“Master Harold” by Athol Fugard. . . and the boys” shows that power is an issue in which so many people participate. Hally's relatively short visit to her parents' shop reveals many problems within society in South Africa and around the world that still exist today. Everything from the interactions between the characters, to the title of the work, and even their conversation choices show that the problem with power struggles is that everyone ends up hurt. Fugard presents several brief expositions of the power struggles that affect each character, and in turn exposes to the reader that many forms of power are embedded in society so invisibly that we rarely see such struggles, and they are much more of a blank slate. and black. .Hally's relationships have clear power dynamics shown in the way she acts. He fights with his mother when she fails to control his father and ends up getting angry at her when she is unsuccessful, so as a result he takes his frustration out on the "boys" after every phone call. He initially appears to be good friends with Sam and Willie, with no issues of power, control, or race between them. At first he acts as if Sam is like a father to him and Willie is like an acquaintance or a brother. This soon turns out to be false because as soon as he feels like he has lost control of the situation, that is when he receives phone calls indicating that his father may be coming home. Ultimately, he stoops to treating them as less than human. He scolds Willie as if he were a dog when he hits him with the ruler (Fugard 1163), and spits in Sam's face when he feels threatened by Sam's accusations of speaking ill of his father. He also plays a role when he talks to his father in the... middle of a paper... both the powerful and the powerless are hurt in the end. Sam may have compared the ideal world to a flawless dance without colliding with others, but the reality is that we are all wearing ourselves out, weakening ourselves. The abuse of power is like a chain and everyone who participates in it is swimming in water; someone with more power than one pushes another down, and when that person emerges for air they push another down. Works Cited Beck, Ervin. "Master Harold and the boys." Winter 2000. 58.2. (2000): 109. Print.Brustein, Robert. “'Master Harold'”. The New Republic. June 23, 1982: 30-31. Print.Fugard, Athol. “Master Harold.” . . and the boys. Literature: A Pocket Anthology.Ed. R. S. Gwynn. 4th ed. New York: Penguin-Longman, 2009. 1138-1180. Print. Sutton, Brian. "Fugard's 'Master Harold'... and the boys." Winter2001. 59.2 (2001):109. Press.