Analysis Of Tony Kushner And Athol Fugard

The first issue that is focused on throughout the play would be the racial inequality in America in the 1950’s. Although there were many Americans who were fighting to end segregation and discrimination, nothing was legally done about it until the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Troy Maxson being an African American man in his early fifties, grew up with the white man suppressing him. Troy was a Negro League star but when black men were finally allowed to play in the Major Leagues of baseball in 1947, Troy was too old to play. This left him very bitter towards life and the way he went on to raise his sons, which also ties into the generational clashes that will be discussed later on.

Ellison illustrates the social injustices the black community endures through the characterization of the audience in the theater and their attitudes towards the protagonist in order to display the inexcusable treatment African Americans “accept” in their daily lives. Ellison’s use of diction depicts the white structure through words conveying the message of a higher power. The protagonist sees “(...) the white beam filtered from the projection room above the balcony,” which gives the illusion that the white power structure controls the bingo wheel (252). Consequently, as he feels that he is on the stage by himself with no perception of reality, he feels a sensation of alienation and isolation that “felt right” in his nature. As the protagonist steps on the stage, the audience responds to his presence by talking down to him which includes being called “boy” by the man with the microphone. Although he grins at the “man’s jive talk,” he feels

life in the mid to late twentieth century and the strains of society on African Americans. Set in a small neighborhood of a big city, this play holds much conflict between a father, Troy Maxson, and his two sons, Lyons and Cory. By analyzing the sources of this conflict, one can better appreciate and understand the way the conflict contributes to the meaning of the work.

The situations and informal diction or vernacular in the play create an atmosphere of familiarity with the audience, and this familiarity helps the audience to realize that Troy, Rose, and Cory are just like them. Wilson’s technique of drawing the audience in is a method of breaking down social and racial barriers that existed during the time depicted in

The origin of this novel stems from a time with great attitude changes within the African-American way of life. Tensions between gender specifically had begun to emerge, women, who were thought of as subservient, belonging to the house as well as to their husbands. During the timeframe of this story, women had been beginning to emerge with dignity, grace, and authority. The play takes place in Pittsburgh, during the 1950’s when the gap between genders had been shrinking, as women had been introduced further into society as more than just mothers. To most, this diminishing gap, to most would be a seamless concept, however, to the characters of this play would be a deciding factor for many conflicting scenes. The main characters of this play

creates a play that illustrates not only the struggle of growing up in a prejudiced world but also

August Wilson’s plays relate directly to his African heritage, and were and are a part of his success. His expression of the struggles of the blacks

Popular media allow for the general public to be able to properly digest the matters of racial prejudice that are prevalent in our society. There are various ways that racial prejudices are exposed through actions and the structures in society that stems from the perceptions that race is this biological hierarchical supremacy. Additionally, these race classifications that are made by those in power has structured society in a way that puts some in advantage and many at a disadvantage that has continued into modern society. These are disadvantages are revealed through such things as microagressions and socioeconomic structures that favored and continues to favor the “dominant” classes. These matters can be best expressed through personal experiences relating to experienced prejudice, such as Lorraine Hansberry conveying artistically her experience with racial housing issues in Chicago. In her play, The Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry reveals through the Younger family, such issues as community acceptance, lost dreams, and racial discrimination on an economic level. Bruce Norris’s play, Clybourne Park, considers these issues as well as he expands on Hansberry’s world in his personal adaptation of The Raisin in the Sun’s primary plot point. Through experiences shared in the Younger’s future home, Norris explores privilege, systematic racism, white flight, community, and gentrification. Through reference and analysis of Raisin in the Sun and then of Clybourne Park, followed by

the play are ―rich symbol[s]‖ that convey the barriers of a ―racist society‖ (Kenny par. 18). The

Social pressures change as time passes, therefore it is interesting to see how these three texts whom differ by almost four hundred years perceive society and the effect this has on the protagonists; Shakespeare’s King Lear which was first performed in 1606 during the Jacobean era, presents a patriarchal society. Whilst, Arthur Miller uses the characters in ‘Death of a salesman’ to show the failure of the ‘American dream’ during the “golden era” of America in the late 40’s. The ‘American Dream’ was a set of ideals which suggested that anyone in the US could be successful through hard work, and had the potential to live a happy life. The sense of the deterioration in the equality of opportunities links to the fall in power and hierarchy in

Plays, “Fences” and “A Raisin in the Sun” share similar plots. They take place in the mid-western United States in the 1950’s and explore the family dynamics of the African-American Family and the paradigmatic shift it experienced between two generations. The older generation, who could remember slavery by first-hand experience or by being born during a time when success for the average African-Americans was systematically stifled by racist and unconstitutional laws that were put in place when slavery was legal, and the young generation that began to show some sense of entitlement, had begun to overcome institutional barriers to succeed and empower

Though there was a heightened sense of tension over civil rights in the late 1950s when A Raisin in the Sun was written, racial inequality is still a problem today. It affects minorities of every age and dynamic, in more ways than one. Though nowadays it may go unnoticed, race in every aspect alters the way African-Americans think, behave, and react as human beings. This is shown in many ways in the play as we watch the characters interact. We see big ideas, failures, and family values through the eyes of a disadvantaged group during an unfortunate time in history. As Martin Luther King said, Blacks are “...harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what

Through history people have tended to judge the lives of other by what they see on the outside, and completely disregard their actually character. “Stereotyping in the World” today has become a greater and greater problem has history moves on. Some have been known to look past these cases such as Reginald Rose’s book Twelve Angry Men. The play has been shown that one voice can change the thoughts of many by getting past the first layer and breaking it down to their inner person. Twelve Angry Men has showed the theme of “Stereotyping in the World” through the characters’ proper reasoning, communicating, and believing in good faith.

Even after fifty years have passed racism is still evident in Act 2.This portrays the way people treat each other in reality and how race is still a prominent issue in the world today. Bruce Norris may only hint at what rich people do in the neighborhood but raises numerous issues. One in which is that race triumphs class. Norris’s play “Clybourne Park” raised much controversy by bringing up an issue that many people now a day decide to forget and act like it is not there. By bringing the issue of race up

Political correctness features prominently within the play. Political correctness was seen as a highly controversial issue in the late 1980s to the early 1990s and was argued within a 1992 essay collection, debating political correctness, that it was “The most important discussion in American education”. This was perhaps due to the numerous amounts of opinions on whether or not political correctness was right. Political correctness repressed people’s abilities to freedom of speech and therefore there were many differing