How I Learned to Drive Analysis

The Play (Survey of Dramatic Literature)







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How I Learned to Drive Dramatic Devices (Survey of Dramatic Literature)

How I Learned to Drive is staged in a style that is both presentational (includes the audience) and representational (excludes the audience). At times characters narrate action directly to the audience while other scenes are presented in almost cinematic realism. Told in a series of nonchronological cross-cuts, the actions of Li’l Bit, Uncle Peck, and the family are examined over a period of several years. This blurring of temporal chronology allows the audience to see into the deliberations and consequences of the characters’ actions in a unique way. The play is a memory told in a series of flashbacks and flash-forwards. The audience sees the end of Li’l Bit’s relationship with Uncle Peck before it has even begun. The audience also sees the effects of the abuse before they see the cause.

The title of the play derives from its main action: the driving lessons Uncle Peck gives to Li’l Bit. The lessons become a metaphor for two of the major rites of passage for American youth: earning one’s driver’s license as well as sexual initiation, an event that often occurs in a car. This metaphor is supported through the use of phrases and terminology from driving manuals. Images of traffic signs are seen and heard to guide Li’l Bit’s navigation on the road of life. They also help her find her way through the sexual landscape of her relationship with Peck.

Complicating the presentation of the play is the use of a modern Greek...

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How I Learned to Drive Historical Context

Intercourse between an adult and a child is called ‘‘statutory rape'': that is, a rape that might not seem to fit the definition of the...

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How I Learned to Drive Literary Style

The music that Paula Vogel's script for this play suggests is music that spans two generations. The Motown music that she...

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How I Learned to Drive Compare and Contrast

1960s: Popular music, such as the songs referred to in the notes for this play, hints at sexual activity.


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How I Learned to Drive Topics for Further Study

Research some of the songs that Vogel suggests could be used in staging How I Learned to Drive and report on what you think makes them...

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How I Learned to Drive Media Adaptations

An unabridged version of How I Learned to Drive, starring Glenna Headly and Randall Arney, was made available on both audiocassette...

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How I Learned to Drive What Do I Read Next?

How I Learned to Drive, published in 1997, is available by itself from Dramatists Play Service, Inc. It is also bound with Vogel’ s...

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How I Learned to Drive Bibliography and Further Reading

Daniels, Robert L., Review of How I Learned to Drive, in Variety, March 24, 1997, p. 42.


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How I Learned to Drive Bibliography (Survey of Dramatic Literature)

Sources for Further Study

Guare, John, ed. Conjunctions 25: The New American Theatre. Annandale-On-Hudson, N.Y.: Bard College, 1995.

Mead, Rebecca. “Drive-by Shooting.” New York 30 (April 7, 1997): 46-47.

Savran, David. The Playwright’s Voice: American Dramatists on Memory, Writing, and the Politics of Culture. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1999.

Scanlan, Dick. “Say Uncle.” Advocate, June 10, 1997, 61-63.

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