“Master Harold”..and the boys and A Raisin in the Sun, though written during different time periods, are both based off the same topic and struggles of racial prejudice and attitudes. The Younger family in A Raisin in the Sun and Willie and Sam of “Master Harold” and the boys are both subject to racial attitudes throughout both plays. The Youngers are targeted by the Clybourne Park Improvement Association, specifically Mr. Karl Lindner while Willie and Sam are targeted by 17 year old Hally. Both groups suffer through the hardships that come along with being a black person in their time period.
The play “Master Harold” …and the boys, by Athol Fugard opens in a tea room in Port Elizabeth, South Africa during the apartheid era. Willie and Sam are conversing as they work when the owner’s son, Hally, arrives home from school. The three characters are friends despite their differences in age and race. From there, the relationship between them intensifies to a point in which racial equality and difference becomes an issue. Hally finds himself spitting on Willie and demanding he call him “Master Harold,” while Willie can do nothing about it due to the colour of his skin and the restrictions that come along with being black during the apartheid in South Africa. In the apartheid era, blacks and whites were segregated just as they were in the United States during the Civil Rights movements. In South Africa, many laws were created to stop the coercing of blacks and whites, it was rare that people of different races associated with each other. In “Master Harold,” the friendship between Willie, Sam and Hally was strained due to this issue. Problems arose more often than not due to their differences in race, and the fact that Willie and Sam were workers in Hally's family's business. “You’re only a servant in here, and don’t forget it!" Although they may have been friends, their race made up an