Master Harold and the boys

Symbolism in "Master Harold"... and the Boys
The title of this play Master Harold and the boys is symbolic. The title suggests a hierarchy. This play has been written in the South African context. The setting of the play has been South Africa. Master Harold, a seventeen years old boy, is a white. But the boys who are matures men of the forties are black and have been working in the restaurant of Hally.
 
Athol Fugard (11 June 1932)


The boys, though grownups are called boys only on the ground of their dark complexion. But it is strange to hear a seventeen year old boy as Master Harold. The names of the boys are, respectively, Sam and Willie. They are waiters in the restaurant. The title symbolizes the racial discrimination of South Africa. South Africa was the country where the apartheid law was creating two states within a nation, state of blacks and state of whites in a nation. Racism was creating a boundary between two states. The play examines the effects of apartheid system, it is about love and hate relationship.
Kite Flying: Kite is a source of hope and fraternity. It signifies freedom, desire and aspiration. It symbolizes the consciousness of two characters Hally and Sam. It stands for their desire to transcend all the racial barriers. They want to develop free relationship. Kite flying is a symbol which stands for the idea of blacks and whites working together. It signifies hope in time to come.
Sam, a black has been helping the white boy Hally as a teacher and a moral guide. They have been living as friends despite the gap that exists between them as people of two races. Hally also feels happy and comfortable in his company. Fugard throughout the play emphasizes harmony and an end to racial thinking. He makes Sam work together with Hally. They work on the kite together. It is designed to advocate the joint efforts of Blacks and Whites. Hally forgets other things and feels happy during the period of kite flying. When they fly the kite it goes up high in the sky. They raised their heads to look at the flying kite. It is a symbol of hope for an America where both blacks and whites will be able to hold their heads high with dignity and self-respect. Thus, kite flying is used as a key symbol to urge Americans to end racism and live in co-existence and harmony with blacks and whites as the equal members of the same society.
The raining stands for the barrier for their free will. Hally finds himself in a confusing situation. The world of experience is full with racial consciousness, but the influence of black is also formative. Hally's character is fragmented into white culture and black friends. His life is scattered. Hally wants to educate black, but his speech reflects the superiority of white. He says "What a hell does a black man know about flying a kite." He has a preconception that the God wanted white to rule over the black. But he desires freedom. The doubt of white supremacy in his mind stands for life. He talks of being an atheist, scientist. Hally says that it is not possible to fly a kite in raining (during rain). Rainy day is depression and kite is an imagination. Kite stands for emancipation of soul and there is a need for kite in this confusing human relationship.
The dance has anthropological significance. Dance is the symbol for the beginning of culture and society. Play begins with a dance and ends with the dance. Dance uses no speech, but gestures. Willie is going to participate in a dance competition, so Sam is teaching him to dance. There are couples in that competition and Willie is going to participate with his girlfriend. But because of the misunderstanding between girlfriend and boyfriend, beloved doesn’t come to give company to her partner for the dance. Africans believe natural dance; so they dance naturally. The dance is an attempt to create harmony. We can see the harmonious movement and music flowing in the dance.
The only bench that reads "whites only" stands for the apartheid, division, hatred and racism. When Hally is angry because of his father, he could not bear the insult and humiliation caused by his father’s degradation, he sits on the bench and orders Sam to call him a Master. In extreme anger to make him feel superior, he even does not hesitate to spit in the face of Sam. Since then, their friendship ends and a relationship of master and slave starts. The bench symbolizes the division and the hierarchy.






Master Harold and the Boys by Athol Fugard: Introduction
Master Harold and the boys is a one act play by Athol Fugard. The play was at first banned in South Africa for the issue, it dealt with, but later on it was lifted and became a huge success. It was first staged at the Yale Repertory Theatre in early 1982. The play ran for 344 performances on the Broadway theatre and brought a new fame to the playwright.
 
Athol Fugard (11 June 1932)


The setting and the issue of the play depict the apartheid era of 1950 in South Africa. It vividly clarifies how the deep rooted and institutionalized racism can be the barrier in the friendship between two different colored people. This play is about apartheid. The South African government policy was based upon racism. Only white Africans were allowed to go to important places like libraries, restaurant and so on, but the black citizens of the same country are banned and restricted from many rights and freedom.
The play also includes the message of racism, it is about political domination and social emancipation. Racism was based on the differences of physical features. The play depicts the racial conflict in South African society, and how South Africa becomes one nation of two people, white and black; the conqueror and conquered. One can dominate only when one can separate, it is like the Nazism of Hitler. It is an anti-racist play. Hally's attitude toward Sam was due to the ego inside him.
This play is a semi-historical document. It presents the cruel reality of the contemporary South African Society. South blacks struggle against white domination through resistance, and nonviolence is their weapon against apartheid. Brotherhood exists with the dark truth of society. Spitting is a message of ambiguity in the bond of brotherhood.
Fugard's Master Harold and the boys provides us insights into how power has the corrupting effects on the people. It is a reflection of the way people of one group dominate the other because the society in which they live approves of this domination. It has poisoned human relation and leads to dehumanizing impact of that evil practice. Hally, who at first takes Sam as teacher, guide and father figure, spits in his face just because he is a white, an oppressor. To satisfy his anger and feel superior in front of Sam when Sam comforts him, he sits on the bench and orders him to call him a Master. The moment he rises on the bench, he feels he is powered by hierarchy and exercises his power.























Anti-Apartheid Theme in "Master Harold"...and the Boys
Well aware of the dehumanization, devastating and harrowing consequents of color discrimination in South Africa, Fugard in his play Master Harold….. and the boys uses kites and dance as symbols to appeal for harmony and co-existence and presents characters whose emotional attachment, restraint regarding violence and moral guidance of others brings home the message of the need to end segregation and live in peace and harmony.
 
Athol Fugard (11 June 1932)


Though Hally has been culturally and psychologically conditioned and trained to think of himself as a master superior to the black characters, the time he spends in their company has helped develop his emotional attachment with them. He is in friendly terms with Sam and Willie. With his father absent for most of the time Hally finds Sam as a moral teacher. Though a black character, Sam provides the white boy sincere and responsible parenting. Though the title of the play is hierarchy, creating Fugard's intention is to help do away with such mentality. Hally and Sam fly kites together, which supports the idea of the Whites and Blacks working together. The kite flying in the sky suggests that both of them should rise above the walls and barriers resulting from racist thinking. It symbolically stands for working together and transcending race barriers. Dancing is a symbol as well. A dance doesn't look beautiful if the dancer doesn't move all the parts of the body harmoniously. There should be a balance in the movement of the parts of the whole. Society as a whole doesn't look beautiful and harmonious until and unless all of its units function in unison with each other. Though insulted by Hally's spitting Sam maintains restraint and extends the hand of friendship urging to live in harmony and peace. Sam teaches Hally how to do his homework, carries Hally's drunken father on his back and loves Hally the way a teacher loves his student.
Thus, by presenting the characters who work together and assist others despite racial difference Fugrad is sending out an anti-apartheid message. Giving symbolic significance to dance and kite flying he suggests living together as friends and brothers saying no to the practice of racial segregation which had so badly paralyzed South Africa.

Corrupting Effect of Power in "Master Harold" and the Boys
Power has a corrupting influence on people. Those who enjoy a privileged position tend to look down on those who are relegated to a lower place. Those in power start behaving irrationally, arrogantly and blindly treating others as inferior and abominable. The otherwise good relations among human beings begin to fall apart.
 
Athol Fugard (11 June 1932)


The relations guided by and based on true human and natural impulses are poisoned and society turns to be a location where the drama of discrimination, hatred, violence and domination unfolds. This is even more so in a society where the laws and practices for the domination of one group over another are sanctioned through their institutionalization. Athol Fugard's Master Harold and the boys is a play that vividly explores how the powerful whites have exercised domination over the blacks in South Africa and how that situation has corrupted the otherwise good whites and poisoned their promising relations with the people of the black community.
A society comprises various socio-cultural groups of people. When one group recognizes the existence and value of another the society can run smoothly and harmoniously. If one group is more powerful than the other then begins the long process of subordination, domination and dehumanization. Due to the corrupting impact of power, the relationship between and among people becomes sour and poisoned. In a society that approves the domination of one group of people over the other, this situation manifests itself in the worst forms. Master Harold and the boys is a play, which helps to bring this reality to light. In the play, as the title itself suggests, there is a sense of racial superiority at work which creates a gulf between the whites and the blacks. Hally, the protagonist belongs to the race of Master and treats Sam and Willie as inferior when he feels humiliation because of his father's disease and drunkenness. Before this they had a very good relationship. Hally had treated Sam as a teacher and a friend despite the huge age gap. Sam was his spiritual and moral guide. He looked after Hally's education and provided fatherly love to him when Hally's own father was absent. They lived together and worked together as true friends. They understood each other very well. True natural feelings and impulses brought them together as human beings. The world of their friendship was very beautiful and harmonious without any collision. No other barriers were allowed to come between them. However, when a moment of emotional heat came, the beautiful world came crumbling down. Now, Hally asks Sam to call him a master. He even goes to the extent of spitting Sam on his face. It is the ugliest turn their relation has taken. What has poisoned this promising relationship? It is the power that is behind all this. The familial and cultural training Hally had got manifested itself in his treatment of the blacks. As a member of the white community he had been taught to feel superior to the blacks. When he knows the reality of his father in front of the blacks he pours his anger and hatred on the blacks to compensate for his sense of humiliation. It takes us to larger socio-cultural issues. The African society had sanctioned the domination of the blacks by whites and the corrupting influence has ruined the beautiful relationship. Thus, Fugard's Master Harold and the boys provides us insights into how power corrupts people. It is a reflection of the way people of one group dominate the other because the society in which they live approves of this domination. It has poisoned human relation and leads to dehumanizing impact of that evil practice.







THE CHAIR
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Fugard's first description of the St. George's Park Tea Room includes this:
Tables and chairs have been cleared and are stacked on one side except for one which stands apart with a single chair. On this table a knife, fork, spoon and side plate in anticipation of a simple meal, together with a pile of comic books. (3-7)
This table and chair are waiting for Hally, who's due home from school any minute. Sam and Willie aren't sitting; Sam's leaning against the table and Willie's on his knees cleaning the floor. Some reviewers have described this table and chair as a symbol of a "white man's privilege." It's a mini-throne for young Master Harold where he can sit and relax while his black friends work. He's there to be served.
That makes a lot of sense, considering the themes and action of this play; it's a prelude to the racial drama that'll play out later. There's another way to look at it, though. This little table and chair, set up for lunch, is just what you'd think a parent might have ready for their exhausted kid after a long day at school. Think about how great it would feel to see it waiting for you when you came home. But Hally's parents didn't set this up; he's at their place of business being cared for by Sam and Willie. Sam's the one who serves him lunch, and you can see the mixed metaphor here. It's a kind act on Sam's part and he does it affectionately, but it also shows Sam and Hally in their roles as master and servant. Hally sits while the "boys" cater to him. Considering how he behaves towards them, he's lucky Sam doesn't dump the soup over his head.





DANCING
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Throughout the play, ballroom dancing is a metaphor for human relationships. Shmoop would be happy to explain it to you, but Sam does it best:
HALLY. Say you stumble or bump into somebody…do they take off any points?
[…] SAM. There's no collisions out there, Hally. Nobody trips or stumbles into anybody else. […] …like being in a dream about a world in which accidents don't happen.
HALLY. Jesus, Sam! That's beautiful!
SAM. Of course it is. That's what I've been trying to say to you all afternoon. And it's beautiful because that is what we want life to be like. But instead, like you said, Hally, we're bumping into each other all the time. […] The whole world is doing it all the time. […] People get hurt in all that bumping, and we're sick and tired of it now. (1373-1375; 1385-1389; 1390-1391; 1394-1408)
Hally gets it:
HALLY. You know, Sam, that's what the United Nations boils down to…a dancing school for politicians! (1433-1435)
Dancing's not only a metaphor for social harmony; it has another meaning for Sam and Willie. It's the only time when they can escape for a while from the apartheid system that treats them like non-persons. The descriptions of the dance and dancers have a dreamlike quality as Sam tells it. While they're dancing, they're free. The dance competition is for black South Africans; it's their own special event, one of their few chances for self-determination. The dancers are black and so are their judges







WILLIE
Character Analysis
While Sam and Hally are more three-dimensional characters, Willie Malopo is more in the background. Fugard refers to him as a "mildly comic figure," (35) about the same age as Sam. He's been working with Sam for many years, first at the boarding house and now at the tearoom, and he seems to look up to him. He calls him "Boet Sam" (Brother Sam) and looks for him for guidance about dancing and women. He's also been Hally's friend for all Hally's life. He's poor; he doesn't even have enough money for a song on the jukebox. Unlike Sam, he doesn't seem to have much restraint—he beats his girlfriends and then they quit dancing with him. He even blames them for getting beaten:
She makes me the hell-in too much. (135)
Classic.
It seems like one of Willie's roles in the play is to show what happens when someone doesn't take advantage of learning opportunities like Sam does. His speech isn't as sophisticated as Sam's, and he takes no part in the intellectual and philosophical games that Hally and Sam play. His mind's on the dance contest. He's not as curious a guy as Sam.
Unlike Sam, Willie calls Hally Master Harold. He doesn't exhibit the kind of quiet pride we see in his friend. When he accidentally hits Hally with his rag, Hally screams at him and Willie answers, "Sorry, Master Hally, but it's him…" (313). The title of "Master," the apology, and finally blaming Sam all seem like the responses of an immature man.
In the end, though, Willie surprises us. He's watched the final showdown between Sam and Hally silently. But when Sam asks, "Should I hit him, Willie?" (74) it's Willie who steps in to defuse the situation. He tells Sam not to hit Hally.
SAM. And if he had done it to you, Willie?
WILLIE. Me? Spit at me like I was a dog? (A thought that had not occurred to him before. He looks at HALLY) Ja, then I want to hit him. I want to hit him hard! […] But maybe all I do is go cry at the back. He's little boy, Boet Sam. Little white boy. Long trousers now, but he's still a little boy. (1780-1788)
Willie shows us a few things here. First, he understands how Sam feels and offers his friend support in his anger. He helps Sam calm down and see the bigger picture. Second, we see that Willie's not the simple and compliant black man he sometimes seems to be. He recognizes that Hally said what he said while he was feeling like a hurt little boy. Then the kicker—a littlewhite boy. Considering what's just happened, that was a risky and brave thing to say, and he took that risk to support Sam.
He comforts Sam in the best way he knows how: he promises to follow Sam's advice about not beating up his girlfriends, and vows to practice dancing non-stop until the contest. He draws Sam back into the idealized world of the dance. In a really sweet moment, he uses his last bit of change—his bus money—to play a song on the jukebox to cheer Sam up.
WILLIE. To hell with it! I walk home. […] How did you say it, Boet Sam? Let's dream. (WILLIE sways to the music and gestures for SAM to dance) (48).
We'd guess that Willie rises to the occasion because of what he's just seen Sam say and do. He's witnessed something pretty powerful: a black man, utterly humiliated and betrayed but acting proudly and honestly. It brings out the best in him, too.





HALLY
Character Analysis
Burdened Boy
Hally is a "seventeen-year-old white boy" (193). In some ways he's a typical high school kid; he draws funny pictures of his teachers, complains about his homework, and gets into philosophical debates with his buddy Sam. It's all regular teenaged stuff. When we first meet him, we see a friendly, cynical, super-smart, somewhat arrogant kid who seems sophisticated for his age. He arrives from school in a pretty cheerful mood.
Hally's cheerful because his abusive alcoholic father is in the hospital for treatment and it looks like he'll be there for a while. He's enjoying the break from the family conflict and having to take care of his disabled dad (he's an amputee), which is exhausting. His family life has been a disaster since he was young, and it's made him cynical and bitter about the world in general.
HALLY. I oscillate between hope and despair for this world. (393-394)
He's dreading his father's eventual return from the hospital:
HALLY. You know what it's going to be like if he comes home….Well then don't blame me when I fail my exams at the end of the year… (962-964)
He's burdened by all the responsibility and resents his dad for it. He even has to manage his mother, who's not very good about standing up to his father. When he finds out that his father's on the way back home, things go downhill really quickly and we get a look at the darker sides of this kid's personality. Despair starts to win out over hope. And even though his friendship with Sam and Willie was what's always gotten him through tough times, they bear the brunt of his misery.
Wise Guy
Hally's main interest, other than complaining about his home life, seems to be the life of the mind. He believes that education is the way to go about improving society, like his hero Leo Tolstoy did. When he sees that a friend left comic books for his dad to read when he gets home from the hospital he gets rid of them because they are "mental pollution" (263). He knows about Nietzsche, Socrates Alexandre Dumas, Dostoevsky, and Karl Marx—challenging stuff for a seventeen year-old without the benefit of Shmoop. Actually, he's somewhat of an intellectual snob.
He's smart enough to know that the society he lives in can be pretty brutal. After Sam describes a beating he got in jail, Hally says,
HALLY. I've heard enough, Sam! Jesus! It's a bloody awful world when you come to think of it. People can be real bastards.
SAM. That's the way it is, Hally.
HALLY. It doesn't have to be that way. There is something called progress, you know. (382-387)
So apartheid's on the way out because young boys like Hally will be social reformers. Whew! We're glad that's done with.
Oh wait. For all his talk about social reform and progress, he doesn't see how he's saturated with racist attitudes. He takes liberties with Sam and Willie that maybe aren't meant to be offensive but still let us know how much he's been influenced by the culture. Like telling them to shut up and get back to work when they interrupt his studying. Or mocking their love of dancing. Hally doesn't see that the way he talks down to Sam and Willie is not the tone of a social reformer. He's pretty egocentric and can't really see past his own problems. He deals with things intellectually and doesn't really see how his own emotions operate. He's not really a compassionate kid even with all the smart talk about making the world a better place. Spoiler alert: it gets ugly. More on that later.
Lonely Boy
At the core of Hally's character we can see that he's really just a lonely little kid. His parents never appear onstage, just Willie and Sam, and he says that as a child he only felt safe when he was in their room:
No joking, if it wasn't for your room, I would have been the first certified ten-year-old in medical history. (710-711)
Hally spends time reminiscing about the happy times in Sam's room, how they'd play checkers and do homework and hide from the drunks and prostitutes living in his mother's boarding house. He has one particularly fond memory, the day Sam made him a kite:
You went a little distance from me down the hill, you held it up ready to let it go…"This is it," I thought. "Like everything else in my life, here comes another fiasco." Then you shouted, "Let it go, Hall!" and I started to run. I don't know how to describe it, Sam. Ja! The miracle happened! I was running, waiting for it to crash to the ground, but suddenly there was something alive behind me at the end of the string […] I looked back…I still can't believe my eyes. It was flying! (29).
This passage shows us two things. First, it's a total contrast to Hally's memories of his father, which are all about absence, shame, sadness, and anger. Second, it makes Hally's eventual humiliation and rejection of Sam even more shocking and sad.
Master Harold
Hally's transition into "Master Harold," turning his friend Sam into an object of scorn, really comes out of this conflict. Hally doesn't feel loved or cared for by his father, but he takes out his hurt on Sam and Willie. His father's a bigot. It's as though by becoming a white man and demeaning his black friends he's trying to get close to his parents. He morphs into his father, in a way.
We see this happen gradually during the course of the play. Every time Hally gets a call from his mother from the hospital, he gets more upset and more hostile to Sam. Fugard makes some genius moves in structuring the play that way. The more threatening his father gets in his life (i.e., safely away in the hospital; maybe coming home from the hospital, on his way home from the hospital), the more Hally acts like him.
When he comes back from school at the beginning of the play (Dad in the hospital and probably staying for a while), he's pretty chipper and playfully teases his friends about their dancing:
HALLY. Bravo! No question about it. First place goes to Mr. Sam Semela. […] Not long to the big event, hey! (194-195; 202)
Then he hears from Sam that there's been a phone call from his mother, calling from the hospital. He gets worried; why is his mom there on a non-visiting day? Fugard tells us "His mood has changed" (249), and so has his attitude towards Sam. Master Harold starts making an appearance:
HALLY. Act your bloody age! (Hurls the rag back at WILLIE) Cut out the nonsense now and get on with your work. And you too, Sam. Stop fooling around. (316)
Hally manages to convince himself that his Dad's taken a turn for the worse and that's why his mother had to go to the hospital. So he's safe, and he calms down. He re-engages Sam as his equal and gets involved in philosophical discussions about the state of the world. He even allows Sam to tease him.
HALLY. You've got a phenomenal memory!
SAM. You should be grateful. That is why you started passing your exams. You tried to be better than me. (They laugh together. WILLIE is attracted by the laughter and joins them). (669-673)
They keep going with their debates about great men and social reform. Sam's safe, too, for now. Hally doesn't say anything deliberately hurtful for a while, but he makes this interesting observation after Sam nominates Abraham Lincoln as a "man of magnitude."
HALLY. I might have guessed as much. Don't get sentimental, Sam. You've never been a slave, you know. (536-537)
Seriously, what a clueless thing to say given the fact that Sam lives as a completely powerless black man under South African law. Fugard's showing us how even a kid like Hally, who loves and respects Sam, sees Sam through the eyes of apartheid society.
And how about this:
HALLY. It's deeply gratifying, Sam, to know that I haven't been wasting my time in talking to you. (Strutting around proudly) Tolstoy may have educated his peasants, but I've educated you. (640-643)
Just some intellectual arrogance? Maybe. But it has some ominous overtones, right? They continue their friendly intellectual competition, and Hally starts reminiscing about his days with Willie and Sam at the old boardinghouse. They remember a high point of Hally's life, when Sam made him the kite that miraculously flew. Hally can admit he would've been lost without them. He wishes he was back in their room, when life was simple. Everyone's still safe.
Ring, ring.. life intrudes. Hally's mother calls from the hospital saying dad wants to come home. Hally's furious she's even considering allowing it. Hally falls apart and Master Harold returns again. When Sam tries to console him, he says,
HALLY. Don't try to be clever Sam. It doesn't suit you. (1030)
And,
HALLY. Please, Sam! Just leave me alone and let me get on with it. I'm not in the mood for games this afternoon. And remember my Mom's orders…you're to help Willie with the windows. Come on, now, I don't want any more nonsense in here. (1054-1058)
Sam knows when to back off, so he and Willie start practicing dancing again. Hally's mad that they're distracting him, and he smacks Willie on the butt with his ruler. Hard.
HALLY. Sam! Willie! (Grabs his ruler and gives WILLIE a vicious whack on the bum.) How the hell am I supposed to concentrate with the two of you acting like bloody children!
Get back to your work. You too, Sam. [raises] his ruler Do you want another one, Willie? (1138-1141; 115-1146)
He's treating them like bloody children. It starts getting really, really ugly, thanks to Master Harold:
This is a business establishment, not a bloody New Brighton dancing school. I've been far too lenient with the two of you. […] But what really makes me bitter is that I allow you chaps a little freedom in here when business is bad and what do you do with it? The foxtrot! Specially you, Sam. There's more to trotting around a dance floor and I thought at least you knew it. (1147-1166)
Well, at least he said "chaps" and not "boys."
Sam ignores the derogatory remark and challenges Hally about the pleasure of dancing. After being a generally obnoxious pain in the butt for a while about it, Hally thinks he might write about the dance competition for his assignment to write an essay about a cultural event. It's a big concession on his part, but Master Harold tells Sam he'll have to convince the teacher it's anthropological study of how the "culture of a primitive black society includes its dancing and singing. To put my thesis in a nutshell: the war-dance has been replaced by the waltz." (1037)
Hally says he's just saying this to convince his teacher, but it sure trips a little too easily off the tongue, we'd say. Fugard's showing us that even though Hally's not being deliberately offensive, he's unaware of the biases he's picked up from the apartheid culture. They're almost automatic.
The saintly Sam (see his character analysis) manages to let that one go and schools Hally in the details of ballroom dancing. Master Harold retreats for now, and Hally praises Sam's description of ballroom dancing as a "world without collisions."
HALLY. (Deep and sincere admiration of the man) You've got a vision, Sam! […] But is that the best we can do, Sam…watch six finalists dreaming about the way it should be? […] We mustn't despair. Maybe there's some hope for mankind after all. Keep it up, Willie. (1412-1413; 1419-1420;1437-1439)
Ring..ring…this can't be good.
It's not. Mom's calling to say that she and Dad are on their way home from the hospital, and Master Harold comes roaring back to life.

SAM. (Quietly) That sounded like a bad bump, Hally.
HALLY. (Having a hard time controlling his emotions. He speaks carefully)Mind your own business Sam. (1527-1529)
Hally's temporary hopes for mankind are smashed by the news. He says that all their talk has been just a dream, "and a bloody useless one at that. Life's just a fuck-up and it's never going to change." (1554-1556) Sam can't talk him out of this time.
HALLY. The truth? I seem to be the only one around here who is prepared to face it. We've had the pretty dream, now it's time to wake up and have a good long look at the way things really are […] and it's all called the All-Comers-How-to Make-a-Fuckup-of-Life-Championships. (another ugly laugh) Hang on, Sam. The best bit is still to come! Do you know what the winner's trophy is? A beautiful big chamber pot […] full to the brim with piss. And guess who I think is going to be this year's winner. (1590-1602)
Now we see the connection between Hally's contempt for the world for the world and his despair and anger about his father. Sam sees this as being a dangerous road for Hally to go down and tries to stop him from dissing his father, but Hally loses his mind with rage.
HALLY. Just get on with your bloody work and shut up.
SAM. Swearing at me won't help you.
HALLY. Yes, it does! Mind your own fucking business and shut up!
SAM. Okay, if that's the way you want it, I'll stop trying. (He turns away. This infuriates HALLY even more)

HALLY. […] All that concerns you, Sam, is to try and do what you get paid for—keep the place clean and serve the customers. [..] My mother is right. She's always warning me not to get too familiar. […] (No response from SAM) You're only a servant here and don't forget it. (Still no response, and HALLY is trying hard to get one) And as far as my father is concerned, all that you need to remember is that he's your boss. (1640-1651)
SAM. (needled at last) No he isn't. I get paid by your mother.
HALLY. He's a white man and that's good enough for you. (1652-1656)
Shmoop is on the verge of tears thinking about what happens next. Hally demands that Sam call him "Master Harold" from that moment on. Sam warns him that if that happens, it's no more Hally. Ever.
HALLY. […] that is exactly what Master Harold wants from now on. […] I can tell you now that somebody who will be glad to hear I've finally given it to you will be my Dad. Yes! He agrees with my Mom. He's always going on about it as well. "You must teach the boys to show you more respect, my son." (1698-1707)
Can Master Harold get any worse? Yes he can, Shmoopers. He tells Sam a provocative racist joke about a n*****'s arse. Sam finally stops being gracious and drops his pants to show him the real thing. Hally calls him over, as if to apologize. Instead, he spits in his face. His transformation seems complete.
Sam nails the reason for what's happened. He describes the scene where one day he and young Hally picked up his dad at the bar and carried him home, even had to clean up his soiled underwear and pants. He knows how ashamed Hally was about that. Hally sadly admits that he loves his Dad, and Sam knows that that's the conflict—the father who should have been teaching Hally to be a man was the very person who made him ashamed. Hally just can't 100% hate his father. He's torn in both directions. The result is that Hally hates himself, and now probably even more so because of what he's just said and done.
When Hally gets up to leave the tearoom, Sam makes a gentle attempt at reconciliation, but Hally walks out into the rain. He seems ashamed, but it's as if he's crossed a line and knows it. As much as he loves and reveres Sam and their long history of friendship (not to mention Sam's attempt to understand and forgive the ugly outbursts), in the end he can't escape the pervasive attitudes of racism in his culture. His father taught him well. As long as he's feeling OK, he can overcome these attitudes to some extent. But as soon as the pressures of life close in, he can't resist them.
One reviewer explains it this way: "Mr. Fugard's point is simple enough: Before we can practice compassion—before we can, as Sam says, 'dance life like champions,'—we must learn to respect ourselves. It is Hally's self-hatred that leads him to strike at the black man and his crippled Dad and, in this sense, the boy is typical of anyone who attacks the defenseless to bolster his own self-esteem.
We have to feel sorry for poor, poor Hally. He's in a lose-lose situation. To accept Sam as an equal, he has to reject everything he's learned from his father and the society he lives in. (Fugard knows how risky that is.) But becoming a Master Harold in 1950's South Africa means becoming hateful and belittling to people you love. We hope Hally gets the point. Fugard himself said "Two black men provided me with that image of manhood, which was a problem in South Africa because you were taught to think of black men as inferiors. That was the double bind, the problem that the play looks at." (Source) Maybe Hally learns his lesson after all

HALLY TIMELINE AND SUMMARY
• Hally comes to his mother's tea room after school.
• He jokes with Sam and Willie about their upcoming dance contest and his homework.
• Hally and Sam discuss the great social reformers of history, and then reminisce about Hally's childhood.
• On the phone, Hally argues with his mother about whether or not she should bring his dad home from the hospital.
• As he gets worried about his father leaving the hospital. He gets more and more irritable and nasty to Willie and Sam.
• Hally tries to write a homework assignment about the dance competition as a cultural event.
• Finding out that his father is coming home after all, Hally flies into a rage and starts acting like a tyrant.
• He tells Sam and Willie that they need to start calling him Master Harold, and spits in Sam's face.
• Hally's ashamed of his behavior but can't bring himself to say it or apologize to Sam. He leaves the tearoom and heads home where his parents are waiting for him.




SAM
Character Analysis
Sam Semela is a "black man in his mid-forties" (20) working as a waiter in the St. George's Park Tea Room. Fugard paints him as an intelligent, refined, and compassionate man who's patient with Hally and who really gets Hally's problems with his family. He can't possibly be happy with his job as a servant in a tearoom and his lack of opportunity, but he doesn't complain and he seems to accept this terrible situation with some grace. It takes a lot to get him to crack.
Wise Guy
Sam's pretty smart. Even if he hasn't had the chance to get a formal education like Hally has, he's obviously got a curious mind and great intellectual capacity. Hally has to help him with his reading when he comes across a difficult word, and his general knowledge isn't as wide as somebody who's been able to go to school. But when it comes to understanding ideas, he can go one-on-one with Hally in any discussion. When he nominates Alexander Fleming as a "Man of Magnitude" Hally's blown away:
HALLY. (After a delighted laugh) Penicillin and Sir Alexander Fleming! […] Splendid, Sam, splendid! For once we are in total agreement. The major breakthrough in science in the Twentieth Century. (634-637)
A Teacher
Sam's a teacher. He doesn't get paid for his work, but everyone he comes into contact with learns something.
Willie, for example, learns to dance. Sam gives him tips on how to look better on the floor: "Ja, make it smooth. And give it more style. It must look like you're enjoying yourself" (64-65). He also gives him some life lessons on how to treat others: "You hit her too much. One day she's going to leave you for good" (133-134).
It seems at first that Hally's the one that teaches Sam all the history, literature, and science he learns. Sam's been learning all that stuff right along with Hally as he goes through school.
SAM. Then came my first lesson. "Repeat after me, Sam: Gold in the Transvaal, mealies in the Free State, sugar in Natal and grapes in the Cape." I still know it! (661-663)
In the midst of all their intellectual sparring, Sam throws in plenty of life lessons. He gets a kick out of Hally's book-learning, but he likes to point out the flaws in Hally's arguments. After Hally makes fun of the foxtrot as something useless and silly, Sam tells him,
SAM. It's a harmless pleasure, Hally. It doesn't hurt anybody.
HALLY. It's also a rather simple one, you know.
SAM. You reckon so? Have you ever tried?
HALLY. Of course not.
SAM. Why don't you? Now.
HALLY. What do you mean? Me dance?
SAM. Yes, I'll show you a simple step—the waltz—then you try it.
HALLY. What will that prove?
SAM. That it's not as easy as you think. (1168-1177)
As the grown-up, Sam knows that nothing is as easy or as cut-and-dried as Hally thinks. He gives Hally the benefit of the doubt—he's just a kid, after all.
Sam uses the discussion about the dance competition to teach Hally the possibility of a world with less conflict than the one they're living in now.
HALLY. (Genuinely moved by SAM'S image [of the dancing]) Jesus, Sam! That's beautiful!
SAM. Of course it is. That's what I've been trying to tell you all afternoon. And it's beautiful because that is what we want life to be like. But instead, like you said, Hally, we're bumping into each other all the time. Look a t the three of us this afternoon: I've bumped into Willie, You've bumped into your mother, she bumping into your Dad…None of us knows the steps and there's no music playing. And it doesn't stop with us. […] Are we never going to get it right? …Learn to dance life like champions instead of always being a bunch of beginners at it? (1394-1411)
It turns out that Sam's really been educating Hally all his life. His lifelong project has been to help Hally grow into someone who is proud of himself:
If you really want to know, that's why I made you that kite. I wanted you to look up, be proud of something, of yourself… (1838-1839)
Sam's secret is that he sees learning opportunities everywhere. Even after the big argument with Hally, he says, "there was a hell of a lot of teaching going on" (1881-1882). Even though he never was allowed to go to school, the world is Sam's teacher.
Saint Sam
Are you surprised that Sam doesn't get on Hally's case for all the demeaning and racist comments he makes? Like comparing the black ballroom dance contest to a primitive war-dance? Or ordering them around in the tearoom? The remark about Sam never having been a slave? Shmoop's guess is that Sam recognizes that Hally doesn't intend to be offensive when he says this kind of stuff. This is just how apartheid language and attitudes have seeped into Hally's ordinary language and actions. So he makes allowances for Hally and his youth and doesn't get too upset about it. He's been living with this kind of treatment all his life from the white people he knows.
It's when Hally deliberately tries to hurt him that he finally loses his cool. Hally starts in with the ugly stuff about his father being Sam's boss because he's a white man; Sam sees where this is going and tries to stop Hally, but he won't stop. Hally orders Sam to call him Master Harold; Sam warns him again. Only after Hally deliberately tries to humiliate him with a racist joke about the "n*****'s arse" does Sam finally crack—he drops his pants and shows Hally his butt.
The spitting incident is the last straw. Sam is stunned. A huge rupture opens up between them.
SAM. Ja, well, you've done it…Master Harold. Yes, I'll start calling you that from now on. It won't be difficult anymore. You've hurt yourself, Master Harold. I saw it coming. I warned you but you wouldn't listen. […] And you're a coward, Master Harold. The face you should be spitting in is your father's…but you used mine, because you think you're safe inside your fair skin…[…] (Pause, then moving violently towards HALLY) Should I hit him, Willie?
WILLIE. (Stopping SAM) No, Boet Sam.
SAM (violently) why not?
WILLIE. It won't help, Boet Sam.
SAM. I don't want to help! I want to hurt him. (1665-1678)
Sam tells Hally he's never felt dirtier in his life. But more than feeling angry, he's just crushed. He feels he's failed in teaching Hally to be a decent man, so he re-tells the story of the kite-flying, this time letting Hally know that he couldn't stay with him at the bench because it was whites-only, and he could get in serious trouble just being there. He remembers how Hally had to go into the bar first to get permission for Sam to go in so he could carry Hally's dead-drunk father out of the bar. He's making one last effort to teach Hally how they've both been damaged by the apartheid culture.
After he gets over his anger, Saint Sam takes responsibility for his behavior.
SAM. Hally…I've got no right to tell you what being a man is if I don't behave like one myself, and I'm not doing so well this afternoon. (1866-1869)
Shmoop is embarrassed to admit that we would probably not have acted so grown-up and restrained in this situation. What's amazing about Sam is his compassion for Hally, despite how Hally treats him. He can see past the ugly talk to the insecure, hurt little boy whose father has disappointed him and who still carries around a sense of shame about his dad. He understands that Hally's outburst was really directed at his father, and that Sam was just a safe target because of his race.
That doesn't mean Sam accepts this kind of horrible treatment, not at all. He tells Hally to deal with his shame and anger at his father, and he gives him a strong lesson in how his racist attitudes can damage him. He warns him that he's on a very dangerous road. But he understands why Hally's done what he's done and doesn't abandon him. At the end of the play, he says,
SAM. Should we try again, Hally?
HALLY. Try what?
SAM. Fly another kite, I suppose. It worked once, and this time I need it as much as you do. (1867-1871)
Saint Sam, indeed.


SAM TIMELINE AND SUMMARY
• Sam hangs out in the empty tearoom, tidying up and waiting for Hally to come home from school.
• He spends some time instructing Willie on how to handle dancing and women.
• He tells Hally that his mother phoned from the hospital and offers him some lunch.
• He and Hally get into a long discussion about which men in history have made the biggest impact, and Sam reminisces about all the time he spent learning from Hally as Hally progressed through school.
• Sam encourages Hally to talk about his memories of his youth, when he and Sam and Willie spent a lot of time together as a respite for Hally from his family troubles.
• Sam ignores a lot of offensive offhand remarks from Hally.
• When Hally's mother calls from the hospital, Sam calms him down and distracts him by discussing the upcoming ballroom dance contest that offers Sam a chance to escape his dreary life and dream of better times.
• He continues to ignore Hally's increasingly nasty remarks.
• When Hally finds out that his father is definitely coming home, Sam bears the brunt of Hally's anger.
• He doesn't respond until Hally becomes demeaning and deliberately insulting, and he finally loses his cool when Hally spits on him.
• Rather than retaliate, though, Sam gives Hally some serious life lessons about taking responsibility and being a decent human being.
• After Hally leaves, Sam dances with Willie, probably wondering what will become of Hally.











THE BENCH

Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
When Sam made Hally the kite, he helped him fly it but then tied it to a bench and left him alone to watch his kite. At first it isn't really clear why he'd do such a thing—why spend all the time making a kite and then miss out on the fun of flying it? Hally didn't understand:
HALLY. You explained how to get it down, we tied it to the bench so that I could sit and watch
it, and you went away. I wanted you to stay, you know. I was a little scared of having to look after it by myself.
SAM. (Quietly) I had work to do, Hally. (885-890)
If you thought there was something meaningful in Sam's quiet answer, you were right. We learn the truth later on in the play:
SAM. I couldn't sit down there and stay with you. It was a 'Whites Only' bench. You were too young, too excited to notice then. But not anymore. If you're not careful…Master Harold…you're going to be sitting up there by yourself for a long time to come, and there won't be a kite in the sky. (1840-1850)
Sam didn't want to trouble Hally with this info when he first asks about it. Only after Hally's ugly outburst does he explain it all. He sees Hally falling into a racist mindset and wants to warn him that it will just lead to more shame and no kite to rescue him from it.
SAM. You know what that bench means now, and you can leave it any time you choose. All you've got to do is stand up and walk away from it. (1783-1787)
The bench is a perfect symbol of apartheid and the kind of damage it does to people. It isolates them.









MASTER HAROLD... AND THE BOYS THEME OF RACE
Racial tensions are the story in in "Master Harold" …and the boys. The play puts South African apartheid on the stage, with one young, white character lording it over two older black men. It's hard to watch/read, and that's exactly the point.
Fugard shows the deep racial wounds that plagued South Africa in the 1950s under the apartheid system through the interactions between the characters. Hally has felt closer to Sam than almost anyone in his life. Sam's been a surrogate father to him. But this becomes overshadowed by the status differences between the races that the apartheid system has created and that Hally expresses as the play progresses. Critic Patrick O'Neil said that apartheid had the ability to corrupt peoples' psyches, souls, and relationships." (Source) It certainly corrupts Hally's relationship with his good friends. Sam's spent his life teaching Hally to be tolerant, and think about how he gets repaid.
Fugard asks us whether as individuals, we're able to overcome attitudes and prejudices that we're taught from the time we're born and that are institutionalized by the society we live in. The official apartheid system wasn't abolished until the 1990s, so by the time Fugard wrote the play, the system was nearing its end but was still the law of the land.
Questions About Race
1. How does the bench in the kite story symbolize race in the play?
2. What has their race had to do with the way each character's life has turned out?
3. Why do you think that Fugard set the play in 1950 when he wrote it in 1982?
4. Why does Hally tell Sam that his father is his boss?
Chew on This
Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.
Only an exceptional person would be able to break out of racial attitudes that they've been spoon-fed in school and at home.
If their roles were reversed, Sam would probably behave just like Hally; they are a product of the system regardless of their personal relationship.

How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1
WILLIE. I know, I know! (To the jukebox) I do it better with music. You got sixpence for Sarah Vaughn?
[…]
SAM. (Shaking his head) It's your turn to put money in the jukebox.
WILLIE. I only got bus fare to go home. (94-100)
Sam and Willie are busy practicing for the upcoming dance contest only two weeks away, but the music's only in their heads. They don't even have enough money for the jukebox, and how much could that be? We're not experts in the South African exchange rate in 1950, but we'd guess less than a nickel. So right off the bat we see that Sam and Willie are very poor, that their opportunities are really limited. As we get to know them, these limits feel even more unfair.
Race
Quote #2
HALLY. [. . .] (Shaking his head with disbelief) The sheer audacity of it took my breath away. I mean, seriously, what the hell does a black man know about flying a kite? (826-829)
Check out the language Hally uses in this simple quote to show how crazy it is that Sam would know how to make and fly a kite: "disbelief," "audacity," "seriously." The kite, the utmost in leisurely objects (because, really, since Ben Franklin it's had no useful purpose) is outside of the realm of the black man because he's smack dab in the world of work—no time for fun for him. Hally doesn't seem to see how offensive this comment might be. It's just a fact, in his mind.
Race
Quote #3
HALLY. [. . .] You explained how to get [the kite] down, we tied it to the bench so that I could sit and watch it, and you went away. I wanted you to stay, you know. I was a little scared of having to look after it by myself.
SAM. (Quietly) I had work to do, Hally. (890)
Sam can't stay and play with Hally because he's got work to do. We can read between the lines and interpret a little bit, too: he has work to do because he's black. He has to leave the kite behind and get down to it. Of course, we find out later the real reason Sam couldn't stay.
Quote #4
HALLY. Little white boy in short trousers and a black man old enough to be his father flying a kite. It's not every day you see that.
SAM. But why strange? Because the one is white and the other black?
HALLY. I don't know. Would have been just as strange, I suppose, if it had been me and my Dad…cripple man and a little boy! (908-915)
Hally points out how unusual it is to see a white child with a black man doing something that's entirely meant to be fun. What do you think about Hally's comment that it would have been just as strange with his "crippled" father? Is Fugard implying that blackness in apartheid South Africa is a crippling handicap?
Race
Quote #5
HALLY. [. . .] My mother is right. She's always warning me about allowing you to get too familiar. [. . .] You're only a servant in here, and don't forget it.
(Still no response. HALLY is trying hard to get one)
And as far as my father is concerned, all you need to remember is that he is your boss. [. . . ] He's a white man and that's good enough for you. (1643-1656)
As we saw in the kite scenes, up until now Hally and Sam have had an unusually close relationship, like a father and son. The rest of the world, like Hally's mom, disapproves of their closeness and Hally, stressed out about his family problems, is starting to adopt society's view. Hally uses his father's racial "superiority" as a reason that his father is also Sam's boss. There's no other explanation needed for white superiority than the simple fact that you're white.
Race
Quote #6
HALLY. [. . .] I can tell you now that somebody who will be glad to hear I've finally given it to you will be my Dad. Yes! He agrees with my Mom. He's always going on about it as well. "You must teach the boys to show you more respect, my son." (1700-1707)
Hally wants Sam to call him "Master Harold" to show him some respect, and he thinks he's earned that respect merely by being white. His dad calls Willie and Sam "the boys," as though they were children. Usually, when a boy identifies with his father, it's a good sign he's growing up into an adult. In an apartheid society, though, it's not good news.

HALLY. [. . .] Want to know what our favorite joke is? He gives out a big groan, you see, and says: "It's not fair, is it, Hally?" Then I have to ask: "What, chum?" And then he says: "A nigger's arse"…and we both have a good laugh.
(The men stare at him with disbelief)

[. . .] It's what's called a pun. You see, fair means both light in color and to be just and decent. (1718-1727)
Hally is transforming into a raging racist right before Sam and Willie's eyes—you can see it in their "disbelief" that he's never used such hateful language with them before. His explanation of the unfunny joke is ironic—by using the words "just and decent" he's just calling attention to how unjust and indecent he's being.
Race
Quote #8
SAM. [. . .] Anyway, how do you know it's not fair? You've never seen it. Do you want to? (He drops his trousers and underpants and presents his backside for HALLY'Sinspection) Have a good look. A real Basuto arse…which is about as nigger as they can come. Satisfied? (Trousers up) (1744-1749)
By physically dropping his pants and mooning Hally, he is calling him out on his terrible joke, making the ugly words real. He says he has a real Basuto behind, which is a reference to his tribe, reappropriating Hally's hateful, generalizing reference and showing pride in and knowledge of his heritage. Sam's counting on his relationship with Hally to let him take the risk of doing this. He knows he could be thrown in jail for disrespecting a white man.
Race
Quote #9
(SAM stops and looks expectantly at the boy. HALLY spits in his face. A long and heartfelt groan from WILLIE. For a few seconds SAM doesn't move)
SAM. [. . .] The face you should be spitting in is your father's…but you used mine, because you think you're safe inside your fair skin…and this time I don't mean just or decent. (1759-1773)
Sam's right—Hally's truly angry with his father, but because he can't find it in himself to do anything about it he uses the black men around him as substitute punching bags. He hides inside of his whiteness, which protects him from societal disapproval but not from the pain of being an unjust and indecent human being.

WILLIE. [. . .] He's a little boy, Boet Sam. Little white boy. Long trousers now, but he's still a little boy. (1786-1787)
Willie uses the South African word "boet," which means brother or friend, to refer to Sam. Here, that usage draws a clear line between the black men and Hally; they are brothers who must defend themselves against their oppressor. When he dismisses Hally as a little boy, he adds in the further adjective, in italics, of "white," as though it were further evidence of Hally's ignorance. This is one of the few scenes where Willie takes the lead in his relationship with Sam.
Race
Quote #11
SAM. [. . .] It was a "Whites Only" bench. You were too young, too excited to notice then. But not anymore. (1845-1847)
So that bench that Sam couldn't sit on because he had "work to do" isn't just a matter of who has time to work and who has time to play. It was legally, publicly marked for use by white people only. Here's an example. Even though Sam, a black man, is the one taking care of Hally, his skin color trumps his relationship and forces him to leave. Hally was probably too young to notice back then, but Sam point out that he's old enough now to do something about it.
MASTER HAROLD... AND THE BOYS THEME OF COMING OF AGE
Hally, the protagonist of "Master Harold" …and the boys, isn't easy to like. He's angry, arrogant, and sometimes just downright mean. But he can be suddenly and unexpectedly, warm, sweet, and nostalgic for his childhood. He's caught between being an innocent kid and being an adult in a very unfair society that gives him an unequal proportion of power based on his skin color.
As Hally negotiates his adulthood, he makes some big mistakes. We see the change from the innocent little boy who loves his friends Sam and Willie to the young man becoming acutely aware of the boundaries that race puts between them. He brutally mistreats people who have been nothing but kind to him, people he's known his whole life. The transition from Hally to Master Harold is the painful coming-of-age story of the play.
Questions About Coming of Age
1. What are the main differences between the young version of Hally that the characters talk about and the version we see on stage?
2. What's the significance of the name "Master Harold"?
3. Sam's sort of a father figure to Hally; how's he different from Hally's real father?
4. How does Hally treat Sam and Willie like children? Do you think he's aware he's doing it??
Chew on This
Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.
Young Hally's love for Sam didn't prevent him from buying into the racist attitudes that the adults in his life see as the natural order of things.
Sam believes he's failed in helping Hally grow into a decent man, but he was helpless against an entire society that was stacked against this happening.

(WILLIE lets fly with his slop rag. It misses SAM and hitsHALLY)
[. . .]
HALLY. Act your bloody age! (Hurls the rag back at WILLIE) Cut out the nonsense now and get on with your work. (314-316)
In order to fully capture the irony of this scene, we have to imagine it being staged. Two 40-something-year-old men are arguing, messing around as they work, and the seventeen-year-old is their supervisor, telling them to act their age and disciplining them. Hally's trying to step into adulthood by lording it over Willie and Sam. It's very jarring when you see the play—this kid bossing around the older men and knowing he can get away with it.
Coming of Age
Quote #2
HALLY. [. . .] It's just that life felt the right size in there…not too big and not too small. Wasn't so hard to work up a bit of courage. It's got so bloody complicated since then.
(The telephone rings. SAM answers it) (944-948)
Hally's nostalgia for Sam and Willie's old room at the Jubilee Boarding House is about feeling safe. He wants to feel like he can handle life, like its problems aren't too big for him. In the years since, as he's entered adolescence, things have gotten "complicated." Hally probably knows that his relationship with his black friends will get more complex now that he's growing up.
Coming of Age
Quote #3
HALLY. [. . .] (The telephone) [. . .] Order him to get back into bed at once! If he's going to behave like a child, treat him like one….All right, Mom! I was just trying to…I'm sorry….I said I'm sorry…. (954-973)
Just as he told Willie and Sam to act their age earlier, here he is instructing his mother to treat his father like a child. We can see that Hally's been prematurely pushed into adulthood by having to take care of his alcoholic and disabled father and managing his mother's inability to deal with the situation. But he's still a kid; he shouldn't have to be in this position and he feels pretty helpless about it. His solution is to become bossy and controlling, when he's really feeling out of control of his life and his world.

HALLY. Sam! Willie! (Grabs his ruler and gives WILLIE a vicious whack on the bum) How the hell am I supposed to concentrate with the two of you behaving like bloody children!
[. . .]
(SAM and WILLIE return to their work. HALLY uses the opportunity to escape from his unsuccessful attempt at homework. He struts around like a little despot, ruler in hand [. . .]) (1139-1151)
This is too much. First it's "act your age;" then it's telling his mom to treat his dad like a child; but spanking a grown man is really crossing the line. It's as though everyone in the play were a child, taking turns being in charge. (See our brilliant psychological analysis of previous quote.)
Coming of Age
Quote #5
SAM. [. . .] Are we never going to get it right?...Learn to dance life like champions instead of always being just a bunch of beginners at it? (1409-1411)
"Beginners." While Hally's struggling to come of age in a really messed-up society, Sam realizes how hard it is to grow up when, really, no one actually knows what they're doing. We're all new at every age unless we reflect and try to learn from what's around us.
Coming of Age
Quote #6
HALLY. (Pause as HALLY looks for something to say) To begin with, why don't you also start calling me Master Harold, like Willie.
[. . .]
SAM. (Quietly and very carefully) If you make me say it once, I'll never call you anything else again. (1681-1689)
Hally descends to the point of making Sam call him "Master Harold" instead of "Hally." This doesn't really have anything to do with respect or Hally growing up; it has to do with humiliation. When Sam says that he'll only ever call him that if he has to do it even once, he means that their intimacy and friendship will be broken forever.

SAM. [. . .] A long time ago I promised myself I was going to try and do something, but you've just shown me…Master Harold…that I've failed. [. . .] You're ashamed of so much!...And now that's going to include yourself. That was the promise I made to myself: to try and stop that happening. (1793-1830)
Part of growing up white in the apartheid system, for Hally anyway, means taking on the guilt and shame of the injustice that privileges him. Unfortunately, instead of breaking away like the social reformers he admires, he makes himself worthy of all that shame by debasing Sam.
Coming of Age
Quote #8
SAM. [. . .] You hadn't done anything wrong, but you went around as if you owed the world an apology for being alive. I didn't like seeing that! That's not the way a boy grows up to be a man!...But the one person who should have been teaching you what that means was the cause of your shame. If you really want to know, that's why I made you that kite. I wanted you to look up, be proud of something, of yourself…(Bitter smile at the memory) (1833-1841)
Sam has clear ideas of what it means to grow up, to be a man. Unfortunately, Hally's father was too busy getting wasted to teach Hally anything about growing up. He modeled an idea of manhood that meant having contempt for black South Africans. One thing is clear: Sam believes that shame keeps us from growing up and maturing.



MASTER HAROLD... AND THE BOYS THEME OF ART AND CULTURE
What is art, anyway? It's a big question, but it comes up in pretty interesting ways in "Master Harold" …and the boys. The play has characters arguing over what qualifies as real art and what's just entertainment.
Generally, the white kid thinks that the black folks' dancing is not true art, but he lets himself be convinced. Culture, too, gets divided up along racial lines, with a native dance event challenging the idea of white, colonial ceremonies as the only true cultural traditions.
Questions About Art and Culture
1. Whose side are you on in the debate about ballroom dancing as art, Hally's or Sam's? Why?
2. What's Hally's definition of art?
3. Why does Hally think his teacher would be irritated by his writing about the competition as a cultural event?
Chew on This
Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.
Hally's idea of art isn't rooted in any real understanding; he just parrots what he's learned in school.
It's impossible for white South Africans like Hally to appreciate black culture as art


MASTER HAROLD... AND THE BOYS ART AND CULTURE QUOTES


Quote #1
HALLY. There's a nice little short story there. "The Kite-Flyers." But we'd have to find a twist in the ending.
SAM. Twist?
HALLY. Yes. Something unexpected. The way it ended with us was too straightforward…me on the bench and you going back to work. There's no drama in that. (927-933)
Hally is thinking of making art out of his life, writing stories of his childhood. But he believes he needs to inject some drama into it or it will be too boring. He doesn't know that there's a shocking twist to this story. We only learn later that Sam couldn't stay on the bench because it was for whites only. That is Fugard's art.
Art and Culture
Quote #2
HALLY. [. . .] You know what he wants, don't you? One of their useless old ceremonies. The commemoration of the landing of the 1820 Settlers, or if it's going to be culture, Carols by Candlelight every Christmas.
SAM. It's an impressive sight. Make a good description, Hally. All those candles glowing in the dark and the people singing hymns. (1045-1052)
Hally's homework is to write a description of an annual cultural event, and he's sure that his teacher wants him to write about the celebration of the arrival of English settlers in South Africa, or the European celebration of Christmas. Notice that both of these events are associated with white South Africans, which tells you something about what the teacher considers to be "culture." This exchange also shows us Hally's cynicism vs. Sam's appreciation of the beauty that can be appreciated in anything.
Art and Culture
Quote #3
SAM. Yes. I'll show you a simple step—the waltz—then you try it.
HALLY. What will that prove?
SAM. That it might not be as easy as you think.
HALLY. I didn't say it was easy. I said it was simple—like in simple-minded, meaning mentally retarded. You can't exactly say it challenges the intellect. (1175-1181)
Could Hally try any harder to be a jerk? Sam and Hally are arguing over whether ballroom dancing can be considered to be art. Sam, an accomplished dancer, knows that it takes an enormous amount of skill and practice. Hally defends his position, saying that it's just entertainment because, according to him, it is purely physical, not a mental activity. Hally's sure turning out to be an intellectual snob, a sure sign of immaturity


Quote #9
SAM. [. . .] Hally…I've got no right to tell you what being a man means if I don't behave like one myself, and I'm not doing so well at that this afternoon. Should we try again, Hally?
HALLY. Try what?
SAM. Fly another kite, I suppose. It worked once, and this time I need it as much as you do.
Quote #10
"Johnny won your marbles,
Tell you what we'll do;
Dad will get you new ones right away;
Better go to sleep now,
Little man you've had a busy day." (1915-1921)
This Sarah Vaughan tune plays on the jukebox at the end of the play as Sam and Willie dance together. Fugard's message? Hally's a little kid crying over his lost toys, and his privileged position as a white child will make everything all right

HALLY. It's still raining, Sam. You can't fly kites on rainy days, remember. (1866-1874)
Here's a real piece of role modeling about what it means to be a man; it means taking responsibility for your own actions, something Hally's been sorely lacking. Hally's at a crossroads in this scene. He can grow up or stay stuck in his world of intolerance.

SAM. [The waltz makes] people happy.
HALLY. (The glass in his hand) So do American cream sodas with ice cream. For God's sake, Sam, you're not asking me to take ballroom dancing serious, are you?
SAM. Yes. (1184-1188)
Sam tries another tack with Hally in the debate over the artistic status of ballroom dancing. Do you think that making people happy has anything to do with art? Hally doesn't, but Sam insists that affecting emotions is an important part of art. Fugard develops these two characters as a kind of reason vs. emotion thing. If something doesn't make intellectual sense to Hally, he can't accept it. Sam, on the other hand, has values that are based on feeling and experiencing.
Art and Culture
Quote #5
SAM. You still haven't told me what's wrong with admiring something that's beautiful and then trying to do it yourself.
HALLY. Nothing. But we happen to be talking about a foxtrot, not a thing of beauty.
SAM. But that is just what I'm saying. If you were to see two champions doing, two masters of the art… (1192-1198)
He's tried intellect, emotion, and now Sam tries to convince Hally with another possible definition for art: something beautiful. Now the question is whether or not ballroom dancing is beautiful, and we're pretty sure that's not even a question.
Art and Culture
Quote #6
HALLY. There's a limit, Sam. Don't confuse art with entertainment.
SAM. So then what is art?
[…]
HALLY. (He realizes he has got to be careful. He gives the matter a lot of thought before answering) [. . .] But basically I suppose it's…the giving of meaning to matter. (1201-1210)
If art is just "the giving of meaning to matter," it means that it's not the matter that makes something art. That is, a painting isn't art until someone gives it meaning. Which means, basically, that it's in the eye of the beholder. And that means that if Sam thinks the foxtrot is art, then it's art. You can almost se Hally painting himself into a corner (no pun intended).
Quote #7
HALLY. [Art] goes beyond that. It's the giving of form to the formless.
SAM. Ja, well, maybe [the foxtrot's] not art, then. But I still say it's beautiful.
HALLY. I'm sure the word you mean to use is entertaining.
SAM. (Adamant) No. Beautiful. And if you want proof, come along to the Centenary Hall in New Brighton in two weeks' time. (1212-1219)
We are still on Sam's side in this. If art is "giving form to the formless," then couldn't you say that someone having complete control over his or her body is art? Dancing can be entertaining, of course, but it can also be beautiful. Hally's argument is really falling apart here because it's not based in life experience. His arrogance is on epic display.
Art and Culture
Quote #8
HALLY. (To the table and his exercise book) "Write five hundred words describing an annual event of cultural or historical significance." Would I be stretching poetic license a little too far if I called your ballroom championships a cultural event? (1287-1291)
Are you surprised that Hally would even have to ask this question? Of course a ballroom championship is a cultural event, right? Well, apparently in South Africa in 1950 a competition held among black dancers was not considered culture by their white fellow citizens.
Art and Culture
Quote #9
HALLY. [. . .] Old Doc Bromely—he's my English teacher—is going to argue with me, of course. He doesn't like natives. But I'll point out to him that in strict anthropological terms the culture of a primitive black society includes its dancing and singing. (1299-1303)
Hally knows he'll have to defend his choice of cultural event to his teacher by appealing to its intellectual value as an anthropological study. This is pretty insightful on his part. It gives us some hope that Hally knows his teacher is a racist and that's it's unreasonable. Of course, the idea comes a little easily to Hally.
Quote #10
HALLY. [. . .] To put my thesis in a nutshell: The war-dance has been replaced by the waltz. But it still amounts to the same thing: the release of primitive emotions through movement. Shall we give it a go? (1303-1307)
Ouch again. Hally connects the native "war-dance" to the waltz as a manifestation of culture, but he's definitely not letting it into the realm of Culture. He's sure to use the adjective "primitive" to show that he doesn't consider natives dancing the foxtrot to be any more advanced than their dancing a war dance. So there goes our hope.










MASTER HAROLD... AND THE BOYS THEME OF EDUCATION
Hally's a 17-year-old white boy who goes to school, draws ugly pictures of his teachers, and complains about his homework. Sam, on the other hand, is a 40-something black man who learns everything he can from Hally's schoolbooks when he comes home in the afternoons. He's constantly learning.
The fact that Hally has the opportunity to attend school at all is because he's white. Access to education was one of the many basic freedoms that was denied to black South Africans under apartheid. Any education they were granted was aimed only at improving their skills as laborers. The South African Minister of Native Affairs put it this way: There is no space for him [the "Native"] in the European Community above certain forms of labor. For this reason it is of no avail for him to receive training which has its aim in the absorption of the European Community, where he cannot be absorbed. Until now he has been subjected to a school system which drew him away from his community and misled him by showing him the greener pastures of European Society where he is not allowed to graze. (Source)
Oh, now we get it: the law was really doing the black man a favor. Right.
This injustice is a really painful part of the play, as we see Sam's intelligence and eagerness to learn. It puts him in the position of a child who has to depend on Hally to learn anything. As readers, though, we see who is really teaching whom.
Questions About Education
1. Who's the student and who's the teacher when it comes to Hally and Sam's after-school homework sessions?
2. What does Sam say is the reason for Hally's good grades? What do you think about that?
3. Why does Sam have a hard time pronouncing words, and why does he need Hally's textbooks to study?
4. What does Sam hope to teach Hally, and why does he say he's failed?
Chew on This
Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.
The real education in the play is about the injustice of the apartheid system.
Hally really learns by teaching Sam, not by going to school.
MASTER HAROLD... AND THE BOYS EDUCATION QUOTES

WILLIE. Okay. Help me.
SAM. (His turn to hold an imaginary partner) Look and learn. Feet together. Back straight. body relaxed. Right hand placed gently in the small of her back and wait for the music. Don't start worrying about making mistakes or the judges or the other competitors. It's just you, Hilda and the music, and you're going to have a good time. (171-178)
Willie and Sam show that education doesn't always have to do with book learning. Sam transmits his knowledge to Willie through movement, by showing him how to get down on the dance floor; we have a feeling that Master Harold wouldn't consider that to be education at all.
Education
Quote #2
HALLY. (Examining the comics) Jungle Jim…Batman and Robin…Tarzan…God, what rubbish! Mental pollution. Take them away. (261-263)
Hey, who said that comics weren't educational? Apparently Hally doesn't see the finer points of graphic novels. He thinks that they're garbage; kinda ironic that they're for his dad, and he, the teenager, is the one wishing for more sophisticated material. Role reversal or snobbery? We report, you decide.
Education
Quote #3
HALLY. [. . .] So, six of the best, and his are bloody good.
[…] SAM. With your trousers down!
HALLY. No. He's not quite that barbaric.
SAM. That's the way they do it in jail. (363-369)
"Six of the best," for those of you uninitiated into the finer points of corporal punishment, means six lashes, strokes, swats, spankings…get the picture? Hally's teacher is a champion student-beater. Next time you get detention you might be grateful that you aren't one of his classmates. Some of our Shmoop elders remember the "Board of Education"—the paddle used by the Vice-Principal to keep students in line back in the day.
Quote #4
HALLY. (Correcting him without looking up) Magnitude.
SAM. What's it mean?
HALLY. How big it is. The size of the thing. (410-416)
You can see the difference in Hally's and Sam's access to education in these three little lines. Sam's twice Hally's age, but doesn't know how to pronounce the word "magnitude" or its definition. Why do you think the playwright chose that exact word to make a big deal of?
Education
Quote #5
HALLY. Failing a maths exam isn't the end of the world, Sam. How many times have I told you that examination results don't measure intelligence?
SAM. I would say about as many times as you've failed one of them. (436-440)
Oh snap. This one-liner might be a little bit cheesy, but the point it makes is actually important. Hally's convinced that traditional educational evaluation tools (aka tests) aren't the only way to measure intelligence. It's ironic that he doesn't realize that Sam, too, has intelligence that isn't measurable by a math exam.
Education
Quote #6
HALLY. [. . .] Tolstoy may have educated his peasants, but I've educated you. (644-645)
Okay, someone just might be getting a little too big for his britches. Hally compares himself to Leo Tolstoy, the famousRussian writer who was also into social justice and sharing his wealth. We're not convinced by the comparison, however. Hally's trying to show off his knowledge but he's just demonstrating his immaturity with this demeaning comment.
Quote #7
HALLY. Like that time I barged in and caught you and Cynthia…at it. Remember? God, was I embarrassed! I didn't know what was going on at first.
SAM. Ja, that taught you a lesson.
HALLY. And about a lot more than knocking on doors, I'll have you know, and I don't mean geography either. (726-731)
Education doesn't have to be all books and calculators. There's also a real-life component that can teach much more than all the books in the world. Hally got his own private sex ed class when he walked in on Sam and Cynthia, another hint that maybe Sam has something to teach him about life after all.
Education
Quote #8
SAM. All right, Hally, all right. What you got for homework?
HALLY. Bullshit, as usual. (Opens an exercise book and reads) "Write five hundred words describing an annual event of cultural or historical significance." [. . .] You know what he wants don't you? One of their useless old ceremonies. [. . .] And it's called religious hysteria. (Intense irritation) (1039-1054)
The assignment doesn't sound all bad to us, but then we love to write about gift exchanges and sporting matches. Hally's beef with the homework is that his teacher has a very narrow view of what can be considered significant. South African schools in 1950 were required to teach apartheid law to their students, so teachers wouldn't be very likely to spend time on black culture.
Education
Quote #9
HALLY. (Sigh of defeat) Oh, well, so much for trying to give you a decent education. I've obviously achieved nothing. (1189-1191)
Did you hear that drip-drip-dripping sound? Yeah, that's the irony slathered all over Hally's statement, sliding off it and into your ears. He, an adolescent, is talking to a grown man as though he were his child, disappointed in the way he has turned out even after years of training. Oh, Hally. We're the disappointed ones.
Quote #10
HALLY. (Helpless gesture) I don't know. I don't know anything anymore.
SAM. You sure of that, Hally? Because it would be pretty hopeless if that was true. It would mean nothing has been learnt in here this afternoon, and there was a hell of a lot of teaching going on…one way or the other. (1877-1882)
After their blowout fight, Sam hopes to salvage something as a learning experience. Though Hally has been the one spouting off about the importance of education, Sam's the one who really knows that the most important lessons don't come from books. We sure hope some of that rubs off on Master Harold.
MASTER HAROLD... AND THE BOYS THEME OF HOME AND FAMILY
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Home, sweet home it ain't. In "Master Harold" …and the boys, home is where the humiliation is. Hally, the main character, has nothing but terrible memories of the boarding house he grew up in with his mom and a cast of seedy tenants. In his current life his dad is a drunk who humiliates his family, uses his son's school money to buy alcohol, and makes Hally feel responsible for taking care of him.
For Hally, the only refuge in all this chaos is the "servants' quarters," where his friends Sam and Willie let him hide out in the afternoons. Their sad little room is the only place he feels safe, the only place he feels at home. Sam proves to be a much better "father" to him.
Questions About Home and Family
1. Who is the person Hally most identifies with his home? Why?
2. What is the significance of Sam's and Willie's room in Hally's conception of home?
3. Why does Hally have such a negative feeling about his home?
4. Where is Hally's dad, and why doesn't Hally want him to come home?
Chew on This
Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.
By rebelling against Sam and Willie, Hally is symbolically leaving home.
Why can we consider Sam as more of a father than Hally's actual father?
MASTER HAROLD... AND THE BOYS HOME AND FAMILY QUOTES

HALLY. The old Jubilee Boarding House. Sixteen rooms with board and lodging, rent in advance and one week's notice. I haven't thought about it for donkey's years….and I don't think that's an accident. God, was I glad when we sold it and moved out. Those years are not remembered as the happiest ones of an unhappy childhood. (674-680)
Donkey's years? What the heck? That's rhyming slang for a long, long time, apparently because donkeys live for a long, long time. Who knew? The point is that Hally hasn't thought about his childhood home for a long, long time, because he hated it there. Sad.
Home and Family
Quote #2
HALLY. [. . .] I think I spent more time in there with you chaps than anywhere else in that dump. And do you blame me? Nothing but bloody misery wherever you went. (699-702)
"In there with you chaps" refers to Sam and Willie's room. The servants' quarters, where the two men lived, was a refuge for little Hally, who could escape from the household with them. The strong language he uses--"that dump" and "bloody misery"—isn't exactly what you'd associate with the ideal family home.
Home and Family
Quote #3
HALLY. [. . .] No joking, if it wasn't for your room, I would have been the first certified ten-year-old in medical history. (710-711)
"Certified," in this particular case, is not a positive adjective. Hally isn't talking about a certificate of completion, participation, or cuteness. In this case, he's referring to the idea that a person could be certified as mentally ill and locked away. Hally's family is looking worse by the minute.
Quote #4
HALLY. [. . .] I bet you I could still find my way to your room with my eyes closed. (He does exactly that) Down the corridor…telephone on the right, which my Mom keeps locked because somebody is using it on the sly and not paying…[. . .] around the corner into the backyard, hold my breath again because there are more smells coming when I pass your lavatory, then into that little passageway, first door on the right and into your room. How's that? (715-724)
Hally demonstrates the power of memory in this little exercise. His childhood home is buried back in the past, but he remembers the sights and smells of the old Jubilee Boarding House. But notice all the drama that floods his memory – thievery, nasty smells – Hally really, really hated it there.
Home and Family
Quote #5
HALLY. [. . .] Our days in the old Jubilee. Sad in a way that they're over. I almost wish we were still in that little room.
SAM. We're still together. (940-943)
Sam's living in the present, but Hally's stuck in the past. Just after all of his complaining about how awful his childhood home was, he suddenly gets nostalgic for it. He can't appreciate what he has, which is a relationship with Sam, because he's always looking backward or forward. Sam knows that "home" isn't a place. It's people.
Home and Family
Quote #6
HALLY. [. . .] Don't misunderstand me chaps. All I want is for him to get better. And if he was, I'd be the first person to say: "Bring him home." But he's not, and we can't give him the medical care and attention he needs at home. That's what hospitals are there for. (989-994)
Do you buy what Hally's saying?
Quote #7
SAM. I suppose it gets lonely for him in there.
HALLY. With all the patients and nurses around? Regular visits from the Salvation Army? Balls! It's ten times worse for him at home. I'm at school and my mother is here in the business all day.
SAM. He's at least got you at night. (1015-1020)
Hally seems cut off from all the intimate relationships that make up a home; he doesn't value the connections he has with the people he lives with. Sam's trying here to get him to have some empathy for his father despite his father's problems.
Home and Family
Quote #8
HALLY. (To the telephone) [. . .] (Loudly) I said I hope you know what you've let us in for! It's the end of the peace and quiet we've been having. (1459-1470)
"Peace and quiet"—finally something that Hally values. And if his dad coming home means the end of it, we can infer that his dad's presence is the opposite: violent and loud? We're slowly getting insight into what Hally's life is like with his father.
Home and Family
Quote #9
HALLY. [. . .] Yes, you do. I get it from you on one side and from him on the other, and it makes life hell for me. I'm not going to be the peacemaker anymore. I'm warning you now: when the two of you start fighting again, I'm leaving home….Mom, if you start crying, I'm going to put down the receiver…. (1492-1497)
Hally's threat to leave might sound harsh, but if you can dig past the angry words you can see that he himself is hurt. His whole childhood has been spent in the middle of his parents' arguments. He'd rather leave home than be there anymore.
Quote #10
HALLY. [. . .] Hurry up now and finish your work. I want to lock up and get out of here. (Pause) And then go where? Home-sweet-fucking-home. Jesus, I hate that word. (1563-1566)
Well, somebody grab the Lifebuoy because Hally needs his mouth washed out. You'll have to excuse his French while we zero in on the, ahem, strongly-worded assessment of his home life. He's desperate because his home, the place where he should feel safe, is a place that he fears.



MASTER HAROLD... AND THE BOYS THEME OF COMPETITION
The idea of competition comes up both explicitly and implicitly in "Master Harold" …and the boys, but it's an ever-present background noise in the play, like Muzak on an elevator. Whether it's Sam and Willie preparing for their ballroom dancing competition, or Sam and Hally competing to show who knows the most, the characters are always trying to show one another up.
This reflects the context of the play, South Africa in 1950, when apartheid was the name of the game and blacks and whites were kept legally separate in almost every public context. Although the competition in this play is mostly playful, in real-life there was really no contest between the races. The game was totally fixed and deadly serious.
Questions About Competition
1. Why does the prospect of winning the dance competition make Willie so excited?
2. What's the problem with Willie's dance partner?
3. Why do Sam and Willie laugh at Hally's question about dance competition penalties?
Chew on This
Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.
Focusing on a friendly dance competition allows Sam and Willie a temporary respite from their no-win situation in real life.
Hally understands competition as a negative thing, while Sam and Willie see it as a chance to shine.
MASTER HAROLD... AND THE BOYS COMPETITION QUOTES





Quote #1
SAM. You got it. Tapdance or ballroom, it's the same. Romance. In two weeks' time when the judges look at you and Hilda, they must see a man and a woman who are dancing their way to a happy ending. What I saw was you holding her like you were frightened she was going to run away. (82-87)
What does Sam's advice say about love? He's telling Willie that he must convince the judges that he and Hilda are headed for happily ever after, whether it's true or not. The way to win, in the dance competition anyway, is to seem happy and in love, not necessarily be it. That might tell us something about the way Sam and Willie have to live their lives.
Competition
Quote #2
HALLY. Bravo! No question about it. First place goes to Mr. Sam Semela.
WILLIE. (In total agreement) You was gliding with style, Boet Sam. (197-200)
Hally walks into Willie and Sam's practice session and immediately takes the position of judge. It's fun and games; he knows they're preparing for a contest. But it also tells us something about the relationship between the men and the boy; he easily slips into the role of referee, calling the shots. He's comfortable with authority even though he's much younger and has no knowledge of dance.
Competition
Quote #3
HALLY. You nervous?
SAM. No.
HALLY. Think you stand a chance?
SAM. Let's just say I'm ready to go out there and dance. (207-210)
Let's break down this quick back-and-forth to figure out what motivates the two characters. Hally wonders if Sam's nervous, whether he has confidence in his abilities to win the dance contest. Sam, however, says he isn't nervous and, rather than worrying about his score, just wants to dance. Hally's motivated by external factors like judges and scores; Sam seems to be internally motivated by his own desires.
Quote #4
SAM. You should be grateful. That is why you started passing your exams. You tried to be better than me. (670-671)
A little friendly competition can actually be good for a person's grades, it turns out. Sam thinks that Hally started doing well in school when he started teaching Sam because he wanted to be better than him. His desire to beat Sam translated into better grades. Why do you think he felt competitive toward Sam?
Competition
Quote #5
WILLIE. You and Sam cheated [at chess].
HALLY. I never saw Sam cheat, and mine were mostly the mistakes of youth.
WILLIE. Then how is it you two was always winning?
HALLY. Have you ever considered the possibility, Willie, that it was because we were better than you? (782-787)
Poor Willie. While Sam comes across as a pretty sharp character, Willie's not exactly the brightest crayon in the box. His attitude toward competition is that if he loses it must be unfair or rigged. He isn't willing to face the fact that differences in ability might actually influence the outcome of a competition.
Competition
Quote #6
HALLY. [. . .] There were occasions when we deliberately let you win a game so that you would stop sulking and go on playing with us. Sam used to wink at me when you weren't looking to show me it was time to let you win.
WILLIE. So then you two didn't play fair.
HALLY. It was for your benefit, Mr. Malopo, which is more than being fair. (789-796)
Do you have any older relatives that either let you win or mercilessly beat you at games or sports when you were a kid? Did it teach you a lesson about winning, losing, or sportsmanship? Did it seem fair?
Quote #7
SAM. [. . .] We're getting ready for the championships, Hally, not just another dance. (1233-1235)
Sam finally lets his true feelings show about the competition. Up until now he's seemed cool as a cucumber, ready to just dance regardless of what happens. Here, though, he shows a little bit of pride – he's made it to the championships, which means that he's actually a pretty good dancer. The stakes are higher now.
Competition
Quote #8
SAM. [. . .] And then, finally, your imagination also left out the climax of the evening when the dancing is finished, the judges have stopped whispering among themselves and the Master of Ceremonies collects their scorecards and goes up onto the stage to announce the winners. (1253-1258)
It's interesting that the climax of the dance competition is just before the judges' decision is announced. All action is suspended; there is no more dancing, but there's no winner yet, either. It's kind of like the play itself: by the end of it we don't know what Hally will do. We're all just holding our breath.
Competition
Quote #9
SAM. Maximum of ten points each for individual style, deportment, rhythm and general appearance.
[…] HALLY. [. . .] And penalties? [. . .] For doing something wrong. Say you stumble or bump into somebody…do they take off any points? (1368-1375)
Sam explains the dance competition judging system to Hally, with its overall categories. Hally doesn't seem to understand though; his confusion about punishment is laughable to Sam, who knows that no one ever stumbles or bumps into anyone on the dance floor. Sam is about earning points while Hally is about losing them; it says something about their optimistic vs. cynical outlooks on life.
Quote #10
SAM. (Reading from the history textbook) "Napoleon and the principle of equality." Hey! This sounds interesting. "After concluding peace with Britain in 1802, Napoleon used a brief period of calm to in-sti-tute…"
HALLY. Introduce.
SAM. "…many reforms. Napoleon regarded all people as equal before the law [. . .]." (469-476)
If you thought that Fugard just chose a random historical fact to have Sam read in the play, we'd like to invite you to think again. Check out the content: Napoleon declaring everyone equal means the end of competition between classes, or races—at least, in a perfect world. Hally learns about equality when it comes to Napoleon, but doesn't seem to notice the inequality in his own world.
MASTER HAROLD... AND THE BOYS THEME OF DISSATISFACTION AND DISILLUSIONMENT
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Living in a society in which your race determines every single opportunity available to you (or lack thereof), it's not surprising that the characters in"Master Harold" …and the boys are deeply dissatisfied with their lives.
In fact, Hally, the white protagonist, seems much more unhappy than Sam and Willie, the black characters. He hasn't yet accepted the world as it is and still fights against its difficulties and injustices (as they apply to him, that is). Sam and Willie might not be satisfied, but they are resigned to the fact that life just isn't fair.
Questions About Dissatisfaction and Disillusionment
1. Why do you think Hally is so cynical and dissatisfied with life? Isn't he a little young for that?
2. Why does Sam keep trying to cheer up Hally when it's basically an impossible task?
3. What does Sam mean when he says that Hally will be on the bench all by himself if he isn't careful?
4. Do you think that Sam and Willie are more satisfied than Hally, or that they keep their dissatisfaction to themselves?
Chew on This
Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.
Sam and Willie are content with their lot, even though it is a difficult life.
Sam and Willie know that it is dangerous to voice their dissatisfaction, so they pretend to be content.
MASTER HAROLD... AND THE BOYS DISSATISFACTION AND DISILLUSIONMENT QUOTES

Quote #1
HALLY. (A world-weary sigh) I know, I know! I oscillate between hope and despair for this world as well, Sam. But things will change, you wait and see. One day somebody is going to get up and give history a kick up the backside and get it going again. (393-397)
Hally claims to "oscillate between hope and despair," but we have to say that he seems to be stuck on the despair setting in this play. He doesn't seem to have much real hope for the social reformers who will get history moving again; it's more like he just wishes they were around but doesn't see any way for things to change. Maybe he sees his own personal family struggles and how nothing seems to change.
Dissatisfaction and Disillusionment
Quote #2
HALLY. [. . .] "This is it," I thought. "Like everything else in my life, here comes another fiasco." (857-859)
"Everything" in life is a fiasco? Hally's despair about his family situation seems to color his thinking about the world in general. He's dissatisfied with his life even as a young boy; he expects the kite that Sam makes for him to fail, because he considers everything else to be a failure. He's grown accustomed to being disappointed.
Dissatisfaction and Disillusionment
Quote #3
HALLY. I don't know. Would have been just as strange, I suppose if it had been me and my Dad…cripple man and a little boy! Nope! There's no chance of me flying a kite without it being strange. (Simple statement of fact—no self-pity) (923-927)
Now we're getting down to the heart of the matter. It's not clear why Hally has had such a terrible childhood, but we start to see that part of his dissatisfaction has to do with his father's disability. It's affected the way that Hally thinks about himself, as different and "crippled" as his father. We know that he has enormous shame about his father's drinking and his disability, and Sam tries to convince Hally that it doesn't reflect on him.
Quote #4
SAM. Is he better?
HALLY. (Sharply) No! How the hell can he be better when last night he was groaning with pain? This is not an age of miracles!
SAM. Then he should stay in hospital.
HALLY. (Seething with irritation and frustration) Tell me something I don't know, Sam. (999-1004)
Hally's under a lot of pressure. His father's pain eats away at him, but he has no power to make sure his father stays at the hospital rather than coming home. His powerless is what leaves him hopeless.
Dissatisfaction and Disillusionment
Quote #5
SAM. He's at least got you at night.
HALLY. (Before he can stop himself) And we've got him! Please! I don't want to talk about it anymore. (Unpacks his school case, slamming down books on the table) Life is just a plain bloody mess, that's all. And people are fools. [. . .] They bloody well deserve what they get.
SAM. Then don't complain. (1020-1029)
Sam gives Hally a taste of his own medicine. If people deserve what they get, then Hally deserves his bleepin' mess of a life, right? The irony here is that all the people on stage have dissatisfying lives, and really none of it is their own fault. Whether it's racial inequality or physical illness, all the characters are suffering.
Quote #6
HALLY. [. . .] Anybody who thinks there's nothing wrong with this world needs to have his head examined. Just when things are going along all right, without fail something or somebody will come along and spoil everything. Somebody should write that down as a fundamental law of the Universe. The principle of perpetual disappointment. If there is a God who created this world, he should scrap it and try again. (1030-1038)
Hally must not have heard of Murphy's Law, which sounds a lot like his new fundamental law of the Universe. He uses the language of physics or science to express his emotional disappointment. It's almost as though academic discourse is the only way he knows how to give credit to something; if it's too sentimental he discounts it, but by making it a law of the universe he can actually begin to deal with his unhappiness. He intellectualizes everything. When you do that and ignore feelings, it's guaranteed that those feelings come back to bite you.
Quote #7
SAM. [. . .] People get hurt in all that bumping, and we're sick and tired of it now. It's been going on for too long. (1407-1409)
On the surface it sounds like Sam's talking about bad dancing – people bumping into one another on the dance floor. But what he really means are the ways people hurt one another, work against each other rather than together. We see this happening before our eyes in the play.
Dissatisfaction and Disillusionment
Quote #8
SAM. St. George's Park Tea Room…Yes, Madam…Hally, it's your Mom.
HALLY. (Back to reality) Oh, God, yes! I'd forgotten all about that. Shit! Remember my words, Sam? Just when you're enjoying yourself, someone or something will come along and wreck everything. (1448-1453)
Reality intrudes into Hally's reminiscing and talking about dancing when his mother calls. It immediately knocks him off track and brings him down. Rather than take satisfaction as the norm and see the troubles as temporary, he takes dissatisfaction as the normal state of affairs and sees joy as fleeting. It's a recipe for misery. In his defense, when things are miserable at home for a child, that's the basic emotional tone of his life. It's hard to stay happy anywhere else.
Dissatisfaction and Disillusionment
Quote #9
(HALLY gets up abruptly, goes to his table and tears up the page he was writing on)
HALLY. So much for a bloody world without collisions.
SAM. Too bad. It was on its way to being a good composition.
HALLY. Let's stop bullshitting ourselves, Sam.
Hally and Sam have composed an idealized version of the world. They use the dance floor as a metaphor for life; if everyone stuck to their steps and paid attention to others, they wouldn't be running into one another, making each other miserable. But Hally gives up, literally tearing up their ideals and hopes.
Quote #10
SAM. [. . .] I couldn't sit down there and stay with you. It was a "Whites Only" bench. You were young, too excited to notice then. But not anymore. If you're not careful…Master Harold…you're going to be sitting up there by yourself for a long time to come, and there won't be a kite in the sky. (SAM has got nothing more to say. He exits into the kitchen, taking off his waiter's jacket) (1844-1851)
The kite in this section is sort of like Hally's essay; it represents a higher ideal. The problem is that Hally's becoming so disillusioned that he's going to lose all connection with the social reforms he admires, along with losing the people who love him and care about him. He isn't satisfied with the way things are, but he also doesn't want to make the effort to change. Change is hard, m'kay?










MASTER HAROLD... AND THE BOYS THEME OF VIOLENCE
It isn't too surprising that a play about South Africa in 1950 has a strong undercurrent of violence. That potential for explosions always feels just beneath the surface, and it gets stronger as the play progresses. The characters get along with each other on the surface, but certain behaviors and statements reveal that racial violence is always lurking, ready to erupt.
It's as though the violent legal structure that kept black South Africans from having any opportunities within civil society has become part of the characters' everyday lives, even their personalities. The violence of the state becomes violence between neighbors, friends, and lovers.
Questions About Violence
1. Proponents of apartheid feared violence from black South Africans. Do the black characters in this play seem potentially dangerous?
2. What's Hally's ultimate offense toward Sam?
3. When Hally hits Willie with a ruler, why does Willie tell him to hit Sam, too?
Chew on This
Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.
The possibility of violence permeates every relationship in the play.
The differences in racial power are what allow Hally to act violently toward Sam and Willie.



MASTER HAROLD... AND THE BOYS VIOLENCE QUOTES


Quote #1
SAM. When did you last give her a hiding?
WILLIE. (Reluctantly) Sunday night.
[…] SAM. Hiding on a Sunday night, then Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday she doesn't come to practice…and you're asking me why? (125-131)
A "hiding," for those of you who are lucky enough not to know, is a beating. Willie takes it upon himself to punish his girlfriends when they make him mad and afterward they go into hiding so that he can't find them. The double meaning of beating and concealment make this a great word to use to describe such shameful violence.
Violence
Quote #2
SAM. You hit her too much. One day she's going to leave you for good.
WILLIE. So? She makes me the hell-in too much.
SAM. (Emphasizing his point) Too much and too hard. You had the same trouble with Eunice. (133-137)
When Willie says that Hilda makes him "the hell-in", he means that she makes him mad or frustrated. He's using that as an excuse for his violent behavior towards her, but Sam reminds him that the problem is his, not his girlfriend's. This violent attitude towards women isn't the main thrust of the play, but its presence is just another reflection of the violent society the characters live in. Willie's cluelessness about his violent behavior mirrors Hally's lack of awareness of how he demeans his friends.
Violence
Quote #3
SAM. Beating her up every time she makes a mistake in the waltz? (Shaking his head) No, Willie! That takes the pleasure out of ballroom dancing. (140-142)
You can say that again, Sam. Yeah, the prom wouldn't be as fun if every time you screwed up a move in the Macarena you got a whooping. But all jokes aside, the simple division between pleasure and violence that Sam points out is an important one; it shows how the violence the characters experience drains the joy out of their lives.

Quote #4
(WILLIE lets fly with his slop rag. It misses SAM and hitsHALLY)
HALLY. (Furious) For Christ's sake, Willie! What the hell do you think you're doing!
WILLIE. Sorry, Master Hally, but it's him….
HALLY. Act your bloody age! (Hurls the rag back at WILLIE) (309-315)
When Willie throws the slop rag at Sam you could see it as somewhere between a practical joke and an actual expression of frustration; he's not digging all Sam's ribbing. But when Hally throws it back, it's truly violent. He uses the rag to express his rage, and to show Willie he's the boss.
Violence
Quote #5
SAM. They make you lie down on a bench. One policeman pulls down your trousers and holds your ankles, another one pulls your shirt over your head and holds your arms…
HALLY. Thank you! That's enough.
SAM. …and the one that gives you the strokes talks to you gently and for a long time between each one. (He laughs) (374-381)
Sam's description of police violence is presented as comedic; he laughs as he tells about the torture he's experienced. Hally's reaction is to stop listening—he'd rather not know about what goes on during interrogations. The racial aspect of this violence makes it possible for Hally to ignore it – he won't ever have to experience what Sam, a black man, does. Why do you think Sam is laughing?
Violence
Quote #6
HALLY. I've heard enough, Sam! Jesus! It's a bloody awful world when you come to think of it. People can be real bastards.
SAM. That's the way it is, Hally.
HALLY. It doesn't have to be that way. There is something called progress, you know. We don't exactly burn people at the stake anymore. (382-388)
Hally believes that humanity is less violent because the methods of suppressing one another have changed. Rather than burning someone at the stake, we now have beatings and torture. We're not exactly sure if we'd call that progress, but Hally seems to gain some hope from it.
Quote #7
HALLY. Correct. If [Joan of Arc] was captured today, she'd be given a fair trial.
SAM. And then the death sentence. (390-392)
Oh, wait, scratch the comments on burning at the stake. Hally and Sam have put their finger on one of the ironies of modernity. Our methods for violence might be more progressive (i.e., no more burning witches), but we still get the job done (e.g., electrocution, hanging, firing squad, lethal injection...).
Violence
Quote #8
HALLY. Somebody was always complaining about the food, or my mother was having a fight with Micky Nash because she'd caught her with a petty officer in her room. (702-705)
Hally grew up in a fairly chaotic environment, so perhaps that's why he behaves the way he does. It might not seem so bad – just complaining and arguing, but when it's as constant as he describes it, we can see how it would affect a young kid. Hally's used to bickering and conflict; it comes easily, and it shows in his behavior. As soon as he gets stressed out, he goes on the attack.
Violence
Quote #9
(Sam and Willie start to tidy up the tea room. Hally doesn't move. He waits for a moment when Sam passes him.)
HALLY. (quietly) Sam…
(Sam stops and looks expectantly at the boy. HALLY spits in his face. A long and heartfelt groan from Willie. For a few seconds Sam doesn't move.) (1755-1761)
Coming right after Hally tries to provoke Sam by telling a demeaning racist joke, this particular instance of violence is almost unbearable to read or watch. It's not just the fact that one character hurts another; rather it's the humiliation of a grown man being reduced to an object of total contempt by a boy he loves. And the understanding that the black man's helpless to respond with violence.
Quote #10
WILLIE. [. . .] (A dangerous few seconds as the men stand staring at the boy. WILLIE turns away, shaking his head) But maybe all I do is go cry at the back. He's little boy, Boet Sam. Little white boy. Long trousers now, but he's still little boy.
SAM. (His violence ebbing away into defeat as quickly as it flooded) You're right. (1784-1790)
As Willie and Sam stare at Hally, the stage is supposed to be filled with danger, according to the stage directions. What is the risk? The two men are bigger, stronger, and more experienced than Hally, and he just insulted and humiliated them. The potential for violence is always there, but the societal restraints on the older men keep them from acting on it in this case. The men know that in this society, it would only take a word from Hally to get them thrown into prison.