No Change Without Connection: Analyzing My Children! My Africa! Anonymous 10th Grade

In the play My Children! My Africa! by Athol Fugard, the characters' desires may be similar, but their many limitations due to social and political differences all contribute to conflicted viewpoints. Thami, Mr. M, and Isabel have difficulty connecting with each other for a multitude of reasons. When passion for change conflicts with and overshadows other characters’ opinions, problems arise. Thami and Mr. M struggle to share a perspective about freedom because Thami prioritizes liberation by violence over education; however, Isabel’s different cultural upbringing inflicts a barrier on her ability to empathize with Thami’s need for change.

The characters Thami and Mr. M both want similar things, and emphasize a need for change, although Thami sees the solution as liberation through the use of violence, and Mr. M expresses that he values the power of education much more. Their significant desire to want change may overlap, yet agreement between the two is limited when it comes to how change shall be attained. Mr. M demonstrates the difference between violence and language when he states, “...If you put these two on a scale I think you would find that they weighed just about the same. But in this hand I am holding the whole...