Critical Analysis of Joe Turner’s "Come And Gone" (eBook)

Academic Paper from the year 2006 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Other, grade: A, Southern Illinois University Carbondale (Department of English), course: ENGL 469, language: English, abstract: This paper is a critical analysis of Joe Turner’s "Come And Gone".

A vision-haunted father and his 11-year-old daughter stop at a boarding house in Pittsburgh on their quest for the mother who had wandered off after her husband had been confined by the mysterious Joe Turner for seven years. The theme of the play is the transformative experience, cleansing, and rebirth of the character of Loomis, a man on a quest, and thus, the emergence of the “shiny man.” This revelation ends the quest of another character, the conjure man Bynum, who has been looking for his messiah, this very “shiny man.”

In a boarding house, where everyone comes and goes (“They the only ones live here now. People come and go.” [Bertha to Loomis], a family is reunited by two forces (an African magician, and a realistic “scout” or “people finder,” both roomers at the place), only to split up again – for the man emerges reborn, becomes independent, and leaves mother and daughter.