I enjoyed reading this play so much. So far it's my favorite play by August Wilson. JOE TURNER'S COME AND GONE happens in Pittsburgh during 1911 in a boarding house owned by Seth and Bertha. Seth and Bertha are very strong, good people. Seth is always worried about the respectability of his boardinghouse. Bertha is more worried about the comfort of the boarders and whether her biscuits will shape up to make a good breakfast.
There are so many lines in this play where you want to just stop and ponder the words. August Wilson knows the beauty of words and how they line up to make a sentence and paragraph. For example, there is Loomis. Loomis is a roomer. With Loomis is his daughter, Zonia. He is searching for his wife and the mother to his little girl. It seems everyone is in search of someone. The people pouring out from slavery to freedom have not completely settled yet. As a matter of fact, Selig is a people finder. "Rutherford Selig. He go around selling pots and pans and every house he come to he write down the name and address of whoever livers there. So if you looking for somebody, quite naturally you go and see him...'cause he's the only one who know where everybody live at."
I was very surprised to learn about Joe Turner. After learning his mission in life, I will never forget him. Might know him if I meet him in my modern day world with a different agenda. Bynum who deals in some type of sorcery thinks you're safe from the Joe Turners in the world if you have a song in your heart. Your song is the ability to know your true identity. Really, the whole play is bound up in the thread of Martha's words. "You got to be something, Herald. You just can't be alive . Life don't mean nothing unless it got a meaning."
There are so many lines in this play where you want to just stop and ponder the words. August Wilson knows the beauty of words and how they line up to make a sentence and paragraph. For example, there is Loomis. Loomis is a roomer. With Loomis is his daughter, Zonia. He is searching for his wife and the mother to his little girl. It seems everyone is in search of someone. The people pouring out from slavery to freedom have not completely settled yet. As a matter of fact, Selig is a people finder. "Rutherford Selig. He go around selling pots and pans and every house he come to he write down the name and address of whoever livers there. So if you looking for somebody, quite naturally you go and see him...'cause he's the only one who know where everybody live at."
I was very surprised to learn about Joe Turner. After learning his mission in life, I will never forget him. Might know him if I meet him in my modern day world with a different agenda. Bynum who deals in some type of sorcery thinks you're safe from the Joe Turners in the world if you have a song in your heart. Your song is the ability to know your true identity. Really, the whole play is bound up in the thread of Martha's words. "You got to be something, Herald. You just can't be alive . Life don't mean nothing unless it got a meaning."
