We have all heard the saying that the rich keep getting richer while the poor keep getting poorer. This somewhat describes South Africa in the 1950s. During this time in Africa, the white people kept getting more powerful while the black population kept getting weaker. South Africa's apartheid system gave powerful odds to the whites and created a racist society. In "Master Harold" ... and the boys, a book set around the 1950s and during the apartheid system, the racist attitudes from the apartheid system and Hally's parents affected how Hally treated Sam and Willie, who are black and work for Hally's mother. These attitudes over-shadowed the good relationship Sam and Hally had built through most of Hally's childhood.

"Apartheid was a system that deliberately set out to humiliate black people, even to the point of relegating them to separate benches, entails the danger of habitual indifference to the everyday detail that shape black and white relationship and finally, perverts them." (Durbach 69). South Africa passed laws and acts making the black people's lives degrading and ensured the white superiority. Four laws were passed in 1950 which included

Sam knew Hally through most of Hally's childhood. Sam soon became a better father figure to Hally than his own real father. Once, Sam built Hally a kite to raise his head and dignity. Sam explains to Hally, "If you really want to know, that's why I made you that kite. I want you to look up, be proud of something. Of yourself . . . and you certainly was that when I left you with it up there on the hill. Oh, ja something else."(Fugard 58) Sam also talked and listened to him and taught Hally many lessons. Sam had promised himself that he would teach Hally that blacks were as human and as good as whites. He wanted to provide him with a true vision about what society should be like. He wanted to influence Hally away from the way white South Africans believed about blacks.

Durbach, Ettol. "Master Harold' . . . and the boys: Athol Fugard and the Psychopathology of Apartheid." Allison 68-77.

Allison, Kimberly J., ed. The Harcourt brace Casebook Series in Literature: "Master Harold" . . . and the boys. Fort Worth: Harcourt, 1997.

While the book ended with a feeling of - what's the use? - it was not conclusive that Hally's future attitudes would remain the same. It is up to each reader to judge what lies ahead. I would like to believe that as Hally matures and because of his good relationship with Sam, he will realize that his attitudes are not fair and right and learn to be fairer to blacks. If Sam had not been part of his life, Hally would remain prejudiced.

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Approximate Word count = 1500
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)