"JOE TURNER'S COME & GONE" (AUGUST WILSON).   Term Paper ID:22276 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Examines characters' search for their song, individual spirit, authenticity, or purpose in life.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Examines characters' search for their song, individual spirit, authenticity, or purpose in life. Paper Introduction: This study will examine August Wilson's play Joe Turner's Come and Gone, focusing on the characters' search for their "song." The play offers a number of definitions of what this "song" is, but it is roughly equivalent to one's individual spirit or purpose in life. The study will consider in greater depth what this song is, its significance, which characters have found theirs, which are still searching, and which will probably never find it. The thesis of the study will be that those who have found their songs have come to a state of acceptance about life and its difficulties, and have as a result discovered within themselves what the others are seeking in vain outside themselves. Those who have not found their songs are still doing battle with life, with people, and with themselves. The significance of the song, then, is found in the fact that the Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. . Joe Turner's Come and Gone. The significance of the song, then, is found in the fact thatthe individual must discover his or hers in order to be an authentic humanbeing and in order to have any chance for love and happiness in the world. You just forgot how to sing it (Wilson 73). Now he's got you bound up to where you can't sing your own song. . He has to cut himself,bleed, and smear the blood over his own face to realize his song, but hedoes so and is able to stand as a man: Having found his song, the song of self-sufficiency, fully resurrected, cleansed and given breath, free from any encumbrance other than the workings of his own heart and the bonds of the flesh, having accepted the responsibility for his own presence in the world, he is free to soar above the environs that weighed and pushed his spirit into terrifying contractions (Wilson 93-94). . Jeremy is a character who is on the way to finding his song, notsimply because he is literally a musician, but because he is a lively youngman who is full of music but who has not as yet found the form of his song.As Wilson puts it in describing Jeremy, About twenty-five, he gives the impression that he has the world in his hand, that he can meet life's challenges head on. . (She begins to laugh. till he finds out he's got it with him all the time (Wilson 71). . They search for ways to reconnect, . . Martha's song seems to be bound up in her love for her daughter andher Christian faith: "It's alright, baby. The play focuses on a number of characters rather than oneprotagonist. As it is, she is simply"using [men] to keep from being by herself" (Wilson 74-75), as Bertha putsit. Every nigger he catch he's looking for the one he can learn that song from. She is a generous, good-natured womanwhose song seems to be laughter, as she puts it herself: The only thing that man needs is somebody to make him laugh. For Thou art with me. It got so I used up all of myself in the making of that song. Bynum found his own song as a binder of people who are meant to betogether (Wilson 9-1 ), and he comes by the song through such a shiningman, and it appears that in seeing Loomis as another shining man, Bynum hashad his own song validated: I asked [my father] about the shiny man and he told me he was the One Who Goes Before and Shows the Way. Isolated, cut off from memory, having forgotten the names of the gods and only guessing at their faces, they arrive dazed and stunned, their heart kicking in their chest with a song worth singing. Seth is a character who has not found his song and probably will notif he insists on maintaining his nasty, controlling attitude towardeveryone around him, but, again, if Loomis can find his song, it ispossible for everyone to find theirs, certainly including Seth. Her song doesseem to be contained in her love for and love from the man she sodesperately needs to find. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me'"(Wilson 91-92). Of course, Bynum has played a part in her discovery of Loomis,for it was Bynum---singing his binding song---who helped Mattie with abenevolent ritual (Wilson 74). To just stand and laugh and let life flow right through you. Not only does Loomis suddenly find his song of self-sufficiency, buthe suddenly has a female character running after him as he exits (perhapsfinding the man who would help her find her song?), and even "shining likenew money" in symbolic representation of the special being Bynum issearching for. Didn't want to accept that song. . Zonia and Reuben seem to be entirely open to finding their songs, asevidenced in their love play (78-84), but they are children and society andother people (who have not found their own songs) will certainly set upobstacles in front of the youngsters to keep them from their songs. If Seth has indeed somehow found his song, it is certainly one ofconstant complaint. This study will examine August Wilson's play Joe Turner's Come andGone, focusing on the characters' search for their "song." The play offersa number of definitions of what this "song" is, but it is roughlyequivalent to one's individual spirit or purpose in life. . Seth opens the play complaining about Bynum's activities out in theyard (1), and his last words in the play form a reminder to Loomis that heonly has a few more days in the rooming house before he throws him out(75). The thesis of the study will be that those who havefound their songs have come to a state of acceptance about life and itsdifficulties, and have as a result discovered within themselves what theothers are seeking in vain outside themselves. It had come from way deep inside me. New York: New AmericanLibrary, 1988.----------------------- 7 I tried to find my daddy to give him back the song. Bynum tries to explain what Turner wantedwith Loomis: What he wanted was your song. to give clear and luminous meaning to the song which is both a wail and a whelp of joy (Wilson i). The study willconsider in greater depth what this song is, its significance, whichcharacters have found theirs, which are still searching, and which willprobably never find it. It is a near-hysterical laughter that is a celebration of life, both its pain and its blessing.) (Wilson 87). Of course, it was neverthelessharmed simply by the fact that it had to be hidden for so long. He thought by catching you he could learn that song. Mama's here. It was my song. . Couldn't sing it them seven years 'cause you was afraid he would snatch it from under you. As we read, Mattie "had suffered many defeats inher search [for love and companionship], and though not alwaysuncompromising, still believes in the possibility of love" (Wilson 21).Loomis would seem to be the last man for Mattie, but she finds him as thatone---if he is---just at the very moment that she stops so desperatelysearching. If we consider that slaves were hardly allowed to makeany complaints whatsoever, perhaps Seth has indeed found his song. To have love in one hand and laughter in the other. That song was hard to carry. I fought against it. But I found out it wasn't his song. . That's all you need in the world is love and laughter. Therefore, considering the hard shell which Loomis was forced to useto cover his soul to survive on the chain gang, it is a most optimisticsign from Wilson that even Loomis finds his song. . . He wanted to have that song be his. That's all anybody needs. . 'I shall fear moevil. . . At the same time, it is important to note that Bynum---who is themost knowledgeable of the characters with respect to the significance ofsongs---seems to be saying indirectly that it is important that one notcome by their song too easily, that it is important that one struggle tofind and sing that song, claiming it as one's own: That song had a weight to it that was hard to handle. Wilson in his introduction to the play tells us that the finding ofone's song is an individual process which has to do with one's reclamationof his or her identity: From the deep and near South the sons and daughters of newly freed slaves wander into the city. . Those who have not foundtheir songs are still doing battle with life, with people, and withthemselves. Said there was lots of shiny men and if I ever saw one again before I died then I would know that my song had ben accepted and worked its full power in the world and I could lay down and die a happy man (Wilson 1 ). He smiles a lot. . Molly is a character who has not yet found her song because she isobsessed with her suffering at the hands of men, but she will likely findher song if and when she learns to trust again. Work CitedWilson, August. But you still got it. Jeremy is a free spirit who, rather than needing to search for hissong in the way that Loomis had to, instead must prune away some of hiswaywardness in order to find the song which is certainly at its center. When a man forgets his song he goes off in search of it . The soulshould sing through every word, act, thought and feeling of an individual,and to force the soul into hiding is to take away the individual's uniquecharacteristics as a human being. The kind of laugh that comes from way deep inside. Bertha is much more at home in the world than her husband Seth, andshe seems to have found her song. He is a proficient guitar player, though his spirit has yet to be molded into song (Wilson 12). The character most disenfranchised from his soul seems to be HeraldLoomis, kidnapped and put on a chain gang for seven years by Joe Turnersimply because he was black. We see, then, that the song of Loomis, insofar as it symbolizes thesong of all blacks of that era, is something held back from the white man,something held deep within the soul---if not the soul itself---where thewhite society could not steal it or harm it. Mattie is the woman who runs after the exiting Loomis. In a sense, these characters in aggregate can be seen as aspiritual protagonist---the soul of black Americans struggling to regaintheir dignity, their identity, their individuality. . If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.