Nick's Place

Nicholas Barnard Reaction to Joe Turner's Come and Gone 4/10/2001

Upon my first reading of August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone it had very little to do with me personally. But, I keep irreparably linking it to my own experiences of existing within the closet as a gay teenager. I identify with Loomis having spent seven years or so in a closet, locked down and chained to societal norms. While Loomis was physically denied his love, I was sociologically denied even the ability to fully explore my love. We both deny and despise religions that have been placed upon us, but that is practiced fervently by our peers.

The similarities end upon the fact that I am still in a “virtual” boarding house. I'm still looking for a love that I have never known. I'm also unable to metaphorize Zonia into my personal experiences.

What I think is more interesting is how I have co-opted this story for my own personal benefit. It is in someways indulgent for me to co-opt a character that went through seven years of real labor and countless other hateful acts. Perhaps here lies August Wilson's genius: his characters are recognizable enough to us in our own lives that we relate to them on a human level. Irregardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation, while still enlightening us on the human condition of 1911, and linking it to the human condition of today.

I also personally love Loomis's condemnation of organized religion. I personally have focused fault on religion because of man's (maybe more specifically white man's) need to codify and bastdarize ancient texts so they fit whichever agenda is convenient for the person who is interpreting the text. Off the top of my head the bible had been used to justify slavery, condemn homosexuals, Muslims, and other non-believers, among countless other situations.

This play does not speak to me on a surface level, but instead the submerged meanings of the play and I hold a thoughtful probing dialogue with each other.