Eugene O’Neill’s Protest about White Supremacy in All God’s Chillun Got Wings

https://doi.org/10.22146/lexicon.v6i1.50313

Setyani Setyani(1*), Bernadus Hidayat(2)

(1) English Department, Universitas Gadjah Mada
(2) English Department, Universitas Gadjah Mada
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract


This article investigates Eugene O’Neill’s protest against racism and white supremacy found in his play, All God’s Chillun Got Wings. O’Neill expressed his protest in relation to white supremacy as a reflection of some part of his life. Therefore, M.H. Abrams’ (1971) expressive approach is applied. To answer the research questions, the primary data of this research, i.e., excerpts from All God’s Chillun Got Wings script and Eugene O’Neill biography related to white supremacy were collected and analyzed. Dictionaries, newspapers, journals, and articles related to the play and Eugene O’Neill were used as secondary data to support the analysis.  The analysis reveals that O’Neill criticizes the different treatments because of skin colour and how to fix it. The study suggests that the different treatments related to the racial differences did not only affect the oppressed but also the oppressor. The solution Eugene O’Neill presented to remedy the situation is to see each other in the same standing regardless of the difference in racial genetics.


Keywords


Eugene O’Neill; racial miscegenation; racial segregation; racism; white supremacy

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References

Abrams, M. H. (1971). The mirror and the lamp: Romantic theory and the critical tradition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Gagnon, D. P. (2003). Pipe Dreams and Primitivism: Eugene O’Neill and the Rhetoric of Ethnicity. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida.

Griffith, K. (2010). Writing essays about literature (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth.

Millet, F. B. & Bentley, G. E. (1935). The art of the drama. London: D. Appleton-Century.

Nufiarni, R. (2015). Rasisme dalam All God's Chillun Got Wings karya Eugene O'Neill dalam Perspektif Strukturasi Giddens. (Unpublished master thesis). Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

O’Neill, Eugene. (1924). All God’s Chillun got Wings (1924) in Eugene O'Neill: Complete Plays 1932-1943 (Vol. III). Rpt., New York: The Library of America.

Tuck, S. (1988). White dreams, black nightmares: All God's chillun got wings and Light in August. The Eugene O'Neill's Newsletter 12(1).



DOI: https://doi.org/10.22146/lexicon.v6i1.50313

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Copyright (c) 2019 Setyani Setyani, Bernadus Hidayat

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