The Enslavement Process
The enslavement process made the history of the blacks to be lost and robed their culture. This erased the memory in the stay in the captivity. The center of the play in on the history that was overshadowed by the white man. By remembering the history of the African Americans, the characters in the play are able to live in their future. It is thus vital for the characters to remember the African within them, and thus, Bynum mysticism comes into play. Wilson in his play constructs mini-narratives that emerge from the African American perspective and mirror the themes of belonging, remembering and reconnection. Through these themes, the author wanted to appreciate the black voices and recognize their birthplace after moving to St. Paul, Minnesota in 1978. The play centers on the lives of the African Americans in the 20th century. It focuses on the essential issues that confronted the African Americans and records the black experience through a re-examination of history.
Theme of Remembering
The play is deeply rooted in what the writer demarcates as a “blood memory” that is coined on the African religion. The memory is manifested through the mystical image of the shining man. The concept of blood memory that brings out the theme of remembering is evident through Loomis who is forced into remembering the experiences of the ancestral ties after he heard of juba (Wilson 87). He remembers that the juba has the members of the boarding house with roots in the traditional African dances. The stage direction of the play describes juba to be reminiscent of the Ring Shouts of African slaves (Wilson 52). Loomis remembers the ancestral roots and walks in the Juba and later finds himself in spiritual possession. The movement of the traditional African Ring Shouts made Loomis go into the blood of memory. The author informs the reader that the only way the foreigners could reconnect is through remembering their history. The African Americans depict to be strangers in their land as they abandoned their culture and could not remember it. This is because they became assimilated in the western culture in America.
Theme of Belonging
Bynum finds belonging after meeting the “the shining man” on the road. The man takes Bynum back to where he came from and thus reconnecting him with his ancestors. Eventually, Bynum reconnects with his father and tells him that he is grieved “to see [him] in the world carrying other people’s songs and not having one of [his] own.” (Wilson 10). The theme of belonging is evident through the search for identity. The African Americans want to develop a sense of relationship with their family members as this plays a key role in building identities. The Africans feel that they have a sense of belonging as they share cultures and origins. Besides, the experience all go through in the hands of the black also give them a sense of belonging. The novel examines the search for cultural identity by the African Americans after repression from slavery. The imagery of the road and take of the travel as well as the consequences of the migration introduce the theme of belonging. People lose and find one another. For example, Herald searches his wife in order to be together. Selig and Bynum want to belong to their family members.
Theme of Reconnection
The author illustrates the theme of reconnection through the song mentions ion in the play. Evidently, one finds the song, and a place of belonging in life is essential for reconnection. He writes that “Sometimes you got to be where you supposed to be. Sometimes you can get all mixed up in life and come to the wrong place.” (Wilson 45). Finding the song enables one to leave a mark in life, and the characters are thus able to create history. Wilson shows that discovering the shining man is important as it will imply reconnection. Wilson illustrates the theme of remembering through performing the rituals in which Seth does not find it easy to accept. The rituals have an origin in the African heritage. He then wants to make the Africans remember their cultural ritual. Evidently, Seth has erased his African identity completely and keeps Christian faith.
Bynum and Herald Loomis
Bynum and Herald Loomis are characters that experience s spiritual rebirth and a reconnection to the African gods who are forgotten. Herald Loomis and Bynum experiences reverberate the African American historical hardships and allow a reconnection with the Yoruba culture. The theme of reconnection is evident when Wilson writer “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” (Wilson 4). The blues used in the play portray how the black character refused to be ruled by the white man and is a symbol of the history of the African Americans and how they tried to reconstruct after the white man left them. It is a symbol, of reconnecting back to the original history. Loomis’s enslavement is a remembrance of the slavery that the African Americans went through. Loomis’s enslavement is separated from the family implying how the countless Africans have also torn from their families and communities and forced into slavery. Loomis search for Martha is fuelled by the need for re union.
Representation of Wilson's Life
Wilson's life is a representation of the themes from the play. He was born the fourth in a family of six, and he grew up in poverty Pittsburgh's Hill District. His parents separated, and the level of poverty made his education life to be a challenge. He dropped out of the 10th grade. Therefore, the book is a representation of Wilson’s life as it portrays the many sufferings that Wilson and the African Americans faced. The novel Joe Turner’s Come and Gone written by Wilson is set in Pittsburgh in 1911 when slavery was still practised in the US. The events in the novel continue to live vividly in the memory of the African Americans. The book explores the realities of enslavement and brings to light the history and memory that played a powerful role in developing the themes of belonging, reconnection and remembering. August Wilson writes the history of the African Americans and brings the history of the black to light. The play unfolds with a panoramic illuminating themes such as belonging, reconnection and remembering. The characters of the play are faced with the challenge of searching for an identity after persevering the many years of enslavement and illegal bondage. Indeed, Wilson's playwriting career centered on showing the suffering of the African Americans and inspires the need for cultural identity.
Work Cited
Wilson August. Joe Turner's Come and Gone. Theatre Communications Group, 1988
