America 's Struggle For The High

Wilson portrayed a series of ten plays during the Pittsburgh Cycle to to showcase the lifestyle of African Americans. Many African during this time period of the 1950’s were dealing with racism and discrimination. African American had no or very little rights. It was a harsh and difficult time that African Americans had to live through there were many inequalities they face on white color jobs. In addition, this was the prime time of the Civil rights Era, which contribute to the injustice they faced. However during the mid 1950’s time did began to progress and things changed for African Americans for the better. Wilson expressed this through his play, he mentioned that the Maxson here frequently facing discrimination in their town by the white people. The protagonist Troy Maxson dealt with discrimination the most. In the first scene Troy states that he was working in a company owned by whites. He was very disappointed at the fact that he worked a low quality job compared to the non-color men; the white men who worked at the company drove trucks (white collar) while Troy had to pick up trash (blue collar). Unfortunately, Troy was not given the same privilege as the white men due to African American descendants. Troy could not stand for this inequality, so he talked to his boss demanding that he wanted to drive the truck rather that

Near the turn of the century, as decades passed by in a prejudiced America, where to be black was to lose all dignity, an emerging provocative spirit of liberation eventually catalyzed a period of great change: a period of enlightenment known as the 1960s. Slowly but surely, black pride began to restore as differences in morals between successive generations caused societal changes. Capturing the essence of black struggles prior to -and during- this dynamic period of change, August Wilson wrote the play Fences, a generational story about Troy Maxson, the son of a black sharecropper father. Highlighted by the play’s title, a particularly important motif of Wilson’s work is the concept of “fences” regarding how they both “trap things in”

On November 4th, 2016, my best friend and I went to see the play at the Charles Winter Wood Theatre. This play is set during the 1950s, and the scene takes place in a night club in Chicago. This play was sponsored by FAMU’s Essential Theatre, and it was quite entertaining. It presents realistic situations such as the affairs, jealously, and debt in relationships. The director, Maurice Kitchen, wrote this play to present the Black artists who used their talent to escape the difficulties they have faced. The main character, Billy Gamble, was a show host and performer, who used his patients with musical talents to be on his show. Important aspects seen in the play were love and fame. The musicians expressed their feelings within their music.

Racism, a pivotal contradiction in the 1920s, is evident in Tom Buchanon, nullifying the idea of equality presented in the American Dream. The roaring ‘20s, often referred to as the Jazz Age, saw the introduction of a multi-racial genre of music that was “an expression of the soul of America,” though segregation was still prevalent in the Jim Crow south (Currell 71). Jazz represented the facade of the gilded ‘20s that Ftizgerald acknowledges while segregation remains the truth of the era, which he represents in Tom’s racism. The origin of Tom Buchanon’s racism is illustrated at the dinner party where Tom, through psuedo-intellectualism, argues that “The idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be...utterly submerged” (Fitzgerald 13). Tom holds a respectable position in society that is solified by his “old money,” meaning money that is inherited through many generations. His racism derives from a fear of losing that money and power to African Americans, which he eludicates in his “very scientific” prediction of an African American cout d’etat. Money is the ultimate motivator for his distrust of African Americans and thus his prejudiced treatment of them, therefore money

August Wilson was one of the most accomplished African-American playwrights of this century and was one of only seven to win the Pulitzer Prize. He dedicated his entire career to documenting the 20th century struggles of African-Americans in a cycle of ten plays. He completed the cycle shortly before he died on October 2, 2005. His plays were themed around The Middle Passage, The Underground Railroad, The Emancipation Proclamation, Reconstruction and Jim Crow, The Northern Migration, Pittsburgh’s Hill District, Oppression , Civil Rights Movement and Black Nationalism, Developing Personal “Songs” and Cultural Mythologies, Sports Discrimination, and City Politics Wilson’s main goal in life was to make sure a realistic view of how the African-Americans was put on stage for everyone to see the struggles of African-American. He bridged the gap in tradition, modified tradition when experience demanded it, and he translated experience into meaning and meaning into belief. He deserves a lot of praise, but did he also backtrack on his original thoughts? In this paper, I will give a short biography of him, discuss his plays, and discuss how his plays and his paper/film The Ground on Which I Stand contradicts each other.

Kander and Ebb took a great risk in using the framework of a minstrel show to tell the story in their musical The Scottsboro Boys. Various sources argue that the use of the minstrel show in Kander and Ebb’s The Scottsboro Boys hinders the audiences experience and undermines the importance of this trial. This argument is one of many and goes to show that Kander and Ebb took many risks in using the minstrel show to tell the story of the Scottsboro Boys. Other sources argue that the humor and stereotypes of the minstrel show perpetuate the boys’ lack of individuality. In the article, “Too big for Broadway?:
The limits of historical and theatrical empathy in Parade and The Scottsboro Boys,” it is argued that this lack of characterization “makes it feel as though ‘the Boys’ are being victimized, not by American racism, but by Kander and Ebb” (Stahl 76). With all of the dangers involved in the use of this racist form, it is understandable how the intention of the minstrel show can be misconstrued.

Although August Wilson’s play, The Piano Lesson, portrays some social setbacks for African Americans during the Post Reconstruction era, the opportunity to have an education, a good job, and own land led them to be more equal in America than ever before.

Published in 1986 during the Postmodernist era in America. The setting of the play focuses on the Civil Rights Movement and the dismissal of African Americans from society.

This play showed an array of emotion as well as an incremental amount of toll the environment around them took upon this single family. Life surely hasn’t been easy for millions of people back in time nor in today’s world. I realize that life has never been a walk in the park but a character such as Beneatha has shown that it takes one strong willed person to change the ideals of a stubborn man like Walter. She wished to go into the medical field and become a doctor on top of that she was a female and had a black heritage. Women at the time didn’t even have the right to vote politically, women were expected to cook, clean and care for the children-at home. It appals me at the lack of freedom that could be expressed by women not that long ago or even the fact that abortion was illegal. Things like abortions seem to be a normality in this world, from watching television shows with women getting abortions to billboards regarding Planned Parenthood. These clinics are for the aid of young women who are struggling with keeping their baby; yet, back then, the only doctors you could go to are female doctors who were doing this procedure unpracticed and in a dangerous manner. It seems as if our environments have haltered the way we view the American dream. The American dream use to be one of finding one’s freedom of speech and religion in a new land where job opportunity and wealth were a reachable demand; but, it seems as if now that many people have that, they want more. The rich or better known as the white people of these neighborhood associations were gaining land, money and politics while the minority races were falling behind in almost every aspect of life. Today I’ve found from reading books like A Raisin in the Sun, that African Americans may legally have the rights of a civilian

Drugs are a major issue in America. They are imported from all around the world, but they are mostly brought across the Mexican border. Even though they are a major concern, nobody is doing anything about it. In the year 2015 nearly 47,000 have died from an overdose. Why is this epidemic of drugs being flown into America being ignored? Is the election between Hilary and Trump for the presidency a bigger picture than drugs and drug related crime? Will Trump’s idea of building a wall actually help decrease illegal immigration, and decrease the amount of narcotics brought into the U.S? Drugs coming from Mexico have also been an issue and we have continuously reduced the amount of drugs from being smuggled into the United states, but not all of them. Drugs are obviously a big issue in America, even if it is being overlooked. Not only are the Drugs killing people but the fight over them is also creating crime. People on the streets have been fighting over drugs for as long as they have been here. They’re not only fighting over the drugs but they 're also killing for them. Why do we allow for such damage to occur in the U.S. when it can be stopped? There is one solution for this drastic issue, legalize the drugs. If a whole percentage is being controlled and distributed by the government, people will not fight over them which will lead to lower rates of crime. Alternatively, a good way to lower overdoses is to put a tax on them. Charge an extra tax, for example cigarettes,tax

The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison addresses the intellectual and social issues that faced African-Americans in the earlier years of the twentieth century. The book highlights the social, economic, and political differences between the blacks and whites at a time when widespread discrimination denoted every aspect of the American culture. As this paper demonstrates, the narrator's life depicts the lives of African-Americans in America especially during the earlier years of the twentieth century. At the time, African-Americans were regarded as second-class citizens who deserved nothing as good as what their white counterparts earned. There were schools for the whites only, and no blacks would be allowed to attend such schools. Similarly, there

The role of women in modern society is a contentious topic. Presently, the female gender has become more respected and important in the workplace, with as much women as men achieving successful, admirable lives. But this was not always the case. During the early 20th century, women were severely oppressed, with their identity confined to the likes of a housewife. In wartime, the role of the female gender expanded slightly, with more women being employed into jobs that were previously considered masculine while the men were at war. However, after the war was over and then men returned home, many of these women fell pregnant and resumed the life of the subservient housewife, whilst the men once again dominated. Tennessee William’s A Streetcar Named Desire is a dramatic play written during this time that follows the journey of a distressed young woman- Blanche visiting her sister Stella in New Orleans, who is subsequently tormented by her brutish new brother-in-law Stanley. The play presents the reader with physical, emotional and sexual conflict, and harshly critiques the attitudes and ideologies present in 1950’s American society in relation to the heavy restrictions that were placed on the lives of its women. Through substantial characterization, symbolism and language, Williams creates a representation of 1950’s American society, where the women are oppressed and the men dominate.

This play was written in the 1940’s way before the women’s rights movement which happened in the 1960’s. Hence the reason why the characters and the relationships between them were overlooked due to it being within the norm. Now by analyzing Tennessee's work, what can now be seen is how sexist this play actually is. Looking through the eyes of Stella you can see how she played into the female

When the play was being written, there were social changes. A fight called Civil Rights focused on having a black civil rights movement which has been going on for many years and it was finally changed in the 60’s. Two events occurred called the Brown vs. Board of Education and Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. The Brown vs. Board of Education focused on separating black and white children schools. Martin and Malcolm had civil rights movements demanding to change the systems of rights among race.

Rather than a documentary, Reed attempts to paint an emotional portrait of Armstrong's complex psychology. Armstrong was a dedicated musician who was a consummate perfectionist. He was beloved by both whites and African-Americans but his political views alienated some of his white fans. Reed explicitly dramatizes this in the first scene of the play in which Armstrong says: "These little school children in Little Rock are gettin' bricks thrown at them. Just for trying to go to school. That little girl, Elizabeth, was attacked by that mob of hyenas. These kids are being spat upon. And the only thing on my mind is whether I can hit a higher C on my trumpet than before."