AN UNDERGRADUATED THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
In English Letters
By
GRETHA CELIA
Student Number: 054214104
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
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Guard well your spare moments.
They are like uncut diamonds.
Discard them and value will never be known.
Improve them and they will become the
brightest gems in a useful life.
v
This undergraduate thesis is dedicated to
My Beloved Father and Mother
My Wonderful Brother and Sister
And
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Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma :
Nama : Gretha Celia
Nomor Mahasiswa : 054214104
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan
Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul :
“ALICE CHILDRESS’ S
WINE IN THE WILDERNESS
: THE
BLACK’S REACTIONS TOWARD CLASS DIVISION AND
RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IN AMERICA”
beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan
kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan,
mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan
data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di Internet atau
media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya
maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya
sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini yang saya buat dengan sebenarnya.
Dibuat di Yogyakarta
Pada tanggal : 24 Agustus 2009
Yang menyatakan
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University is His great blessing for me. I know that I am lucky for having this
opportunity. That I can complete the thesis is His other great blessing for me
because without His help I will not be able to finish it. He never stops helping me
through the people around me. I realize that I am nothing without His guidance.
I would like to express my gratitude to my advisor, Ni luh Putu Rosiandani, S.S., M. Hum., for having spent countless hours reading this thesis and also for her valuable counsel and support. Her dedication has unable me to
finish this thesis. I also would like to thank my co-advisor Adventina Putranti, .S.S., M. Hum., for giving me her help, encouragement, and willingness to assist me in preparing this thesis. Without their help, this thesis would not have been
completed.
My gratitude also goes to all the teaching staff in the English Letters
Department of Sanata Dharma University for the Guidance given to me during my
study there.
I dedicated this thesis to my beloved father (Rachmad Hadi Mulyono), and mother (Yetty Kustanty .S.) especially my father who pray me in Heaven. He always inspires me and makes me realize that I have to struggle to achieve
what I always dream of. I thank my father and my mother for their precious love,
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Last, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my dear great friends:
Citra Kerina Tarigan, Naris Eka Setyawati, Nanda Wahyu Sari, Catharina Trihastuti, Rusmiyati, and Oktavia Tripungkasi for the support and nice friendship. I thank to them for the discussion and all the moments that we have
shared together. I realize that I cannot have these fun and forgettable times
without them. I do hope we can continue our enjoyable moment in the future. I
also would like to thank to all friends in English Letters '05 for being my friends
during my study in Sanata Dharma University.
Last but not least, for many people whose names I cannot say one by one,
I am thankful for the help and support during my study and thesis writing.
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CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ……….. 1
A. Background of the Study ………. 1
B. Problem Formulation ……… 3
C. Objectives of the Study ……… 4
D. Definition of Terms ……….. 5
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW ……… 6
A. Review of Related Studies ……….. 6
C. Theoretical Framework ……… 24
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ………. 26
A. Object of the Study ……….. 26
B. Approach of the Study ………. 27
C. Method of the Study ……… 30
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS ……….. 32
A. The Five Black Characters Characterizations Reveal African American Class Division in America………. 32
1. Black Middle Class ………... 33
2. Black Lower Class ……… 41
B. Racial Discrimination in America Revealed through the Five Black Characters in the Play………. 48
C. The Reactions of Five Black Characters toward Class Division and Racial Discrimination as Revealed in the Play …………... 62
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Reactions toward Class Division and Racial Discrimination in America. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2009.
In this thesis, the writer discusses a play written by Alice Childress entitled Wine in the Wilderness (1969). This play addresses issue of socioeconomic conflict within the African-American community. Wine in the Wilderness tells the underclass, undereducated heroine of "Wine in the Wilderness" as the true Africentrist, proud of blacks and her blackness. She stands in stark relief to bourgeois, intellectual blacks whose white assimilationist and classiest values expose their racial dishonesty.
This fact motivates the writer to focus on the topics about class division and racial prejudice in America as revealed in the play. Firstly, the writer focus on how the African American characters in Alice Chlildress 'Wine in the Wilderness” are described and later present African American class division. Secondly, the writer focuses on how Alice Childress depicts class racial discrimination in America through her play. And lastly the writer focuses on how Alice Childress conveys her reactions toward class division and racial discrimination through the characters in her play. In analyzing the play, the writer applies the socio-cultural historical approach. This theory is applied in order to find the element of socio, cultural, and historical background of the story. This approach also helps the writer to find the application of class division and racial discrimination in America in Alice Childress’ play. Through this approach, the writer can get a thorough understanding of social stratification and the condition of African American people in America at that time.
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Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2009.
Dalam skripsi ini, penulis membahas sebuah drama yang ditulis oleh Alice Childress pada tahun 1969 berjudul Wine in the Wilderness. Drama yang ditulis oleh Alice Childress ini mengangkat permasalahan sosial ekonomi diantara masyarakat kulit hitam. Wine in the Wilderness menceritakan tentang seorang wanita kulit hitam yang pemberani yang disebut "Wine in the Wilderness" yang berasal dari kelas sosial yang rendah, tidak berpendidikan dan bangga terhadap latar belakangnya sebagai orang kulit hitam. Dia bertahan diantara golongan kulit hitam yang berstatus sosial lebih tinggi dan berpendidikan yang kemudian tindakan pengasimilasian mereka terhadap kebudayaan orang-orang kulit putih menunjukkan penolakan terhadap ras mereka sendiri.
Kenyataan ini memotivasi penulis untuk fokus terhadap topik mengenai pembagian kelas sosial dan diskriminasi ras, seperti tergambar dalam drama ini. Awalnya penulis fokus terhadap bagaimana tokoh-tokoh kulit hitam dalam karya Alice Childress yang berjudul Wine in the Wilderness digambarkan dan kemudian menunjukkan perbedaan ciri-ciri kelas social diantara kulit hitam. Kedua, penulis fokus terhadap bagaimana Alice Childress mengilustrasikan diskriminasi ras yang terjadi di Amerika melalui dramanya. Terakhir penulis fokus pada bagaimana Alice childress mengekspresikan reaksinya terhadap pembagian kelas sosial dan diskriminasi ras di Amerika melalui tokoh-tokoh dalam karyanya. Penulis menggunakan pendekatan sosial, kebudayaan dan sejarah dalam menganalisa drama ini. Pendekatan ini digunakan untuk mengetahui aspek-aspek sosial, kebudayaan dan latar belakang sejarah dari cerita tersebut. Pendekatan ini sekaligus membantu penulis untuk mengetahui penerapan pembagian kelas sosial dan diskriminasi ras terhadap kulit hitam dalam drama ini.
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A.Background of the Study
Many people have said that literature give an entertainment toward the
readers. Deep inside the work of literature lies something essential that we, as the
readers, have to consider. Rene Wellek and Austin Warren in their book Theory of Literature state that the work of literature represents life as a reality. They also said that literature seems like "a mirror" of our real life. It is a reflection of human
life because the literary works contain the reality of human situations, problems,
feeling, and relationships (1956:96). In other words, reading a work of literature
does not only give us pleasure, but also teaches us as human beings. Through
literature, we may understand the reality of life.
Further, reading a literary work will bring people to an aesthetic experience.
Besides giving an aesthetic experience, a good literary work will also give readers
knowledge or new ideas, and even sometimes, the result of reading a literary work
may provoke readers or audiences to be more aware of the situations around them.
We may see that most of literary works are a representation of reality, in
which the writer tries to reveal the conflict that happens in the real life into a
critique from his or her literary work. That is why some literary works can be
found as criticism toward reality.
particularly in 1964 by making a one-act play. The play was originally made in
1964. Wine in the Wilderness is subtitled "A Comedy-Drama." Throughout the play, Childress utilizes the element of comedy to highlight her central thematic
concerns, such as the nature of political and social action, male-female
relationships, and class divisions within the African American Community
(http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide/title/wilderness/.html).
According to Gary Vena and Andrea Nouryeah in their book entitled
“Drama and Performance”: An Anthology, Wine in the Wilderness is a play which using the background of Harlem riot as a controlling metaphor for
communal and interracial fragmentation, Childress foregrounds the underclass,
undereducated heroine of Wine in the Wilderness as the true Africentrist, proud of blacks and her blackness (1996: 895-896). “She stands in stark relief to bourgeois,
intellectual blacks whose white assimilationist and classiest values expose their
racial dishonesty” (Vena, 1996: 895-896). Childress’s Wine in the Wilderness is also an interesting play to be discussed because as a form of art, it represents the
condition and the atmosphere of American society in 1964.
Gary Vena and Andrea Nouryeah in their book entitled “Drama and Performance”: An Anthology state that Childress’s characters and plots of her work of arts emerged from years of impressions she gathered by observing and
weaving stories around their lives. She was inspired by the strength of her mother
and grandmother, women who stood alone in the face of poverty and earned
pennies doing domestic or factory work. Childress maintained her commitment
biased-inequality an as a tool creating community solidarity (Vena and Nouryeah, 1996:
897-898).
Alice Childress's play always becomes a play that is interesting to analyze
because she presents reality of life through her characters as general, who deals
with racial, social, economic, and gender inequality. Wine in the Wilderness
expresses and reflects Childress's sensibility toward life around her is another
reason why the writer chooses this play to be analyzed.
The way how society is represented in the play cannot be separated from
writer's vision toward situations and social conditions around her, and Childress
as a playwright is successful in presenting the situations at that time. Her play
brings out consciousness to its audiences and inspires people or the society to do
something for the good changes.
Since the play stresses on black community within American society, the
thesis will be focused not only on American black people within class division
and racial prejudice as the result of white dominance but also on their reactions
toward those situation.
B. Problem Formulation
Referring to the background stated earlier, there are three questions that
will lead the analysis to a profound explanation. These questions can be
formulated as follows:
1. How do the characterizations of the five black characters in the play reveal
2. How is racial discrimination in America revealed through the five black
characters in the play?
3. What are five black characters reactions toward class division and racial
discrimination in America as revealed in the play?
C. Objectives of the Study
Due to the problem formulation, there are three objectives that are to be
identified in this thesis. Those three questions are trying to determine the focus of
the story. Answering question number one, the writer considers identifying the
characterizations of the characters that later will represent the characteristics of
African America class division as revealed in Alice Childress’s Wine in the Wilderness.
For the question number two, the writer wants to reveal racial
discrimination embedded black people in American society, particularly in 1964
through the experience of five black characters as seen in Alice Childress’s Wine in the Wilderness.
To identify the reaction of each black character toward class division and
racial discrimination in America as revealed in the play is the last focus of the
writer. Everyone who writes a critique has right to elaborate his/her point of view
according his/her perspectives. Unfortunately, none of criticism above states class
division and racial discrimination which embedded black people in American
D. Definition of Terms
In this study, the writer wants to define some terms in order to obtain such
a deeper understanding on Alice Childress’s Wine in the Wilderness, mainly class, and racial prejudice of blacks in American society.
1. Class: In International Encyclopedia of Ethics, class is formulated as belief that all societies are divided into social classes
based on their relation to the economy and that these clash
over the direction of society (Roth, 1995: 161)
2. Racism: According to The New Encyclopedia Britannica, racism is the theory or idea that there is a casual link between
inherited physical traits of personality, intellect, or culture
and, combined with it, the notion that some races are
inherently superior to others. The term racism has no
necessary relation to biological or anthropological
definition of race, a subdivision of a species. Racist ideas
are often indiscriminately-extended to apply to such no
biological and non racial groupings as religious sects,
nations, linguistics groups, and ethics or cultural groups
(Benton, 1983:360).
3. Discrimination: In Racial and Ethnic Relations, discrimination is the “actions carried out by members of dominant groups, which
have a differential and harmful impact on members of
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A. Review of Related Studies
In this thesis, the writer will analyze one of Alice Childress's plays, Wine in the Wilderness. This part consists of the related studies that deal with Alice Childress's Wine in the Wilderness. There are many studies that will be presented in order to enrich the writer's knowledge in understanding the play.
In his review on 19 June, 2002 entitled Alice Childress’s Artistic
Optimism Emmanuel Nelson stated that Alice Childress’s works explore the
incapacitating effects of racism, classism, and sexism on people of color as they
struggle daily to maintain their dignity. Wine in the Wilderness (1969), is one of Alice Childress’s controversial work addresses issues of African American racial,
socioeconomic and gender conflict
(http://voices.cla.umn.edu/vg/bios/entries/childress_alice.html).
Rosemary Curb in her review on October 24, 2003 entitled An Unfashionable Tragedy of American Racism said that Alice Childress, a serious contemporary playwright whose work has received little scholarly recognition, has
been working in American heater for four decades. Childress was, in fact, the first
black woman to have a play produced on the professional American stage. She
affirmed a deep commitment to social and political causes that promote human
for her realistic stories about lasting optimism of Black Americans
(http:/www.yale.edu/curb/americanracism/childress.html).
Another review comes from Paul P. Reuben in The New Theater J through
February 22, 2003 entitled Chapter 8: American Drama -Alice Childress. Quite the same with what have been stated by Rosemary Curb. Reuben states that
Childress's legacy will always be her concerned but realistic portrayal of both
blacks and whites and their relationships in plays, novels, and shorter prose. It
explains that Childress was awarded the Paul Robeson Award for Outstanding
Contribution to the Arts for her continued work in a multitude of literary
mediums. Not only is her work critically acclaimed, but it also helped to raise
awareness about important issues such as equal rights for minorities, women's
opportunities, and the importance of art and storytelling of society
(http:/www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap8/childress.html).
These two reviews by Rosemary Curb and Paul P. Reuben are the
alternative ways which will help the writer in collecting the information about
Alice Childress as the writer of the play, about the issues that appears in the play,
and about the purpose of the play itself. These reviews will support the writer in
answering the problem formulation and analyzing the characters in Wine in the Wilderness and the main topic of this thesis.
Rosemary Curb has informed that Wine in the Wilderness is made based on the factual event and some aspects in Alice Childress life that may influence
knowing the information about the writer before we analyze further his or her
work of art. Afterward, Reuben in his review also explained that Childress’s
works always raise awareness about important issues such as equal rights for
minorities, women's opportunities, and the importance of art and storytelling of
society. That kind of information may help the writer in analyzing and
understanding his or her work of art.
Franklin (1965) in the book entitled A Comparative Approach to American History states that “the history of the Negro in the United States, in many ways, unique in the world history” (Woodward, 1968: 175). This statement point out
that in no other country of the world has such distinctive Negro minority persisted
for such a long period of time. This information is important to support the
analysis since this thesis analyzes Childress’s play which background was in
Harlem, New York City, in 1964.
Davis (1962) in the book entitled A Comparative Approach to American History states that “modern scholars have been so impressed by the long submission and degradation of southern Negroes, as well as by the extraordinary
prevalence of racial discrimination in the United States” (Woodward, 1968: 175).
It shows us that blacks in United States cannot be separated from racial
discrimination, as well as revealed by Childress’s play entitled Wine in the Wilderness.
The writer will discuss the previous criticism and commentaries on Alice
gender conflict within the African-American community. Those reviews and
criticisms above have proved that we can learn history from the work of art.
In this graduated thesis, the writer wants to analyze Alice Childress’s Wine in the Wilderness which focuses mainly on the reactions of black toward class division and racial discrimintion in America. This topic will be revealed through
the characterizations of characters and their reactions toward class division and
racial discrimination in Alice Childress’s Wine in the Wilderness, which have not been analyzed yet.
B.Review of Related Theories
To support this thesis, the writer uses some theories to be guidance in
answering the problems mentioned in the problem formulation.
1. Theories on Character
According to M.H.Abrams' A Glossary of Literary Terms, characters are the persons described in a literary work, who have the moral and natural qualities
that can be identified by seeing what they says in the dialogue and what they do as
in the action (1981:23). Based on Abrams's definition of character, it is obvious
that what the character say and do are very important in analyzing the character.
Through the action and speech, readers can also see the interaction of the character
to other character in a literary work that determines what kind of person he or she
Meanwhile, Hugh and Holman in his book A Handbook of Literature say character is a brief draft that describes a personage who has definite quality. This
quality relates to the idea of moral construction of human personality. Each
character has his or her own value, thus represents a sort of human being
(1986:81).
All definitions above try to say that moral principle is represented through
the character. Moral quality emphasizes on the value about "good or bad
characteristic" of which represented by the character and the consequence of the
character's actions. For example, Jack is a huge man.
The quality of the moral construction can be identified by observing how
the character interacts with other characters or to some problems. It is not easy to
determine the characteristic of a character, because the character may change his
or her behavior and way of thinking. In this case, it depends on how the author
characterizes the character.
2. Theories on Characterization
Character is one of the most important elements in the play. The writer
uses theories on character from some experts in this undergraduate thesis. Those
theories are needed in order to get clear understanding about the character.
Theory on characterization is applied to find out the characteristics of Bill
Jameson, Tomorrow Marie, Sonny-man, Cynthia, and Oldtimer. The writer mainly
uses Murphy's theory on characterization. Moreover, there are two other theories
Rohrberger and Woods about the two principle ways to show the characterization
and theory on characterization by Barnet about some important factors that must
be considered when we want to see the character. Those theories function to
strengthen Murphy's theory.
Mary Rohrberger in Reading and Writing about Literature gives a theory of characterization. They say that characterization is the process by which an
author creates a character. There are two principle ways that an author can
characterize. The first is through a direct way. It describes the physical
appearances. The second, he uses a dramatic event. It means that he places in
situation where he should react in particular way. His action must be motive in the
term that a reader can accept (Mary, 1971:20). In other words, the way to show
about characterization can be direct or indirect. In direct ways the author describes
the physical appearances. Secondly, is through indirect ways, where the author
describes the character by how the character behaves and speaks. We can see the
character implicitly.
In the book Literature for Composition Essays, Fiction, Poetry, and Drama, Barnet stated that the characters are the significant element in the work of literature. According to him, there are some important factors that must be
considered when we want to see the character (2005:229), they are:
a. What the character says
What the character says in the story is important to give a clue of how the author
describes him or her, for example whether he or she is a god or bad peon,
b. What the character does
To see what character does is important to know whether he or she is upper class
or lower class, he or she is a good or bad person.
c. What other characters say about the character
What other characters say about the character is needed to get additional
information and about clear description about his character in the story.
d. What others do
The action of others may help to indicate what the character could do but he or
she not does. It is important to know his character such as lazy, wicked, careless
person, and etc.
According to Murphy (1972: 161-173), there are nine ways on how the
author attempts to make his characters understandable, to and come alive for his
readers as follow:
a. Personal Description
The author can describe a person's appearances and clothes.
b. Character as seen by another
Instead of describing a character directly, the author can describe him
through the eyes and opinions of another.
c. Speech
The author can give us an insight into the character of one person in the book
through what the person says.
By letting the reader learns something about a person's character through the
conversations of other people and the things they say about him.
e. Conversations of others
The author can also give us clues to a person's character through the conversations
of other people and the things they say about him.
f. Reactions
The author can also give us clues to a person's character by letting us know how
the person reacts to a various situation and event.
g. Direct Comments
The author can describe or comment on person's character directly.
h. Thought
The author can give us direct knowledge of what a person is thinking about.
i. Mannerism
The author can describe a person's mannerism, habits, or idiosyncrasies which
may also tell us something about his character.
In brief, a character plays an important role in literary works, because
character is a person who made action and to whom the incidents happen.
Therefore, the existence of a character is essentially needed.
3. Theory onAfrican-American Class Division
Kitano states that most of the status distinctions within the ethnic
community are related to the white community. Variable such as income,
most cultures. Other conditions of social status include property ownership,
organizational affiliation, leadership ability, charisma, and life style and certain
distinctions in social status, such as white ancestry, skin color, speech accent, and
cultural similarities to the whites, used to be important to the black subculture.
The growth of black identity and changed views of color and white ancestry have
led to reevaluation of these variables especially for the middle classes and the
lower classes (1985: 121).
a. The Black Middle Classes
There is a growing black middle class. The occupational categories cover
wide range professionals, independent business persons, clerical and service
workers, and laborers. There are many civil service workers, public school
teachers, ministers, and social workers.
Like the white middle class, black middle class families are small, stable,
and planned; they want to own their own homes and concerned about the quality
of public schools. They usually belong to a number of organizations and social
clubs and have perceptions and values similar to those of their white counterparts.
Life style becomes extremely important. The term “black bourgeois” is used for
members of the middle class. He saw many living in a fantasy world and
emulating whites’ values and culture. The world of fraternities and sororities is a
way of escaping the stigma of color and traditional black culture; the
establishment of an American life style without corresponding economic basis is
the root to maintain certain standard of living, often without adequate economic
b. The Black Lower Classes
The lower class blacks are at the bottom of the community class structure.
Billingsley (1974) in the book entitles Race Relations, 3rd edition written by Harry .L. Kitano, divided the lower class into three distinct groupings: the working
nonpoor, the working poor, and the nonworking poor. The working nonpoor are
semiskilled but often well-paid men in industrial jobs: truck driver, construction
workers, and auto mechanics (1985:138).
According to Billingsley the working poor are the majority of poor black.
They live “in nuclear families head by men who work hard every day, and are still
unable to earn enough money to pull their families out of poverty.” These families
are self-supporting and include the unskilled laborers, service workers, domestics,
janitors, and porters. There are some standards that are associated with working
class people i.e. a hard work, frugality, a college education, and wanting a better
life for their children. But this group remains invisible and it is likely to be ignored
when in individuals representing the black community is selected. The bottom
rung of the lower class ladder holds the nonworking poor, sometimes referred to as
underclass. He estimated that as many chronically unemployed, the welfare
recipient, and the newcomer from the South. Family disorganization is great and is
brought to the attention of the larger public only trough violence acts and political
slogans. These individual becomes the stereotype of the urban, disorganized black;
they are readily available scapegoats for absorbing some of the frustrations of the
taxpayer. Their interaction with the larger society consists mostly of being “client”
police. Needless to say they are “nothings” to the majority, who ignore and forgot
their existence (Kitano, 1985:139).
The overriding characteristics of lower class blacks are hostility. They are
powerless; they have little hope for a better future and they lack the education and
organization to help alleviate their despair and suffering. They tend to belong to
fundamentalist churches and are rejected by blacks of higher status.
Here, this theory will help the writer to understand the class system
especially in American society. Further, it also helps the writer in revealing the
class division in Childress’s Wine in the Wilderness.
4. Racial Discrimination
Racial Discrimination according to Hernan Cruz’s Discrimination American Style is a subtle from of unequal treatment based on race that is entrenched in social custom. It may include segregated housing patterns, redlining
by financial institutions, and the practice of minority group members being forced
continually into low-paying job. The most pernicious acts of discrimination in the
United States have been directed against racial minorities. African Americans
have operated in a caste like racial structure in the United States that has relegated
them to inferior status, relative powerlessness, material deprivation, and
socio-psychic resentment. It can be said that discrimination continues to embed in the
4. The Relation between Literature and Society
Literature as a work of art whose medium is language has a close relation
with society. Usually, literature uses certain society which is used as the setting of
the play. In the book of The Theory of Literature, Wellek and Warren state that “Literature has usually risen in close connection with particular social institutions
and has also a social function, or use, which cannot be purely individual"
(1956:94).
Moreover, Graham Little in his Approach to Literature: an Introduction to Critical Study of Content and Method in Writing (1963:1) mentions that literature is the principle of a culture. It contains a record of values, thoughts, problem, and
conflict that are transmitted either through written or spoken words. With such
acknowledgement, literature stands as the instrument to pass the experience from
the generation to the next. Literature then functions as a media that recorded the
situation of a society in the past then expose it to the new generation.
The relations between literature and society are that literature is an
expression of the society (Wellek and Waren, 1956:95). Literary work can play its
role as document that record social realities, happen in society, which is
artistically portrayed by the authors (1956:102). Literature also, can be made for
the outlines of social history. For example, literature can be as a social picture of
C. Review on Historical Background
By learning history, we will be able to know how people struggle for their
life, because people are the history maker. Based on the statement above, the
writer thinks that history is a very important thing that becomes the basic aspect in
our future life. Here, Mia in the book entitled Kelas dan Perjuangan Kelas written by Antonina Yermkove and Valentine Ratnikov says that:
“We will be given the empiric reference of the past phenomenon that will help us to predict a future live, if we learn a social history.” (2002: ii). She explains that it is important to learn the social history, because it
provides us an empiric reference of the past event in order to know the history.
Therefore, the writer uses some information related to the discussion and some
historical data in supporting the study about class division and racial prejudice
within black community in American society. This information is worth fully in
knowing the progress of American socio-cultural condition, especially related to
unfairness that black people often experienced and their struggle to fight against
it.
Since the setting of Childress’s play entitled Wine in the Wilderness is in Harlem, New York, it is important to know the condition of society in 1964.
According to Harvard Sitkoff in the book entitled The Struggle for Black Equality, Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City, long known as a major
African-American residential, cultural, and business center. Black residents began to
arrive en masse in 1904, with numbers fed by the Great Migration. In the 1920s and 1930s, the neighborhood was the locus of the "Harlem Renaissance", an
black community and rates of crime and poverty increased significantly in New
York after World War II (1981: 48).
Harlem Renaissance represented a cultural movement among African
Americans roughly between the end of World War I (1918) and the beginning of
the Great Depression (1929). The names given to this movement reveal its
essential features. Certainly the words "black" and "Negro" mean that this
movement centered on African Americans, and the term "renaissance" indicates
that something new was born or, more accurately, that a cultural spirit was
reawakened in African American cultural life (Sitkoff, 1981: 153).
The artists of the Harlem Renaissance forwarded two goals. Like the
journalists and other "crusaders" of the Progressive era, black authors tried to
point out the injustices of racism in American life. Second, newspaper editors,
activists, authors, and other artists began to promote a more unified and positive
culture among African Americans. But black artists cannot differ significantly
from their white peers. Because it is described that ‘‘the mountain standing in the
way of any true Negro art in American this support within the race towards
whiteness, the desire to transfer racial uniqueness into the style of American
standardization.” It means to be as little Negro and as much American as possible.
Thus, the foundationsof this assimilations recommend are positioned definitely in
the black middleclass (Sitkoff, 1981: 230).
Edward Pessen states that several important developments during the
World War I era gave rise to the Harlem Renaissance. First, black southerners
industrial cities. Free black in the South are hardly treated as independent human
beings and freedom for some blacks was tolerated by the white South largely out
of economic self interest. The great majority of free urban blacks were unskilled
laborers. As for the skilled and semiskilled, many Southern cities tried to confine
them to what was called “nigger work”. Southern cities passed ordinances limiting
the occupational opportunities available for blacks and most free Negroes lived on
the countryside (1985: 40).
Class lines emerged among free blacks in the South. Therefore, the living
and housing conditions, the wealth, and the status and influence of free Southern
blacks were also internally differentiated. In the South as a whole, the mulatto
socioeconomic elite aspired to and sometimes attained the style of living the
associated with the white upper middle class and upper classes. As a result,
southern blacks who had been denied their political rights and had resorted to
sharecropping as a means of livelihood came into contact with northern African
Americans who were more often the descendants of free blacks and, therefore,
had better access to education and employment (Pessen, 1985: 40).
Additionally, that black Americans moving to the cities had much to
complain about. World War I, the so-called war to make the world safe for
democracy, had been a bitter experience for most African Americans. The U.S.
Army was rigidly segregated, race riots broke out in many American cities during
or immediately after the war, and the North was residentially and economically
There was a demand made for equality through novelist, artist, and educators.
This was the beginning of the Renaissance.
Beginning in the late 1880s blacks began to emerge as professionals in
many areas including scientific research, and artistic achievement. By the 1900s
many had become scholars, scientist, poets, artist, and musicians. So once again
blacks were divided much the same way they were during slavery days, the house
servant-field servant division from those days now divided urban blacks into
groups usually headed by professional men such as doctors, lawyers, and of
course ministers. Leadership in the community was now based on achievement
rather than on free vs slave condition (Pessen, 1985: 42).
Sitkoff states that The Harlem Renaissance emerged among social and
intellectual confusion in the African American community in the early 20th
century. Several factors laid the groundwork for the movement. A black middle
class had developed by the turn of the century, encouraged by increased education
and employment opportunities following the American Civil War (1861-1865)
(Sitkoff, 1981: 156).
During a phenomenon known as the Great Migration, hundreds of
thousands of black Americans moved from an economically depressed rural South
to industrial cities of the North to take advantage of the employment opportunities
created by World War I. As more and more educated and socially conscious
blacks settled in New York’s neighborhood of Harlem, it developed into the
political and cultural center of black America. Equally important, during the
American community, particularly in its growing middle class. Championing the
agenda were black historian and sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois and the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which was
founded in 1909 to advance the rights of blacks. Two unequal societies develop
within the black cities: a black middle class struggling to move upward or to
maintain a tenuous grip on their precarious new status, and a sinking, permanent
black underclass mired in poverty and despair (Sitkoff, 1981:167).
According to Mary Beth Norton in the book entitled A People and a Nation: A History of United States Brief Edition Volume B: since 1865, small wonder that during summer 1964 there was an upsurge in racist violence in the
South, particularly in Mississippi:
White vigilantes bombed and burned two dozen black churches between June and October, and there civil rights workers were murdered in Philadelphia, Mississippi, by a mob that included sheriff’s deputies. Instead of protecting the civil right workers, southern police, country sheriff, a state troopers had assaulted and arrested them. (1982:494).
Further, she explained that northern blacks began to consider their
situation. They knew their situations were deteriorating. It is stated that their
neighborhoods were more segregated than ever, for whites had responded to the
black migration from the South by run away to the suburb. Their median income
was little more than half that of whites, and black unemployment in the mid-1960s
was twice that of whites. For blacks males between eighteen and twenty-five it
was five times as high. Many blacks families particularly those headed solely by
women, live in perpetual poverty. Such were the condition in 1964 that caused the
Rochester, New York, and in several cities in New Jersey black anger boiled over
(Norton, 1982:494).
Blair (1977) in Mary Beth Norton’s book entitled A People and a Nation: A History of United States Brief Edition Volume B: since 1865,Malcom challenged a Harlem audience in 1963 by asking whether they wanted to integrate
into the wicked white society or to separate themselves from the group that had
enslaved them. He recognized that whites considered themselves for superior to
blacks and that integration was meant only for blacks who thought like whites,
and their terms. Therefore, the only intelligent and lasting solution was for blacks
to separate themselves completely from that world (1982:495).
In Chapter 30 of the book A People and a Nation: a History of United States Brief Edition Volume B: since 1865, Norton explained that1964 was a fiery and violent year. In August blacks gutted the Los Angles neighborhood of Watts:
thirty-four people died. Other cities exploded in rioting between 1964 and 1968.
Unlike the race riots of 1919 and 1943, white mobs did not provoke the violence;
instead, blacks exploded in anger over their joblessness and lack of opportunity,
looting white-owned stores, setting fires, and throwing rocks (1982:498).
D. Theoretical Framework
This study aims to find out the African American class division and racial
character, theories on characterization, theory of African-American class division,
theory of the relation between society and literature, theory of racial
discrimination and some historical reviews.
In answering the first question of the problem formulation, theories on
character and theories on characterization will be applied. In analyzing the
characters, the writer will apply the theories on character and characterization and
theory of African-American class division. As the result, the writer is able to get a
clear description and the characteristics of African American class division in
America through the characterization of the five black characters.
Understanding the relation between society and literature and some
reviews of historical background are also important in this analysis to answer the
second and the third problem formulation, since the analysis deals with an actual
condition of American society. After all, in order to see the racial discrimination
that was described by Alice Childress in the play, the writer adds the theory of
racial discrimination. This theory will describe the attitudes of people that reflect
the discrimination. It is very useful in order to catch racial discrimination in
America which is reflected in Alice Childress’s Wine in the Wilderness.
In addition, the historical reviews that refer to this thesis are the fact about
the condition of society in western country, especially in America. The writer
applies the historical reviews as supporting theory to answer the second and the
third problem. The historical reviews contain description of some problems which
writer to prove that the black characters of the play experience the class division
26
A. Object of the Study
The object of this study is one of Alice Childress play entitled Wine in the Wilderness. Childress uses the factual condition from that year (1964) as the inspiration for her play. Wine in the Wilderness is included in a book entitled
Drama and Performance”an Anthology by Gary Vena and Andrea Nouryeah that was published by in New York by Harper Collins College Publisher in the year of
1996.
In the book entitled Drama and Performance” an Anthology By Gary Vena and Andrea Nouryeah, it is stated that Wine in the Wilderness, by Alice Childress, was first performed on WGBH-TV in Boston, Massachusetts, as part of
the series, “On Being Black”, in 1969. It is Alice Childress's one-act play. This
play was written as a critique of Black Power movement which gathered
momentum in the 1960. These play also a controversial work because it addresses
issues of racial, socioeconomic and gender conflict within the African-American
community (1996: 897).
Harlem painter Bill at first arrogantly views Tommy only in symbolic
terms, as a "crude, coarse" female embodiment of the black underclass. When his
friends Sonny-Man and Cynthia befriend her, they think she would be a perfect
neighbors, Sonny-man and Cynthia, more concerned with blackness in the
abstract than in the concrete, disassociates themselves from blacks of lower
socioeconomic status. Their classiest disrespect for Oldtimer, who represents age,
experience, and their inherited past, shows their disinterest.
In all the time they have known Oldtimer, never have they been genuinely
interested enough to ask him his real name. His serving as their court fool and as
an up-close is example of how politically altogether poor uneducated blacks can
be militated against their recognition of his personhood. Similarly, the trio (Bill,
Sonny-man, and Cynthia) is interested in Tommy for her symbolic value, not for
her real self.
B. Approach of the Study
In order to analyze Alice Chidress's play Wine in the Wilderness, the writer uses socio-cultural historical approach. The point of socio-cultural and
historical approach is seeing a literary work from its relation with social history of
certain time and place. In Reading and Writing about Literature, Rohberger and Woods state that:
Critics whose major interest is socio-cultural historical approach insist that the only way to locate the real work is in reference to the civilization that produced it. They defined civilization as the attitudes and actions of a specific group of people and point out that literature takes these attitudes and actions as the subject matter (1971:9-10).
From the quotation above, it is obvious that socio-cultural historical
it means that it concerns the society including the condition of the society; the
way of life, the attitude, and also the historical background of the story.
According to Guerin, socio-cultural historical approach is an approach that
studies a literary work from its social milieu and literary work (1979:272). It
means that this approach is applied to see literary work as a reflection of and
commentaries on something in a certain society. There is an interaction between
social milieu and literary work. With knowing the socio-cultural and historical
conditions, that we may understand the context of a literary work.
According to Rohrberger (1971:9), literature takes attitudes and actions of
a specific group and people which civilization are made up as its subject matter.
This subject matter can be taken from many aspects. Therefore, a literary text
cannot be made up instantly. There are some progress in making this work, which
is from inside (e.g. author's experiences related to his or her experiences only) or
outside the author himself or herself (e.g. author’s observation or author's
consciousness or critic toward his or her society). Meanwhile Holman (1986:304)
says that situation like the political condition, intellectual stages, and cultural
environment in which an author lives influenced the literary work that is
produced.
From these explanations and from some evidences that we may find in the
play, we can analyze the play using the socio-cultural historical approach.
Socio-cultural historical approach is used because it insists that the only way to locate
decides to take a certain civilization, it means that her literary work expresses
significant ideas abut society she presents.
The socio-cultural historical critiques assert that literature is not created in
vacuum, and that historical approach takes as its basis some aspect of the
socio-cultural historical frame of reference. Combine it with an interest in the
biographical as well as knowledge of an interest in literary history (Rohberger,
1971:9).
This approach is used to understand the values of the play as a reflection
of the society of its time because it suggests that author takes some basic aspects
of society's attitudes and actions in a certain place and time and presents them in
literary work. Rohberger comments that behind every art there is a philosophy of
life, which can be expressed and viewed in moral term. However, not every
critique that uses the socio-cultural historical frame of reference can be said to
have such moral interest, but many do feel that this approach can lead to an ethical
judgment concerning the truth of an author statement. People's attitudes are
influenced by the social and cultural values of the society from where they come,
and these attitudes become the part of intellectual expression in their daily lives.
This application of socio-cultural historical approach is a way to discuss the play
in its social, cultural, and historical context (1971:9).
The approach defined by Mary Rohberger and Wooda leads the writer to
find out the reflection of the social issues on a literary work. In other words, the
writer might relate the American society and the characters' characteristics in the
C. Method of the Study
In conducting the analysis of this thesis, the writer employed a library
research method. The writer referred to some books of English Literature to collect
the information in the process of analyzing and answering the problems.
To support this study, the writer used two kinds of sources: the primary
source and the secondary source. The primary source of this study was the play
itself, which is Alice Childress's Wine in the Wilderness. Meanwhile, the secondary sources were some books and Webster’s New World Dictionary that could be used as references and to support the analysis of this study, especially
books which were related to American society.
In order to analyze this thesis, the writer firstly read the whole dialogues of
the play carefully, until the writer fully understood the whole story and the
characters completely. Secondly, the writer collected all data needed to support
this thesis from the library and the internet. The data contained criticism based on
the play itself and other references, such as information related to the criticism,
theories of character and characterization, theory of African-American class
division, theory of racial discrimination, some reviews of historical background
and socio-cultural historical approach.
Thirdly, the writer arranged all the data in the proper way, in order to
make it easier to answer the problem formulation: identifying the influence of the
characters to the topics that are discusses, and identifying the characters'
analysis to answer the problems stated in problem formulation. Finally, the writer
32
This chapter is divided into three parts. Each part will answer each
question stated in the problem formulation in chapter one. The first part will
discuss about the characterization of the five black characters which represents the
characteristics of African American class division. The second part will be a
discussion on how racial discrimination in America revealed through the the five
black characters and then it leads to the last question about the reaction of five
black characters toward a condition that they face in their life which deals with
class division and racial discrimination as revealed in the play.
A. The Five Black Characters Characterizations reveal African American Class Division in America
Literature can be a medium to reveal or portray the social condition in a
certain place and time. Wellek and Warren in their book The Theory of Literature
explain that literature as a social document and pictures of social reality has the
ability to record the features of the society (1956: 94). Through the statement, the
writer believes that the play Wine in the Wilderness is a picture of social reality. Alice Childress tries to express the social condition of black community in
America in the early 20th century.
Renaissance. Harlem Renaissance emerged in the middle of social and intellectual
confusion in the African American community in the early 20th century
(1981:49).
This first analysis tries to reveal the African American class division and
its characteristics as seen through the characters of the play. Those characters are
Bill Jameson, Cynthia, Sonny-man, Tommy, and Oldtimer.
1. Black middle class
Bill Jameson is described as atalented person whose job is a painter. He is
working on a triptych, or series of three paintings named “Wine in the Wilderness”. In the prologue, he is introduced as a thirty three years old man. He tends to live in his own apartment in Harlem, New York, particularly in the middle
of a riot. According to Kitano the black middle class want to own their own homes
(1985: 122).
Here, Bill’s project on a “triptych,” a series of three paintings entitled,
“Wine in the Wilderness,” is a proof that he is a talented person. He wants to create an achievement that exposing African American uniqueness particularly on
black womanhood.
It is described that Bill’s first painting, is a charming little girl in Sunday
dress and hair ribbon. It represents Bill’s statement on a little black girl who is
innocent because her life is just starting.
Bill. Right, right, right, but these are with clothes. That can be artistic too.
(Childress, 1996: 905)
Then, the second, “Wine in the Wilderness,” is a beautiful woman with deep mahogany complexion. She is cold but utter perfection, dressed in amazing
colors of African material, very fashionable. This second painting is Bill’s
idealize vision of African Queen.
Bill. Slow down, Oldtimer, wait till you see this. (Uncovers another canvas and reveals a beautiful woman, deep mahogany complexion, draped in startling colors of African material, very “Vogue” looking. She wears a golden head-dress spakling with brilliants and sequins applied over the paint.) There she is”Wine in the Wilderness”…Mother
Africa.
(Childress, 1996: 905)
The third canvas, which he has not yet painted, is to be an
African-American woman Bill considers to be poor, uneducated and homeless, what,
according to him, “society has made of our women.” Although he has not yet found the model for this third painting, he describes to Oldtimer the type of
woman he wants to represent: She is as far from Bill’s African queen as a woman
can get and still be female. She is ignorant, unfeminine, coarse, rude, vulgar, a
poor, dumb chick. Bill adds that there is no hope for this type of woman.
Bill. Not gone , she’s not painted yet. This will be the third part of triptych. This is the unfinished third of “Wine in the Wilderness.” She’s gonna be the kinda chick that is grass roots, I mean she’s underneath grass roots. The lost woman, what the society has made out of our women. She’s as far from my African Queen as a women can get and still be female, she’s close to the bottom as you can get without crackin’ up. She is ignorant, unfeminine, coarse, rude, vulgar, a poor, dumb chick that’s had her behind kicked until it’s numb and he sad part is she ain’t together, you know there’s no hope for her.
(Childress, 1996: 905)
Those three paintings are Bill’s sense of taking part in a common attempt
uniqueness of each painting; an innocent girl, a perfect black woman, and a
messed-up chick, in order to be accepted in mainstream society. In other word it
can be said that Bill has an intention to show the black girls as in his first painting
and the messed-up chick as in his third painting how a black woman ought to be (as
in his second painting) in order to be accepted by mainstream society. As
explained in review of historical background, it is stated that beginning in the late
1880s blacks began to emerge as professionals in many areas including scientific
research, and artistic achievement. By the 1900s many had become scholars,
scientists, poets, artists, and musicians, but still black artists cannot differ
significantly from their white peers. They have desire to transfer racial uniqueness
into the style of American standardization so they tend to be as little Negro and to
be as much American as possible (1985:40).
Bill considers skin color, speech accent and personality as important. Bill
compares two women who have different qualities as in his second and third
painting. According to Bill a woman as in his second painting is a perfect black
woman because she beautiful, deep mahogany complexion, regal, cold but utter
perfection, and in noblest form. Bill calls her as African Queen “Wine in the Wilderness. Bill states that a perfect woman as he imagines in his second picture can create a paradise life. She will give happiness to him and make his life looked
perfect and happy.According to Kitano certain distinctions in social status, such as
white ancestry, skin color, speech accent and cultural similarities to the whites,
used to be important to the black subculture (1985:121).
singing to him in the wilderness. She is the woman, she is the bread, she is the wine, she is the singing. This Abyssinian maiden is paradise,…perfect black woman.
(Childress, 1996: 905)
Bill tries to struggle to uplift his life by creating an artistic achievement.
Bill’s aim to create triptych is not only to show his statement of black womanhood
but also to win a prize. He imagines that his work of art will be seen in public area
such a post office, a library, and a bank so that he will be honored by everyone.
However, Bill’s third painting about a down and out African-American woman
who is ignorant, unfeminine, coarse, rude, vulgar, a poor, and dumb is Bill’s way
to make his work of art “Triptych” becomes interesting in order to be displayed in
mainstream level because he exposes African American uniqueness. Kitano states
that the world sororities and fraternities is a way of escaping the stigma of color
and traditional black culture (1985: 122).
Bill also tends to measure everything with money. Bill tells Tommy that
he needs her just as her model. He will be glad to pay her if she wants to stay at
Bill’s apartment and let him paint her because Bill thinks that Tommy is a jobless
and hopeless woman who always needs money to support her life. Bill does not
really care about what Tommy feels because according to him a black woman
who has negative qualities like Tommy is hopeless and worthless. Bill just wants
to exploit her negative qualities in order to make his paintings known by
everyone. It means that Bill lets a stable black underclass like Tommy mires in
despair although he wants to do everything for Tommy and also will pay her for
Bill. Now, this is the way the program will go down. First, I’ll feed you, and then I’ll paint you.
Tommy. Okay, I’m game, I’m sport. First off, I want me some Chinese food.
Bill. I’ll be glad to pay you, baby.
(Childress, 1996: 908)
Cynthia, like Bill, is also as a black middle class. But there is no much
information that explains Cynthia’s position in the social stratification. It is only
stated that she is a social worker. Her profession puts her at the position of a black
middle class.
Cynthia. I’m a social worker….and I see so many broken homes. Some of these men! Tommy, don’t be in a rush about the marriage thing.
(Childress, 1996: 908)
Cynthia is described as a twenty five year old social worker. She is married
to Sonny-man. They live in their own apartment in Harlem as Bill’s neighbor.
Most Black middle class have their own house in this area. Besides that, Cynthia
is an educated African-American woman, whose attitude toward Tommy, like that
of Bill and Sonny-man, is arrogant and patronizing. She is described as an
arrogant woman because she always accentuates that she is a social worker who is
more educated than Tommy, although she never says it directly.
Cynthia cares about her attitude. She speaks in a good accent and in a good
manner. Besides, she also cares about her appearance because it is described that
“she wears her hair in natural style and her clothing is in a good.” From this statement it can be seen that Cynthia more concerns about her superficial
As black middle class Cynthia shows lack of respect toward Tommy. It is
clearly seen when Cynthia and Sonny-man take Tommy to Bill’s apartment
without explaining the reality why she is brought to meet Bill in his apartment.
Cynthia allows Tommy to believe that she is being set up with Bill as a romantic
interest. She avoids having a kindness toward Tommy to tell the real reason why
she is brought to Bill’s apartment.
Tommy. Yes you do. You tryin’ to tell me I’m aimin’ too high by lookin’ at Bill.
Cynthia. Oh, no, my dear
Tommy. Out there in the street, in the bar, you and your husband were sure that he’d like me and want to paint my picture.
(Childress, 1996: 908)
Cynthia is described as a guarded and hypocritical person. She can be said
a guarded person because she has studied poverty rather than lived in it or
experienced it. She never lives in poverty and she does not have to work hard to
fulfill her needs like what Tommy does in her life. She just learns about poor
people’s lives especially their problems. She tends to use them as an object of her
study.
Cynthia is described as a hypocritical person because she issues the
expression of Black Power: the need for black women to “let the black man have his manhood again” by being softer, sexier, and more dependent avoids of any understanding of the need for self dependence that is faced by black women
which are poor. On the other hand, she is a career woman who balks when her
husband. Cynthia prefers to react sarcastically by saying “that’s such a lovely idea,” which shows that she does not agree with her husband’s statement.
Tommy. I’m hungry.
Sonny-man. While you’re posin’ Cynthia can run down to our house and fix you some eggs.
Cynthia. (gives her husband a weary look). Oh, Sonny, that’s such a lovely idea.
Sonny-man. Thank you, darlin’, I’m in there on the beam.
(Childress, 1996: 907)
More fact that shows that Cynthia is hypocritical is that she still denies her
relation with Tommy as black women, although, Cynthia always seems to act in
good manner and allow Tommy to believe that Cynthia cares about her.
Furthermore, Cynthia always avoids to have sympathy toward Tommy so there is
always a distance between them although both of them are black women.
Cynthia still withholds the fact that Sonny-man and she had picked
Tommy out in the bar as a model for Bill’s “mural thing.” They just want to
exploit her negative images which are poor or homeless, unfeminine, coarse,
vulgar and uneducated.
Sonny-man, Cynthia’s husband, is the last person who belongs to the black
middle class. It is described that Sonny-man is a twenty seven year old writer in
high spirits. He has a motivation to celebrate their heritage through literature i.e.
by creating a novel nine hundred pages long about black revolution.
He lives in an apartment in Harlem with his wife Cynthia. Like Cynthia
and Bill, Sonny-man also represents the arrogant attitude of black middle class
who are more educated toward black lower class that are less educated than they
image of a down and out woman that perfect for Bill’s third painting. Sonny-man
convinces Tommy to follow him to be Bill’s model. However, he merely intends
to take advantage over Tommy by exposing Tommy’s low class characteristics.
Sonny-man looks down on Tommy because of her speech accent and
personalities which are vulgar, curse, rude, and unfeminine. His attitude toward
Tommy emphasizes his position as a black middle class. As black middle class,
Sonny-man also shows lack of respect toward his elder generation. It is showed
when Sonny-man, like Bill and Cynthia, does not know the real name of Oldtimer,
his elder friend who has little opportunity in education and in financial gain,
although he has clearly known Oldtimer for some time.
In order to build an image that Sonny-man is a black middle class who is
educated, he always sees himself as a creative person who is working for the good
of the African-American community as a whole. He intends to “write the
revolution into a novel nine hundred pages long.” His ability to write a novel into
nine hundred pages long is such an indication that he has a better opportunity to
have education and to improve his talent.
Sonny-man considers himself as a person who cares about his “black”
community because he exposes worth of blacks and their culture, but his attitude
toward Tommy and Oldtimer betrays the fact that he looks down on the “masses”
and cares about the African-American community. In fact, he does not treat
Tommy or Oldtimer as well as he treats Bill although both of them are also a part
of African-American community. It shows that he is also a hypocritical person
