Zooman and the Sign (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Charles Fuller
- First Published: 1980
- Type of Work: Play
- Genres: Drama, Domestic tragedy
- Subjects: United States or Americans, Crime or criminals, Gangs, youth, 1980’s, Fear, Adultery, Death or dying, Working class, Philadelphia, Shooting, Urban life
- Locales: Philadelphia, PA
The play, set in Philadelphia, begins with a rapping monologue delivered by the jive-talking “Zooman,” Lester Johnson, a teenage thug who has just killed a little girl in a gang shootout. “She was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he says, expressing no remorse for having killed the twelve-year-old. Zooman's monologues continue to punctuate the action, but the main dramatic focus is upon the angry and grief-stricken family of Zooman's victim.
Reuben Tate (a bus driver who has been estranged from his wife because of an affair with another woman) and his wife,...
[The entire page is 1002 words long]
