Outsiders Searching for a Place Within

In life, everyone has an identity. In every way, human beings try to shape their identities with their language, culture, clothing, music, and religious practices; they even define who we are by choosing a spouse. In an historical overview, the identities of Africans were stolen through the Middle Passage to slavery. After experiencing and enduring such horrid, harsh, and inhumane conditions, Africans were given new names and backbreaking labor to bear. The names usually denoted to which owner and plantation a slave belonged. Systematically, Africans were stripped of their identities, their land, their homes, family, property, religion, language, culture, livelihood, sense of worth, sense of self, pride and dignity. As a direct result, African-Americans are a lost people, searching for who they truly are. The desperate search for self is depicted in literature via setting, characters, theme, and plot.

Several authors illustrate the theme of one searching for the truth and they include, Richard Wright, Alice Walker, August Wilson, and James Baldwin. These naturalistic and timeless pieces such as Native Son, The Color Purple, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, and “Sonny’s Blues” illustrate Africans and African Americans longing to follow the yellow brick road. Richard Wright was born on September 4, 1908, to Mrs. Ella Wilson Wright, a teacher and Nathan Wright, a sharecropper. They lived on a plantation in Roxie, Mississippi. Although he never finished high school, he rose to great literary heights by writing narratives that embody the experiences of the populace in an unconstrained tone. James Baldwin was born on August 2, 1924 to Emma Berdis Jones. His biological father deserted him and his eight siblings, which gave way to the influence of his stepfather, David Baldwin. His writing characterized his disgust for white America and newfound appreciation of Black America. Alice Walker was born in Eatonton, Georgia, to Willie Lee and Minnie Lou Grant Walker, two sharecroppers, on February 9, 1944. Alice Walker gained notoriety by writing about such issues that affect Black Women, namely romantic relationships, parenting, domestic violence, etc. August Wilson was born in the Hill, a neighborhood, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on April 27, 1945. Wilson has received a Tony Award, five New York Drama Critics Circle Awards, and two Pulitzer Prizes, making him a world-renowned playwright in both Black and White America.

Richard Wright’s thought provoking novel, Native Son, depicts the reality of being black in America and “how a man acts when he feels that he must defend himself against, or adapt himself to, the total natural world in which he lives” (396), Wright confirms. Bigger Thomas, the protagonist and self-antagonist, once had dreams of achieving success, but his dreams have been stifled because of the atmosphere in which he lives. Bigger is a twenty-year-old black male with an eighth grade education. He lives in a household without the influence of a man. He acquaints himself with boys who are just as lost, as he appears to be. He believes that compared to whites, he is weaker, and consequently, gives up on his potential for success. Bigger is adverse to the influence of religion. He does not believe in a higher power, but only believes in his own capabilities, which are limited and stagnant. Since he rejects the salvation doctrine, he is consumed with anger, hatred, and revenge, which blind him. Bigger surmised: “Either he was too weak, or the world was too strong; he did not know which one” (345). He concluded that his advancement was suppressed by the ways of the Whites. He states: “They don’t let us do nothing . . .” (20). “Every time I think about it I feel like somebody’s poking a red-hot iron down my throat . . . We live here and they live there. We black and they white. They got things and we ain’t. They do things and we can’t. It’s just like living in jail. Half the time I feel like I’m on the outside of the world peeping in through a knot-hole in the fence . . .” (21). Bigger is trapped by demons, white hindering demons.

Bigger’s mentality ultimately suppresses his being. He believes that since he is a black male, he is therefore guilty as sin. “I’m black. I don’t have to do nothing for `em to get me” (351). By believing such a negative connotation, he dispels his chance for a better life. Feeling that he is less than whites, he tries to break free from the white supremacy image, rid his life of their rule and feel alive. He does this by murdering a young white rich girl, and burning her body, while walking freely, placing the blame on someone else. He enlarges his living by purposefully and viciously raping and murdering a black girl, who is his girlfriend. Through these dastardly acts, he feels truly alive: “In all of his life these two murders were the most meaningful things that had ever happened to him. He was living, truly and deeply, no matter what others might think, looking at him with their blind eyes. Never had he had the chance to live out the consequences of his actions; never had his will been so free as in this night and day of fear and murder and flight” (239). Although one crime was accidental, the other avoidable, his crimes were significant to his being. The narrator writes, “Sometimes, in his room or on the sidewalk, the world seemed to him a strange labyrinth even the streets were straight and the walls were square; a chaos which made him feel that something in him should be able to understand it, divide it, focus it. But only under the stress of hate was the conflict resolved. He had been so conditioned in a cramped environment that hard words or kicks alone knocked him upright and made him capable of action—action that was futile because the world was too much for him. It was then that he closed his eyes and struck blindly, hitting what or whom he could, not looking or caring what he hit back” (240). Through these acts, he found a place, made a New World for himself. The narrator also adds, “He felt that there was something missing, some road which, if he had once found it, would have led him to a sure and quiet knowledge. A chance for that [finding that secret hidden knowledge] was gone forever. He had committed murder twice and had created a new world for himself” (241). Bigger Thomas is symbolic. Bigger Thomas represents the effects of oppressed people deciding not to dwell in the ambiance of tyranny and self-ruin and claiming a right to rule themselves and live. He represents the same oppressed and suppressed people taking the necessary action to live. Bigger found his way through crime, but there are other alternatives.

In “Sonny’s Blues by Baldwin, a man finds his way out of the darkness through jazz music. Sonny is an infrequent heroin addict. Sonny recounts being “black and funky and cold,” while walking the streets, “and there’s not really a living ass to talk to, and there’s nothing shaking, and there’s no way of getting it out—that storm inside. You can’t talk it and you can’t make love with it, and when you finally try to get with it and play it, you realize nobody’s listening. So you’ve got to listen. You got to find a way to listen” (1312). Sonny is a lost and lonely soul searching for himself on the streets; he continues his confessional by saying, “I was all by myself at the bottom . . . stinking and sweating and crying and shaking, and I smelled it . . . my own stink, and I thought I’d die if I couldn’t get away from it and yet, all the same I knew that everything I was doing was just locking me in with it” (1313). He adds that “maybe it was good to smell your own stink” (1313) in order to come to a affirmative or realization. Sonny smells his stink and eventually finds himself through and in music. He is able to tell his story via the piano, a scapegoat from substance abuse. Sonny’s brother, the narrator, finally sees his brother in his own light and notes how Sonny “and his boys . . . were keeping it [the blues ] new, at the risk of ruin, destruction, madness, and death, in order to find new ways to make us listen. For, while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it always must be heard. There isn’t any other tale to tell, it’s the only light we’ve got in all this darkness” (1315). Sonny finds himself, while he helps others find themselves too: “Freedom lurked around us and I understood, at last, that he could help us to be free if we would listen, that he would never be free until we did” (1316). Sonny escaped the paralyzing and terrifying darkness and found himself by riding the wings of the song. Song can bind people together; human relations can also unite.

In Alice Walker’s, The Color Purple, Celie, the protagonist, identifies with and learns to love through Shug Avery, her husband’s mistress, and others. Celie’s character is subservient and meek. Celie’s character is silenced and veiled by an overbearing, male dominant society. Her individuality is quieted by sexual, physical and mental abuse. Alphonso silences Celie by warning her to tell no one about her rape, “You better not never tell nobody but God” (1) and by telling Albert that she is a liar (9). Wang writes, “Rape, a form of abuse, has subjugated Celie’s desires under her stepfather’s authority, thereby psychologically training her mind to accept submission and silence” (2). Cutter writes, “the one identity she has always known is no longer accessible: “I am fourteen years old. I am I have always been a good girl” (1). The “I am” is scratched out, signifying that Celie has no present belief of herself, “Celie has no present tense subjectivity, Cutter adds. However, “By writing, . . . Celie . . . externalizes her experiences so that they do not destroy her,” according to Cutter. “Celie movement out of the silence, maintained by Cutter, “occurs despite repeated rape by her husband [the equated feeling to sexual relations with Albert], who in his demeanor and behavior exactly parallels her father”. She escapes the silence impacted on her by her father and husband by writing letters to God and her sister, reading, sewing pants, (an act done in exchange for plots to kill Albert) and experiencing pleasing personal and sexual relations with Shug Avery, and through laughing and music. Via bisexual contact, Celie learns to love. Shug Avery acts as a bandage to patch up or issue the healing of Celie’s past. Through private conversations between Celie and Shug, in bed, Celie describes happenings from her past, and recounts how “nobody ever love me” (117). Thereafter, Celie and Shug share sexual intimacy, the conclusion: “way after a while, I act like a little lost baby too” (118) can only be inferred as Celie’s first orgasm. Through the strong character of Sophia, she also learns to stand up for herself. Sophia, a big woman, whose walk resembles a soldier’s, fights men, demands respect from all and represents herself in speech in the face of adversity. Celie admits to Sophia that she is jealous of her because she does what she cannot do, which is fight (42). In time, Celie does learns to use both “physical and linguistic violence to erase others”(Cutter), as she was erased. Celie finally finds the words to define Albert as, “a lowdown dog” . . . and she tells him, “It’s time to leave you and enter into Creation” (207). She curses Albert when he tries to break her spirit and tells him, “Anything you do to me, already done to you” . . . and she becomes aware of her being and chants, “I’m pore, I’m black, I may be ugly and can’t cook, . . . but I’m here” (214). Celie affirms herself, recognizes her purpose, reclaims her voice, announces her presence and no longer denies herself.

In August Wilson’s play, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, the tormented character, Herald Loomis, is searching seemingly for his wife, Martha. In the first scene, Bynum, a rootworker, is seeking a shiny man. Bynum begins to tell the story of the shiny man who is significant to the theme of this play. He illustrates that while in Johnstown, he met a man seeking directions. The man said that if Bynum showed him the way, he would show him the Secret of Life. After going a small distance with the man, the man took Bynum’s hands. The man took them and rubbed them together with his, and Bynum’s hands were covered with blood. The man told Bynum to rub them all over himself, as an act of cleansing himself. While continuing with the man, their surroundings changed, becoming larger than life. Bynum contends that he “turned around to look at this fellow and he had this light coming out of him. I had to cover up my eyes to keep from being blinded. He shining like new money with that light. He shined until all the light seemed like it seeped out of him and then he was gone” (1892). In this strange place, he finds his deceased father. Bynum’s father tells him, “he had been thinking about me and it grieved him to see me in the world carrying other people’s song and not having one of my own” (1892). Consequently, his father shows him how to find his own song. Bynum questions his father about the shiny man and his father told him that he was “ the One Who Goes Before and Shows the Way” (1892). Bynum chose the Binding Song; he binds people together, because “on the way people cling to each other out of the truth they find in themselves” (1892). Herald Loomis has lost his way so he must find the truth within himself in order to find his purpose.

Herald Loomis is haunted by ghosts of the past. He and his daughter, Zonia are looking for his wife Martha. He has not seen her since 1901, the year he was caught by Joe Turner. Herald Loomis, once a prominent and respected deacon was apprehended and put to work on the chain gang for seven years. After innocently serving time, he returns home to find his wife gone with their daughter, the entire ordeal leaves him emotionally distraught and confused. Because Loomis feels that he was walking the path that he should have been walking, (the path that God set for him), but that path did not benefit him, so he has lost faith in God, salvation; he relies on himself, while searching for himself through Martha. Bynum tells him that the proverbial Joe Turner wants to take his song (1916). Loomis confesses that he has been searching for his wife ever since Joe Turner stole seven years from his life: “That’s the only thing I know to do. I just wanna see her face so I can get me a starting place in the world” (1916). Herald Loomis is trapped by his past and must be set free.

Martha eventually surfaces and Herald confronts his past. Herald realizes that so many people have bound him up and now he needs to be set free. Symbolically, Herald pulls out a knife, cuts himself across the chest, takes the blood and rubs it across his face. He exclaims, “I’m standing! I’m standing. My legs stood up! I’m standing now!” (1923). Bynum concludes the play by yelling after Loomis, “Herald Loomis, you shining! You shining like new money!” (1923). Wilson adds in a directive explaining how Loomis “found his song, the song of self-sufficiency” (1923). Hill writes, “It becomes clear that the search is really a metaphysical and existential quest for spiritual roots and self-knowledge” (1187). Herald Loomis was set free by confronting his haunted past; taking off binding chains and taking responsibility for his life and charge of his being.

As a closing note, through literature and history, human beings long to tell her or his story. Historically, the story of the African and African-American has been altered, re-written, distorted, and ultimately stolen. Ironically, the United States of America was founded by and for those who sought a new way to define themselves. The Pilgrims came to America to practice their own religion, establishing New England, separate from the Old England. Hypocritically, they imposed the same religious restrictions on the inhabitants, charging them with witchcraft and began burning alive innocent, different people. In this case, these people accused of witchcraft were only seeking to practice a religion characteristic to them. Haphazardly, they were persecuted for wanting to establish an identity dissimilar to the multitude. In all of these literary examples, the characters are searching for themselves and a world in which they truly belong. The characters execute this search in various ways, each one coming to a common conclusion, goal. Be it through song, crime, laughter, craft, or journey, all of these characters sought a path that did not restrict their individuality, an avenue that did not to lead to a stationary life. In these pieces, the characters were stunted, denied love, life, happiness, their own voice, an identity, and a world of their own. In each of texts the characters cried out for life and claimed their right to it.

Works Cited

Cutter, Martha J. “Philomela Speaks: Alice Walker’s Revisioning of Rape Archetypes in The Color Purple.” Melus, (2000): 161+.

Baldwin, James. “Sonny Blues.” Hill 1298-1316.

Gutierrez, Angelica, Tyesha Miller, and Wendy Wang. The Color Purple 23 1998. Jul. <http://grad.cgu.edu/~millerty/index.htm>.

Hill, Patricia Liggins, Gen. Ed. Call and Response: The Riverside Anthology of the African American Literary Tradition. Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998

Wilson, August. Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. Hill 1888-1923.

Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982.

Wright, Richard. Native Son. 1940 Introduction Arnold Rampersad New York: HaperCollins, 1993.