The Prodigal Son is a common tale from the Bible that has been adapted into multiple forms of narrative such as Garrison Keillor’s dramatic play, “The Prodigal Son” (1991) in which the story is centered on a father and his two sons. The older son works hard and helps around the farm while the younger son gets to slack off and eventually leave with his share of the inheritance because he claims it will help him become a better person, “‘I was thinking I’dtake my share of the farm and head for a far country for a while until I get back on my feet, head wise, and then come back a new guy’” (Keillor 2). Although this is a good example of the theme of the Prodigal Son, it is also a good example of dramatic irony for the reader knows by the fact that the son is clearly hung over when he comes down to eat that all he will do with his inheritance is waste it on alcohol and women which he does.
It is not only the reader who realizes this, but the older son as well as he asks his father to talk to him privately, most likely about not letting his brother go (Keillor 2). For unlike his father, the older son does not turn a blind eye to his brother’s bad behavior as he is constantly quick to point out how the younger son never helps out and likes to drink extensively, “‘I notice a couple wineskins behind the fig tree this morning’” (Keillor 2). Despite giving him constant proof that the younger son is as lazy as the pigs he feeds later on in the story after spending all of his money (Keillor 4), the father continues to favor him even after the younger son comes home in shame (Keillor 6). This theme is an echo of the parable from the Bible as the father rejoices when the younger son returns to him as if he was his only son even though his older son had remained all that time (Holy Bible 2011).
Not only does Keillor utilize the pigs as symbols of the younger son’s laziness, but he uses the calf as a symbol of the father’s neglect of the older son as he orders for the calf that his son had raised and fattened to be slaughtered for a feast in celebration of the younger son’s return (Keillor 6). Needless to say, the older brother was not pleased which he was sure to let his father know, “‘that was our best calf, Dad. The best one’” (Keillor 6). While this illustrates how the father does not waste a single thought on the older son, however, it also demonstrates how the older son’s happiness and hard work is sacrificed in order to indulge the younger son and his bad habits thus straining the father’s relationship with his older son even more as he becomes more and more bitter about how poorly he is treated.
Keillor also decided to end his play with the older son voicing his frustration whereas the parable goes on to show the father’s response which is that he has always known that the older son has been there for him and that he just wants to celebrate his family being together again (McNeely 2013). In other words, “the bond forged between the father and the older son could never be broken. The loyalty and dependability of the son here had been proven without a doubt. Such relationships need no party or grand demonstration of fact. Trust was simply there” (McNeely 2013). Keillor may have chosen not to have this moment of reconciliation between the father and the older son because he wanted to focus on the older son’s frustration which he may or may not have been sympathetic of.
Keillor might have also wanted to emphasize how foolish the younger son was as he used symbols such as the foolish virgins who he came across during his travels who to demonstrate his naivety and recklessness by having the foolish virgins roped together and led by a wise virgin (Keillor 2-3). In other words, the wise virgin is there to guide the foolish virgins away from tempting things like men who would only lead them to make the same reckless decisions that the guideless younger son makes. The younger son did have a chance to have someone to guide him shortly after he runs into the virgins though, as he meets a Good Samaritan who attempts to help him but the younger son declines (Keillor 3). Thus through these encounters, Keillor illustrates just how foolish the young son is even with all the opportunities he had to change and become a better, more productive person like his brother.
Work Cited
Keillor, Garrison. The Prodigal Son. N.p.: n.p., 1991. Web.
McNeely, Darris. "Lessons from the Parables: Hope and Restoration- the Story of the Prodigal Son." Beyond Today. United Church of God, 13 Jan. 2013. Web. 19 June 2016.
"Parable of the Lost Son." Grace Communion International. Holy Bible, 2011. Web. 19 June 2016.
