ROLES PLAYED IN AMERICAN SUBCULTURES.   Term Paper ID:30762 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Discusses two plays on how people cope with their roles in a subculure.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Discusses two plays on how people cope with their roles in a subculture. JOE TURNER'S COME AND GONE by August Wilson, and AND THE SOUL SHALL DANCE by Wakako Yamauchi. How each playwright develops a strong sense of the importance of the family bond. A sense of alienation as a divisive force. Paper Introduction: In the plays Joe Turner's Come and Gone by August Wilson and And The Soul Shall Dance by Wakako Yamauchi, the playwright in each case develops a strong sense of the importance of the family bond as each explores the way people cope with their roles in a subculture within a larger, dominant culture that generally does not value them or their cultural background. In each case, the characters aspire to something better than they have already achieved, defined usually as economic success in the American society of which they are a part. In Wilson's play, these aspirations are found in the black community among people whose ancestors were slaves and who themselves do not feel fully part of American society. In Yamauchi's play, the characters are Japanese immigrants cut off from their homeland and from much of their own culture by great distance as well as 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. These families face not only the difficulties of the depression economybut also homesickness, prejudice in their new country, and interpersonalproblems. She resists helping Kiyoko at first because the other girl is so alien toher, but she does come around and the two become good friends. In the play, Jeremy refuses to pay protection money to a white bossand loses his job, so he takes a girl with him and runs away from allresponsibility. 1994. The image Bynum has raisedearlier is the image of the "shiny man." Bynum had hired Selig to find the"shiny man" for him. Forher part, Masako may be somewhat rude and may keep to herself more than herparents like, but she is basically a dutiful daughter who is not malicious. Joe Turner's Come and Gone is a play about the search for identityamong a black population cut off from its roots by the salve era. . For Emiko, though, money is a vital necessityso she can escape. Money is a central issue in this play, but it is one that hasdifferent consequences for different people. The secondfamily is mirroring some of the history of the first family by bringingover a daughter who learns and finds her way as the first family's daughterdid years before. InHerald Loomis's story, the story of the black experience in America isplayed out on a smaller stage. Make money, go home and livelike a king" (129). Loomis comes to Seth Holly's Pittsburgh boardinghouse, along with anumber of other characters, all of whom are seeking something withoutnecessarily knowing what it is. Loomis now has his daughter with himand wants to turn her over to his wife before he leaves for good. Selig indeed brings Seth the material he needsto make his wares, and he acts as one who knows how to find people and somay be able to help Loomis. In Yamauchi'splay, the characters are Japanese immigrants cut off from their homelandand from much of their own culture by great distance as well as by thepower of American culture as it reshapes the daughter in the family. Intruth, though, the tension between daughter and parents is relatively mildin spite of the circumstances. This lasted for seven years, after which Loomis set out to findhis wife. Both families face hardships and dream of returning home, but whatis a vague goal for the fist family is an obsession for the wife in thesecond family. He at least has a better idea ofwhat this means than Loomis understands about his own original plan. Hana does imply that the father has to dosomething about the daughter: "Otherwise she'll make the same mistake.You'll be building a bathhouse every year" (126). None of the blacks really knows anything of their heritage, thoughthey try to act out aspects of it, as in the African juba dance that sooffends Loomis because he sees all religion as a sop to the masses and asonly another means for keeping black people quiet. Even the more Americanized Masako feels the prejudice of otherstudents. All of the characters are immigrant and in some ways feel out ofplace. In Wilson's play, these aspirations arefound in the black community among people whose ancestors were slaves andwho themselves do not feel fully part of American society. Loomis himself is not sure what it is heis seeking--he may believe it is his wife and that he is going to leavewhen he finds her, but in truth he is looking for himself, his true self,all the time. The members of the group are from North andSouth. The father, however,merely says this is ridiculous and never really berates the daughter. They learn that Emiko is Oka's second wife, that hisfirst wife was Emiko's sister, that he has a daughter, and that he isgetting together the money to bring this daughter to America. His wife is alluded to in thisfirst scene, and the Muratas learn much about the husband and wife they didnot know before. 1992.Yamauchi, Wakako. Boston, MA: New American Library. In her play And The Soul Shall Dance, playwright Wakako Yamauchidraws on her own experiences as a farm child to tell the story of twofarming families who seek to survive the hardships of the Great Depression. Loomis was kidnapped by a man named JoeTurner who forced him and others to work as a slave and pick Turner'scotton. When we first meet the Murata family, it is at apoint of crisis because the eleven-year-old daughter Masako hasaccidentally burned down the bathhouse. The primary theme is the value of family in facing suchdifficulties and the fact that greater damage is done when there is nofamily support. "And the Soul Shall Dance." Songs My Mother Taught Me: Stories, Plays and a Memoir. He believes thatthis man showed him the meaning of life, and it is that meaning he tries toconvey to Loomis, indicating to him that finding oneself is the true testand is what Loomis really wants. Each of these characters is in the processof seeking something or, in the case of Walker and Selig, in helping othersfind what they are seeking. Loomis becomes the center of the story, but the playreally blends all these characters around the central issue of self-discovery and finding a black identity in a white society. Those form the Southhave been forced from the ties they had in that part of the country byeconomic changes, and now they are trying to make their way in a place evenmore alien to them. They alsolearn of how unhappy Oka was with his wives' parents: "I hated them!Pushing me around like I was still a boy. Loomis enters this group, and his brooding manner affects the othersand makes them react to him. Long before, Bynum had met the "shiny man" on acountry road, and this was for him a mystical experience. For instance, Seth Holly is seeking the same thing in termsof economic freedom, and what he says he wants is to compete on a levelplaying field with the white businessman. Many of the forces affecting these families are shown to be the samein each case, and ultimately it is the nature of the family structure thatdetermines who succeeds and who fails. In some way, Loomis is about to run away as well, thoughnot to a life of pleasure but simply because he does not know what he isreally searching for in the first place. The play shows how groups can offer support to memberswhen faced with a larger society that does not value them, but theimmediate support of the family is most important. For her, a return home is not merely a means ofassuaging her obvious homesickness but also a way of escaping from a badmarriage and a way to return to the lover she is certain is still waitingfor her. Money is always held out by both families as the ultimate means tothe goal of returning home. Oka refers to itwhen he tells what happened when he and his daughter were returning fromtown and had car trouble--the waitress nearly threw his food at him.Murata does not recount a story on the subject but agrees, noting that healways takes a lunch with him just so such things will not happen. Both have hopes of returning to their homeland one day,seeing this as a way out of economic difficulties as well as in terms of areturn to better values and simply to what is truly home. New York, NY: Feminist Press. He thinks he must find his wife,and when he does, he tells her, "Now that I see your face I can say mygoodbye and make my own world" (Wilson 1 1). me, a grown man!" (129).One of the reasons he came to America in the first place was to succeed andshow them up, and Murata agrees with his reason, showing a connectionbetween the two: "That's everyone's dream. It becomes clear a the playprogresses that the burning of the bathhouse really was an accident andthat the parents know this and do not hold it against their daughter. . Works CitedWilson, August. This prejudice is directed at all Japanese. You shining like new money!"(Wilson 1 2). . At first, it seems that the visit of Oka may be causing the family tobehave more reasonably simply to have a better appearance before outsiders. Thus, Loomis fulfills his first name as he is now truly aherald of a brighter future. In the plays Joe Turner's Come and Gone by August Wilson and And TheSoul Shall Dance by Wakako Yamauchi, the playwright in each case develops astrong sense of the importance of the family bond as each explores the waypeople cope with their roles in a subculture within a larger, dominantculture that generally does not value them or their cultural background.In each case, the characters aspire to something better than they havealready achieved, defined usually as economic success in the Americansociety of which they are a part. There are also important differences between the two families whichcontribute to the different responses each shows to the circumstances nowfaced. Money is required by this woman in a more immediate mannerprecisely for this reason--she wants the money to go home. One difference betweenthese Japanese farmers and the black people in Wilson's play is that theJapanese remember their traditions, knew who they were when they lived in their own country, and now are lost because they have been separated fromthat world they knew. Inboth plays, a sense of alienation is a divisive force in family life. The group at the boardinghouse forms a sort of de facto family groupmade up of Bynum Walker, a conjure man who tells stories; Rutherford Selig,a white peddler who helps blacks find lost loved ones on the side; Jeremy,a young man newly arrived from the South; and Seth Holly, who is a tinsmithworking for a white owner and dreaming of starting his own business forhimself and his wife, Bertha. Both families are immigrants in astrange land. Joe Turner's Come and Gone. For the Muratas, the lack ofmoney means that they cannot rebuild the bathhouse immediately as theywould like, and the damage later done by the remains makes it even lesslikely that they will be able to dig out of their money problems anytimesoon. An immediateconflict is apparent in this second family as the husband uses what moneyhe has to bring his daughter here from Japan, while the wife wants only touse that money to go home. The viewer does not know if Masakois really the rebellious daughter she appears to be, though it is evidentthat she is more Americanized than her parents and so may have a differentdemeanor than would be true if they were still in their homeland. He and his wife and infant daughter had a farm before he wastaken, and when he returns there, he finds that his wife is gone and hasleft their daughter with her mother. Each family consists of three people--the husband and wife, and thedaughter in each case. Oka enters as an observer, but soon our viewpoint shifts as hebecomes an object of greater interest. These are the dynamics the viewer might expect in such a situation, butthe play unfolds in a different manner. The people in both plays are therefore depicted as strangers in astrange land, alienated from the power structure, and needing to findthemselves and a community in which they feel comfortable and wanted. In the end, though Loomis does leave ashe intended, he does so as a different man, one who has achieved a degreeof understanding denied him before, and so Bynum identifies him as the new"shiny man": "Herald Loomis, you shining! 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.