Ritual Deaths In Three Plays Of August Wilson

Being an inspiring voice of the contemporary African American literature,August Wilson enjoys national prominence for chronicling the centennial landscape of African Americans,which is achieved with ten plays generally called The Pittsburgh Cycle.Against the backdrop of the turbulent 20~thh century,the series depicts decade by decade the comic and tragic aspects of typical African American life experiences,among which,death appears as a significant motif.As a culture inseparable from African American experiences,death,presented either in literal form or symbolic form in his plays,serves as a window on the long history of their painful sufferings,but more importantly,it is in many cases endowed by Wilson with a ritual function that displays a power of transformation for redemption.In Gem of the Ocean(2001),Jitney(1979)and King Hedley II(1999)death manifests a most obvious ritual function of providing transformation out of subjects'passive needs and hence helps to construct and stimulate a dynamic pattern of development,namely the rite of passage,respectively for the individual,the family and the community.Under the influence of different deaths,the subject,necessary to be renewed,undergoes the stages of separation,transition and reincorporation thus to become a refreshing role organized in new order.Through death,new states and orders that welcome the black's better existence in the American society are established,and an ideal African American value is reaffirmed.So,death is regarded as a most transformative power in the plays.