The beauty of August Wilson's language lies in its rugged distastefulness. "Niggers" litter the pages and the rhetoric of the average Black person --in the place and time -- is elevated to a language of truth with character of its own. Wilson allows you to experience the nature of each character, providing both explicit insight into how they feel, as well as allowing the reader enough room to speculate emotions --if you want to. I appreciated Wilson's choice of language because he didn't hold back. In his comments (which you'll read in detail later) he mentions providing white readers/Americans a "different way to look at Black Americans" and that, to me, is a scary provision.
Wilson tells the truth tastefully. He doesn't veil the pains of Black life, nor does he romanticize them. These plays have a brilliant way of making you consider the world around us as well as our relations with one another. There are more to these plays than discussion of Black vs. White, but they're inescapable --as are typical of the issues of Black vs. White. These plays make one reconsider everything -love, faith, hope, trust, family, friendship, purpose, joy, talent, worth, sacrifice, life, death. I'm telling you. You read one, you'll want to read the rest.
