Written Task 2

Outline

Prescribed question

How could the text be read and interpreted differently by two different readers?

Title of text for analysis

Master Harold and the Boys by Athol Fugard

Part of course

Part 3, Literature: Texts and contexts

Task Focus

In class we have been studying a range of plays from different times and places with a variety of different contexts, all sharing oppression as a key theme.

Hally’s struggle throughout the play, I believe, is the most important aspect of the story and his decision wavers and evolves with the storyline. I decided to examine how white supremacist and an international student would interpret the play because I believe they represent the polar ends of the decision he has to make and as a result they will have differing opinions and position themselves differently within the play. I like the idea that they may play as his conscience like an angel and a devil on his shoulders as he moves from one position to the other. I also chose an international student because (as an international student) I believe that I would be able to write an accurate representation of the student’s opinions and interpretation of the text; the white supremacist would pose more of a challenge for me, but enables me to think out of my own context and seriously consider another contrasting point of view.

Written Task

Master Harold and the Boys by Athol Fugard, first performed in 1982, is a timeless play describing the relationship between a young boy and two black waiters employed by the boy’s mother during Apartheid South Africa. As the play evolves, it turns into an emotive and heart-wrenching lesson about racism and acceptance.

As society grows, beliefs change and the boundaries of oppression that divided differing views and varying cultures diminish until, slowly, the world begins to focus on the traits that unite us rather than the ones that keep us apart. As a result, the views and interpretations of an international student in the 21^st century will vary greatly from those of a white supremacist growing up in Apartheid South Africa during the period that Master Harold and the Boys was written (1982). This essay will explore the differences in the ways that the two personas would read and interpret the play.

Throughout Master Harold and the Boys, the main character Hally struggles with the decision of what kind of man he wants to be as he stands on the precipice of adulthood. Hally is a complex character as the reader’s opinion of Hally fluctuates with Hally’s fickle attempts at choosing what side of the fight against racism he wants to be on, The two readers, due to the variations in experience and upbringing, would support Hally’s struggle from either side. An international student will have been raised amongst people of every culture and religion and will have found that a person is measured by what he says and does as opposed to what he looks like. As a result, he will value Hally’s relationship with the black waiters during a time of segregation for its rebellious righteousness and empathise and identify most closely with Hally; the similarities in age and occupation will further emphasise the reader’s ability to identify with Hally. A white supremacist will have been from a culture of segregation. His skin colour has not only provided him with the opportunities and choices that he has had, but has become part of his identity. The general egalitarianism displayed by Hally towards the Negros, despite being Caucasian, will offend this reader, but as Hally is the only white man in the play, he will feel the strongest connection to this character. This reader will also identify with Hally’s father, a voiceless figure in the play, but consistently mentioned as a white supremacist, asking for similar traits in his son.

Hally’s struggle can be displayed using these two contrasting quotations by Hally: “I wanted you to stay, you know (24)”, and “he’s a white man and that’s good enough for you (33)”. These quotations are so contrasting as they come from two different states of mind. In the first quote, Hally wistfully remembers a time when he and Sam had flown a kite together and this quotation displays the love that Hally feels for Sam and his wish that a black man and a white man should be allowed to have a friendship together, equally. The second quotation is quite different as Hally expresses the difference in both status and in rights between a black man and a white man; this emphasises the differences between Sam and himself and abandons the idea that the two races could ever be friends or equals. The international student would endorse the first quotation entirely as it speaks of equality and highlights the controversial relationship between Sam and Hally, whilst the white supremacist will take great offence to the kite-flying incident and will chastise Sam thoroughly for his disobedience. The opinions will shift as the second quotation is interpreted as betrayal by the international student, betraying not only the relationship between Hally and Sam, but the idea that skin colour should not define a person; this blow is most felt because Hally, up to this point, is with whom the international student identifies most greatly. The white supremacist will agree wholeheartedly with the statement (in the quotation) and interpret it as a milestone in Hally’s development.

The most important intervention by Sam (and arguably the most important part of the story) is the climax in which Sam tells the kite story for what it actually is, explaining how the two of them carried Hally’s father to his room and the true reason behind the kite. Sam says, “You’re ashamed of so much! And now that’s going to include yourself. That was the promise I made to myself: to try and stop that happening… That’s not the way a boy grows up to be a man! But the one person that should be teaching you what that means was the cause of your shame. If you really want to know, that’s why I made you the kite. I wanted you to look up, be proud of something, of yourself. (46-47). This moving quotation confirms Sam’s attempts at playing a father figure in Hally’s life despite the risks involved. As the international student positions himself in Hally’s perspective he will find himself simultaneously admiring Sam for his love and hating Hally for the disrespect and hatred he displayed such an ill-deserving man. The white supremacist would, once again, disapprove of Sam’s insolence and, having identified with the father, would be shocked and outraged by Sam’s attempts at playing a role that belongs to a very present white father.

Throughout the play, Hally is forced to make the difficult decision of whether he wants to leave the “white only bench” and join the men of magnitude, or continue being his father’s son. As he makes this decision the two readers represent the the two sides of his decision and like the angel and devil on Hally’s shoulders these readers perceive Hally’s evolution very differently due to contrasting experiences, upbringing and contexts. As the story unfolds, Hally finds himself pulling away from the naivety of the international student and towards the indoctrinated beliefs of the white supremacist.

Word count: 990