‘Master Harold’ … and the boys

1. The use of quotation marks around ‘Master Harold’ marks the irony of Hally, a young white boy, is the master of 2 older, African people, Willie and Sam. It is also later revealed that Hally is trying on his ‘entitled’ identity of being a master over Africans because he’s a white superior. The capitalization also emphasizes who’s superior and inferior to one another.
2. Hally’s clothes “are a little neglected and untidy.” One can conclude that Hally was in a rush from something.
3. When Sam engages Hally in his schoolwork and teaches him how to be a man and life lesson, he becomes more of a father figure to Hally. However, this father-son relationship is broken when Hally reminds Sam of his status and tells him to be a good servant.
4. Black prisoners lie down on a bench, and policeman strip their clothes and hold their ankles. Then the policeman hits the prisoners with a cane. Hally tells Sam to stop describing how the prisoners are treated because of its gruesome description. This is different from the way Hally is ‘whipped’ for drawing a picture of his teacher because his teacher didn’t whip Hally for his race and ethnicity.
5. Sam feels that Napoleon, Tolstoy, and Lincoln are all men of magnitude because they all had ideals for equality of mankind. Fugard believes that men of magnitude proposes ideal worlds where all are equal to one another, but it is impossible to obtain because mankind’s tendency to fall back into social/class divisions.
6. Hally is filled with joy when he first heard and recollects about Sam’s kite. He thought that it was such an embarrassing thing to be called a kite because of its poor choice of materials. Hally’s attitude changes from embarrassment and shame to one full of amazement and astonishment because the kite moves as if it wants freedom.
7. Hally’s attitude changed from lighthearted to crabby and irritable after his mother’s phone call. Hally believes that “just when things are going along all right, [someone] or something [without fail] will come along and spoil everything” is the fundamental of the universe.
8. Hally’s choice of an essay topic is an insult to the blacks in the printed play because he assumes this dancing competition is held only by inferior black beings. Hally describes it in “strict anthropological terms … [as] a primitive black society dancing and singing [where] the war-dance has been replaced by the waltz.” Hally assumes his position of being a white superior and refers to the African’s war dance had evolved to the waltz but still done by primitive people. He insults the Africans by calling them backwards or primitive in the modern world.
9. Sam’s dance contest becomes a metaphor for life. When every couple dances the waltz, ideally they won’t bump into one another just like how humans want life to be - one without collisions. However, in the real world, everyone collides into one another, but everyone must also try their best to achieve this ideal state of the world.
10. Hally’s father is an alcoholic, racist, steals money, and had part of his leg amputated. Hally really loves his father, but the things that his father has done makes Hally resent him.
11. Hally is very irritable towards Sam and Willies childness, but when Sam pushes onwards trying to teach Hally his mistakes and how Hally truly loves his father, Hally retorts by joking about a black-man’s ass and spits on Sam. He behaves like this because he resents dealing with his father being home; this shows how ashamed Hally feels towards his father.
12. When Hally orders Sam to call him ‘Master Harold’ instead of Hally, it means that the relationship between him and Hally will never be the same, formally or informally. This was done to humiliate Sam of his ethnicity and reminds him once again of his status in society.
13. Sam felt bad for Hally after an embarrassing incident with his father and saw that he was developing a strong sense of shame. He tried to prevent Hally from losing respect and saying wretched words of his father. Sam hoped that the kite would give Hally something to be proud of and to teach him to look towards a brighter future when times are hard.
14. The bench’s significance was that it was reserved only for white people. Sam tries to tell Hally that he has the choice to be racist and if he does chose to be racist, then Hally would lose all connections he had about the social reforms he so admired and the people who love and care for him.
15. At the start of the play Willie believes Hilda deserved to be beaten but as he observes the interaction between Sam and Hally, he realizes he has been mistreating Hilda and should change his behavior. The significance of the final song refers to Hally, a child who wants to be a man, had one turbulent day and needs to figure out what path he’ll choose.
16. I believe the ending of the play was well done because Fugard engages the audience’s thoughts on apartheid and the social divisions at the time. He left the audience contemplating and recollecting what has happened throughout the whole entire play, analyzing each scene, in order to conclude what he or she thinks what will happen. It ends on a rather optimistic note because even though Sam was ‘dirtied’ more so ever in his life and had a choice to resent Hally, he asks Hally to come fly a kite for both of them. This is significant in that both of them are willing to rebuild their relationship they just broke.