and the “civilizing” effect it is purported to have on
native peoples.
In addition to postcolonial politics, race has
been a recurring theme in literature, most pointedly
beginning in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
An early novel to deal with the issues and effects of
race was Harriet Beecher Stowe’s uncLe toM’s
cabin, a story about slavery in the United States.
While Stowe’s novel has endured its fair share of
criticism and close study, the author always main-
tained that she wanted to engage readers’ sympathies
and change their minds about slavery. Certainly,
novels and other literary works that featured black
characters or were written by black authors gained
prominence before Stowe’s work—from the English
writer Aphra Behn’s novel oroonoko; or, the
royaL sLave to the former American slave Phyllis
Wheatley’s poetry, both of which were written in the
18th century. Mark Twain’s famous novel adven-
tures oF huckLeberry Finn features an African-
American character named Jim who escapes slavery
himself.
From the 20th century onward, race moved to
the forefront of politics, especially in the United
States, where institutionalized racism was the law of
the land until the late 1960s. In 1903, the African-
American writer W. E. B. DuBois suggested that
the biggest problem of the 20th century would be
the problem of race. As the 20th century progressed,
race became a key theme for writers, especially writ-
ers of color. In 1940, the African-American author
Richard Wright published native son, the story
of Bigger Thomas, a young black man who, largely
on the basis of his race, gets caught up in poverty,
violence, and judicial mistreatment. All the actions
Bigger takes are directly related to or motivated
by race in some way. He comes into his first job
because his employer wishes to help African Ameri-
cans improve their lives. He accidentally smothers
Mary Dalton to prevent her blind mother from
noticing Bigger in Mary’s bedroom late at night.
Fearful of the punishment he might receive as a
black man who murdered a white woman, Bigger
tries to dispose of the body in the family furnace,
and his situation continues to worsen. Native Son
graphically represents the deep divide between
white America and black America while illustrating
how pervasive the theme of race is in our lives. For
Bigger, it is inescapable in the mazes—literally and
figuratively—of Chicago.
Race and the divide we allow it to create are not
merely an American invention, however. In Chinua
Achebe’s thinGs FaLL apart, white missionaries
arrive in Nigeria and begin to set up a new religion,
law, and justice among the Umuofia clan. What
results is a confusing and violent clash between
cultures, with the white colonists taking power by
force and manipulation in order to “civilize” the
native Africans. Unlike Native Son, which portrays
the youth of color as one against overwhelming
forces beyond his control, Things Fall Apart is about
invasion from without: An entire society crumbles
in the face of the violent threat of colonialism. The
race of the colonizers becomes important to the
story because it is their version of law and order that
ultimately controls the African village and forces
the villagers to cooperate. Okonkwo is unable to
reconcile the two clashing ideologies—he does not
want to be punished for his crimes by white men
from another continent. Thus, race becomes a basis
for the threatening relationship between interloper
and native.
As the 20th century progressed, race pride and
power became a dynamic facet in literature, build-
ing on progressive political movements around the
world. In the United States in particular, the pro-
gressive movements of the 1960s and 1970s were
key for a new wave of race pride. In the poetry and
drama of Amiri Baraka, for example, the theme of
race becomes a source of strength and power for
African Americans. In Baraka’s play Dutchman, a
white woman and a black man enter into a verbal
sparring match over racial difference that ends with
the woman’s murder of the man. Race is figured in
Dutchman as an insurmountable barrier, a theme as
old as time itself.
While Dutchman examines race relations in
the supposedly free and equal American society of
the late 1960s, Athol Fugard’s play Master Harold... and the Boys takes apartheid-era South Africa
for its setting for exploring the theme of race. The
play centers on the young Master Harold, a white
South African teenager who discusses life, love,
literature, and history with his family’s two black
race 85