The ideology of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone is placed in a time where African Americans were not treated equal. Even though slavery had been abolished, Africans were still discriminated against because of the color of their skin. Now they were free to live their lives in America and take advantages of some of the opportunities. Dated in 1911, the African American now lives in a society where they must still be very cautious to their social surroundings. For the most part, they are safe in their own neighborhood but if they venture out beyond their community, their lives may be in grave danger because more often than not, some Anglo-Americans would take the liberty of physically harming African Americans out of pure hate. In those times, justice was not served properly for black people. This sets the stage for Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.
The plot is about an ex-deacon, Herald Loomis who, along with his daughter Zonia who are in search for Martha Pentecost. Martha Pentecost is Loomis’s wife and Zonia’s mother. As the story progresses, we learn that Joe Turner kidnapped Loomis and made him work in his chain gang seven years ago. As a result, Loomis looses his family, his religion and his and his identity. However, the actual story begins with Loomis searching for his wife and the audience is not told of Loomis’s past right away. The way Wilson chose to reveal Loomis’s unfortunate past is by informing the audience of how Loomis lost his wife in the first place. In the textbook, Textbook Writing through Literature, Umberto Eco confirms, “In other texts, there are gaps that are not so easily filled by the reader because the text wishes to create suspense and so information is deliberately withheld from the reader” (178). These gaps Eco refers to is the entire mystery of Loomis’s arriving at Seth and Bertha Holly’s boarding house in Pittsburgh. Irving Goffman’s character representation of Seth and Bertha reveals that they both are the overseer of the household. As a result, the two of them make it their business to know their tenant’s personal background. Yet when it comes to Loomis, The Holly’s are clueless to his past. Therefore, the reader is left in the dark about Loomis as well. As the reader continues through the story, they learn along with Seth and Bertha about Loomis’s adverse past. However, Wilson did not write about the actual kidnapping event nor did Wilson write about the time Loomis spent working in the chain gang. This style of writing according to Eco is referred to as the ghost chapter.
Ghost chapters are necessary for story writing because it allows the writer to skip significant details of a story that are not relevant to the story’s plot. According to Eco, the events in a ghost chapter are uneventful to the story in its entirety. Being kidnapped and forced to work a harsh labor is quite relevant and may very well be worthy of an interesting story to write about. The fact that a man exercises his liberty to steal someone else’s and makes them work for his own profit is considered to be a societal norm in the early 1900s. The fact that this Joe Turner did not have to answer to the law for what he’s done is also considered a societal norm. It is this type of normality that leaves the character of Loomis at a loss from his family and overall, his identity.
Before Africans were brought to America during the slave trade, they had their own culture and society. They had their own language and dance. They also had their own religion. History tells us that the Europeans justified their abuse toward the Africans as helping them become more civilized because the Africans lifestyle appeared primal to them and not as developed and industrialized as theirs. J.M. Roberts explains in his book, The Penguin History of Europe, “Explorers, missionaries, and the campaigners against slavery early nineteenth century had encouraged the belief that extension of European rule in the “”Dark Continent”” was justified by spreading blessings of civilization there” (441). As a result, Europeans preached the Christian faith attempting to convert them from their African rituals. What is often overlooked is that even though Africans were taken from Africa and Americanized and have been stripped of their religion, culture, language and even their name, the very essence of the African as a people did not go away.
Take religion for example. Some African American slaves rejected Christianity’s religion because they saw it as the “white man’s religion”. History informs us American Slave Masters abused the Africans by whipping them like animals and raping their women among other inhumane acts. The fact that these slave masters wanted the African American to worship their god was unacceptable for some because they could not fathom why they should worship a god who allowed people to be so badly treated. Some Africans accepted Christianity’s religion and faith by identifying with Jesus Christ, the son of God who according to The Bible, was innocent of sin and yet he was beaten, bruised and crucified for the sins of the world. In the Bible, II Timothy reads:
10 Therefore I endure all things
for the elect’s sakes, that they may
also obtain the salvation which is in
Christ Jesus eternal glory.
11 It is a faithful saying: For if we
be dead with him, we shall also live
with him:
12 If we suffer, we shall also reign
with him: if we deny him, he also will
deny us: (1499)
The Africans who identified with Jesus believed that they themselves represented a type of Christ and saw it to be an honor to have been mistreated, possibly even dying as a sacrificial prodigy. They believed by suffering as Jesus suffered, they would obtain a place in heaven once they died. The hope of reigning in heaven with Jesus is considered the ultimate reward for suffering life’s trials and tribulation and is the faith of the African Americans who accepted the religion of Christianity. Some African Americans could not get past the treatment from the people who called themselves Christians. As a result, they rejected the religion in its entirety and immersed themselves in the traditions of the African religion which is referred to as a shamanic ritual according to James R. Keller of the African American Review.
Bynum’s character is introduced by practicing these rituals. He cuts open pigeons and spreads its blood onto him as a type of cleansing to communicate with spirits. Bynum represents the African American who chose to remain faithful to the religion of his heritage. Others who have chosen the faith of Christianity have viewed the shamanic rituals as demonic. This was a also the perspective of the Anglo-American Christian. For the African American Christian, the perspective can sometimes be quite gray.
Some African Americans wanted to remain faithful to their heritage yet did not agree with the shamanic practices anymore. Seth Holly’s character is a good example of conforming to the economic prosperity of America which was founded by Christians. Anglo-Christians therefore, enforced Christian beliefs, values, and some practices based on the Anglo-American’s interpretation of Christian text. Consequently, Seth develops a kind of hatred for his own people proving that he has truly adopted the practices of white America in the early 1900s. “Niggers coming up here from the backwoods…coming up here from the country carrying Bibles and guitars looking for freedom.” Seth says. “They got a rude awakening” (6). Seth signifies the African American who resents assimilating to the white American culture. At the same time, he too attempts to connect with his heritage by simply allowing Bynum to live in his home and blessing it with his shamanic rituals. Seth also participates in an African dance ritual called the Juba.
Loomis walks in on this dance and falls out in Seth and Bertha’s boarding house and has a vision of seeing skeletons emerge from a body of water. “LOOMIS: I done seen bones rise up out the water. Rise up and walk across the water. Bones walking on top of the water” (53). This vision is considered the anagnorisis in Loomis’s life. Anagnorisis is term Aristotle created to refer to the recognition of ignorance to knowledge that ultimately leads to a new way of thinking, dianoia. Bynum serves as a supporting character reacting to Loomis’s trance. “BYNUM: They walking around here now. Mens. Just like you and me. Come right up out the water” (56). Loomis’s trance and Bynum’s interpretation of it is a turning point in the story.
Both Loomis and Bynum have tapped into their ancestral religion. The difference between the two characters is that Bynum represents the African who never renounced his religion and Loomis is the African-American who backslid from his shamanic religion and converted to the faith of Christianity so much that he was promoted to a deacon. After having his life taken away from him, thanks to Joe Turner, Loomis has questioned his Christian faith and as a result, his identity. By walking in on the ancestral ritual of Jubal, it can be said that Loomis literally walked into what he had actually been looking for, his religion, consequently, his ancestral identity and this is why he fell out in the trance.
“Both Bynum and Loomis possess qualities associated
with this shamanic legacy. However, Bynum’s power is
that of a fully realized medicine man, while Loomis is
experiencing the agonizing transformations that will lead
to his own shamanic vision” (Keller 473).
The trance scene also represents Loomis’s character transforming from the state of peripetea. Peripetea is another term of Aristotle’s which means, the reversal of the hero’s good fortune. Of course, there can never be an anagnorisis or a dianoia without Wilson manipulating the characters of Loomis, the protagonist and Joe Turner, the
antagonist to execute the plot which could not be done without creating the ghost chapter of peripetea.
The reader is lead to believe the literal plot Wilson creates is Loomis needing to find his missing wife. As it turns out, Martha Pentecost is not the one who was lost. Loomis was the one who was lost, wondering around from town to town, searching. It could be said that Loomis was looking for his wife to find his identity. Actually, Loomis came into the state of dianoia when Bynum helped him translate his vision. That vision represented Loomis going back to his ancestral shamanic religion. Loomis needed to find Martha Pentecost simply to say good-bye to her. Up until this point of the story, the reader is lead to believe that Loomis needed to find his wife so they could live out the rest of their lives as husband and wife together. On the contrary, it is revealed to us that this was never Loomis’s intentions. “That goodbye kept me out on the road searching,” Loomis says. “Now that I see your face I can say my goodbye and make my own world” (90). Martha Loomis Pentecost, a woman of Christian faith, represents the African who assimilated into white America’s culture and Loomis needed to find her to say good-bye to the Christian faith. Martha stands by her Christian faith by accusing Loomis to have “gone over to the devil” (91), which is a belief of the Anglo-American that only coaxes Loomis to reject her all the more. “LOOMIS: Great big old white man…your Mr. Jesus Christ. Standing there with a whip in one hand and a tote board in another, them niggers swimming in a sea of cotton” (92).
In conclusion, the society in this play depicts a type of submission of black people toward white people. If a Caucasian man physically took a black man off the streets and put him to manual labor for his own benefit, he would be tried and most likely, convicted of kidnapping among other charges. Yet, this is what happened to Herald Loomis. Herald Loomis lost his family and faith in his duty as a deacon consequently losing his faith as a Christian and identity of self altogether. To get his identity back, Loomis went back to his ancestral shamanic practice invoking a type of familiarity that restored his identity. It can be said the “proper authorities” were well aware of Joe Turner’s business ventures and nothing was done about it. This play could not have been written in any other time than the early 1900s because the story would not have been believable—it wouldn’t have existed because the author would not have been allowed to read or write much less have a book published. The time of the story could not have been placed in the 21st century either. African Americans has more freedom now. So the overall result is this: the ideology of unequal treatment toward the African American and why society accepted they way of life, must be understood in this story of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone in order to understand the overall plot.
Works Cited
The Bible. King James Version. Thomas Nelson. 1990.
Comley, Nancy R., Scholes, Robert, Ulmer, Gregory L. Text Book Writing through Literature. 3rd Ed. Boston. New York. 2002
Eby, Clare. “Slouching toward Beastliness: Richard Wright’s Anatomy of Thomas Dixon”. African American Review Vol. 35, No. 3.
Keller, James, R. “The Shaman’s Apprentice: Ecstasy and Economy in Wilson’s Joe Turner.” African American Review Vol. 35, No. 3, 2001.
The Merriam Webster Dictionary, Home and Office Edition. Philippines. 1995.
Roberts, J.M. The Penguin History of Europe. Great Britain. 1996
Wilson, August. Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. New York. 1988.
The Perception 