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 * Contrast and compare the role and purpose of secular drama and theatre as an expression of the communities from which it arose and for which it has served with that of religious and ritual drama and theatre. Use examples from __Joe Turner__ and the way the play makes use of both secular and religious/ritual aspects to shape it's content an manner of expression. **

In the play //Joe Turner's Come and Gone//, August Wilson shows how the secular and religious aspects of life affect the African American community in the times of the early 1900s. Secular drama often deals with the realities of life at the present time of the setting. It exemplifies the good and bad experiences that the people of the time face and how they are able to deal with such situations. It shows how the members of a community deal with one another in the face of the conflicts that arise in the story. Religious drama on the other hand stems from the common beliefs and customs that come from generations before the storyline and how they affect the characters when conflict arises. Both however, deal with the community and the experience it faces in light of their shared background and beliefs.

In //Joe Turner,// the central character Herald Loomis experiences some of the worst aspects of African American life in the South. He is put to work in a chain gang which abused him as if he were a slave himself. Through this, he lost his wife Martha and daughter Zonia as they left their old home to find safety with Martha's mother. He comes out of this a broken man, lost without a place in life, desperate to find it once more.

The characters of Seth and Bertha represent the secular. Often the travelers coming in and out of the boardinghouse are trying to find a sense of who they are in life. These two give advice that they have put together from their long life experiences. The Hollys give the guests a practical way of dealing with their problems. Seth himself is skeptical of many rituals the rootworker Bynum performs, but pays no mind to him as he himself is not harmed by it. He tells the guests what they need to know in a blunt manner, showing them life how it is. Bertha is a source of comfort to them, she feeds any guest warm biscuits and chicken as if she were their own mother. This creates an environment that seems like home, allowing him or her to better deal with the problems facing the guest, like when she helps Mattie deal with her love life.

The religious aspect of this play is materialized in the character Bynum, who uses his song to bring people together and fix their problems. The song I speak of originates from the time of slaves, where the Africans were unable to use their musical instruments to tell their story and must instead share it through their voice, each story then becomes unique to the teller himself. The Juba is another religious aspect, combining the Christian and native African spiritual lives into a single ritual used to bring the community of the boardinghouse together. Loomis, who has given up on his spiritual life, interrupts this ritual, yet at the same time he experiences a vision of the slaves crossing the Middle Atlantic. This is the secular history of the African experience and religious fusing into one, setting forth a series of events that lead to Loomis slashing his own body upon seeing his wife for the first time in years. This is the religious causing a rebirth of sorts. Loomis is then able to free himself of Joe Turner's lingering chains. He says goodbye to his wife one last time as Bynum notes that he has become the shining man that Bynum has been looking for all his life.

//Joe Turner's Come and Gone// is an excellent example of how the secular and religious intermingle with one another to shape the community within the story. The characters find their true identity through the spiritual and the practical aspects of life. They leave the boardinghouse new people, making it not a home, but a place of transition as the African Americans of the time change their entire life through the migration from the South to the North to begin anew.