Students will also read/perform and study two scenes from two separate plays in which black men act out their determination for a better life and for their survival: Walter Lee in
Raisin in the Sun
lays out his determination and soulful
need
to be more than a white man's chauffeur. Walter expresses to his mother his frustration with his current job:
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"A job. Mama, a job? I open and close car doors all day long.
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I drive a man around in his limousine and say, 'Yes, sir; no, sir;
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very good, sir; shall I take the Drive, sir?' Mama, that ain't no
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kind of job . . .that ain't nothing at all. Mama, I don't know if
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I can make you understand." 1
To his wife he expresses the frustration that comes with not being taken seriously by her:
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"That's it. There you are. Man say to his woman: I got me a dream.
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His woman say: Eat your eggs. Man say: I got to take hold of this
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here world, baby! And his woman will say: Eat your eggs and go
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to work. Man say: I got to change my life, I'm choking to death,
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baby! And his woman say: Your eggs is getting cold!" 2
Troy Maxson, a garbage collector in August Wilson's
Fences
set in the 1950's, reveals a similar desire and need to change his life when the audience learns from him that he is determined to become the
driver
of a garbage truck and not just the lowly guy
hauling
at the back of the truck. He asks why only white men drive the trucks and he is determined to change this, even though, ironically, he does not have a driver's license.
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I ain't worried about them firing me. They gonna fire me 'cause I
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asked a question? That's all I did. I went to Mr. Rand and asked him,
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"Why?" Why you got the white mens driving and the colored lifting?"
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Told him, "What's the matter, don't I count? You think only white
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fellows got sense enough to drive a truck. That ain't no paper job!
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Hell, anybody can drive a truck. How come you got all whites driving
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and the colored lifting? "He told me, "Take it to the union." Well,
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hell, that's what I done! Now they wanna come up with this pack of
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lies. 3
In both of these plays, the private histories of fictional black men testify to, or model, the tenacity of black men to survive, against the odds, in this society.
