The Legacy of August Wilson
By Brook Fuhlendorf
August Wilson was an African American playwright who is famous for his cycle of ten plays titled "The Pittsburgh Cycle". Each play represented a decade of the twentieth-century and was expressing the African American experience at this time. This is his legacy. One article, Embracing the Legacy of August Wilson, spoke of his legacy. It stated, "It is a small cardboard box. One box, containing 10 slim volumes" (Berson). That's all. "That might not seem like much. But that box contains a celebrated Seattle writer's life's work, and a century's worth of anguish, humor, poetry, rage and hope" (Berson). His tangible legacy consists of the scripts to his powerful plays, but more than that, his legacy is in the people he touched. After he died, his wife said, "I love his plays. And they always bring him back to me" (Berson). Those who saw his plays may never forget him or the message that he portrayed to them. These people may pass on this message to their children and so on. Thanks to him, we, who did not know the experiences that he and other African Americans of the time had, can learn from this. His legacy consists of those who are, even today, learning from his works. He has helped to create a more knowledgeable generation who can look on the past and learn from it.
His legacy reveals a larger message than one may believe. His plays are built upon a message of the connections of race, power, and language. Language can have a large effect on people. In his plays he used offensive language; this was not intended to offend, but to teach us about the effect of words. These words were used to target and belittle a race. The "n-word" was intended to show African Americans that white people had the power and were above them. Using this language in his plays made them more powerful and accurate for the time period. Additionally, his plays give a voice to those who haven't always had a voice. This intertwining of race, language, and power was a central idea in his plays. August Wilson was a man with a powerful legacy, no matter what size box you can fit it into.
I enjoyed Reading your post, the part that stuck to me in your post is the quote "It is a small cardboard box. One box, containing 10 slim volumes". the reason why it stuck out me is because I envisioned what that would look like in real life .
ReplyDeleteI agree with almost everything said in your blog post. August Wilson gave African-Americans a voice with his influential work. For example, in one of the articles I read it said that "We owe Him" if people think they owe him for his works, it is clear that he had a great impact
ReplyDeleteI agree with the mostly everything in your post especially when you said how Wilson play had a deeper message. In Wilson play he didn't just use offensive words to offend anyone but to explain the meaning behind it. In the article "A tough lesson about the N-word" it shows a teacher should have not used that word because hes not considered full black since hes only half but he wanted to explain to students that some people use the N-word to greet each other.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the mostly everything in your post especially when you said how Wilson play had a deeper message. In Wilson play he didn't just use offensive words to offend anyone but to explain the meaning behind it. In the article "A tough lesson about the N-word" it shows a teacher should have not used that word because hes not considered full black since hes only half but he wanted to explain to students that some people use the N-word to greet each other.
ReplyDelete