Yet Becker never gets to try his new strategy, falling victim to his rigorously responsible work ethic. As the dispirited drivers praise his father, Booster reflects that all he ever knew about his father was how hard he worked, and for the first time contemplates stepping into his empty shoes. One of the beauties of Wilson's plays is the economical way in which he presents complex characters as believable but imperfect human beings. The city's elite can condemn their neighborhood and destroy their business. Landlords threaten the roof over their heads and the stature of parents in the eyes of their children.
Whites control access to good jobs.
Even when blacks succeed in school, when they reach out and make personal connections to whites, they face betrayal. Implicitly, it argues that the solution is rather for blacks to work together politically and to create their own base of economic and cultural power. Both Wilson and Gilman have made serious efforts to provide realistic portrayals of how the conundrum of race plays out in American life. In their hands, the tragic flaw in American life becomes the stuff of great drama. David Moberg is a senior editor at In These Times.