Mulatto: Black People and Son

Lance Patterson
October 29, 2012
English 1102
Professor Mitchell
Comparative Essay Draft

Race Issues in Father & Son Bonding

The bond between a father and a son is one that shapes the son for his journey through life. A father teaches his son based on the things he’s learned throughout his life. In Langston Hughes’s Mulatto and August Wilson’s Fences two fathers with different racial backgrounds try to shape their sons way of thinking. Mulatto a play that takes place on a slave plantation in Georgia highlights the struggle a father Colonel Thomas Norwood a white slave owner has with his son Robert Norwood born a mixed child from a black mother during a time where blacks were considered lesser than equal Norwood still wants to provide the best for his son. Fences a play that took place in 1935 deals with Tony a bitter ex baseball players relationship with his son Corey, who wants to follow in his dads’ footsteps. Both in Fences and Mulatto race and background plays a major part in how these two fathers raise their sons’ and prepare them for the journey ahead. There’s no doubt that a sons relationship with his father is something that is irreplaceable. But, when you have a father that is of a different ethnic decent can that bond be different. In Langston’s Hughes’s play Mulatto Colonel Thomas Norwood a white slave owner moves a young black field hand named Cora into his home after his wife passes. This relationship produces four children, but the relationship that sticks out is between Norwood and his son Robert. Robert is the classic age of 18 where he is finally letting go of the little boy mentality and considering himself a man. This father and son bond is strange because 60 yr old Norwood being the slave owner and Robert being the offspring of a black woman causes a conflict in Norwood’s life. Norwood is faced with a decision to do what he was brought up and taught to do which is put his black children to work in the fields of his plantation or to do what any loving father would do and that’s to provide the best opportunity for his children to succeed in life. Norwood different then his peers did the unthinkable sending Robert off to school to get an education similar to the white kids of other slave owners. Norwood sending Robert to school was an clear indication that he loved his son and wanted the best for him, but when Robert was home for the summer Norwood still never claimed Robert as his child referring to him as “one of Cora’s children” (1266). Even though he wanted Robert to be educated he still wanted to treat Robert as a slave by not allowing him to walk through the front door, or talk to a white man like he was educated. The relationship between Norwood and Robert was filled with so much love and conflict that it ended in Robert choking his father to death and taking his own life at the end of the play. Race issues between a son and his father isn’t solely based on a father having a different ethnic background then his son, but a father being brought up during different racial time’s plays part as well. In August Wilson’s play Fences Troy Maxson a former Negro league baseball player is the father of Corey a teenage boy just wanting to follow in his father’s footsteps and play sports. Troy brought up in times when the Negro man had a few less opportunities then the times he’s currently raising his son in. Troy back in his day was a pretty good baseball player, but during the times of him growing up he wasn’t given the opportunity to showcase his skills because the sport was dominated by whites. Growing up during this time has man Troy bitter into thinking that the white man always wants to hold the black man back from getting ahead. Troy is plagued by this bitterness when it comes to raising his own son when his wife Rose tells him that Corey has gotten recruited by a college football team Troy’s reply was “I told that boy about that football stuff. The white man ain’t gonna get him nowhere with that football” (1292). Troy forced Corey to quit the football team and get his job back at the shop he worked at part-time. Troy relationship with Corey was one that was hard to figure out at some parts of the play especially when they had the father to son talk and Troy explained to Corey that as his father he doesn’t have to love for him, his responsibility is to provide for him by making sure he has food, clothing, and a roof over his head. As a father loving and providing for your child is something that should go without saying, but to Troy is just seemed like a job and he was more worried about getting back at the white man for all the years he had been held back from accomplishing what he wanted to do. That bitterness ultimately led to a strained relationship with his son and instead of him being able to teach his son how to be a man and send him into life prepared, he played a part in holding his son back and keeping him from being the man he wanted.

Fences and Mulatto featured relationships where race played a big part in the father and son bond. In Fences Troy allowed past race issues to hinder his relationship with his son by stopping him from doing the one thing that he wanted to do the most play football. In Mulatto Norwood allowed current race issues he being a slave owner and his son being a product of a relationship with a slave woman named Cora play a major part in how he treated his son, when all his son wanted was to be accepted as his son and to be treated equal. Both of these fathers have good and bad characteristics, the good are that they both tried to be good fathers and provide for their sons by wanting them to get the best education to prepare them in life. The bad is both fathers allowed racial differences and different racial times ultimately mess those relationships up.