Essay - Eugene O'neill and Richard Wright the Theme of Radical Politics...

Eugene O'Neill and Richard Wright

The theme of radical politics is seen in both Eugene O'Neill's "Iceman Cometh" and ***** Wright's Native Son, although they differ in their conclusions. In "Iceman Cometh," O'Neill reviews the failed lives of his variety of characters to the failure of the labor union. ***** Native Son, Wright does not as far to say that socialism has failed, but rather ***** it is not the perfect political solution.

In ***** play, "Iceman *****, each character ***** had hope and dreams in the past that have not come true. O'Neill says the same th*****g about failure when mentioning "The Movement." By this he means the Industrial Workers of the World, or Wobblies, a radical ***** group in the United States from 1905 through 1917.

O'Neill mentions The Movement very early ***** let readers know that ***** play is not only about individuals, but also political action groups, that have not successfully reached *****ir goals in life. In act 1, Parritt says: "I hung around pool rooms and gambling joints and hooker shops, where they'd never look for a Wobblie, pretending ***** was a sport." Later in the same *****, Harry Hope berates Slade: "Crazy is right! Yah! The old wise guy! Wise, hell! A damned old fool *****narchist I-Won't-Worker!" Later ***** act 1, Hope says again to Slade: "You bughouse I-Won't-Work harp, who asked you to shove in an oar?" Here ***** he is identifying ***** making fun ***** Slade's IWW past.

The IWW was started in Chicago in June ***** when a coalition of ********** and labor leaders from such organizations as the Western Federation of Miners and the Social*****t Party of America met to form "One Big Union" dedicated to industrial unionism as opposed ***** the craft associations of ***** American ***** of Labor. Along with the organizing of bargaining units, there was a push toward radical politics. However, a split came in leadership, and the IWW lost out. In 1918, over a hundred Wobbly leaders were convicted under ***** Espionage Act for opposing American entry into ***** War I and sent to prison.

***** "Iceman Cometh," then, O'Neill is showing that American radicals had the same potential for d*****olving their failures into a "pipe dream" life as did the s*****iers, lawyer, police officer, journalist, and musician, among others, who were drunk at the bar. When Slade says ***** those in The Movement are "as stupidly greedy for power as the worst capitalist they attack," O'Neill is saying that neither "capitalism," which he ***** frequently cuts down in the play ***** its greediness, nor "anarchism/radicalism" have proved to be the right political answer.

***** Wright's Native *****, was once criticized by black ***** of being too militant, it is now seen in a very different light. It is a work where Wright shows his beliefs about pol*****ics at that time; that is, he sees them as a conflict of ideals. The rational side of Bigger, which ***** forced *****to murder, is connected to Communism