Father Comes Home From the Wars

Content Warning: The source text and the guide discuss enslavement, racialized physical abuse, racism, and rape. The guide quotes and obscures the author’s use of racial slurs.

In Part 1 of the play, Hero is given a difficult choice: The Colonel tells him he will give Hero his freedom if he fights with the Colonel for the Confederate Army in the Civil War. Thus, Hero’s individual freedom hinges on him fighting for the “wrong side,” as he calls it, indirectly aiding in the continued enslavement of many others. Ultimately, Hero tries to negotiate what freedom means to him as he fights for freedom in an unjust system defined by systemic racism.

While Hero believes the Colonel’s promise that he will set him free if he goes to war, Homer understands that enslavement is an unjust system and that the Colonel is not obligated or likely to keep his word. In Part 1 of the play, Hero debates the two options that the Colonel has given him: He can either fight for the Confederacy and be freed, or remain and stay enslaved. However, Homer urges him to make a third choice for himself, which relates to the theme of Making New Choices Versus Repeating Old Stories.