we move outside.” Before Hoss can act on his newfound confidence, however, he receives crushing news that Little Willard, a marker of status similar to his own, has been found with a fatal, self-inflicted head wound. As things fall apart all around him, Hoss finds that his reliance on the code has made him vulnerable to new systems of power functioning outside the code—a recognition which challenges everything he believes in (including the game). “Without a code,” he laments, “it’s just crime.”

Becky Lou tries to bolster Hoss’s ego, which has been simultaneously strengthened and weakened by news that a Gypsy Marker is rumored to be pursuing him. He recognizes the status associated with being targeted for the fight, since that implies that he might now be ranked as number one in the game; at the same time, however, he senses that his victory against the Gypsy Marker will by no means be easy—or certain. As he evaluates the rapidly changing contours of the game, he develops a growing sense of foreboding. He tries to sharpen his skills at knife fighting, but despite his apparent expertise at bloodying a practice dummy, he senses a change in his abilities. “Something’s lacking,” he says. “I can’t seem to get it up like the other kills. My heart’s not in it.” Act 1 concludes with Hoss attempting to generate a renewed enthusiasm, but it is clear through his efforts to do so that the upcoming fight is going to bear much significance upon his future as a Star Marker.

Crow, the Gypsy Marker, enters the scene at the beginning of act 2 and immediately creates a threatening impression as a rock and roll punk which produces a strong sense of uneasiness in Hoss. As they assess each other, it is clear that Hoss has fallen behind the game and that new rebel players such as Crow are going to be the next stars. Crow quickly analyzes the distinctive features of Hoss’s killer persona, drawing upon rock and roll paradigms to categorize him and thereby identify his weaknesses. As they appraise each other, it is immediately apparent that Hoss is no longer attuned to the newest features of the game. This realization places him at a great disadvantage, which Crow adeptly turns to his favor through calculated verbal jabs at Hoss.

These spoken assaults are preparations for the verbal sparring that constitutes the major action of the second act. Hoss calls for the referee to enter, and the jousting begins. Their form of play involves blows delivered through verbal insults designed to penetrate the field of impersonality they use to protect themselves. From the beginning, Hoss is placed at a disadvantage and even though he manages to catch Crow off-balance at one point, the referee rules that the newcomer has won.

Realizing the need to break free from the old code, Hoss kills the referee and then effaces himself by asking Crow to teach him to be a Gypsy—“Just like you.” Crow recognizes Hoss’s pathetic condition and humiliates him by giving him some Gypsy lessons which serve only to accentuate Hoss’s defeat. In the same manner of suicide employed by Little Willard, Hoss shoots himself in the mouth rather than further degrade himself. In the requiem, the characters discuss Hoss’s failure to adjust to the changing game, and the play ends with Crow’s song, which expresses his desire to keep “rollin’ down” to avoid the stagnation and self-defeat experienced by Hoss.

A central issue of The Tooth of Crime is relayed through the Western-like showdown between Hoss and Crow that is framed in rock and roll imagery. Hoss embodies values of the older, established code of the game. He has prospered by following that code only to find at this point in his life that the rules of the game have changed—and, more important, the game has bypassed him. The game provided the superstructure of his value system; without it, he is set adrift with no remaining ground of assurance. Crow, on the other hand, is the young challenger who typifies the newest manifestation of an ever-changing game. He has adapted to its changes and uses them to his advantage against Hoss, whose role has been diminished, ironically, by the very tradition that the game fostered—the very tradition, moreover, that has helped him to achieve his position as a Star Marker. Crow challenges Hoss’s belief in the game, thereby presenting a stronger example of frontier individuality than the rule-bound trappings promoted by the traditional game that has so successfully shackled Hoss.

Sam Shepard uses the duel to illustrate this clash between outdated and updated rules as Hoss quickly founders against his better-equipped opponent. The rock and roll framework for this fight illustrates a characteristic component of Shepard’s drama by drawing upon a young and lawless American tradition which has nevertheless changed in a similar fashion. Thus, Hoss is associated with early rock and roll while Crow represents its more current forms.

The codes derived from rock and roll music and Westerns further depict this challenge between the old and the new as Hoss represents the decrepit established power while Crow assumes the role of the progressive young gun who is attempting to make his mark by destroying emblems of the establishment. Killing Hoss is a means for Crow to display the vulnerability of the obsolete values that Hoss represents.

The crises Hoss experiences also demonstrate the extent to which his knowledge of the system is outdated. As he surveys the current state of affairs, he encounters one disappointment after another: Some players are no longer following the rules; he is constrained by “handlers” to the extent that he no longer can act according to his own intuition; the trappings of stardom function only to weigh him down. He has become complacent by following the rules which brought him his fame, and now he is faced with the consequences that attend this complacency.

With an iconography rich in American images of despair, loss, and uncertainty, rock and roll music offers an appropriate medium for the expression of Hoss’s feelings as well as those of the other characters who in some way are touched by Hoss’s downfall. The songs, which function as modern-day monologues in the play, assist the development of this imagery by allowing the characters to release their thoughts to the gut-wrenching strains of rock and roll music. The combination of a challenge to a power figure, the Western images, and rock and roll metaphors produces an electric mix designed to explore several characteristically American motifs.