Entry #7 - "Our Town" By Thorton Wilder
Entry #7 - "Our Town" by Thorton Wilder
Question #1
Does Grover’s Corners have to be a New Hampshire or a New England town, or would any are do just as well?
Question #2
In what ways is the play still relevant to our urbanized, globalized, and multicultural society? Do its village pieties avoid the pressing problems of our era? Is its vision of people finding meaningful places in family and community too simplistic?
Question #3
What do you make of Wilder’s depictions of women’s and men’s emotional lives and values?
A. With the following answer, I intend to address all three questions above, and hope it does make sense to the reader.
In my opinion, Grover’s Corners would fit anywhere in the United States, be it the south, California where the author studied, or the Midwest where he was born, and at any given point in history. The social issues addressed in this play, war, death natural or otherwise, indifference to what really matters due to immaturity, the overprotective parents, as well as those who would give in a little more to their children’s decisions, and the escape young people find in what is prohibited (alcohol, cigarettes, etc…) and even in marriage, are all the effects of our values which have not changed much since this play was written in the 1930’s. Though our community is much larger now than in the late 30’s, and we as a country are more accepting of those who live far from us and their customs, our core values do remain the same… We highly respect our parents, and our parents continue to do their best at protecting us, in many cases to extreme levels. While this is not true for all parents and children today, it was not so back then either, when the rate of crime and pregnancies outside of marriage were as high as perhaps they are now.
Another point I find still relevant today, is Wilder’s depiction of women and men’s values. As mentioned above, I think this remains an unchanged matter, with women still with much power over the decisions made by every family, whether men choose to accept for this to be displayed in public or not. Meanwhile, men continue to fall head over heels for women, doing as they command until he is mature enough to think for himself, and at which point the only thing left to do on an attempt to claim his freedom, is to buy the convertible.
This is not to bash women for having the sort of power and control over men they do have, but in my eyes is an inevitable fact of life. We come out of a woman’s womb, and live at least half of our lives being fed, clothed, and following the ideas and rules of that woman. Again, while this might not be the law of the land, most of us cannot wait to run away from home and find another woman to continue guiding us through life. Simply put, I do not think our society will change much from what we see in this play until human beings, men particularly stops our dependency on women, which I find biologically impossible… Our Town will always be relevant in my opinion, hence its popularity, generation after generation, and after watching it again, in a bright room, I have to say I like it much more than the first time.
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Entry #10 - "Master Harold... and the boys" Athol Fugard
What is the historical setting of the play? What do you believe was the playwright’s intention in writing this play? Draw connections between the setting and circumstances surrounding this play and U.S. history.
The historical setting of this play is that of a country plagued by racism, servitude, and the dangerous relationship between the native people of any given country, and its colonizers. Although Athol Fugard’s “Master Harold… and the boys” is set to take place in the country of South Africa, his work addresses circumstances in the 1950’s also affecting many other regions of the world, from Egypt to India, South Africa to the United States in particular, where racial tension and segregation was as strong as ever at the time. Colonization in South Africa had incredible social impact in the community, marginalizing the local people, and establishing a segregation order which affected schools, neighborhoods, cities, all the way to Parliament where it was rear to find a person of color unless he/she was employed as a servant. As it was done in the United States soon after slavery was abolished, and during the 50’s as well, the powerful men who ruled the country, British is this case, found ways to continue exploiting the natives, yet still satisfying the international community’s concerns regarding the social issues which afflicted the South African population. This was done in many ways, one of which was providing employment opportunities to the native people as domestic servants. In the United States, people of African descent as we know, were treated in similar ways. Given work as domestic servants, caretakers, janitors, doormen, porters, and share croppers among other, African Americans faced strenuous working conditions and very low pay, which pushed them to leave in slums, and their children to be raised with the poorest education available. This created in both, U.S. and South Africa a second class of people who saw those in better position, whites in its majority with admiring eyes, and extreme respect.
I believe Fugard intended to expose the treatment his countrymen and many others throughout the world were experiencing at the hand their respective oppressors. Whether called servants or slaves, native South Africans were subject to the will of their employers, who as it could be noticed in this play, did not hesitate to make their authority felt. As in the United States were African American and other people of color were treated with demoralizing behavior, South African natives as indicated in this play, were treated as second class citizens in their own country. Subjects of this foreign authority, they did not stand up or revolt against the establishment any sooner, perhaps because of the financial ties that existed between them and their British employers and rulers. In extreme need for income, in a country with vast natural resources, yet living under high unemployment and illiteracy, native South Africans found themselves dependant of those who provided them with work and a salary to support their families. Many volunteered as soldiers during WWI and WWII, and many others became part of the domestic servitude which answered and waited upon the rich, consequently becoming second class citizens.
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