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LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Spirituality is framed in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone as something people turn to in order to find meaning in their lives. There are, of course, many different kinds of spirituality—a fact Wilson takes into account by portraying characters with wide-ranging belief systems. Bynum, for example, invests himself in old forms of African healing and mystical practices. Loomis’s wife Martha, on the other hand, devotes herself to Christianity, believing that faith in the Lord gives purpose to life. Although these two conceptions of spirituality seem to differ greatly, they both speak to a desire to impose meaning and order on life, which might otherwise seem chaotic and meaningless.
Bynum is a “conjure man,” a person who practices folk magic. He is presented as a shaman of sorts, apparently capable of “binding” people to one another spiritually. Doing this, he claims, is his life’s calling—his “song.” Even Wilson’s note about Bynum suggests that his spiritual beliefs give him a sense of order and meaning; “A conjure man, or rootworker, he gives the impression of always being in control of everything. Nothing ever bothers him. He seems to be lost in a world of his own making and to swallow any adversity or interference with his grand design.” That Bynum always feels “in control of everything” because of his practice as a conjure man illustrates the extent to which faith and spirituality can influence a person’s conception of their own life. Indeed, Bynum feels empowered and comfortable in his life because he has invested himself in a “grand design.” As such, Wilson implies that the idea of being part of something larger than oneself can help a person deal with adversity—even if this means being “lost in a world of [one’s] own making.”
The ways in which other characters participate—or don’t participate—in Bynum’s “grand design” suggests that people often approach spirituality in a pragmatic way. In other words, they invest themselves in certain belief systems because they think doing so will help them live productive, fortunate, and meaningful lives. Bertha is a perfect example of somebody who approaches spirituality in this way, as she combines Christianity with Bynum’s “conjure” rituals, supposedly doubling her chances of inviting good fortune. In the play’s opening scene, Seth critiques her for participating in Bynum’s folk magic, saying, “You around here sprinkling salt all over the place…got pennies lined up across the threshold…all that heebie jeebie stuff. I just put up with that ’cause of you. I don’t pay that kind of stuff no mind. And you going down there to the church and wanna come home and sprinkle salt all over the place.” By saying this, Seth points out that Bertha is mixing arguably contradictory belief systems, creating an amalgamation of superstition, Christianity, and folk magic. According to him, this is all nothing but foolishness, but Bertha disagrees. “It don’t hurt none,” she says. “I can’t say if it help…but it don’t hurt none.” According to Bertha’s outlook, then, a person doesn’t need to commit to just one system of belief. Spirituality, it seems, can be amorphous and still inform a person’s life, helping one achieve a sense of order, security, and meaning.
Martha, Herald Loomis’s wife, invests herself in Christianity, a more commonly accepted form of spirituality than Bynum’s “conjure” magic. For her, life is meaningless if a person doesn’t believe in God, follow the Bible, and devote themselves to Jesus Christ. When she discovers that Herald has strayed from the church, she says, “You got to open up your heart and have faith, Herald. This world is just a trial for the next. Jesus offers you salvation.” When she asserts that “this world is just a trial for the next,” she suggests that the only point of life is to prepare for heaven. This is an extreme example of how spirituality can give meaning to life; for Martha, religious belief eclipses all other considerations. Whereas Bynum believes each person must find their own “song”— specific to that person—Martha upholds that there’s just one calling for everybody, and people must “open up [their] heart[s]” to it. “You can’t just be alive,” she says to Herald. “Life don’t mean nothing unless it got a meaning.” For her, this “meaning” is to be found in religious devotion.
By showcasing how people organize their lives around spirituality, Wilson hints at the fact that humans often tend toward the fatalistic conception that certain things in life are predestined—part of a divine plan. Bynum, for example, has built his life around a spiritual practice that unites people who are “meant to be” together. The idea that two people are “meant to be” with one another implies a preordained narrative, something that ultimately superimposes a sense of order and significance upon a person’s existence. Similarly, Martha’s belief that everybody will pass into “the next” world when they die emphasizes life’s unavoidable end, an outlook that—despite its morbidity—gives existence the feeling of guaranteed direction. As such, people can take a certain amount of comfort in the idea that they know what will happen to them, especially since they might otherwise think of the future as chaotic and unpredictable. Both Bynum and Martha’s outlooks, then, suggest that certain events will transpire in the end no matter what. This idea, it seems, is soothing to the characters in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone because it helps them believe that they exist in a “grand design,” a notion that naturally adds meaning to their lives. In this way, Wilson presents spirituality as a deeply human practice of meaning-making—one that satisfies the natural desire to add order and value to existence.
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Spirituality ThemeTracker
The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Spirituality appears in each act of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
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Spirituality Quotes in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone
Below you will find the important quotes in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone related to the theme of Spirituality.
The Play Quotes
From the deep and the near South the sons and daughters of newly freed African slaves wander into the city. Isolated, cut off from memory, having forgotten the names of the gods and only guessing at their faces, they arrive dazed and stunned, their heart kicking in their chest with a song worth singing. They arrive carrying Bibles and guitars, their pockets lined with dust and fresh hope, marked men and women seeking to scrape from the narrow, crooked cobbles and the fiery blasts of the coke furnace a way of bludgeoning and shaping the malleable parts of themselves into a new identity as free men of definite and sincere worth.
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August Wilson provides this note in a section entitled “The Play,” which appears before the beginning of the work’s first scene. In doing so, he provides a cultural backdrop for the entire play, one that contextualizes his characters’ wayward lives and their tendencies toward migration and transience. Indeed, he historically situates his characters, noting that they are the “sons and daughters of newly freed African slaves” and that they’re wandering out of the “deep and the near South.” When he says that they arrive with “their heart kicking in their chest,” he suggests that this group of people is something Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque
SETH: […] All that old mumbo jumbo nonsense. I don’t know why I put up with it.
BERTHA: You don’t say nothing when he bless the house.
SETH: I just go along with that ’cause of you. You around here sprinkling salt all over the place…got pennies lined up across the threshold…all that heebie jeebie stuff. I just put up with that ’cause of you. I don’t pay that kind of stuff no mind. And you going down there to the church and wanna come come [sic] home and sprinkle salt all over the place.
BERTHA: It don’t hurt none. I can’t say if it help…but it don’t hurt none.
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Seth and Bertha have this conversation in the kitchen at the beginning of the play while watching Bynum enact a folk magic ritual outside the window. This is the first moment in which Seth expresses his strong skepticism of superstition and spirituality in general, calling it “old mumbo jumbo nonsense.” When he says that he doesn’t know why he puts up with this sort of behavior, Wilson signals to the audience that Seth is a no-nonsense kind of person, thereby foreshadowing his vehement dislike of Herald Loomis, whom Seth thinks brings chaos and unsavoriness into his home. What’s interesting, though, Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corporis. Impedit non ut. Incidunt rerum est. Aperiam doloremque eum. Animi soluta perspiciatis. Ut minima autem. Modi omnis iure. Sint qui qui. Qui similique praesentium. E
Jeremy just young. He don’t know what he getting into. That gal don’t mean him no good. She’s just using him to keep from being by herself. That’s the worst use of a man you can have. You ought to be glad to wash him out of your hair. I done seen all kind of men. I done seen them come and go through here. Jeremy ain’t had enough to him for you. You need a man who’s got some understanding and who willing to work with that understanding to come to the best he can. You got your time coming. You just tries too hard and can’t understand why it don’t work for you. Trying to figure it out don’t do nothing but give you a troubled mind. Don’t no man want a woman with a troubled mind.
You get all that trouble off your mind and just when it look like you ain’t never gonna find what you want […] you look up and it’s standing right there. That’s how I met my Seth. You gonna look up one day and find everything you want standing right in front of you.
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Bertha says this to Mattie Campbell after Jeremy runs away with Molly Cunningham, leaving Mattie alone after she has just moved in with him. In the wake of this unfortunate situation, Mattie has once again been talking to Bynum, who has given her a good luck charm and who frequently asks her if she’s keeping it under her pillow. As somebody who’s flexible when it comes to spirituality, Bertha advises Mattie to not dwell on “trying to figure” out her life. As such, she tries to disabuse Mattie of Bynum’s influence, suggesting that the young woman pay no heed to Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit
Act One: Scene One Quotes
My daddy called me to him. Said he had been thinking about me and it grieved him to see me in the world carrying other people’s songs and not having one of my own. Told me he was gonna show me how to find my song. Then he carried me further into this big place until we come to this ocean. Then he showed me something I ain’t got words to tell you. But if you stand to witness it, you done seen something there. I stayed in that place awhile and my daddy taught me the meaning of this thing that I had seen and showed me how to find my song. I asked him about the shiny man and he told me he was the One Who Goes Before and Shows the Way. Said there was lots of shiny men and if I ever saw one again before I died then I would know that my song had been accepted and worked its full power in the world and I could lay down and die a happy man. A man who done left his mark on life. On the way people cling to each other out of the truth they find in themselves. Then he showed me how to get back to the road.
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Bynum says this to Rutherford Selig while telling the traveling salesman his story about encountering the “shiny man,” whom he has hired Selig to find. This is an important moment in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone because Bynum introduces the idea that each person has a “song,” and that everybody must find this “song” for themselves. Interestingly enough, he tells Selig that he doesn’t have “words” to actually communicate what he saw in this “big place.” This is strange, considering that Bynum originally set out to tell Selig the Secret of Life, and yet just when he finally reaches the Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At
The roots is a powerful thing. I can fix it so one day he’ll walk out his front door…won’t be thinking of nothing. He won’t know what it is. All he knows is that a powerful dissatisfaction done set in his bones and can’t nothing he do make him feel satisfied. He’ll set his foot down on the road and the wind in the trees be talking to him and everywhere he step on the road, that road’ll give back your name and something will pull him right up to your doorstep. Now, I can do that. I can take my roots and fix that easy. But maybe he ain’t supposed to come back. And if he ain’t supposed to come back…then he’ll be in your bed one morning and it’ll come up on him that he’s in the wrong place. That he’s lost outside of time from his place that he’s supposed to be in. Then both of you be lost and trapped outside of life and ain’t no way for you to get back into it. ’Cause you lost from yourselves and where the places come together, where you’re supposed to be alive, your heart kicking in your chest with a song worth singing.
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Bynum delivers this short monologue in a conversation with Mattie Campbell, in which Mattie has just asked him to use root magic to make her ex-lover, Jack Carper, return to her. It’s worth noting the way he explains how he could make Jack Carper come back, saying that he could make the young man feel a “powerful dissatisfaction” and that this “dissatisfaction” would eventually draw him to the “road,” which he would travel until finally finding Mattie again. This is an important idea because it offers one reason why so many of the people in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corporis. Impedit non ut. Incidunt rerum est. Aperiam doloremque eum. Animi soluta perspiciatis. Ut minima autem. Modi omnis iure.
BYNUM: What you waiting on, Herald Loomis?
LOOMIS: I’m waiting on the breath to get into my body. I can feel it. I’m starting to breathe again.
BYNUM: The breath coming into you, Herald Loomis. What you gonna do now?
LOOMIS: The wind’s blowing the breath into my body. I can feel it. I’m starting to breathe again.
BYNUM: What you gonna do, Herald Loomis?
LOOMIS: I’m gonna stand up. I got to stand up. I can’t lay here no more. All the breath coming into my body and I got to stand up.
BYNUM: Everybody’s standing up at the same time.
LOOMIS: The ground’s starting to shake. There’s a great shaking. The world’s busting half in two. The sky’s splitting open. I got to stand up.
(LOOMIS attempts to stand up.)
My legs…my legs won’t stand up!
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Bynum and Herald Loomis have this conversation in the parlor just after Herald has dashed in and yelled at the residents to stop singing about the Holy Ghost. Loomis then collapses to the floor and enters a vision, which Bynum helps him describe. In this vision, Herald sees a collection of bones rise up over a vast ocean and walk on the water before toppling into a wave and falling all over the shoreline, where he himself lies. Of course, this conversation is extremely abstract and admittedly hard to follow, but it is ultimately in line with Wilson’s highly stylized Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi
Now, I can look at you, Mr. Loomis, and see you a man who done forgot his song. Forgot how to sing it. A fellow forget that and he forget who he is. Forget how he’s supposed to mark down life. Now, I used to travel all up and down this road and that…looking here and there. Searching. Just like you, Mr. Loomis. I didn’t know what I was searching for. The only thing I knew was something was keeping me dissatisfied. Something wasn’t making my heart smooth and easy. Then one day my daddy gave me a song. That song had a weight to it that was hard to handle. That song was hard to carry. I fought against it. Didn’t want to accept that song. I tried to find my daddy to give him back the song. But I found out it wasn’t his song. It was my song. It had come from way deep inside me. I looked long back in memory and gathered up pieces and snatches of things to make that song. I was making it up out of myself. And that song helped me on the road.
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Bynum says this to Herald Loomis after Loomis asks him how he knows so much about him. Bynum claims he can just tell by looking at Loomis that he’s “a man who done forgot his song,” something Bynum thinks is utterly significant to a person’s wellbeing, since—according to his own life story—anybody who hasn’t found his “song” is condemned to “travel all up and down this road and that…looking here and there. Searching.” When Bynum says that “the only thing [he] knew was something was keeping [him] dissatisfied,” he recalls his earlier remark to Mattie that he could make Jack Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis.
(LOOMIS slashes himself across the chest. He rubs the blood over his face and comes to a realization.)
I’m standing! I’m standing. My legs stood up! I’m standing now!
(Having found his song, the song of self-sufficiency, fully resurrected, cleansed and given breath, free from any encumbrance other than the workings of his own heart and the bonds of the flesh, having accepted the responsibility for his own presence in the world, he is free to soar above the environs that weighed and pushed his spirit into terrifying contractions.)
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This passage combines Wilson’s final stage notes with Herald Loomis’s last words in the play. When Herald “slashes himself across the chest,” he does so as a way of responding to Martha’s insistence that Jesus bled for him, a statement intended to convince her husband to return to religion and embrace Jesus once again as his savior. Despite her efforts, Herald refuses to resume his religious life because he now sees Christianity as yet another force that has oppressed him and kept him from achieving a sense of “self-sufficiency.” As such, he cuts himself, thereby bleeding for himself rather than Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo.
