The America Play

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1994

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Summary

Background

Act Summaries & Analyses

Act 1

Act 2

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Themes

Posterity and Preserving History

The America Play is about US history and the way it shapes ideas of American national identity and belonging. The mainstream narrative of US history has been whitewashed, omitting contributions by African Americans and glossing over hardships caused by slavery and racism. The Foundling Father is afraid of being erased. But when he looks back for an idol in Black history, he lands on Abraham Lincoln because he is credited with freeing the slaves, arguably the most significant event in the history of African Americans. By assimilating into White-dominated history, the Foundling Father becomes overshadowed by Lincoln, just as White narratives overshadow minority voices in the US historical record. The Foundling Father is the “Lesser Known” to Lincoln’s “Great Man.”

In addition to the whitewashing of history, one of the oppressive tactics of slavery was the deliberate and malicious erasure of African American culture and history as well as the disruption of familial lines. Children were taken from their parents and couples were separated. Slave owners forced slaves to practice Christianity and prohibited cultural customs, and most enslaved people were kept illiterate and forbidden to keep written historical records. Consequently, the play emphasizes the importance of alternative historical records, as much of Black history was passed down through the oral tradition. Therefore, while some things can never be recovered, the play suggests that one must dig deeper into the Great Hole of History rather than presuming that what isn’t visible and obvious is lost.

The America Play demonstrates that the way to preserve history and assert posterity and belonging is through the power of black families and communities. By abandoning his family, the Foundling Father loses his identity. He becomes nothing more than a lesser version of a White icon, allowed to bear Lincoln’s violent death but not to quote his speeches. He has no name and has made himself a foundling. Lucy and Brazil come to find him and close the gap in their family history. They listen for the echoes of the dead, showing that what is dead isn’t erased.

Performance and Historical Mythmaking

When the Foundling Father talks about the Great Hole of History, he turns it into a magical place where the most significant figures in history live on simultaneously. Everyone who isn’t deemed historically significant can sit on the sidelines and observe these famous people. And within the postmodern a metaphor-laden world of the play, this seems like a possibility. But in the second act, when Brazil recounts his father’s explanation of the Great Hole of History, Lucy corrects him. She tells him that it’s only a theme park and the historical figures are actors and impersonators, stating this information as if it’s obvious and ridiculous to think otherwise. Lucy comments that the people represented there are just the ones who did something that was remembered, good or bad. They’re “Like you, but not you. You know: Known” (196). Through these pageants at the Great Hole of History, the myths of the mainstream historical narrative are perpetuated and affirmed.

The Foundling Father sets out to create his own Great Hole—one where he can insert himself into the performance as Abraham Lincoln. He is known for his skills at “faking” and impersonation, and he recognizes the power of performance in mythmaking. His customers expect his performance to mimic the image of Lincoln that has been perpetuated and reperformed, without regard for historical accuracy. Lincoln is expected to have a specific beard, regardless of what his beard actually looked like when he died, and he must wear a stovepipe hat, even in the theater. Performance and reperformance of history make it real and solid, and inaccuracies become accepted and expected through this repetition. As the characters hear the echoes of the gunshots, there’s no difference between the actual gunshot that killed Lincoln and the shots fired in the Foundling Father’s reperformances. The act becomes indistinguishable from the truth, in much the same way that White narratives become fixed in the historical record, creating a mythic America that minimizes Black voices and experiences.

Fatherhood and Nationhood

The phrase Founding Fathers, used to describe the White men who formed the US government and created the original founding documents, frames the country’s formation as a pure act of patriarchal parenthood. Therefore, through the process of inheritance, the White men of America are its heirs, legitimized as rightful leaders. The phrase ignores the contributions of women and of nonwhite men. The term Foundling Father is the opposite, as “foundling” implies no known parentage. By trying to legitimize himself within the framework of a White-founded history, the Foundling Father loses his own history and identity. When the Foundling Father sees his own son, he gives him a name in an act of scorn because he is dismayed to see that the child has inherited any physical traits from his mother at all.

Lucy brings Brazil to find his father after 30 years to help Brazil connect with his heritage and inheritance, despite the fact that while he was present, the Foundling Father stripped Lucy of everything she was and had. Brazil grew up fatherless, shaped entirely by his mother’s efforts. He refers to his father as his “foe-father” (178) and his “faux-father” (184), identifying him as both an adversary and a fraud. And yet, Brazil still resembles his father and mourns for him constantly throughout his life. Brazil’s endless grief and mourning represents the continuous mourning of African Americans who have lost connections to their own ancestry. By finding the Foundling Father’s spade, Brazil becomes reconnected to his heritage and inheritance as a digger from a long line of gravediggers, something that is rightfully his, regardless of his father’s disinterest in parenting him.