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Zooman and the Sign
Charles Fuller’s play, Zooman and the Sign, is about the impact of inner city violence. Zooman roams the streets of New York delivering a freewheeling monologue on his wild life. Meanwhile, Rachel Tate orders her daughter, Jinny, out of the house. As Jinny goes out on the stoop, Zooman spots an opponent in the crowded street, and starts shooting, accidentally killing Jinny. Rueben Tate, Rachel’s estranged husband, comes home to grieve, while police canvas the neighborhood for witnesses. No one admits to seeing a thing, although Jinny’s older brother, Victor, hears the murderer is Zooman. For his part, Zooman is unrepentant, blaming the death on the girl being in the wrong place at the wrong time. “How’m I suppose to feel guilty about that?” he says.
Frustrated by the lack of witnesses, Reuben decides to put up a sign on his house to shame his neighbors into talking. It reads: “THE KILLERS OF OUR DAUGHTER JINNY ARE FREE ON THE STREETS BECAUSE OUR NEIGHBORS WILL NOT IDENTIFY THEM.” The sign backfires, enraging most neighbors and attracting TV crews. The night after Jinny’s memorial service, a brick crashes through the living room window and Rachel implores Rueben to take down the sign, but he refuses. Later that night, in a raging fit, Zooman begins to destroy the sign with his knife, “Magic.” He (Zooman) is shot dead by Emmett, as Reuben and family come out of the house. This play exemplifies social significance and human/personal significance through the characters, situations and of course the community.
Beginning with the characters, we see that Zooman is a thug, or a young boy, who does not have a family structured life. His father is out of the picture and that hurts Zooman because he states, “If I had a nickel for every time I laid eyes on that motha&^$#a’ I wouldn’ have fifty-cents!” He chooses to carry a knife and sometimes a gun, for protection or havoc. He does not allow any one to get close to him and he does not have a conscience for the actions he takes.
Fuller has made Zooman a stereotypical thug. An individual who thinks the world is own his or her shoulders and no one can help them. This character is significant to the play because it should bring awareness to communities all over the nation. Some young boys feel pain about missing fathers, or not having the attention they feel or deserve, from the one parent whom is in the home. Many young African-American boys live their lives as Zooman did and will die just as he died, alone, without the ones that love them most.
The Tate family is characterized as the family with a mother, father, son, and daughter. Reuben and Rachel are having marital problems and they live in separate housing. This upsets Victor and Jinny and allows the children to act out their anger, mainly Jinny, toward the parent’s separation. This cause and effect situation is the reason for Jinny’s death (murder). Because Jinny is [next page]