King Hedley II

August WilsonFiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1985

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Summary

Background

Act Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Act I, Scene 1

Act I, Scenes 2-3

Act II, Scenes 1-2

Act II, Scenes 3-5

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

King’s Seeds

Content Warning: This section of the guide describes and discusses the source text’s treatment of racism.

King’s seeds, which he plants at the very beginning of the play in a patch of dirt that Ruby is sure will prove inhospitable, are a symbol of his hopes and dreams for the future. He tends to them at various points in the action, and he even goes so far as to try to protect them with barbed wire. Tonya, too, hopes that the seeds grow into beautiful flowers, and in her reaction to the seeds, it becomes evident that she too hopes for more from King’s future than she saw in his past. Whether or not King’s future will bear out his hopes and dreams becomes one of the play’s central questions, and the seeds thus speak to several of its themes.

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In that King struggles to achieve economic success because of the lack of opportunities for Black men, especially those who have been incarcerated, the seeds help to illustrate the theme of Structural Racism and the American Dream. King would prefer steady, legal work, and is only forced into the illicit economy through circumstance. His goal remains to open a video store, but he bitterly realizes that he will not be able to raise sufficient funds through legal work alone, and it is only then that he is driven to selling stolen goods and committing robbery.

The seeds also speak to the theme of Masculinity and the Cycle of Violence, because one of the limiting factors in King’s life is the cycle of neighborhood violence in which he is caught up. His goal of owning a legal business is jeopardized by his role in this cycle, and he tragically comes to realize this very fact as the play draws to a close.

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The seeds also reflect the theme of Fractured Familial Bonds in that they represent King’s hope for his family’s fraught future: Tonya’s pregnancy fills her with dread but provides King with the possibility of being a good father to his child. Himself the child of a father who fell victim to violence, King comes to realize that in killing Pernell, he also robbed Pernell’s child of the experience of growing up with a father. Tragically, King struggles to thrive much in the way that his seeds do. Ruby is sure that the seeds will not flourish in such poor soil, and this is a metaphor for the community of the Hill District in the 1980s: The endemic poverty, lack of resources and opportunities, and widespread inequality create an atmosphere in which men like King find it all but impossible to flourish.

Stolen Refrigerators

The stolen refrigerators that Mister and King sell in order to raise funds for their video store represent the lack of opportunities for Black Americans in 1980s Pittsburgh, especially those who have been incarcerated. They speak to the theme of Systemic Racism and the American Dream in that they demonstrate how inaccessible the American dream is to individuals who have been disenfranchised by widespread inequality and raised in under-resourced communities. Although King begins the play in search of legal work and would much prefer to raise the capital necessary to start a legal business (his video store) through legitimate employment, a tricky court case holds up the job he’d been promised. Because of his criminal record, King struggles to find anyone else willing to employ him, and his only recourse is to fall back on a connection he made while incarcerated. That the refrigerator scheme is not lucrative enough and King and Mister have to result to further criminal acts in order to make money shows how desperate the two men are to escape their life of crime and begin careers as legitimate businessmen. King’s desperate, hopeful striving is at the core of the tragedy of his character’s narrative arc: He comes to regret his violence and his criminality, and he realizes fully that the only path forward is a law-abiding and nonviolent one. Because there are so few opportunities available to him, he is not able to access that kind of success. His marriage, too, crumbles, as a result of his criminal activities, and it becomes obvious that the lack of opportunities and resources in Black communities has a domino effect on Black Americans.

Handguns

Handguns are a key motif within the text, and mention of them abounds. Mister, King, Elmore, and even Ruby are depicted with handguns at various points during the drama. As a motif, handguns speak to the inescapability of violence in 1980s-era Pittsburgh and help develop the theme of Masculinity and the Cycle of Violence. Stool Pigeon establishes the stakes of neighborhood violence early in the play’s action, explaining that crime has skyrocketed in the Hill District and that the neighborhood’s inhabitants have lost their way. Part and parcel of this climate of decline is the tit-for-tat focus on revenge and retribution that he observes in so many of the neighborhood’s men. Each individual who perceives himself the victim of a crime rushes to avenge himself, and in so doing perpetuates the cycle of violence. King murdered Pernell in a fit of rage over an incident that began with an insult, progressed to violence in the form of a razor-blade attack against King, and was “settled” (or so King thought) by a series of gunshots. Elmore, too, committed a violent crime he perceived to be justified and defensible. Each man thought that he had been defending his own honor. Each man realizes only later that their acts of violence were merely pieces in a cycle. The tragedy of King Hedley II is that both King and Elmore have these moments of realization and demonstrate the desire to be redeemed, yet each man remains unable to extract himself from the cycle of violence. King’s death at the hands of his mother, although a terrible accident, is symptomatic of this same cycle, for she herself had been trying to interrupt a possibly deadly encounter between the two men.