Analysis of Athol Fugard's Master Harold . . . and the Boys
"It's a bloody awful world when you come to think of it. People can be real bastards." (Hally, pp. 15)"Master Harold"... and the boys by Athol Fugard, is an informative text about the relationship between Hally, a 17 year old white boy, and Sam and Willie, two black men. As Hally falls victim to the attitudes of white supremacy and racial intolerances accompanying the Apartheid policy of the 1950's, their lifelong friendship is destroyed. This "bloody awful world" referred to in the above quote is perpetuated by ignorance and the passiveness of its participants. One way to change these intolerances is through the delivery of a liberal education, the purpose of which is to
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What is life?" (Hally, pp. 40) Thus the injustice of such prejudice is highlighted as the white Hally is revealed to be the black Sam's intellectual inferior. Racial segregation, which forms the basis of the Apartheid policy, perpetuates the notion of white supremacy and is an issue which effectively prevents the South African society from becoming a "world without collisions". This is explicitly reflected in the flying of the kite, a metaphor that conveys how the obstacle of segregation can be overcome to form racial harmony. Initially the kite's successful flight implies to the reader that this barrier has been overcome. However the fact that Sam is unable to join Hally on the whites only bench in latter stages of the text indicates how the policies of Apartheid can split friendships in half. A similar example of racial segregation is witnessed when Hally and Sam are reminiscing their days in the Jubilee Boarding House: "I got another rowing for hanging around the "servants' quarters." (Hally, pp. 25) Hence the play is "An intrepid social reformer will bot be daunted by the magnitude of the task he has undertaken." (pp. 17)The above quote uttered by Hally, from Athol Fugard's "Master Harold" ... and the boys, addresses the importance of social reform . One vital area in which this can be achieved is through the teaching of a broad based educational curriculum, where
To show first hand to the whites the inequality’s and hardships that the blacks face, the entire first section is in a narrative and a descriptive format. The use of these types of essays lets the readers feel more involved in the story and feel things for themselves. Split into two sections within itself, this first paragraph juxtaposes two stories — one about a “young Negro boy” living in Harlem, and the other about a “young Negro girl” living in Birmingham. The parallelism in the sentence structures of introducing the children likens them even more — despite the differences between them — whether it be their far away location, or their differing, yet still awful, situations. Since this section is focused more towards his white audience, King goes into a description of what it was like living as an African American in those times— a situation the black audience knew all too well. His intense word choice of describing the boy’s house as “vermin-infested” provokes a very negative reaction due to the bad
This gives the audience many altered ways that they, personally, can interpret the play from. Allowing for many different opinions on a single passage whether they may be relevant or not. Out of many different perspectives, Marxist, has an important part within the play, separating the ‘upper’ and ‘lower’ classes, creating a divide between the stereotype white people and the archetypal black culture. This perspective plays a vital role, beginning at the very start of the play right through till the closing stages. It sets the scene, making the divide between the two ‘different’ cultures, in which over the course of the play, slowly gets bridged with the uncovering of the forgotten stories, told by the Aboriginal Ex-servicemen. Bringing men closer together through the hard times that they had endured together. As the text starts, it begins with an easy to spot, element of Marxism, pushed by the white Vs Black component in the early stages of the book, with name calling and bullying. As the text continues, the element of Marxism is still present but less obvious, with the uncovering of lost and untold stories which bring the segregation between the two cultures of white and black, stereotype and archetype to an
It demonstrates that even without juridical discrimination; hate speech, lowered expectations, and dismissive behavior can have devastating effects on achievement. Black members of the blue-eyed group forcefully remind whites that they undergo similar stresses, not just for a few hours in a controlled experiment, but every day of their lives. Although these concepts are food for thought… they are merely preludes to the main course. The most important lesson to be learned here is that just one person can make a difference. Next we join a group of 40 teachers, police, school administrators and social workers in Kansas City - blacks, Hispanics, whites, women and men.
The story of A Midsummer Night's Dream was mainly about love and its abnormal dealings. In the play, Shakespeare tried to show that love is unpredictable, unreasonable, and at times is blind. The theme of love was constantly used during the play and basically everything that was said and done was related to the concept of love and its unpredictable ness. Shakespeare made all of the characters interact their lives to be based on each other’s. At first, everything was very confusing, and the characters were faced with many different problems. In the end, however, they were still able to persevere and win their true love, the love they were searching for in the first place.
Most people cannot see reality as it truly is from their eyes. In Athol Fugard’s Master Harold… and the Boys, he shows the apartheid between blacks and whites in South Africa. While some of these white people wanted to end apartheid, other people who lived with apartheid for their whole lives do not see the wrongs with it. These people want change, but do not know that they are the issue which is known as a psychological barrier. In the play, Athol Fugard uses Willie who struggles with a psychological barrier, how Wille’s psychological barrier motivates his actions and how Willie’s barrier is altered by the end of the play to prove how Willie is affected negatively by apartheid.
The novel All Good Children by Catherine Austen and article “Blind and Bullied” by Sydney Loney reveals that fighting against discrimination in society is well worth it and is the only way to make a change. The characters, symbols, and conflict demonstrate how the only way to be free is to fight against discrimination.
Whether past or present, there is no denying the fact that we humans have created an existence in which it is not uncommon to subject other breathing human beings to conditions of separateness and extreme oppression. The societies we create aid in participation of these conditions in a way that some deem acceptable, even if threatening to the moral norm. “Going to Meet The Man,” a melancholy story written by James Baldwin, sheds light on the tragic problem of racism that has afflicted our world and how this racism came to be. By examining the past and present life of a racist sheriff in a southern town, this tragic story epitomizes the terrible truth of reality and exemplifies the tragedy and problem of moral knowledge, alienation from others, and the tragedy of morally conflicting demands.
Novels are produced for a cause or purpose for the readers. The author either talks about their own experience or stories that they have learnt in life, and then they transform it into a text that we can all understand. In the text ‘Dougy’ by James Moloney, he states real life problems, inviting the readers to learn from the themes and problems that occur. James Moloney tells us that children are not born racist. There will always be critics in life and rules are there for a reason.
The South was considered the homeland for racial discrimination and prejudice through the use of Jim Crow laws that enforced segregation. Dad Watson sheds light on this social issue in the south with a joke: "Oh yeah," Dad interrupted, "they're a laugh a minute down there. Let's see, where was that 'Coloreds Only' bathroom downtown? (5). While on their journey to Birmingham, the Watson’s stop at a rest stop in Tennessee at night. Every single one of them is afraid of “crackers and rednecks up here that ain’t never seen no Negroes before. If they caught your ass out here like this they’d hang you now, then eat you later” (146).The boys slowly begin to the extent of hate, violence and discrimination in the world around them. They realize that the church in Birmingham is bombed because, “Two grown men hate Negroes so much that they’d kill some kids just to stop them from going to school” (203). Byron objects to his mother’s explanation of the motives of these men. When she says that they did it because they were sick, Byron retorts that he thinks that the men “just let hate eat them up and turn them into monsters” (200). This explanation is not only applicable to the entirety of the Civil Rights Movement violence, but it also remains applicable to hate and violence that exists
Contrast between Sam and Hally's Father in Athol Fugard's "Master Harold" . . . and the Boys
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
Prejudice is a cancer that spreads hate among its perpetrators and victims alike. In 1930 Langston Hughes penned the novel, Not Without Laughter. This powerful story, written from the perspective of an African-American boy named James “Sandy” Rodgers, begins in the early 1900’s in the small town of Stanton, Kansas. Through the eyes of young Sandy, we see the devastating impact of racism on his family and those they are close to. We also see how the generations of abuse by whites caused a divide within the black community. Among, and even within, black families there were several social classes that seemed to hinge on seeking equality through gaining the approval of whites. The class someone belonged to was determined by the color of their skin, the type of church one attended, their level of education, and where an individual was able to find work.
When we remember an event from our past, is it not true that much of what we recall is a description of that event based on how it made us feel? That event had an effect on how we felt at the time, and what we describe when recalling that event is the sentiment, idea or feeling we experienced as a result of the event. In the end, the effect of what happened is what we deem important to us. However, think for a moment about any such event in your life. Is it possible to accurately describe that event without including details of where and when it occurred? Likely not, since a great deal of what we rely on for our experience, in and out of the moment, is our physiological and psychological state at that specific time. Furthermore, since
“Master Harold”... and the boys, is a powerful play written by Athol Fugard that allows us to analyze the complex relationship between a black man and a young white boy within the context of racism in South Africa in the 1950’s. This play is characterized by metaphors used by the author to illustrate the struggle of people dealing with racism. One of the most important themes of this play is racism, focusing on the injustice in South Africa when the apartheid system was in place. Racial segregation and separation in this time in history demonstrates to us how this system allowed unequal rights for whites and blacks. There is evidence that the relationship between Hally,
In one scene, Said and Hubert are imprisoned and tortured by the police. The officers choke them and shout racial slurs. For the police (and society), “justification for treating groups defined as inferior in an exploitive and oppressive manner.” (Gallagher 11) lead to the men’s physical and emotional mistreatment. Ultimately, the film;s message is that because hateful concepts such as racism and classism exist, underprivileged humans are kept from achieving upward social mobility. Although the boys are continually outraged by the burdens society has imposed on them, their efforts to escape their unfavorable situations are futile because they all end up, or “land”, in a tragic was predetermined by