The Power of Female Figures in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone and Two Trains Running by August Wilson

This paper sheds light on the power of female figures in August Wilson's selected plays: Joe Turner's Come and Gone and Two Trains Running and how the playwright manages to subvert the image of a black woman in the American theatre from prostitutes to powerful female characters in his plays. The playwright manages to present a lot of female characters that have a great effect on the life of men especially in the idea of self-finding and resistance. The skill and ingenuity of Wilson are manifested clearly in the centrality of women in the core of the plots and in the creation of empowered female figures. Wilson subverts the stereotypes of the Mammy and the black matriarch, making maternity a source of power. He represents a woman as an effective person in the play, a powerful leader to her family, and her power and influence increase by the progress of the events in each play.