Master Harold essays

Master Harold essays There are many different themes in short stories, novel, and plays. Some of these themes might include dishonesty, love and romance, or hate. Athol Fugard s play Master Harold has a theme of a dysfunctional family. The theme is portrayed through the main character Master Harold as: too quickly grown up, having adult responsibilities, and denying his true feelings. As the play unfolds and Master Harold, a seventeen-year-old boy, comes in the scene, you can almost immediately see that he has grown up too quickly. Instead of finding time for his friends, he is worried about the family business (which he stays at everyday after school.) Its coming down cats and dogs out there. Bad for business, chaps... Hally doesnt even enjoy the simple teenage pleasures of reading comic books. Jungle Jim ... Batman and Robin ... Tarzan ... God, what rubbish! Mental pollution. Take them away. Just a little while later Willie, a servant of Master Harolds family, starts to play around and throws a rag at Sam, another servant and a good friend of Hally, for teasing him. The rag misses Sam and hits Hally. For Christs sake, Willie! What the hell do you think youre doing! Act your bloody age! ... get on with your work As the afternoon passes by, Hally finds himself reminiscing about past times with Willie and Sam. He never once mentions other boys his age. All of his time was spent with grown men at least twenty years older than him. Master Harold has many adult responsibilities also. For example, in the beginning of the play, Hally went to the restaurant to wait on customers and monitor the servants. Soon after he arrives he finds out that his mother called and is with his drunken father at the hospital (again.) Immediately Hally begins to talk about why he cant come back home. We saw him last night and he wasnt in good ...