Stolen suggests that without a sense of beloning the characters are destroyed Discuss
Harrisons play Stolen illustrates the disastrous consequences of severing the spiritual and biological links between a mother and child. The play explores the tragedies of the stolen children and the effects of what may happen to the childs psychological mind and physical appearance when being separated between mother and child. ... The inability to distinguish who you are and to be unable to feel a sense of place and belonging can be as heartbreaking as being told of your mothers death. All of the characters suffer in different ways and from different experiences, and although those experiences differ they all share the painful loss of their mother. Many of the characters have had traumatic experiences of being separated from their biological family and their community. ... The play also conveys the understanding that what they lost included emotional and physical attachment, their identity, sense of place as well as their sanity. Sandy is one of the characters that can still remember the importance of motherly love, the good times and the laughs he enjoyed with his mother "My mother loved me. ... had a sense of humour". ... He often retreated into memories and daydreams to try and deal with his life without a mother. ... Jimmy struggles to find both an identity and a sense of place ". ... Shirley could not bear the pain of losing another child to welfare, as she knows the pain of losing children to welfare, and being a stolen child herself.