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Athol FugardMaster Harold and the Boys
Fiction | Play | YA | Published in 1982A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Racial Dynamics in South Africa
“Master Harold”…and the boys was first performed in the United States, but it is deeply rooted in the racial dynamics of South Africa under apartheid. It is about a specific place and a specific time. While racism is by no means exclusive to South Africa, Athol Fugard’s work is not a universal story about overcoming racism, but a story about the unique ways that racism shaped the lives of South Africans during several decades of legal segregation. As the play’s primary theme, racial dynamics are at the center of every interaction the characters have. Each character has his own approach to and understanding of racism. Willie does his best to fit into the role he is expected to fill, knowing that his employment and safety are at stake. He is obedient, calling Hally “Master Harold” and tolerating Hally’s cruelty without complaint. Ultimately, Willie learns that his best efforts are not enough to save him. Hally still hits him with a ruler when he gets frustrated, still tells racist jokes, and still makes a point of insulting Willie’s intelligence. No amount of obedience is enough to keep someone safe from racism; playing by the rules just means that the game never changes.
Of all the characters, Sam has the greatest awareness of the racism inherent in South African society at this time. He is unwilling to compromise his dignity, refusing to call Hally “Master Harold” except to signal the breakdown of their relationship. Despite his anger, Sam is aware that he cannot rock the boat too much: like Willie, he needs to keep his job. The play implies that Sam has reason to both resent and recognize the risks posed by a racist society: He has been incarcerated and beaten before, and he knows the specific kinds of violence leveraged against Black men in the prison system. Sam sees himself as a mentor for Hally, and he wants Hally to break free of the racist ideology he has grown up with. For this reason, Sam tries to be gentle with Hally even when he gets angry. He still has hope for a true reconciliation at the play’s end even if Hally’s feelings remain uncertain.
Hally, the only white character in the play, likes to think that he is better than other, more openly racist white people. In his mind, he is better than his teacher, who dislikes Black people; after all, he is friends with Sam and Willie. He wants to believe that he has not bought into white supremacist rhetoric, but his casual condescension toward and reflexive use of his power over Sam and Willie prove otherwise. He sees himself as superior to Sam and Willie: He can educate Sam, he knows more about the world, and he has a future to look forward to. Instead of recognizing racism for the violent, socially constructed system that it is, he experiences it as natural, neutral, and invisible. He never noticed that the bench he sat on said “Whites Only,” because he is used to living in a world that caters to him. When he gets angry, he uses racism as a weapon to affirm his superiority. Whether Hally will continue to uphold racism or whether he will get up off the bench will determine how he moves through the world for the rest of his life.
Education and Coming of Age
Of the three characters in the play, Hally is the only one with access to a comprehensive education. This education opens a future for him even if he squanders it; he might do poorly in school, but as he points out, plenty of (white) people have had great successes without doing well in their education. Hally uses his education to enforce his superiority over Willie and Sam: He deigns to educate Sam at his discretion, but he dismisses Sam’s ideas when they do not align with his own. The way that Hally sees his role in educating Sam reflects white supremacist views at the time that saw white people as magnanimously helping to civilize Black people. Sam is a quick study with an excellent memory and clearly enjoys their discussions even though he is aware of the power dynamic involved.
Sam tries to provide Hally with an alternative education, helping him see the value in ballroom dancing and pushing him to deconstruct racist assumptions. Ultimately, Hally’s education is pushing him toward two possible futures as he comes of age. He might come of age and become the same kind of man as his father: one who lets shame consume him and who uses racism to enforce ideas about superiority. On the other hand, if he listens to the education Sam is trying to give him, his coming of age might involve deconstructing racism, rejecting white supremacy, and working in solidarity with Black people toward liberation. Hally has two father figures: his father and Sam. He might follow in either of their footsteps; which option he chooses will depend on his ability to internalize the lessons Sam is trying to teach.
At the heart of the play is the question of who should be considered “of age”: Who is a boy, and who is a man? Sam and Willie decide that Hally is still a boy when he spits in Sam’s face, thereby absolving him of some responsibility. Similarly, Hally refers to Sam and Willie as “boys” to infantilize them and remind them that he wields power over them. If “coming of age” is interpreted more broadly to describe moving toward liberation, it has other applications within the play. While Sam and Willie are adults, they cannot “come of age” in the same way as Hally, because there is no liberation, no expansive future that awaits them. They are stuck in the same patterns of subservience and oppression unless and until the law—and the people—changes. On a metanarrative level, South Africa has not yet come of age in this text. Like Hally, it is stuck in a kind of “boyhood” that leaves its future uncertain. Will it continue to uphold racist systems, or will it shift toward a more just society? The answer is still unclear when the play ends. As long as the characters are simply waiting for better weather, they cannot really see a clear future, and they cannot build a life in a free and just nation.
Shame and Systems of Power
This play describes nested systems of power that intersect and influence each other. Some characters experience state violence, abusive relationships, racism, misogyny, or some combination of all those forces. It is common for the characters in this play to respond to the repression and abuse that they face with shame. Often, they direct their shame and anger not toward the source of their pain, but toward other people who have less social power than they do. By punching down, they alleviate some of their pain but simultaneously reinforce the systems that hurt them in the first place. Hally’s father is a white man who should, in theory, be at the top of the social hierarchy in South Africa. However, he was sent to war and lost his leg. As a result, he is no longer able to work, so he cannot uphold the standards of white masculinity that are expected of him. He must rely on his wife and son to take care of him. This gives him a profound sense of shame, which he deals with by misusing alcohol and taking out his anger on his wife and son. He also uses racist jokes to feel better about himself and to reassert his power.
Hally is on the receiving end of some of his father’s cruelty, which makes him feel ashamed. He is also ashamed of his father’s alcohol addiction because his father once embarrassed Hally in public and became abusive. He’s ashamed of his father’s disability because he has internalized ableist notions. Finally, he feels ashamed because he has no power over his life, only over Sam and Willie. He cannot convince his mother to keep his father in the hospital, and when he goes to school, he is beaten and reminded that he is a child. To console himself, Hally weaponizes racism to assert his power over Sam and Willie, even replicating the beating he received at school when he hits Willie. He is particularly cruel to both after his phone calls with his parents. What really pushes Hally over the edge is when Sam chastises him for speaking ill of his father. Hally wants Sam and Willie to affirm his vitriol against his father; instead, he feels even greater shame at Sam’s words. Unable to find an appropriate outlet for his feelings, Hally pushes Sam and Willie away, reasserts his racism, and pretends that his relationship with his father is a good one.
The only character who recognizes how this pattern of shame manifests is Sam. When Willie complains about Hilda, Sam points out that Willie is doing the same thing as Hally: He is taking his shame and anger at living in a racist society (coupled with his shame about being a bad dancer) and taking his feelings out on Hilda. Willie does not initially recognize his power over Hilda and instead blames her for his actions. At the end of the play, he comes around, recognizing that the only way to a better future is to break the cycle of power and shame. Sam demonstrates great strength when he refuses to let Hally’s words shame him. He refuses to cut himself off from Hally, despite his anger. He is the only character to recognize that if there is any hope for a liberated world, then everyone will need to learn to cast off their shame, direct their anger at the systems that cause oppression in the first place, and stand together.
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By Athol Fugard
