ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF RACIAL ISSUE ON THE CHARACTERS IN EUGENE O’NEILL’S ALL GOD’S CHILLUN GOT
WINGS
A THESIS
BY : IDA SOLFA RONA
REG NO : 070721004
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH SUMATERA FACULTY OF LETTERS
ENGLISH LITERATURE DEPARTMENT MEDAN
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
All praise, honor, and tribute are delivered to my Great Heavenly Father for His divine presence in my life, for His glory, and for His amazing grace by His sacrifice Son, Jesus Christ, that save me and make me whole and worthy again. He also blesses me with all beloved people in my life, great family and friends to share with.
I wish to acknowledge the essential help from my supervisor, Drs. Razali Kasim, M.A and to Drs. Yulianus harefa M. Ed TESOL as my co supervisor and also as the secretary of English Department. Thanks for guiding me in the process of doing this thesis.
I wish to thanks all of lectures who dedicated themselves in English Department especially to Dra. Swesana Mardia Lubis, M.Hum as the head of English Department. My gratitude also goes to Drs. Syaifuddin Ph.D as the dean of Faculty of Letters.
I also thankful to my great, big, and wonderful prayer mate Lely “Le_Lo” for every prayer, for every time we pray together, every sorrow we face together, and every joy we share together. Thank for your presence in every need and hug me with love. Love you forever gal!
rusni, k’ toet; in Ebed Yahwe: Grace, Hermina, Mira, Friska, Lenni; and in Rosette Geraldine: Eva, Melly, Po_Po. I just want you to know that I’ll love you forever gals.
My sincere gratitude to my beloved family. My parents, S. Situmorang and R. Manullang, for your forever, sweet and true love, unstoppable understanding, gentle care, endless patience, and prayer in every time. I do love you both from the bottom of my hearth. My great Sista Uteng , for your attention and care, and always inspired me when I was weak. I wish you all the best! My twin lovely brothers, Atur and Ara, you are unforgettable bro! Love you always. To my big Situmorang’s and manullang’s family thank for the simple care and love. You all my inspiration!
ABSTRAK
Masalah sosial adalah masalah yang sangat menarik untuk terus dibahas dalam setiap kehidupan bahkan dalam karya sastra sendiri karena karya sastra tidak akan pernah bisa lepas dari masyarakat. Salah satu masalah sosial yang menarik untuk dibahas adalah masalah rasialisme yang sejak dahulu secara tidak disadari sudah menguasai alam pikir manusia. Rasialisme yang terjadi karena adanya prasangka terhadap ras – ras tertentu tidak hanya merusak hubungan antar ras saja, tetapi ini juga mengakibatkan adanya penyimpangan mental dan karakter manusia. Rusaknya mental dan karakter manusia yang diakibatkan rasialisme inilah yang diangkat oleh Eugene O’Neill dalam dramanya yang berjudul All God’s Chillun Got Wings.
Bab I skripsi ini berisikan penjabaran tentang sastra yang dilengkapi dengan latar belakang permasalahan, tujuan pengkajian, batasan pembahasan, dan metode penelitian yang digunakan.
Bab II menampilkan isu rasial sebagai salah satu masalah sosial yang dihubungkan dengan karya sastra, serta bagaimana menganalisis karya sastra dengan pendekatan sosial.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………... i
ABSTRAK………...ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS……….iii
Chapter I INTRODUCTION………...1
1.1 The Background of Analysis………...1
1.2 The Problem of Analysis………...3
1.3 The Objective of Analysis……….3
1.4 The Scope of Analysis………...4
1.5 The Theoretical Approach……….4
1.6 The Review of Related Literature………...5
Chapter II RACIAL ISSUE AND CULTURAL FACTORS………7
2.1 Cultural Factor as one of the Social Problems ………7
2.1.1 Racial Issue: a Consequence of Discrimination, Prejudice, and Stereotype………11
2.2 Society and Literature………16
Chapter III METHODOLOGY……….19
3.1 Research Method………..19
3.2 Data Collecting Method………...20
Chapter IV ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF RACIAL ISSSUE ON CHARACTERS IN EUGENE O’NEILL’S ALL GOD’S
CHILLUN GOT WINGS………..……….22
4.1 Jim Harris………..………22
4.2 Ella Downey………..………26
4.3 Hattie Harris………..………33
4.4 Joe………..………35
Chapter V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS………..39
5.1. Conclusions………39
5.2. Suggestions……….40
ABSTRAK
Masalah sosial adalah masalah yang sangat menarik untuk terus dibahas dalam setiap kehidupan bahkan dalam karya sastra sendiri karena karya sastra tidak akan pernah bisa lepas dari masyarakat. Salah satu masalah sosial yang menarik untuk dibahas adalah masalah rasialisme yang sejak dahulu secara tidak disadari sudah menguasai alam pikir manusia. Rasialisme yang terjadi karena adanya prasangka terhadap ras – ras tertentu tidak hanya merusak hubungan antar ras saja, tetapi ini juga mengakibatkan adanya penyimpangan mental dan karakter manusia. Rusaknya mental dan karakter manusia yang diakibatkan rasialisme inilah yang diangkat oleh Eugene O’Neill dalam dramanya yang berjudul All God’s Chillun Got Wings.
Bab I skripsi ini berisikan penjabaran tentang sastra yang dilengkapi dengan latar belakang permasalahan, tujuan pengkajian, batasan pembahasan, dan metode penelitian yang digunakan.
Bab II menampilkan isu rasial sebagai salah satu masalah sosial yang dihubungkan dengan karya sastra, serta bagaimana menganalisis karya sastra dengan pendekatan sosial.
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 The Background of Analysis
Literary writing is the imagination of the writer about something, about life, about everything they have felt or they thought in life. It could reflect the picture of the writer. Literature can be a picture of life in the past, now, and future. It can also embrace the whole world in just one simple writing because in literature we can learn about economy, law, psychology, detective, family, love, and so on that can widen our knowledge about life.
Wellek and Warren in Theory of Literature (1977:94) state that: “…literature ‘represents’ ‘life’; and ‘life’ is, in large measure, a social reality, even though the natural world and the inner or subjective world of the individual have also been objects of literary ‘imitation’.”
All God’s Chillun Got Wings is one of the greatest works of Eugene
O’Neill, written in 1923. It is his most successful effort to depict a psychologically complex relationship between a man and a woman. All God’s Chillun Got Wings received attention as an early version of the tormented
a reporter in 1912 when Etta Johnson, the white wife of the black boxer Jack Johnson, committed suicide, feeling rejected by white and black people alike.
All God’s Chillun Got Wings is an absorbing story of man’s and
woman’s struggle from the oppression of their social life where racial issue is rising. In this thesis I am interested to analyze the impact of racial issue to four characters (Jim Harris, Ella Downey, Hattie Harris, and Joe) although there are eight characters altogether, but the impact of the racial issue in the play affects them most.
their racial freedom. This issue also makes her hate the white-skinned. Joe becomes a weak man, give up to the condition.
These are the background why I have chosen the topical heading of this thesis as “Analysis to the Impact of Racial Issue on the Characters in Eugene O’neill’s All God’s Chillun Got Wings”.
1.2 The Problems of Analysis
I have read this play completely and fully. Most of the story is dominated by the characters of Jim Harris, Ella Downey, Hattie Harris, and Joe in facing the racial issue. In this story it is also found how racial issue affects the characters strongly. Based on the statement above, I am going to formulate the subject matter as follows:
1) How do the characters face the racial issue?
2) How does the racial issue impact the characters (Jim Harris, Ella Downey, Hattie Harris, and Joe)?
1.3 The Objectives of Analysis
1) To find out how the characters face the racial issue
2) To find out how the racial issue impact the characters (Jim Harris, Ella Downey, Hattie Harris, and Joe)
3) To show the readers that the racial issue still exists in our social life, especially in America.
1.4 The Scope of Analysis
I have decided to choose the analysis of the impact of social issue on the characters in All God’s Chillun Got Wings as the subject matter. I analyze only four characters out of eight in the play; they are Jim Harris, Ella Downey, Hattie Harris, and Joe. The subject of the analysis deals with the attitudes of the four characters in facing the racial issue and how the racial issue impacts the four characters.
1.5 The Theoretical Approach
Wellek and Warren in their Theory of Literature (1977:73), state that there are two methods in analyzing a literary works: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic method approaches the literary works from the internal factors, while extrinsic from the external factors such as, history, society, religion, psychology, biography, autobiography, and other arts.
1.6 The Review of Related Literature
In writing the thesis, I use some literary text books that are related to the analysis of the subject. These text books are helpful for me to get some more information, ideas, and others in order to add my knowledge and understanding about the analysis. Those books are as follows:
Pengantar Studi Kesejahteraan Sosial by M. Fadhi Nurdin (1989). It helps
me to understand about social problems and social problems factors. He states (p.55) that:
“Sumber masalah sosial dapat timbul dari kekurangan – kekurangan dalam diri manusia atau kelompok, baik yang disebabkan oleh faktor – faktor ekonomis, biologis, biopsikologis, dan kebudayaan... Faktor – faktor kebudayaan, misalnya perceraian, kenakalan anak, konflik rasial, dan sebagainya.”
“Social problems factors may be raised from the weakness of human it self or group, that caused by economy factors, biology factors, biopsychology factors, and culture factors….. Culture factors, for examples divorce, child disobedience, racial conflict, and so on”. (Own translation).
On Racism (1984) by Earnest N Bracey helps me to know and understand the
social life in the period of racial issue, how the society treats the Blackman and the effects of racial issue. He states (p.31) that:
Social Psychology (2003) by Robert S. Feldman helps me to know the social
CHAPTER II
RACIAL ISSUE AND CULTURAL FACTORS
2.1 Cultural Factor as One of the Social Problems
Social problems have a wide definition because it does not only cover social problems but also the problems in the society that are connected with abnormal symptom in society, which is called ameliorative or social problems. A social problem is the way of behavior which is against one or more accepted norms and occurred norms in society. The term of social problems is limited to problems which rise in family, group, or individual behavior.
According to the definition above, social problems are related to two main elements: deviant behavior and norms of society. In narrow meaning, social problems are limited to the problems in family, but the changes of individual behavior need the interference of society so that the society could continue its function.
Drs M. Fadhi Nurdin in Pengantar Studi Kesejahteraan Sosial (1989:54) states that:
anggota masyakarat di tempat penyimpangan sosial itu terjadi.”
“Social problems are a decline or deviant behavior of society, related to a big numbers of people’s deviant behavior, not related to individual deviant. In spite of if the deviance of some one behavior could affect some people can be a symptom of social problems, because this problem invites the attention of some members of society in where the deviant society is happened.” (Own translation)
There are some systems of values or social norms in social life which are standards of social as the standard whether behavior of some one or society has been deviated or not. The differences between social standards and social realities could raise the social problems. Social problems always aim at a gorge between hopes to individual or to a group with realities about what needs can be fulfilled, what values and purposes can be reached, how some one act, and what some one could get in a society.
Drs M. Fadhi Nurdin in Pengantar Studi Kesejahteraan Sosial (1989:55) states that there are four factors in social problems; they are economic factors, biological factors, biopsychological factors, and cultural factors. Economic factors for examples are poverty, unemployment, and so on. Biological factors can be varied problems which come from diseases. Biopsychological factor for examples can be caused by neurosis, suicide, and so on. Cultural factors, for examples divorce, child disobedience, racial conflict, and others.
In this thesis I will discuss one of the social problems, that is cultural factor. I will not discuss the cultural factor fully and deeply, because I only focus in the impact of racial issue on the characters, as one of the factors in social problems.
They do such mash things that makes the society in unrest to hide their family and to seek for true love they cannot get from their parents; racial issue also affect people’s behavior and attitude such like in All God’s Chillun Got Wings.
Culture mediates interaction among actors and integrates the personality and social system. Thus, in the social system, culture is embodied in norms and values, and in the personality system, it is internalized by the actor. Culture can move from one social system to another through diffusion and from one personality system to another through learning and socialization. By this, we can conclude that personality system is controlled not only by the social system but also by the cultural system.
that lead actors to give and get appropriate responses. It not means that actors are passive but the actor or person makes creative modifications as he internalizes culture.
2.1.1 Racial Issue: a Consequence of Discrimination, Prejudice, and Stereotype
Racial issue is not a strange one for every people anymore. Almost every time we hear, we see, and we watch it in our daily life as if it is a usual thing. Racialism has been a part of human life in the whole human history.
Racial issue is the prejudice directed at people because of their race. It has brought destruction to human, social and individual life. In social life, it makes the deep gap in society, between black and white, rich and poor. And the most seriously, it could bring war and death. In individual, the racial issue affected human sense of self and it also influences human social behavior, psychology, health, and so on. It can destroy our innate, cannot accept ourselves and it also makes us in loneliness, low self esteem, in fear, uncanny emotion, unsatisfactory relation with others, increasing anxiety and even madness.
a) Prejudice is the negative (or positive) evaluations or judgments of members of a group that are based primarily on membership in the group and not necessarily on the particular characteristics of individual members.
b) Stereotype is a set of beliefs and expectations about members of a group that are held simply on the basis of their membership in the group. Stereotype could provide a framework for prejudiced individuals to view others’ behavior. Ultimately, stereotypes may increase the chances of discrimination to occur.
c) Discrimination is the behavioral manifestation of stereotypes and prejudice. It refers to negative (or sometimes positive) action towards members of other group due to their membership in a group.
Although prejudice and discrimination often go hand in hand, one may be present without the other. A person who harbors prejudice may not necessarily engage in overt discrimination, because the target of his or her prejudice may not present. For example, someone may dislike Indonesian without ever having an opportunity to interact with them. Furthermore, laws against discrimination, as well as strong social norms or standards, may prevent overt discrimination, although it still may occur in more subtle ways. Hence, the presences of prejudice dose not always lead directly to discrimination.
Usually discrimination, prejudice, and stereotype in racism towards minority groups, their right has been destroyed by the majority groups. Minority here are not just groups that are numerically smaller than majority groups.
Feldman in Social Psychology (1995:81) states that minority group means a group in which the members have significantly less power, control, and influence over their own lives than do members of a dominant group. In African-American, minority group is Blackman or African and majority group is Whiteman or American.
In the twentieth century, Blackman was made as a slave to Whiteman. They had no right for their self and as if no hope and better future for them. We can see it also in a novel written by Ralp Ellison, an African-American, Invisible Man. He wrote, “I am an invisible man. I am a man of substance, of
flesh and bone, fiber and liquids – and I might even be said to posses a mind.
I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me” (Ellison,
1954, p.3). Eugene O’Neill in All God’s Chillun Got Wings also gives his opinion to this statement as if he wonders when the unity will be. He makes it to be the theme of his play All God’s Chillun Got Wings and summaries it in Jim Harris argument with his sister, Hattie Harris, he says: “You with your fool talk of the black race and the white race! Where does the human race
Du Bois in his most famous concepts, The Veil, reflected the condition on his best and most lyrical statements:
“And then-- the veil, the veil of color. It drops as drops the night on southern seas—vast, sudden, unanswering. There is hate behind it, and cruelty and tears. As one peers through its intricate, unfathomable pattern of ancient, old, old design, one sees blood and guilt and misunderstanding. And yet it hangs there, this veil, between then and now, between Pale and Colored and Black and White—between you and me…. We may feverishly unravel its edges and even climb slow with giant shears to where it’s ringed and gilded top nestles close to the throne of Eternity. But as we work and climb we shall see through streaming eyes and hears with aching ears, lynching and murder, cheating and despising, degrading and lying, so flashed and flashed through this vast hanging darkness that the Doer never sees the Dead and the Victim knows not the Victor and Each Hate All in Wild and bitter ignorance. Listen, O Isles, to those voices from within the veil, for they portray the most human hurt of the twentieth Cycle.”
They were also sexually abused and brutally beaten into submission as if they were not human.
Bracey On Racism (1984:31) states that:
“… black slaves were being maimed for constantly running away, sexually abused and assaulted, terrorized and brutally beaten into submission – to work for mostly white slave holders.”
the mainstream of society and as fair, humanitarian, and egalitarian. They still hold on negative views of groups out of their group and think that their group is better than others. In most cases, they could wrap their prejudice and try to live as if there are no differences, but when they are placed in a situation in which they are given social support of racism, they are willing to express and sometimes to act on, their unfavorable opinion.
2.2 Society and Literature
There are two methods in analyzing literary works; they are intrinsic and extrinsic. In completion the analyzing of this thesis, I use the extrinsic method. Analyzing with extrinsic method means analyzing the literary works from external factors, such as biography, history, anthropology, psychology, society, philosophy, religion, and other arts. In clear purpose, I analyze the play from society approach.
Parson, the sociologist, known as the Structural Functionalist, in his work The Social System (1951) concentrates on the structures of society and their relationship to each other. These structures were seen as mutually supportive and tending toward a dynamic equilibrium. He emphasis on how order was maintained among the various elements of society. Parson not only concerned with the social system but also with its relationship to the other action systems, especially the cultural and personality system. It means that society, personality, and culture cannot be separated; they are influence each other.
unconsciousness is the values of society or groups, for examples in Indonesian’s mind, American lives with free sex.
Society and literature can be observed from society’s influence in literary works. Literature is the social institution which uses language as the media. All arts, literary works, and even the technique of traditional literature such symbolism and others has social characteristic.
Wellek and Warren in Theory of Literature (1977:94) state that: “…literature ‘represents’ ‘life’; and ‘life’ is, in large measure, a social reality, even though the natural world and the inner or subjective world of the individual have also been objects of literary ‘imitation’.”
mother not just treats him cruelly but also calls him ‘it’ as if he is not man but animal. And child abuse more and more happen in our society.
We also could learn about economy, law, psychology, detective, family, love, and so on that can widen our knowledge about life from a literature. For example, Agatha Christie’s detective novel After the Funeral. The death of the older brother, Richard, their family life becomes dispersed. All of the members of the family start to count the welt they will get, even the maid of their youngest sister which kills their sister Cora Lansquenet. They try to look for who is the murder by helping of their lawyer who has called a famous detective, Hercule Poirot. In this novel we not only learn about detective but we could also learn about family life, love, economy, and psychology.
In primitive society, we cannot differentiate poems from ritual, magic, work or play. Literature has its social function which is not individual wholly. It means that the problems of literary study are social problems: tradition, convention, norm, genre, symbol, and myth.
CHAPTER III
THE METHOD OF STUDY
Each scientific writing should have a certain kind of method to analyze the problem that is taken. So does this thesis. It uses an approach to discover accurate information about social problems and its impact to the personal or individual in that society. I use some steps; identify and analyze the problem, collect data, draw conclusion, and revise theories. The method that is used in this thesis is library research which done within extrinsic approach to analyze the impact of social life to one individual. All God’s Chillun Got Wings is a play that tells about the violation of personal selfhood
one with the collective violation of the communal spirit. This play tells about a powerful of the impact of racial issue. Therefore I am very interested to analyze how the four characters react in facing the racial issue and how the racial issue impacts the characters.
3.1 The Research Method
Those are about social, especially the racial issue at that time, about personality and characters and others.
3.2 The Data Collecting Procedure
The data and supporting information are collected by reading all references. Of course, the first step is to read the play, All God’s Chillun Got Wings, as the main source. I read the play for several times to understand the
play clearly. Then I also read other supporting sources related to the topic as mentioned above.
3.3 The Data Analyzing Procedure
The next step is to analyze the primary data that is Eugene O’Neill’s All God’s Chillun Got Wings. The analysis is carried out with the help of
CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF RACIAL ISSUE ON THE CHARACTERS IN EUGENE O’NEILL’S ALL GOD’S CHILLUN GOT
WINGS
Every human cannot live by himself and isolated from other human. Human need society to continue his life and multiply. That is why when we discuss human we also immediately discuss society. Just like Nurdin (1989:54) defines that social problems are a decline or deviant behavior of society, related to a big numbers of people’s deviant behavior, not related to individual deviant. In spite of if the deviance of some one behavior could affect some people can be a symptom of social problems, because this problem invites the attention of some members of society in where the deviant society happens.
All God’s Chillun Got Wings was written by Eugene O’Neill. O'Neill
and the expressionist distortion of objects which become symbolic dream images. One of many racial issue plays that tell about the struggle of people from the oppression of their social life where racial issue is rising. In this play we can see how great the racial issue impacts the characters. It does not only impact the characters’ beliefs but it also destroys themselves, emotion, even until they get madness. These are the things which furthermore I will focus to analyze in this thesis. I will focus on what the impact of the racial issue on Jim Harris’, Ella Downey’s, Hattie Harris’, and Joe’s characters.
4.1 Jim Harris
All God’s Chillun Got Wings is a play which consists of three stages
of human development; they are childhood, adolescence, and marriage. Childhood and adolescence are placed in act I, while marriage life is put in act II. By the division we can see how the characters change from childhood to maturity.
Jim Harris is one of the characters in the play. He is the central character. He is a black boy, a Negro who lives among the white men. Jim lives with his mother, Mrs. Harris, and his sister, Hattie. Here, Jim is drawn as a black, loyal, patient and loving, a wholly admirable man.
becomes a brave boy. We can see it when Ella is degraded by his friends. Actually he has a gentle heart.
All – Cry-baby! Cry-baby! Look at her! Painty Face! Jim– (suddenly rushing at them, with clenched fists,
furiously) Shut yo’ moufs! I kin lick the hull of you! (they all run away, laughing, shouting, and jeering, quite triumphant now that they have made him, too, lose his temper. He comes back to Ella, and stands beside her sheepishly, steeping on one foot after the other.
Jim – (protectingly) you mustn’t never be scared when I’m hanging around, Painty Face”
(O’Neill 1923-1931:281)
In this part, he has shown what he thinks about his race. He does not like his color because it is black. He cannot accept his innate as a Negro because his friends’ treatment. He wants to be white and get the same treatment with white. We can see it when he drinks lots of chalk and waters three times a day because Tom, the barber, told him to do it if he wants to be white.
Jim—(suddenly) you know what, Ella? Since I been tucki’n yo’ books to school and back, I been drinkin’ lots o’ chalk ‘n’ water three times a day. Dat Tom, de barber, he tole me dat make me white, if I drink enough. (pleadingly) does I look whiter?
Ella—(comfortingly) Yes—maybe—a little bit— Jim—(trying a careless tone) Reckon dat Tom’s a
liar, an’ de joke’s on me! Dat chalk only makes me feel kinder sick inside..
His thought about his race because there is a clear division in his society between black man and white man not just in words but also in the treatment. It is shown in act I scene I.
A corner in lower New York, at the edge of a colored district. Three narrow streets converge. A triangular building in the rear, red brick, four-storied, its ground floor a grocery. Four-story tenements stretch away down the skyline of the two streets. The fire escapes are crowded with people. In the street leading left, the faces are all white; in the street leading right, all black. … people past, black and white, the Negroes frankly participants in the spirit of spring, the white laughing constrainedly, awkward in natural emotion. Their words are lost. One hears only their laughter. It expresses the differences in race.
(O’Neill, 1923-1931:279)
That bad treatment his race gets also makes him always try to get the good position in the society by schooling and graduating in law. He thinks that by buying ‘white’ he can get the place where the white belongs. He drives to wear the white man's mask by which he hopes to be acknowledged. Jim believes that freedom and selfhood may be acquired through the external trappings of status and success. He traps by the myth of that freedom and selfhood may be acquired through the external trappings of status and success and it has controlled him. That dream corrupts his innocence, for "white" in the world of All God's Chillun (as defined by Ella) means the will to power
"I want the whole world to know you're the whitest of the white! I want you to climb and climb--and step on 'em, stamp right on their mean faces!"
To achieve this end, Jim enslaves himself to a false image of white selfhood before which he bows down as to an idol. But until the end of the play he could not reach it because his own wife, Ella Downey, tries to stop him to get what he wants.
This play also shows how Jim loves Ella Downey very much. His love is growing up from his innocence until the end of the play.
Ella—I like you Jim—I like you
Ella-- Do you want to be my feller? Jim – yes
Ella—then I’m your girl
Jim—yes. (Then grandly) you kin bet none o’ de gang gwine call you Painty Face from dis out! I lam’ ‘em good!
(O’Neill, 1923-1931:282)
marriage and Ella’s condition. This bad relation makes his mother and sister leave their home because Jim chases them away.
Ella—(with a terrified pleading) make her go away, Jim!
Jim—(losing control—furiously to his sister) either you leave here—or we will!
Mrs. Harris—(weeping—throws her arms around Hattie) let’s go chile! Let’s go!
Hattie—(calmly now) yes, ma. All right. (O’Neill, 1923-1931:303)
Jim also continues to allow Ella to define the terms of his existence, although his motives now are somewhat purified, even selfless.
"To hell with me!... I'm all she's got in the world! I got to prove I can be all to her! I've got to prove worthy! I've got to prove she can be proud of me! I've got to prove I'm the whitest of the white!"
(O’Neill, 1923-1931:309)
4.2 Ella Downey
Opposite to Jim, Ella does not like her white skin because their friends call her with Painty Face. Here, the racialism comes again to destroy the characters. The racialism makes them give a concept that is real but hurt for them and also to Ella. It also makes the characters hate their innate and want to be other people.
Jim—(protectingly) You mustn’t never be scared when I’m hanging around, Painty Face.
Ella—Don’t call me that, Jim—Please!
Jim—(contritely) I didn’t mean nuffin’. I didn’t know you’d mind.
Ella—I do—more’n anything.
Jim—You oughtn’t to mind. Dey’s jealous, dat’s what. Ella—Jealous? Of what?
Jim—(pointing to her face) Of dat. Red ‘n’ white. It’s purty.
Ella—I hate it.
Jim—(it’s purty. Yes, it’s—it’s purty. It’s outa sight. Ella—I hate it. I wish I was black like you.
(O’Neill, 1923-1931:281)
In scene two of act I, nine years later Ella becomes a girl of other boy, Mickey, a white one and a gangster. Her relation with Mickey makes her attitude different when she is in eighth. She becomes a prostitute. She hates Jim and do not want to remember her past memory. She becomes a rough girl.
Ella—I don’t remember nothing! (angrily)Say! What’s got into you to be butting into my business all of sudden like this? Because you finally managed to graduate, has it gone to your head?
Jim—No, I—only want to help you, Ella.
Ella—Of all the nerve! You’re certainly forgetting your place! Who’s asking you for help, I’d like to know? Shut up and stop bothering me!
Ella’s life is destroyed because the racialism gets it’s climax when she gets married with Jim. Ella Downey cannot accept herself as a wife of a Blackman, Jim Harris (the leading man character) while she is a white skinned. It makes her be in loneliness, low self esteem, in fear, uncanny emotion, unsatisfactory relation with others, increasing anxiety and even madness.
In their first time they are together, their fear of their future is raised. They consider that their races are too different so that their relationship invites the interest of the society.
Jim is dressed in black. Ella in white, both with extreme plainness. They stand in the sunlight. Shrinking and confused. All the hostile eyes are now concentrated on them. They become aware of the two lines through which they must pass; they hesitate and tremble; then stand there staring back at the people as fixed and immovable as they are.
Jim—(as if the sound had awaked him from a trance, reaches out and takes her hand) Come. Time we got to the steamer. Time we sailed away over the sea. Come, honey! (she tries to answer but her lips tremble; she cannot take her eyes off the eyes of the people; she is unable to move)
(O’Neill, 1923-1931:296)
to see other people. The nerve comes again when she sees the white skin there because she has a black husband. She cannot accept her husband as a black man. It makes her hate Blackman and mourns her fate on and on.
“… she looks stealthily about the room, then advances and stands before the mask, her arms akimbo, her attitude one of crazy mockery, fear, and bravado…
Ella—……What’re you grinning about, you dirty nigger, you? How dare you grin at me? I guess you forget what you are! That’s always the way. Be kind to you, treat you decent, and in a second you’ve got a swelled head, you think you’re somebody, you’re all over the place putting on airs; why, it’s got so I can’t even walk down the street without seeing niggers, niggers everywhere. Hanging around, grinning, grinning—going to school—pretending they’re white—taking examinations…(threatening the Congo mask) It’s you who’re to blame for this! Yes, you! But why d’you want to do this to us? What have I ever done wrong to you? What have you got against me? I married you, didn’t I? Why don’t you let me happy? He’s white, isn’t he—the whitest man that ever lived? Where do you come in to interfere? Black! Black! Black as dirt! You’ve poisoned me! I can’t was myself clean!...”
(O’Neill, 1923-1931:311)
Her inability to accept herself and her husband also makes her nervous increase to a damage of her health psychologically and physically.
“…She is pitifully thin, her face is wasted, but her eyes glow with a mad energy, her movements are abrupt and spring-like.”
(O’Neill, 1923-1931:300)
The lack of Ella’s ability to socialization makes her be in loneliness. According to Feldman (1995:184), loneliness is the inability to maintain the level of affiliation one desires. There are two distinct forms of loneliness; they are emotional isolation and social isolation. Emotional isolation is a situation in which a person feels a lack of deep emotional attachment to one specific person, while social isolation is a situation in which a person suffers from a lack of friends, associates, or relatives. In Ella’s case, she suffers those two distincts forms of loneliness.
Ella’s consideration about her husband as a black man makes her also cannot accept herself. She makes herself in a lower places, she thinks that others are better than her, as if married with a black man is a bad luck. This consideration has been obsessed her deeper and deeper until it is be her self concept that cannot be thrown. It makes her does not able to meet somebody any more. She cannot live alone without Jim beside her in all the time.
(Mrs. Harris enters, showing Ella the way. The colored woman is plainly worried and perplexed. Ella is pale, with a strange, haunted expression in her eyes. She runs to Jim as to a refuge, clutching his hands in both of hers, looking from Mrs. Harris to Hattie with a frightened defiance)
(O’Neill, 1923-1931:301)
In the last scene ("the ceiling now seems barely to clear the people's heads") these contradictions are magnified and are disbursed in an explosion of symbolic violence. When Ella learns that Jim has failed in his last attempt to pass the bar, she enters into a wild dance, grabs the Congo mask from the wall, slashes it and pins it with her carving knife to the table.
"You devil!" Jim cries out. "You white devil woman! (In a terrible roar, raising his fists above his head) You devil!”
(O’Neill, 1923-1931:313)
But Ella argues that the devil was the mask:
"It's all right, Jim! It's dead! The devil's dead! See! It couldn't live--unless you passed. If you'd passed it would have lived in you. Then I'd have had to kill you, Jim, don't you see?"
(O’Neill, 1923-1931:314)
Their marriage is doomed because Ella is incapable of accepting Jim as a man. The racialism not only dooms their marriage but also her characters. The Feeling that she has betrayed her race, she retreats to childhood, insisting that Jim play with her as a boy, sometimes in white face while she puts on a black face. When he is not safely emasculated as a playmate, she offers him another role: “my old kind Uncle Jim who’s been with us for years and years.”
4.3 Hattie Harris
In act II O’Neill shows Jim’s family, his mother and his sister. He also draw a little about his father who has been died. His mother is drawn as a mild-looking, gray-haired Negress of sixty five, dressed in an old-fashioned Sunday-best dress while Hattie is drawn as a woman about thirty with a high strung, defiant face—an intelligent head showing both power and courage, dress severely and mannishly.
Hattie is a woman with a firm faith and holding on to her belief that someday their race, black, will be freed and get the same treatment like the white get. She put on her faith to Jim. She believes that Jim could answer their race’s dreams. It makes her the great supporter for Jim to study and become a lawyer.
studying right away and get admitted to the Bar?
Jim—You bet I am!
Hattie—You must, Jim! Our race needs men like you to come to the front and help—(as voices are heard approaching she stops, stiffens, and her face grows cold)
(O’Neill, 1923-1931:301)
As the black woman and Jim’s sister, Hattie hates Ella because she is white. Hattie believes that Ella is the obstacle for Jim to continue his study and to fulfill their race’s dreams. Hattie has thought that Ella is the ringleader that makes Jim cannot finish his study yet. Although Hattie comes to understand that Ella does, in fact, love Jim, she sees clearly that the couples are doomed by Ella’s inherent racism.
Ella—(suddenly—even eagerly) Then you must have taken lots of examinations and managed to pass them, didn’t you?
Hattie—(biting her lips) I always passed with honors! Ella—Yes, we both graduated from the same High School,
didn’t we? That was dead easy for me. Why I hardly even looked at a book. But Jim says it was awfully hard for him. He failed one year, remember? (She turns and smile at Jim—a tolerant, superior smile but one full of genuine love. Hattie is outraged, but Jim smiles)
Jim—yes, it was hard for me, honey.
Ella—And the law school examinations Jim hardly ever could pass at all. Could you? (she laugh lovingly) Hattie—(harshly) Yes, he could! He can! He’ll pass them
now—if you’ll give him a chance!
(O’Neill, 1923-1931:302)
to leave Ella, study for the bar and become a lawyer. Hattie is afraid that someday Jim will break down too and get the same final like Ella. But Jim responds her angrily. However, Hattie fails to persuade Jim. Jim chooses self-sacrifice and self-destruction by staying with Ella. Hattie is disappointed to Jim and calls him as a ‘traitor to their race’.
Jim—(after a long pause—somberly) Yes, I guess you’d better stay away from here. Good by.
Hattie—who’ll get to nurse her, Jim,-- a white woman? Jim—Ella’d die of shame. No, I’ll nurse her myself. Hattie—And give up your studies?
Jim—I can do both.
Hattie—You can’t! you’ll get sick yourself! Why, you look terrible even as it is—and it’s only beginning!
Jim—I can do anything for her! I’m all she’s got in the world! I’ve got to prove I can be all to her! I’ve got to prove worthy! I’ve got to prove she can be proud of me! I’ve got to prove I’m the whitest of the white! Hattie—(stung by this last—with rebellious bitterness) is
that the ambition she’s given you? Oh, you soft, weak-minded fool, you traitor to your race! And the thanks you’ll get—to be called a dirty nigger—to hear her cursing you because she can never have a child because it’ll be born black--!
(O’Neill, 1923-1931:309)
4.4 Joe
Joe—Look at dat Jim Crow! Land sakes, he got a gal! (He laugh. They all laugh).
Jim—(ashamed) Ne’er mind, you chocolate!
Mickey—Look at the two softies, will yeh! Mush! Mush! (He and the two other boys takes this up) Little girls—(pointing their fingers to Ella) Shame!
Shame! Every body knows your name! Painty Face! Painty Face!
Ella—(hanging her head) shut up!
Little White Girl—he’s been carrying his book!
Colored Girl—can’t you find nuffin’ better’n him, Ella? Look at the big feet he got! (She laughs. They all laugh. Jim puts one foot on top of the other, looking at Ella)
Ella—Ming yer own business, see! (she strides toward them angrily. They jump up and dance in an ecstasy, screaming and laughing)
All—Found yeh out! Found yeh out!
Mickey—Mush head! Jim Crow de sissy! Stuck on Painty Face!
Joe—Will Painty Face let her hold her doll, boy? (O’Neill, 1923-1931:280)
Joe—Listen to me, nigger: I got a heap to whisper in yo’ ear! Who is you, anyhow? Who does you think you is? Don’t yo’ old man and mine work on de docks togidder befo’ yo’ old man gits his own truckin’ business! Yo’ old man swallers his nickels, my ol’ man buys him beer wid dem and swallers dat—dat’s the on’y diff’rence. Don’t you ‘n’ me drag up togidder? Jim—(dully) I’m your friend Joe.
Joe—No, you isn’t! I ain’t no fren o’ yourn! I don’t ever know who you is! What’s all dis schoolin’ you doin’? what’s all dis dressin’ up and graduatin’ an’ sayin’ you gwine study be a lawyer? What’s all dis fakin’ an’ pretendin’ and swellin’ out grand an’ wid de white boys listenin’ to you say it! Is you aimin’ to buy white wid yo’ ol’ man’s dough like Mickey say? What is you? (in a rage at the other’s silence) you don’t talk? Den I takes it out o’ yo’ hide! (he grabs Jim by the throat with one hand and draws the other fist back) Tell me befo’ I wrecks yo’ face in! is you a nigger or isn’t you? (shaking him) is you a nigger, Nigger? Nigger, is you a Nigger?
(O’Neill, 1923-1931:288)
When a man disappointed to society or some one, he will seek for a place to escape to give vent to their disappointed. In this case, if he could stand he will free from the disappointed and became a new man. On the contrary. If he cannot stand he will fused to the disappointed and destroy himself with the wrong way. For instance, drunk, disturber, or may be suicide. Joe falls to the second choice. He tries to escape from his disappointed to the society by be a gangster and drunken.
in their best, the boy in black with stiff collar, the girl in white.”
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1 Conclusions
Racial issue is the prejudice directed at people because of their race. Racial issue has brought destruction to human, social and individual. In social, it makes the deep gap in society, between black and white, rich and poor. And the most seriously, it could bring war and death. In individual, the racial issue affected human sense of self and it also influences human social behavior, psychology, health, and so on. It can destroy our innate, cannot accept ourselves and it also makes us in loneliness, low self esteem, in fear, uncanny emotion, unsatisfactory relation with others, increasing anxiety and even madness.
This phenomenon also happens to the characters in All God’s Chillun Got Wings especially to Jim Harris, Ella Downey, Hattie Harris, and Joe. The
The racial issue has destroy the characters self concept and their true identity. In this play, it is shown that the characters defeated to the condition of their society and they are ended up tragically.
5.2 Suggestions
Literature is the pouring of reality and imagination which people felt and experience. It a summary of what man is facing in their life. It not only gives pleasure for the readers, but also teaches something better for man.
The play All God’s Chillun Got Wings, wrote by Eugene O’Neill is connected to social problems. In this play, we can see how the racial issue impacts the characters psychologically and physically there.
Sociology, as the study of the nature and growth of society and social behavior, is important to be studied by the human himself because it is the part of society and it cannot deny that human cannot live by himself. I suggest to the reader to study the relation of the society and human behavior so he can place himself in the society at the right place and take his part as the individual who lives in society.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bracey, Earnest N.1984. On Racism. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America.
Ford, Richard T. 2005. Racial Culture. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Goodman, Douglas J and George Ritzer. 2004. Classical Sociological Theory. New York: McGraw Hill
Hudaniah and Tri Dayakisni. 2003. Psikologi Sosial. Malang: UMM Press Jones, A. Russell. 1985. Research Method in the Social and Behavioral
Sciences. Massachusetts: Sinauer Associates, Inc. Publisher
Kartono, Kartini. 2002. Patalogi Sosial 3. Jakarta: PT. Raja Grafindo Persada.
Lelyveld, Joseph. 2001. How Race is Lived in America. New York: Henry Holt and Company, LLC.
Mc Graw, Gerald S. 1952. Psychoanalytic Theories of Personality. London: Hill Book Company, Inc.
Minderop, Albertine. 2005. Metode Karakterisasi Telaah Fiksi. Jakarta: Yayasan Obor Indonesia.
Nurdin, M. Fadhi.1989. Pengantar Studi Kesejahteraan Sosial. Bandung: Angkasa
O’Neill, Eugene. Complete Plays (1920 – 1931). New York: Random House, Inc.
APPENDICES
Summary of All God’s Chillun Got Wings
All God’s Chillun Got Wings is an absorbing story of man’s and
woman’s struggle from the oppression of their social life where racial issue is rising. This play consists of two acts which the first act consists of four scenes and the second act consist of three scenes. In the first act draws the childhood and the adolescence and the second act draws marriage of Jim and Ella.
brother to leave Ella, study for the bar and become a lawyer. Hattie is afraid that someday Jim will break down too and get the same final like Ella. But Jim responds her angrily. However, Hattie fails to persuade Jim. Jim chooses self-sacrifice and self-destruction by staying with Ella. Hattie is disappointed to Jim and calls him as a ‘traitor to their race’. Joe becomes a weak man, give up to the condition.
Biography of Eugene O’Neill
Eugene O’Neill, an American author, was born on 16 October 1888 at the Barrette House, West 43rd street Broadway, New York city to an actor, James O’Neill and Mary Ellen ‘Ella’ O’Neill who is given morphine for pain during and after O’Neill’s birth and becomes addicted. He has two brothers, Jamie O’Neill and Edmund O’Neill. Edmund died in 1885 of measles contracted from Jamie.
It is not surprising that O’Neill can produces great literary works since from his youth, he has read much literary works such like Shakespeare’s, Victor Hugo’s, Tolstoy’s, etc. Beside that, he also joined actors and knows stages from his innocence because his father is an actor. O’Neill married three times with Kathleen Jenkins as his first wife, the second is Agnes Bolton, and the third is Catherine. O’Neill likes to move from one place to another place like New York, New Jersey, Provincetown, Spain, and Morocco. He begins drinking since 1903 and recovering in 1923. He also ever attempted to suicide in 1912 with overdose of sleeping drug Veronal but is saved by his roommate. His first literary work is sonnet which was written in 1909.
In 1923, he wrote All God’s Chillun Got Wings, a study of the web of racial hatreds and spiritual longings that surround the marriage of a black man and a white woman. O’Neill began work on All God’s Chillun Got Wings in 1923 when George Jean Nathan asked him to write a one-act play for his new magazine, The American Mercury. The play expanded into a two-act play, was published in February 1924, so the text was readily available to readers and critics before the play opened on May 15 at the Provincetown Playhouse. All God’s Chillun Got Wings made him received hate mail and death threats from
Ku Klux Klan and others. After that, the play was disappeared from stages. But All God’s Chillun Got Wings was performed one hundreds times.
