Joe Turner's Come and Gone

In August Wilson’s lifetime he strived to be an advocate for Black Empowerment. His greatest accomplishment is ten plays based on social and religious progression that outlines ten different decades. Upon reading Joe Turner’s Come and gone I felt intrigued to discover Wilson’s original intentions for the symbolism. I find it intriguing in Sandra Shannon’s article, “The Good Christian’s Come and Gone”, how she makes the astute observation that Wilson is trying to biblically justify black oppression. Through Wilson’s depiction of strong black agnostic men he is able to show us how a judgmental majority can have long term effects on the less influential minority. Shannon uses the story of Job to illustrate how some individuals are punished whether they have done something to deserve it or not. Job was punished by God to show the Devil how faithful Job was and how much undeserving punishment he could handle. The distinct difference between Job and African Americans that Shannon describes is Job was consistently faithful and through his lifetime did not resent God. I believe it is the creation of African Americans as a subculture which generations experienced that made it almost impossible to overcome social and political boundaries.