Ecodrama and a Flawed Social Contract in August Wilson’s Two Trains Running

Abstract

August Wilson’s Two Trains Running (1992) is the 7th play in a series of ten plays, called Pittsburgh Cycle. The play deals with city authorities’ urban renewal plans and its influence on the lives of the customers of a diner in the Hill District which is inhabited by black and white people. The aim of this paper is to analyze representations of ecodrama in Wilson’s Two Trains Running. By doing this, the analysis is not restricted to tracing injustice enforced upon the environment, but it extends to include prejudice exercised against African Americans. Although man controls the nature, he is influenced by the injustice imposed upon the outer environment. It means that he is involved in a direct relationship with it, and he suffers from the same type of prejudice enforced on his surroundings.Accordingly, the transformations that are enforced upon characters’ lives are a result of oppressive practices against nature. Consequently, ecodrama concentrates on ecological issues as well as other issues related to gender, poverty, inequality, social status and racism. In ecodrama, the playwright moves from universal concerns to personal experiences. Therefore, ecological concerns could be merged with the characters’ past oppressive experiences, memories, failures, successes, emotional crises and future plans. The paper has reached the following findings. 1) As long as justice is implemented via defective laws, justified oppression is the ultimate byproduct. This leads to the hypothesis that justice is proportional. This suggestion could lead to complete denial of the existence of such value, or simply question its existence in interracial relationships and among individuals of the same race. 2) Oppression is exercised on people as well as the environment. Accordingly, justice is not only essential in human beings relationship with each other, it is also important in their relationship with the environment

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