Symbolisms Of Seven Guitars

Symbolisms Seven guitars

* August Wilson’s Seven Guitars is one of his most often misunderstood plays.
* Many students overlook the root argument of the play because of the violence, boasting and sexual innuendo that litters the character’s actions and dialogue.
* So one way in which to examine this play is thought Character Analysis
* There are also many symbolicmeanings provided through the setting and description of the play as well.
* These serve to round out the character analyses and fill out the full meaning of the play.

The Characters
* Each character comes to represent something that Wilson is criticizing about African American society.
The each have a fault, or even in some cases a good attribute, that stifles their advancementin the play, in life, and respectively the African American community’s advancement as well.

Floyd
* Irresponsibility
* Floyd has a pattern of being unreliable, untrustworthy and a terrible decision maker.
* His lack of education, and informed decision-making affects him throughout the play.
* He spent 90 days in jail and was due money, but he lost the ticketthat showed he spent jail time.
* He claims to “love” Vera, but goes to Chicago with Pearl instead.
* He made a “hit” record, but makes the wrong decision of how to get paid. He accepted a flat fee instead of a percentage of the profits. Despite, the record’s success he made no money from it.
* He robs a bank with other Pittsburg criminal and eventually is killedover the money.
* His many “failed” plans and bad decision keeps him stuck in Pittsburg despite seeing Chicago as his “salvation”.
* In fact his lifestyle eventually lead him to his death.

Hedley
* The Delusional dreamer
* Hedley is falsely grandiose.
* He claims to be a king (it is his first name after all and he sees himself as royalty).
*As shown when he kills a man for not calling him King.
* He plans on owning a plantation on the future.
* He sees himself as equal to a white man in a society where he isn’t.
* He believes that his father and he where both good friends of the infamous Jazz & Blues musician Buddy Bolden (even though it is a false memory).
* This misplaced beliefeventually leads him to kill Floyd out of confusion.
* Similarly, Buddy Bolden also believed he was a “king” and shared traits of mental instability just like Hedley.
* Finally, his dreams and his inability to fulfill them lead him to destroy the dreams of others.
* Wilson is attempting to say that unchecked and unrealistic dreams can not only lead to one’s own lackof progress, but also eventually affect the lives of the people around the dreamer.
* Fear and death
* Hedley is a powerful symbol in the play for the effects a failed dream can have on a individual.
* First his dreams bring fear to those around him:
* In Act II, Scene 5: When Hedley finally goes recognizes the reality that his dreams will never be fulfilled hefalls into a raging rant about death:
* “The black man is not a dog. You think I come when you call. I wag my tail. Look, I stirreth the nest. I am a hurricane to you, when you look at me you will see the house falling on your head. Its roof and its shutters and all the windows broken.”
* While he delivers this long rant he holds the machete in his hands. Hist,lust, anger and pure violent rage are so terrifying to Ruby that she gives herself to him sexually in an attempt to calm him down.
* His violence and death affect her and everyone else in the play.

Vera
* Unrequited love and truth
* Vera exemplifies unconditional love and truth/honesty.
* Ironically enough, she does not have any truly bad traits but...