Master Harold and the Boys
Gabriel Patino 05/ 06/13 Doc Phillips English “MASTER HAROLD…and the boys”
During the 1950’s South Africa followed a system of legal separation known as the Apartheid, establishing separate, equal rights for whites and blacks. This system brought much controversy and resulted in Athol Fugard, a native South African, writing MASTER HAROLD…and the Boys, a play about the relationship between Harold, also known as Hally, a seventeen year old white boy and two black waiters named Sam and Willie, employed by a tea shop owned by Hally’s parents, and how the bond between them is forever changed following the events that happen on a rainy day in 1950 in a racially segregated South Africa. But MASTER HAROLD…and the boys is far from just a play about the apartheid in South Africa but rather an intricate play about human relationships and the social values and realities that come as a result of the Apartheid.
Athol Fugard’s play can be broken into two parts, the first revolves around the relationship between Harold, Sam, and Willie when there is little social and personal forces affecting Harold. The play begins with employees Willie and Sam working at the St. George’s Park Tea Room on a “wet and windy Port Elizabeth afternoon” (pg1) talking about one Willie’s dance steps for the upcoming ballroom dance competition taking place in a few weeks. We soon learn that Willie’s dance partner had not been going to practice recently due to the fact that Wille had given her a hiding, it is then implied that this is a recurring thing with Willie and Hilda, with Sam telling him “he hits her too much” and that “One Day she’s going to leave him for good” (pg4). This is the first instance of Fugard exposing the need to feel superior over another, in this particular case Willie beats Hilda as compensation for when she misses a step. Their conversation continues until Harold, walks into the tea shop, and greets the boys affectionately. Willie responds with “At your service
During the 1950’s South Africa followed a system of legal separation known as the Apartheid, establishing separate, equal rights for whites and blacks. This system brought much controversy and resulted in Athol Fugard, a native South African, writing MASTER HAROLD…and the Boys, a play about the relationship between Harold, also known as Hally, a seventeen year old white boy and two black waiters named Sam and Willie, employed by a tea shop owned by Hally’s parents, and how the bond between them is forever changed following the events that happen on a rainy day in 1950 in a racially segregated South Africa. But MASTER HAROLD…and the boys is far from just a play about the apartheid in South Africa but rather an intricate play about human relationships and the social values and realities that come as a result of the Apartheid.
Athol Fugard’s play can be broken into two parts, the first revolves around the relationship between Harold, Sam, and Willie when there is little social and personal forces affecting Harold. The play begins with employees Willie and Sam working at the St. George’s Park Tea Room on a “wet and windy Port Elizabeth afternoon” (pg1) talking about one Willie’s dance steps for the upcoming ballroom dance competition taking place in a few weeks. We soon learn that Willie’s dance partner had not been going to practice recently due to the fact that Wille had given her a hiding, it is then implied that this is a recurring thing with Willie and Hilda, with Sam telling him “he hits her too much” and that “One Day she’s going to leave him for good” (pg4). This is the first instance of Fugard exposing the need to feel superior over another, in this particular case Willie beats Hilda as compensation for when she misses a step. Their conversation continues until Harold, walks into the tea shop, and greets the boys affectionately. Willie responds with “At your service