I also definitely think this is an important point that we need to discuss. In my mind, it would be reaallly difficult for someone not to recognize a dead body when they saw it, unless it was utterly mutilated (like not even the skin was identifiable, which would easily give it away). But the ambiguity and the lack of a definitive answer will put the question in the audience's mind anyways - what exactly is in the bag? What role does it play in the show? It seems like clear "THIS IS A SYMBOL" territory, so what is the symbol's purpose?
ReplyDeleteTo boil it down, I think we just need to discuss why the play is called Pig.