Father Comes Home From the Wars

“THIRD. What will you decide, Hero?

OLD MAN. Listen to you all

Feeding on hero’s choice

Like so many buzzards feed.

Cept the carcass ain’t one. He’s still living.

So let’s step away.”

The Old Man reprimands the Chorus for taking bets on Hero’s decision. He uses a simile that compares them to buzzards, a scavenging bird that feeds off dead animals, to imply that the Chorus are treating Hero like he’s already dead by aiming to profit from him just as the buzzard fattens itself up by eating dead things. By pointing out that Hero is still alive, Old Man also stresses that his choice isn’t set in stone—he can still change his mind.

“OLD MAN. Boss-Master ordering you to go to the War with him

And then he tells you that you got a choice in the matter.

The great Boss-Master-Boss gives you your freedom of choice.

Like he figures his freedom of choice is gonna somehow

Take the place of the Rightful Freedom that he’s been denying you.

Like he figures that his gift, his little crumb of choice,

Will somehow save his soul when the Judgement Day comes.

Me and Penny both agreed to stay clear and let the last word on it be up to you.”

Hero consults with his father figure, Old Man, on whether to go to war. Old Man points out that the “choice” that he Colonel gave him is just an order in disguise. Old Man draws attention to the hypocrisy inherent in this and calls attention to the theme of The Struggle for Freedom in an Unjust System. He calls the choice given by the Colonel a “crumb” of choice to highlight its insignificance, especially in the face of the “Rightful Freedom” that Hero does not have since he is an enslaved man.

“HERO. He dangled it in front of me. My Freedom.

Like a beautiful carrot.

Like a diamond. And those scraps of uniform and the diamond Freedom glittered

As he promised it, asking me to see it, smell it, touch it, try it on for size.

But while I so wanted to I was still thinking on the bald fact that in his service

I will be helping out

On the wrong side.

That sticks in my throat and makes it hard to breathe.

The wrong of it.”

Hero summarizes his moral conundrum in this speech, highlighting that he yearns for his freedom in an unfair system that is aligned against him. To get his personal freedom, he needs to fight for the “wrong side” of the Civil War. He uses a series of similes to describe how the Colonel positions freedom as a reward rather than a right.

“PENNY. ‘I got to tell you my mind before the others meddle with me and twist me up,’ you said.

Cause you knew. You knew that that’s what they do.

Planting their own seeds into you.

Using you worse than the Boss-Master does.”

Penny points out that the other enslaved people are projecting their ideas onto Hero and influencing his decision rather than letting Hero come to his own conclusions. Penny uses the metaphor of planting to describe how other people put their ideas into Hero’s head in order to “use” Hero to enact what they want.

“OLD MAN. Hold still, son.

I’ve got a sure hand

And a kind heart.

As the Old Man raises the knife, Homer enters.

CHORUS.

OLD MAN.

HERO.

PENNY.

CHORUS.

HOMER. Whatchu all up to?”

Parks calls the repetition of character names without dialogue a “spell” where characters “experience their pure true simple state,” and says that “directors should fill this moment as they best see fit” (Parks, Suzan-Lori. “Elements of Style.” The America Play and Other Works, 2013, pp.16). She uses “spells” in moments of heightened emotion. Here, Hero is about to sacrifice his foot to stay home from the war. Just then, Homer enters, which is ironic because Hero was previously forced to cut off Homer’s foot.

“HOMER. To stay here and work the field

To go there and fight in the field

Both choices are

Nothing more than the same coin

Flipped over and over

Two sides of the same coin

And the coin ain’t even in your pocket.”

Homer re-visits a point made earlier by Old Man: The choice given to Hero by the Colonel is really a false choice. Homer’s words emphasize how in both options, Hero loses, since he has no freedom and is working for the Colonel. He also points out that the coin is always in the Colonel’s pocket, meaning that the Colonel is the one with the power.

“HERO. And my need to leave is clear.

Not run off, Homer,

Although I can see there’s value in it,

But it’s not my road.

I’ll go trot behind the Master.

The non-Hero that I am.

Odd-See!”

These lines highlight the theme of the Subversion of the Hero’s Journey as Hero identifies as a “non-Hero” after alienating his friends and allies after telling them about his betrayal of Homer. He says he will “trot behind the Master,” acknowledging his powerless in that dynamic, which is also uncharacteristic of a classical hero. Though he calls “Odd-See” to his dog, this exclamation signals the beginning of his own odyssey.

“COLONEL. You’re an officer in the Union Army. You’re a white man. Lucky you’re not a Union n*****. If you were, I’d be obligated to shoot you on the spot. (An obligation that’s not in any book, not written down, history would find it barbaric, so we keep it unspoken we don’t speak of it we just shoot on sight.)”

The Colonel describes how the Confederacy would treat captured Black Union soldiers. This statement is ironic because Smith is Black, but the Colonel assumes he is white because he is white presenting and is wearing a captain’s jacket. The parenthetical aside is likely addressed directly to the audience, with the Colonel’s character explaining how some of the on-the-ground brutality and lawlessness of war does not make it into history books.

“COLONEL. Underneath your blue coat you and me are more alike than different.”

Neither the Colonel nor the audience knows that Smith is white-presenting or “passing.” While the Colonel says this because he thinks Smith is a white man, it becomes ironic after the audience learns that Smith is, in fact, Black. The Colonel thinks there is an inherent difference between white and Black people, which is why he feels an instant connection with Smith, who he thinks is a white man like him. However, when Smith reveals that he is Black, these words show the way race is socially constructed.

“COLONEL. Stand up here and undo yourself. We need to finish the inspection.

Hero is thinking: Nope.

COLONEL. Undo yourself.

(Rest)

First, we will do a visual inspection and then, we’ll do more than just look. As my own father used to say, ‘Never trust the eye in these “private” matters. Only trust what your hand will tell you.’

(Rest)

Undo yourself, Hero.

HERO.

HERO.

Hero is thinking: “No fucking way.”

The Colonel systematically commodifies Hero’s various attributes, assigning them a monetary value to taunt Smith. Here, the Colonel implies he will use his hand to sexually assault Hero and force him to ejaculate. This calls to mind how enslavers “actively encouraged their enslaved ‘property’ to reproduce by cajoling, threatening, and coercing them into intimate relationships” to maintain their enslaved population (Djelid, Aisha. “‘The Master Whished to Reproduce’: The (Forced) Reproduction of Enslaved Life in the Antebellum South, 1808-1865.” University of Reading: Gender History Research Cluster, 2021). Many enslaved people were subject to this dehumanizing treatment.

“COLONEL. I am grateful every day that God made me white. As a white I stand on the summit and all the other colors reside beneath me, down below.”

The Colonel expresses a view held by many enslavers in his period. They held to the tenets of white supremacist ideology, which dictated that white people were inherently superior to other races of people, which—to them—justified their enslavement of non-white people, especially Black people. The Colonel uses a metaphor of a mountain to explain this, placing white people at “the summit” with people of all other races below them.

“HERO. You a Private?

SMITH. —. Yes.

HERO. Huh.

SMITH. It was my Captain who died. On the battlefield. When it got dark it got cold. I put his coat on over mine to keep warm.

HERO. You’re a Private serving in the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry.

SMITH. That’s right.

HERO. The 1st Kansas Colored Infantry they got Coloreds as Privates.

SMITH. That’s right.

HERO.

SMITH.

HERO.

HERO. You a Colored man?

SMITH. Yes.”

Hero uses logic and observation to puzzle out that Smith is Black. In the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry, privates were Black men while their commanders were white men. Parks uses another “spell” to emphasize the connection that Smith and Hero have at this moment.

“Imagining being confronted by a Patroller, Hero holds up his hands. Reminiscent of: ‘Hands up! Don’t shoot!’”

With this stage direction, Parks connects the systemic racism of the era of enslavement to the anti-Black racism of the 21st century in the United States. She invokes the phrase, “Hands up, don’t shoot,” which is associated with the police killing of Michael Brown in 2014, who was shot with his hands up. The NAACP writes that “[t]he origins of modern-day policing can be traced back to the ‘Slave Patrol’” (“The Origins of Modern Day Policing.” NAACP), furthering this connection.

“SMITH: Sometimes I get the feeling that the heart of the thing won’t change easy or quick. Cause of the way we were bought and brought over here in the first place. Maybe even with Freedom, that mark, huh, that mark of the marketplace, it will always be on us. And so maybe we’ll always be twisting and turning ourselves into something that is going to bring the best price. That’s the way we were born into this, so is it always gonna be like that for us, slavery or not?”

Smith contemplates the lasting legacy enslavement will have on Black people in the United States. These words will resonate with the play’s 21st century audience, who know how racial injustice will persevere after the Civil War.

“A parting embrace. Smith heads northward, toward the safety of the oncoming Union Army. It’s doubtful that he’ll make it.

HERO.

HERO.

HERO.

Hero removes his Confederate uniform coat. He puts on the Union coat.

HERO.

HERO.

HERO.

Then he replaces the grey army coat, pulling it over the blue one. And Hero heads southward, taking the path the Colonel took, back toward the heart of the Rebel Army stronghold.”

Hero refuses to go with Smith to the Union Army, instead remaining with the Colonel. Hero’s two coats symbolize his divided loyalties: He wants freedom, which is a priority of the Union, but to do so he must fight for the Confederacy. While his deepest allegiance lies with the agenda of the Union, he must hide this in order to procure his own freedom, which is why he hides the Union coat with his Confederate one.

“THIRD. The only word you wanna write.

‘Penny’ in the dirt. ‘Penny.’

SECOND. Over and over and over.

Homer glances down the road then back to his writing.

HOMER. It’s just a word. One of many. She’s just a gap. Nothing more than that. She ain’t mine.”

The Chorus of Runaways draws attention to Homer’s infatuation with Penny. Homer has been courting Penny while Hero has been away; this alludes to Homer’s Odyssey, in which several suitors tried to win over Odysseus’s wife Penelope, presuming that Odysseus was dead. Like Penelope, Penny’s heart remains faithful to her husband while he is at war.

“PENNY. Mumbling something about a Proclamation or some such.

HOMER. Proclamation?

FIRST RUNAWAY. What about?

PENNY. She was rambling. I couldn’t make head or tail of it.

‘War’s still going on,’ she says. ‘Proclamation,’ she says.

‘Freedom,’ she says.”

The “Proclamation” Homer and Penny allude to is the Emancipation Proclamation, though they do not know what it is or what it means for them when the Colonel’s “Missus” refers to it. Much of the play concerns the theme of The Struggle for Freedom in an Unjust System; the Emancipation Proclamation promised freedom to enslaved people, but while the war was still going on, enslaved people were not yet free—and, like Penny and Homer, many did not even know they were free.

“SECOND. Tied to this place.

FIRST. But the bond is coming loose.

Loose loose.

SECOND. Another bond comes up

To take its place.

FIRST. A bond to something better.

THIRD. The weight that keeps her here

The weight to the dead

To the past

That pulls her

From underneath the ground

It breaks

With years

That will come some day

But not tonight

Tonight

She’ll free herself.

She can’t help it.”

The Chorus of Runaways fills the role of a Greek Chorus as they provide exposition on the action of the play, as well as analysis of the play’s events. They discuss how Penny is beginning to pull away from Hero and toward Homer. This relates to the theme of Making New Choices Versus Repeating Old Stories, as Penny’s choices begin to veer away from those of her Ancient Greek counterpart, Penelope.

“ODYSSEY DOG. When I say Master, of course I’m speaking of Hero. Him and you all have a Master, but his and you all’s Master is not my Master. Although you could say that, because the Boss-Master owns Hero who in turn owns me, you could figure that the Boss-Master is in fact my Master. But he is not. Although, the Great Master, the one who sits in the sky, you know, the Great Master is Boss-Master’s Master and Old-Hero’s Master and my Master too, but that Colonel-Boss-Master is not my Master. When Colonel called me, I would never ever come.”

In Part 3, Odyssey Dog provides a new perspective on the registers of power at play. His official name, “Odd-See,” symbolizes how he sees things differently than the play’s human characters. The “Great Master” Odyssey Dog references is the Christian God; most enslavers were Christian, and Odyssey Dog decides that he will defer to God, too, though he does not like the Colonel and refuses to obey him.

“ULYSSES. Homer.

HOMER. Hero.

PENNY. ‘Ulysses’!

HOMER. Like the Union General?

ULYSSES. That’s right!

HOMER. You didn’t!

ULYSSES. I did.

PENNY. The nerve.”

In Part 3, Hero takes a new name, Ulysses, which is the Roman name for Odysseus. In the Odyssey, Odysseus struggles to prove his identity to his nation; like Odysseus, Hero has a new identity. However, he does not try to prove to his peers that he is who he was before but embraces his new identity; in this way, the play shows that his experiences at war have changed him. This name is also a reference to the Union general Ulysses S. Grant. Penny’s reaction indicates that she thinks aligning himself with the Union general is gutsy.

“He removes his Confederate Army coat, revealing the Union Army coat underneath.

ULYSSES. It kept me good and warm, and, you know it was a sort of Truth for me.”

Hero wore Smith’s Union coat underneath his Confederate coat. This symbolizes who he felt himself aligned with “inside,” versus how he had to present his allegiance outside. The play capitalizes Truth like a proper noun, signaling its importance in this line. For Hero, there is only one Truth—his belief in the importance of freedom, which is what the Union coat represents.

“PENNY. The face I got isn’t good enough, I guess. So I’ll work on it. Change it. Make it into something better. How about a smile? All the days I waited for you. Smile. The months I waited for you. Smile. All that time. And every time we heard of someone dead I prayed it wasn’t you. Smile. I worked hard while you were gone. I minded the Missus like you told me to. Like you told me to. Smile. Smile. Smile. I hate you.”

Penny’s lines express how women are often expected to alter their personalities, emotions, and expressions according to what men expect from them. A frequent iteration of this is men telling women to “smile.” Penny’s repetition of “smile” alludes to this, yet every repetition of the word ironically reveals her deepening sorrow and anger at Hero/Ulysses’s unfaithfulness.

“SECOND. I’m scared of what will happen next.

The old story guides me to a dangerous place

A place I head to by homing habit.”

The Chorus reflects on the theme of Making New Choices Versus Repeating Old Stories. They are afraid that the traditional storylines of western literature will continue to repeat, reinscribing old sociocultural paradigms. While it might be easier to repeat these old stories—they acknowledge that they head in this direction by “homing habit”—they also point out that this repetition can be “dangerous” and social progress is made by forging new paths.