Curse of the Starving Class

The play’s second act opens with loud sounds of carpentry (hammering, sawing) in the darkness. Lights come up to show Wesley in the same kitchen, nailing together a new door, and Emma at the table making a new 4-H chart. Dirty laundry is still piled on the table, and a pot of artichokes boils on the stove. Emma asks Wesley if he thinks their mother is “making it” with Taylor. The siblings discuss whether Ella and Taylor are after each other’s money, assuming that the family’s property, sold as lots, will raise any. Emma suggests that their mother also seeks “esteem,” i.e., to live a more prestigious life. Emma says Taylor and their mother are probably halfway to Mexico by now and imagines aloud their hedonistic journey along the Baja coast, ending when their car breaks down outside a small town. The only mechanic, Emma says, will be her, but they won’t recognize her because she’ll have become so steeped in the culture. Emma, in her daydream, swindles them by stealing their car engine and reselling it for a “small mint.” Irritably, Wesley tells her to make sure the artichokes aren’t burning. Emma does so, while critiquing his rudimentary attempt to rebuild the door, which she thinks might “turn off potential buyers” (162).