The play takes place in 1950, the year in which many laws were passed in South Africa to ensure racial segregation. Some of these laws were:
•the Population Registration Act, which mandated the classification of each individual's ethnic identity; •the Group Areas Act, which designated specific zones where people of color could live and work; •the Immorality Act, under which fraternization across racial lines was illegal; •intermarriage and sexual contact between the races were banned.
•All public facilities were segregated: transportation, parks, elevators, restaurants, hotels, theaters, schools and universities, and government offices.
Under these laws, 30 million blacks were ruled by 5 million whites. Brute force was used routinely to suppress political opposition and to imprison dissidents.
The rising tension in the play is best felt and understood if the play is read in one sitting.
Questions: As you read, keep notes on the answers to these questions. Be sure you read the stage directions for a character’s physical movements.
1. How would you characterize Hally as we see him in the beginning of the play? Cite page references for your answers.
2. Identify details in the play to suggest Hally and Sam’s relationship is like a father-son relationship. Cite page references for your answers.
3. Which details in the play suggest Hally and Sam’s relationship is master-servant? For example, when Hally enters, the stage directions tell us Sam fetches a towel for him to dry his hair. Cite page references for your answers.
4. How does the play make us and keep us aware that Hally and Sam’s relationship is maintained within a larger social context of white supremacy? Be specific about the details. Cite page references for your answers.
5. How do the two calls Hally receives help us to understand his relationship to his parents? Cite page references for your answers.
6. How would the play be different without Willie?
7. What does the detail about Willy’s beating Hilda suggest about the larger world of the play?
8. Explain what Hally means: “It’s just that life felt the right size in there...not too big or too small. Wasn’t so hard to work up a bit of courage. It’s got so bloody complicated since then.”
9. The controlling metaphor of the play is dance: “Like being in a dream about a world in which accidents don’t happen.” Keep track of what the characters say about dance. Cite page references for your answers. How does the metaphor support/underscore/enhance the action of the play?
10. Why does Sam not react with violence to Hally’s insult? Support your answer with details from the play. You should write AT LEAST a mighty paragraph if not more.
11. What does Sam mean when he says to Hally: "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?”
12. How would you characterize Hally as we see him at the end of the play?
13. Is the play’s ending hopeful? Pessimistic? Cynical? How would you describe the state of the characters at the end?
14. What is the significance of the title?
15. Identify the advantages and disadvantages of the play’s focus on just three characters and a single setting.
16. What does the play show us about the psychology of power over others? Think about this question and identify moments in the play which you think reveal/explore some element of this psychology. You should write AT LEAST a mighty paragraph if not more.
17. The central element of any drama is conflict. In a paragraph, identify the major conflict of the play. Then, analyze how the conflict is presented, how it develops, and how it is resolved, if it is. To answer this question, you need to understand conflict in drama, have read and understood the play, and have a command of a paragraph.