The Meaning Behind The Character Of Rutherford Selig

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.

George C. Wolfe’s satirical play, The Colored Museum, elicits emotion from those who read its powerful lines and make its sentiments spring to life on stage. The play is Wolfe’s indelicate way of handling sensitive subjects related to the African American community. The play carries just enough humor to keep its audience captivated and just enough scalding stereotype to keep its audience from growing bored. The satire and parody presented in The Colored Museum depicts the harsh truth about the lives of African Americans.

There are numerous works of literature that recount a story- a story from which inspiration flourishes, providing a source of liberating motivation to its audience, or a story that simply aspires to touch the hearts and souls of all of those who read it. One of the most prevalent themes in historical types of these kinds of literature is racism. In America specifically, African Americans endured racism heavily, especially in the South, and did not gain equal rights until the 1960s. In her renowned book The Color Purple, Alice Walker narrates the journey of an African American woman, Celie Johnson (Harris), who experiences racism, sexism, and enduring hardships throughout the course of her life; nonetheless, through the help of friends and

In past times, racism and economic injustice headline the many problems that present themselves to society. Some people accept the horrors that appear with the issues while others take actions to change the issues for the better. August Wilson reveals that in his play Fences.” Written in 1957, Wilson’s play portrays an African American family during the time of the civil rights movement who struggle to reach the self-proclaimed American Dream in the United States (Wilson 963-1018). The protagonist, Troy Maxson, is influenced by Wilson’s stepfather, David Bedford (Martin and Downing). During the civil rights movement, African Americans carried few to no rights as an American citizen, presenting controversy to the world of political science and economic power. Wilson also contributes to the theory of Marxism in Fences. Introduced by Karl Marx, Marxist Criticism paints an identical picture of the way society reveals itself in the twentieth century. “Marx’s main interest was in economic power and the ways in which it disguised and manipulated.” (Schakel and Ridl 1455). Wilson incorporates those views into his play Fences. Wilson also reveals his intake on the views of Marxism. “Today I would say that the conflict in black America is between the middle class and the so-called underclass, and that conflict goes back to those who deny themselves and those who aren’t willing to (Lyons 1024).” The author believes that African American struggle contributes to the theory of Marxism.

Racism is an issue that blacks face, and have faced throughout history directly and indirectly. Ralph Ellison has done a great job in demonstrating the effects of racism on individual identity through a black narrator. Throughout the story, Ellison provides several examples of what the narrator faced in trying to make his-self visible and acceptable in the white culture. Ellison engages the reader so deeply in the occurrences through the narrator’s agony, confusion, and ambiguity. In order to understand the narrators plight, and to see things through his eyes, it is important to understand that main characters of the story which contributes to his plight as well as the era in which the story takes place.

August Wilson made his audience aware of the issues blacks were going through during that time period. For instance, Wilson shows the struggle Troy has with allowing his son Corey to play sports and get recruited. Troy goes on to say “I decided seventeen years ago that boy wasn’t getting involved in no sports. Not after what they did to me in the sports” (Wilson 1.3.111). Troy is referring to how the whites would not let him play in the major league because of his skin color and he believes they will do the same to Corey. Wilson expresses another theme of color discrimination when Troy talks to Bono about how only whites drive the garbage trucks while the coloreds do the picking. Troy states, “…Why? Why you got the white men driving and the colored lifting? … What’s the matter, don’t I count? You think only white fellows got sense enough to drive a truck…” (Wilson 1.1.10). This was a big problem for many companies in the 1950’s the African Americans played minor roles at the time only whites held the special privilege jobs. Many black men like Troy just wanted a change they wanted equal job opportunities like the white men were getting.

A recurring theme in American history has been that of the American Dream, the idea that anyone, regardless of race, can achieve success through hard work. In his stirring 1990 play The Piano Lesson, August Wilson uses African-American characters to embody the American Dream. Throughout the play, set in Pittsburgh in 1936, Wilson traces the economic successes of several African-American characters, such as Boy Willie and Lymon. However, Wilson’s portrayal of this apparent progress conflicts with the true historical setting. The reality between 1877 and the 1930s was that social barriers, such as Jim Crow laws and sharecropping, precluded economic progress for most African-Americans. A few black Americans such as Madam Walker, an Indiana businesswoman, made some progress, but in general there was stagnation in terms of pecuniary growth during this time period. August Wilson’s interpretation of African-American economic progress through fictional characters in The Piano Lesson is flawed because it represents a few economically successful African-Americans of the time, but fails to capture the lack of progress made by the majority between 1877 and 1930.

We sometimes believe that by creating barriers around ourselves and the people we love, it will keep us safe and together. August Wilson is an African-American playwright from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania who was raised with his five brothers and sisters by his mother who worked hard to support them after his father, a white man left them. His mother found another man who also helped her raise them. In this time, it was very hard for African-Americans because it was the time when White Americans and African Americans where segregated. African-Americans were greatly discriminated and it was difficult for them to support their families because finding a job was difficult due to the racism, to be able to support their families they had to work

At Pittsburgh’s Halfway Art Gallery he found his audience for poetry, and got to meet some of Pittsburgh’s black literati. In 1981, Wilson submitted Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and it was accepted in the O’Neill Center. It did however, undergo many changes in the summer of 1982, it went on to play at Yale and became the first Broadway play in 1984. His next play that he wrote was Fences. Now Fences is a interesting play to read, because reading the background information I feel as if he was writing this book from his point of view. His dad was not always there, his dad cheated on his mom, his mom raised the kids, and his dad was a worker and then came home and never messed with the kids or played with them. Not so much as he treated the kids like slaves, but in a way you could say he did. Reading the play and then writing this paper has been a wonderful experience. Reading the play gives us some back ground information about what the “1980s” were about. The racism, the abandonment, the shame, the cheating, we see it all in this play. Wilson did a good job at showing us what it was like to be a boy in this time when you wanted to play baseball but could not because you were black, or wanted to go somewhere and you could not because you were black. Some people would think that only “blacks” would like to read something like this because they would “understand” it, but that is not true. Reading Wilson’s

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

In analysis of the texts of these plays, it becomes evident that both periods and cultures suffered from similar types of problems with interracialism, though to a slightly greater and more violent extent in the latter piece of Hughes’s. However, merely analyzing the texts sketches an often incomplete picture, as these plays were, to a large extent, created for the purpose of protesting and attempting to manipulate the very attitudes they presented. Therefore, in order to truly consider how the nature and extent of attitudes towards interracialism had evolved from the pre-Civil War to the Harlem Renaissance, one must look not only at the texts of the plays, but also to their critical commentaries, manipulation in pre-production, and audience responses. These sources outside of the texts greatly contribute to the conclusion that although discrimination, maliciousness, and brutality were problems that accompanied interracialism in both periods, they were slightly increased in intensity and nature in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1930’s compared to the late 1850’s.

Lorraine Hansberry was the first Black woman to pen a Broadway play. In her writings, she wrote male characters, many of whom were male protagonists. Being the feminist that she was, many people saw Hansberry’s depiction of Black men in one of two ways; either as an unhappy retreat from her feminist concerns or as a negative representation of Black manhood. Throughout her career, in works such as “The Village Voice” and “Les Blancs” Hansberry’s wrote other male characters that showed a progressive, revolutionary movement towards a positive and withstanding view of Black masculinity.

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

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

When looking at the origins of African-American Dramas specifically in Mulatto, Native Son, A Raisin in the Sun, Funnyhouse of a Negro, Great Goodness of Life, and Dutchman, the emotions of all these characters created the sense that everyone in this time were still searching for their identity. Each character in the plays had to overcome difficulties relating to their skin color, thus causing either confusion or confidence in their search for what defines them as their self. It created internal conflicts and they often blamed society for specific expectations and stereotypes. How the characters decided to express their feelings in emotions demonstrates a sense of realism and how they viewed themselves. In each play, we are able to see how the characters deal with the searching of their identity through various emotions and internal conflicts through their life choices.