August Wilson, one of the leading African-American playwrights spoke for the racially discriminated and socially abused Blacks through his plays. He had been a vigilant writer who could see through the victimization of the so called ‘Negros’ and wrote plays to encourage them to recover their lost heritage. His most influential plays are- Piano Lesson, Joe Turner’s come and Gone, Fences, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Gem of the Ocean and Seven Guitars. African-American history tells us that Blacks were uprooted from their African homelands in sixteenth century; they were treated as animals, worked as slaves for the new White master. Afro-American history tells us that racial abuse of Blacks as a community was the order of the day. In the sixteenth century, Blacks were uprooted from their Africa in atrocious conditions. The natives treated blacks like animals. Sale and purchase of blacks was common those days. Some masters were very cruel to their slaves and punished them severely for minor lapses. The job of black woman was more tedious as she did everything that the white man and his family asked her to. The victims lived a life of misery in the tarpaper huts. The blacks were discriminated in every sphere of life …show more content…
Just like Loomis, Bynum too is in search of somebody. It is the shiny man; who, as per Bynum, has no special look but is the one who goes before and shows the way. He met a shiny man earlier in the play who led him to his (Bynum’s) self discovery. Bynum is required to meet another shiny man so as to get fulfillment. But for a person to become a shiny man, he must be searching for his identity. In Loomis, Bynum sees the trace of shiny man so he observes him thoroughly and questions him about his visions. Bynum has assumed upon himself the task of binding his people i.e. African-Americans through their self realization by adopting rituals from their African