Paradise Lost America in Robert E. Sherwood’s Play, The Petrified Forest

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Fanshawe Colledge

10.22091/slic.2026.14531.1020

Abstract

This article offers a close reading of a compelling play by the American playwright, Robert E. Sherwood. It tries to contextualize Robert E. Sherwood's play, The Petrified Forest (1935), within the socio-political tensions of the Depression era in the U.S. It portrays the times’ ideological tensions, such as liberalism, socialism, fascism, Americanism, idealism and pessimism, which contributed to a crisis of American individualism. Drawing on several different texts, literary and non-literary, written during the late 1920s and 30s, Sherwood’s play is presented as one of many texts attempting to negotiate the pros and cons of capitalism and communism as well as the inevitable collapse of the American myth of “rugged individualism”. The actual reading of the play is concerned with the depiction of the characters that represent two opposing principles: hopeful communalism and ineffective individualism.
This article offers a close reading of a compelling play by the American playwright, Robert E. Sherwood. It tries to contextualize Robert E. Sherwood's play, The Petrified Forest (1935), within the socio-political tensions of the Depression era in the U.S. It portrays the times’ ideological tensions, such as liberalism, socialism, fascism, Americanism, idealism and pessimism, which contributed to a crisis of American individualism. Drawing on several different texts, literary and non-literary, written during the late 1920s and 30s, Sherwood’s play is presented as one of many texts attempting to

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Studies in literature and Culture: from Theory to Practice

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 27 May 2026

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