Flashcards for Joe Turner's Come and Gone

Bertha Holly

Bertha Holly is the warm and practical co-owner of the Pittsburgh boarding house at the heart of August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1988).

character

Bynum Walker

Bynum Walker is a rootworker and conjure man staying at Seth and Bertha Holly's rooming house in Pittsburgh, as depicted in August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone (set in 1911).

character

Herald Loomis

Herald Loomis is the deeply troubled and spiritually wounded main character in August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1988), which takes place in a Pittsburgh boarding house in 1911.

character

Jeremy Furlow

Jeremy Furlow is a young Black Southern migrant and guitar-playing drifter who comes to Seth Holly's Pittsburgh boarding house around 1911, embodying the restless, pleasure-seeking spirit of the younger generation during the Great Migration.

character

Martha Loomis (Pentecost)

Martha Loomis, known as Martha Pentecost, is the long-absent wife of Herald Loomis and mother of Zonia in August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone, set in 1911 Pittsburgh.

character

Molly Cunningham

Molly Cunningham arrives at Seth and Bertha Holly's Pittsburgh boardinghouse as a confident, sharp-witted young Black woman who knows what she wants out of life—and what she won't tolerate.

character

Reuben Scott

Reuben Scott is a young boy living next door to Seth and Bertha Holly’s boardinghouse in August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, which takes place in Pittsburgh in 1911.

character

Rutherford Selig

Rutherford Selig is a white traveling peddler and self-proclaimed "People Finder" who plays a vital role in August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone, set in 1911 Pittsburgh.

character

Seth Holly

Seth Holly is the practical, Northern-born Black owner of the Pittsburgh boarding house where August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1986) takes place.

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Zonia Loomis

Zonia Loomis is Herald Loomis's young daughter, around eleven years old, who joins her father on his long quest to find her mother, Martha.

character

“The world don't know nothing about what's inside you.”

This line is spoken by Bynum Walker, the rootworker and spiritual guide who lives at Seth and Bertha Holly's boarding house in Pittsburgh, in August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1986).

Bynum Walker

“Everybody got a song. It's your own song. You got to find it for yourself.”

This line is spoken by Bynum Walker, known as the "Binder" — a rootworker and spiritual guide living in the boarding house owned by Seth and Bertha Holly in Pittsburgh — in August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1986), which is set in 1911.

Bynum Walker

“I don't need nobody to bleed for me! I can bleed for myself.”

This bold statement is made by Herald Loomis in August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1988), a play set in a Pittsburgh boarding house in 1911.

Herald Loomis · Act Two

“I give the people a sign. I give the people a sign. I give the people a sign.”

This powerful line comes from Herald Loomis near the climax of August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1988), which takes place in a Pittsburgh boardinghouse in 1911.

Herald Loomis · Act Two

“I done been to where the Southern Cross the Yellow Dog and it's a sad thing to see.”

This line is spoken by Bynum Walker, the "Binder" figure and spiritual root worker living in Seth Holly's Pittsburgh boarding house in August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1988), which takes place in 1911.

Bynum Walker

“Joe Turner's come and gone, Joe Turner's come and gone. Got my man and gone.”

This haunting refrain is sung by Bynum Walker, a "rootworker" and spiritual conjurer living at Seth Holly's boarding house in Pittsburgh, in August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1986).

Bynum Walker · Act One

“You got to hold on to yourself, Herald Loomis. You got to hold on to yourself.”

This line is delivered by Bynum Walker, the rootworker and spiritual guide living at Seth and Bertha Holly's boarding house in Pittsburgh.

Bynum Walker

“You got to be right with yourself before you can be right with anybody else.”

This line is spoken by Bynum Walker, the "rootworker" and spiritual guide living at Seth Holly's boarding house in Pittsburgh during August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1986), which takes place in 1911.

Bynum Walker

“I been watching. I been standing and watching. Waiting to see if I could catch a glimpse of the shiny man.”

This line is spoken by Bynum Walker, the "rootworker" or conjure man living at Seth Holly's Pittsburgh boarding house, in August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1986).

Bynum Walker

“I was making do. I didn't know there was anything else to make.”

This line is spoken by Herald Loomis in August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1988), a play set in a Pittsburgh boarding house in 1911.

Herald Loomis

Bones People Walking on Water

In August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone, bones and the image of people walking on water together capture the spiritual disconnection and remarkable strength of African Americans affected by slavery and the Great Migration.

Bynum's Binding Song

In August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Bynum Walker's "Binding Song" reflects the spiritual ability to help people connect with their true selves and with each other.

Herald Loomis's Blood

In August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Herald Loomis's blood represents the recovery of Black identity and spiritual independence after the brutal experiences of slavery and forced servitude.

The Juba Dance

In August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone, the Juba dance symbolizes the collective reclaiming of African spiritual identity and the healing strength of ancestral memory.

The Road

In August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone, the Road represents the ongoing quest for identity, freedom, and belonging among African Americans after slavery and the Great Migration.

The Shiny Man

In August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone, the Shiny Man symbolizes spiritual freedom and the rediscovery of self.

Symbolism

The 'song' that each character holds within represents the play's central theme of identity, spiritual wholeness, and African American selfhood.

Allegory

Joe Turner never steps on stage, yet he shapes the whole play as a symbolic presence: the white man who forced Black men into illegal bondage for seven years, robbing them of their names, families, and identities.

Motif

The idea of 'finding one's song' appears throughout almost every character's journey.

Extended Metaphor

Bynum's opening monologue about the 'shiny man' he met on the road serves as a rich metaphor for spiritual calling and the African cosmological legacy.

Dramatic Monologue

Loomis's vision speech in Act One stands out as the play's most striking dramatic monologue.

Allusion

Wilson weaves a complex web of references throughout the play.

Imagery

Wilson's stage directions are rich with sensory details that immerse the reader just like a theatregoer.

Personification

Joe Turner is depicted as an almost supernatural presence rather than just a historical figure.

Juxtaposition

Wilson skillfully contrasts the everyday with the divine.

Irony

The play's deepest irony lies in its structure: Rutherford Selig, whose family profited from capturing and returning escaped slaves, now makes a living by searching for lost Black individuals for a fee—yet he’s hailed as a valuable resource by the very community his ancestors once terrorized.

Repetition

The phrase "Joe Turner's come and gone" echoes throughout the play like a blues refrain, each time adding layers of grief and historical significance.

Narrative Poem

Though it's a stage play, Joe Turner's Come and Gone is rich with embedded narratives: characters share stories that reveal the depth of the drama's action.

boarding house

A private home where paying guests rent rooms and receive meals; the landlord and tenants share common spaces like the kitchen and dining room.

noun · Chapter 1

conjure man

A person in African American folk tradition who uses spiritual rituals, roots, and charms to heal, bind, or influence people and events.

noun · Chapter 1

chain gang

A group of prisoners chained together and forced to do hard outdoor labor, such as building roads, as punishment — here used illegally to exploit Black workers in the post-Reconstruction South.

noun · Chapter 1

bind

In this play's spiritual sense, to connect or tie a person to another person or to a place through a mystical, unseen force — not a physical tying.

verb · Chapter 1

the Southern cross the Yellow Dog

A famous crossroads in Mississippi where two railroad lines intersect, considered a place of spiritual power in African American blues and folk tradition.

phrase · Chapter 1

drifter

A person with no fixed home or steady job who moves from place to place, taking work or company wherever they find it.

noun · Chapter 1

Juba

A traditional African American communal dance involving rhythmic clapping, stomping, and call-and-response, rooted in enslaved communities' cultural practices.

noun · Chapter 1

Middle Passage

The forced sea voyage that transported enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas; here it appears as a haunting vision of bones rising from the water.

noun · Chapter 1

free-born

Born into freedom rather than into slavery; used here to distinguish Seth, who was never enslaved, from the Southern migrants around him who carry that history.

adjective · Chapter 1

shining

In this play's spiritual language, radiating an inner light that signals a person has found their true self and broken free from whatever was oppressing their soul.

adjective · Chapter 2

bleed for

To suffer or sacrifice on behalf of someone else; in this context, to act as a spiritual redeemer who takes on another person's pain or debt.

phrase · Chapter 2

song

In Bynum's spiritual framework, a person's unique inner identity and life purpose — the essential self that must be found and claimed to live fully.

noun · Chapter 1

haunted

Persistently troubled by painful memories or visions from the past that a person cannot escape, as if a ghost were following them.

adjective · Chapter 1

devout

Deeply and sincerely committed to a religion, following its practices faithfully and seriously.

adjective · Chapter 2

servitude

The condition of being forced to work for someone else without freedom or fair pay, essentially a form of slavery.

noun · Chapter 2