Athol Fugard's 'Master Harold' . . . and the Boys is about Hally, a white young man, and the damage done by apartheid The play takes place on the southeast cost of South Africa, 1950 during the apartheid, in Hally's parents' restaurant. This is where two black servants, Sam and Willie, work for the white family. Sam and Willie have been a part of Hally's upbringing and are close friends. The play is a microcosm for the situation happening in South Africa a parallel time.
As the whole play is a microcosm to a bigger picture, so to incidents through out the play are microcosms for other aspects of the 1950s in South Africa. These incidents have both a personal as well as political relevance for Fugard says “My plays are more than politics,
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The two of them were up there for a long time; the only bench on the hill read whites only. The bench is the symbol of apartheid, division, hatred, and racism. It is apartheid that Hally hides behind as he uses Sam and Willie as his scapegoat. Hally is filled with so much rage over his father, he is torn between love and hate. When the conflict supernovas, Hally lashes out on his two black friends. He tries to pretend they are not friends by acting strictly like a boss. Carrying on with this little man routine, Hally asks Sam to call him Master Harold. Sam would only do this if they were no longer friends; Hally would be no different from his father. This is the case for, when he spits in Sam's face, Hally becomes Master Harold. Apartheid is victorious in the corruption of another white male as Hally takes his place on the bench of segregation. If you're not careful . . . Master Harold . . . you're going to be sitting up there by yourself for a long time to come, and there won't be a kite in the sky . On a political viewpoint we see that even if a white wanted to go against the norm of the system it was almost impossible due to the environment. Another point is that here we see that the blacks tried to appease the whites anger but enough is enough and then the blacks anger would flair up, would the whites try appease them?
Along with the kite and the bench, the dance is another symbol in Master Harold . . . and the
At the beginning Blacky becomes aware of the apartheid of white and black first in the players at the local footy team, the
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
Born the second son of a royal family, Henry Tudor lived a very interesting life. His future was intended to be the head of the Roman Catholic Church and that fate ended with the death of his brother, Prince Arthur. Henry’s majestic life was full of sports, women, and faith. The young King acceded his father to the throne, married six women, and began the English Reformation when he broke away from the Roman Catholic Church and created his own religion.
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.
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 play can be seen as a general statement on the effects that fear and fanaticism can have on human beings and how one person can cause such catastrophe. It
He takes this anger out on Sam, even though Sam is trying to help Hally. Hally yells at Sam, insults Sam and makes racist comments about Sam. Hally would not behave in this manner if he were not raised in a racist society. Hally hurts Sam through racism and insults, and in doing so he shows that society is cruel and harsh to those who are different.
Contrast between Sam and Hally's Father in Athol Fugard's "Master Harold" . . . and the Boys
My report is on Richard I, byname Richard the Lion-Hearted. He was born September 8, 1157 in Oxford, England. He died on April 6, 1199 in Chalus, England. His knightly manner and his prowess in the Third Crusade(1189-92) made him a popular king in his own time, as well as the hero of countless romantic legends. He has been viewed less kindly by more recent historians and scholars.
-Grew up in Port Elizabeth (deeply symbolic place for him.) Lower middle class environment poor whites of 1930s vs. political conservatives (generalization!) Fugard epitomizes fact that we can’t generalize like this because for five decades, he voiced against racial oppression. Port Elizabeth represents what it’s like to be poor and white in South Africa.
shall firstly do a summery of the play and give a basic image of what
The scene took place inside the tea room. The room is decorated with pale yellow wallpapers to give it a 50s vibe and classic wooden table sets to create the retro atmosphere as in the play. The play was set around the apartheid, hence it makes sense to see some elements that are relevant to that era. Sam and Willie were wearing white waiter's coats and Hally was wearing a school uniform. The way Sam and Willie dress tells us that Sam is more like an important than Willie is because Willie dresses like he’s doing more physical works and he actually was doing more physical works. Willie was cleaning the floor and Sam was busy doing work in the
this quations shows that hally is using his sense of ownwership from his parents and as a white kid to threathen sam and willie that if they don’t call him master harold, they might easily loos their jobs which might results in some problems. This evidence supports the fact that at the end, hally was able to receive his superiority from sam by him finally calling hally as master
“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,
Theme – the reason behind why the playwright wrote the play. “Patterns of life”, a slice of reality.