Flying West By:Pearl Cleage-Separatism & Invisibility

Hazel Agpaoa
Andrea Flint

Within the playwright, Flyin West by Pearl Cleage, several motifs in relation to black literature are introduced. One of the recurring motifs is separatism which is defined as people of a different group living apart from the dominant or larger group in society. In result to that, the inferior group may often seek for a separate homeland. Just like in Flyin’ West, the characters Sophie, Miss Leah, Minnie, and Will are all associated with racial/black separatism because when times got tough in the South due to racial issues, it left them and other African American woman a chance to settle in an untested region in the West, Nicodemus, in hopes for a better life and an opportunity for freedom. In act 1, scene 1, Miss Leah says, “Don’t nobody but colored folks know they been gone that long no way. Them white folks never come out here to even check and see if we’re dead or alive. You know that as the next person.” This passage shows that although both African Americans and Whites lived in the same state of Kansas, they lived in separate regions and did not really interact much with each other. In act 1, scene 5, Sophie says to Minnie, “When we got ready to leave Memphis, I knew it was the right thing to do. Memphis was full of crazy white men acting like when it came to colored people, they didn’t have to be bound by the law or common decency. Dragging people off in the middle of the night. Doing whatever they felt like doing. Colored women not safe in their own houses. Then I heard there were Negroes going West.” This excerpt clarifies the exact reasons why African Americans had traveled from the South to the West, which was just simply getting away from the racism and violence that were happening to the blacks. They were mistreated, abused, killed, and raped in the South, and when the West was opened up to them and mentioned to be a place full of only colored people in colored towns, it sounded like a better place to settle in, anywhere but Memphis.Another motif in relation to black literature is invisibility; to not be seen or recognized as a human being. The main character that relates to the motif is Miss Leah, a former slave and a settler of Nicodemus, Kansas. Miss Leah’s earlier life as a slave gives way to the motif invisibility. Being that she was a slave shows how she was once not recognized as a human being. Instead she was treated like property or an animal by her slave owner. Like any other slave, her only purpose in life was to follow the orders of her owner and tend to her task. Thus, she was invisible to the human race. Throughout the play, Miss Leah illustrates her life as a slave, in which some relate to the idea of invisibility. In Act1, Scene 4, Miss Leah tells the story of when she lost her virginity. She states,” Soon as my womanhood came on me, they took me out in the barn and put James on me….I screamin’ and carryin on somethin’ awful, and that overseer just watchin’ and laughin’ to make sure James really doin’ it.”(page 47). What was to be an intimate moment turned into a calamity of rape and entertainment. The motif invisibility sets around the idea of an individual not being recognized as a human being. Miss Leah’s character and the background of her life ideally relates to the motif invisibility