A Looking Glass Shattered:

Defiance and Challenge to African American Stereotypes in August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle

Submitted for Partial Requirement of ENGL 4700

At Dixie State UniversitySpring 2013

Origins of a Stereotype

Cover of racist propaganda early 1900’s

Cover of the first novel in series written by Robert Tralins (1969)

US Army enlistment poster 1900’s in juxtaposition to cover of Vogue magazine 2000’s

“Blaxploitation” Film Genre

Shaft Movie Poster (1971) Super Fly Movie Poster (1972)

Gangsta/Thug Lifestyle Rap

FencesSet in 1957 and the play asks the question of how a reformed African

American criminal is perceived in contemporary America and whether he should be accepted in to the larger realm of society. The protagonist is Troy Maxson, a garbage collector in Pittsburgh. Troy has a family, a wife and two sons one of whom is from a previous marriage. He is trying to instill in those sons a moral fortitude that will carry them through their entire lives. He wants something better than the life he has for, his youngest son, Cory and goes about trying to force his son down a path that the boy does not necessarily want to travel. Throughout the storyline of the play there is a picket fence that Troy is asked to build by his wife that he simply keeps putting off. The fence metaphorically represents the people and elements that Troy wants to keep out as well the elements he also wants to keep close in his life. He wants to keep Cory close and protected so that he does not suffer at the hands of the white man as he did. The fence also is an attempt to keep out the forces of the white majority that have oppressed him throughout his life.

Fences (cont.)Troy Maxson became a criminal to not only

survive but to provide.Despite his criminal past Troy Maxson has

possessed the integrity to respect responsibility.

That sense of responsibility and desire for his posterity to succeed where he has not aid others to succeed.

King Hedley IISet in the 1980’s, the play looks back at the historical and personal

significance of slavery on the African American culture. The protagonist King Hedley II is a convicted murderer who has spent time in prison and now lives back in Pittsburgh in the neighborhood he grew up in which is in the projects region of Pittsburgh. He is struggling with being a reformed convict and his former life and mistakes chasing him. His primary conflicts are between being respected and viewed as one not to be messed with and beginning a family with his girlfriend who wants abort the child they have created and King Hedley II wants to keep the child and raise it so that he might have a greater sense of worth. The struggle between being a family man and having his opinions and voice heard in the relationship and being the “tough hood” that takes nothing off from no one and where that could lead him without his family are difficult and captivating at the very same time. Inevitably, King avoids the choice that would take his personal freedoms and becomes the reformed man he was always striving to be.

King Hedley II (cont.)King is a convicted murder, as well the

majority of the characters that surround are convicted criminals.

King struggles between his desire for respect and being viewed as a man to be reckoned with and the control of his personal life and his opinion being valued.

King demonstrates that he can overcome the stereotype by not being the violent caricature and sparing Elmore.

Origins of a Stereotype

Movie Poster 1930’s

Racist propaganda from mid - 1900’s

Anti-Obama internet campaign ad

Coon Cards

Coon Card circa 1910

Coon Card circa 1904

Coon Card circa 1911

The Piano LessonSet in 1936, the play looks back at the historical and

personal significance of slavery on the African American culture. The two primary characters are Boy Willie and his sister Berniece. Boy Willie has come to the North, Pittsburgh, to sell watermelon’s and sell the family heirloom, a hand carved piano. The reason for his travels is that he has an opportunity to purchase land from the family of a man that has died. The purchase of this land represents freedom, independence, and self-reliance to Boy Willie. The play is centered on Boy Willie and Berniece’s struggle to gain an independence from the oppression of white society and still keep a sense of their heritage and culture which is represented in the hand carved piano.

The Piano Lesson (cont.)Boy Willie is selling watermelons and is

viewed as some what of an expert by the ruling majority because of the stereotype.

Boy Willie increases the price on white people and takes advantage of their ignorance.

Boy Willie is using the proceeds from watermelon sales to gain his independence through the purchase of land.