King Hedley II, named ostensibly for his father, King Hedley of Seven Guitars fame, is the biological son of a man Ruby was involved with before she left Birmingham. The plot thickens intertemporally as we learn that (1) Elmore, Ruby’s current suitor, murdered Hedley’s biological father, Leroy, over what amounted to a gambling debt, (2) King murdered Pernell because he called him Champ instead of King, and (3) the original Hedley murdered Floyd Barton in a drunken rage over a misunderstood dream. Yet, at an esoteric level, King Hedley II emerges as a spiritual being (“Do you see my halo?”) whose ultimate self sacrifice (the fatted calf) opens the path for the return of the Cycle matriarch, Aunt Ester, who died earlier in the play, foreshadowed as the curtain falls at the play’s end.
There’s a lot to unpack there.
King Hedley II, the play, is about rebirth and renewal, self discovery, self-actualization, and self-transcendence.
As the play opens, King is tending to a small garden, hoping to grow flowers from seed for his wife, Tonya. His mother tells him the soil is bad and not sufficient for growing flowers. A metaphor within a metaphor, we learn in the next scene that Tonya is pregnant, that King has implanted his seed in Tonya, in a manner of speaking. King’s impassioned reasoning about why he needs an offspring to carry forth to the next generation, is exceeded only on Tonya’s protestations about the pregnancy and her stated intention to have an abortion. This is the first and only mention of abortion in the entire Cycle of plays, and the play may be referred to as Wilson’s abortion play. Not always a pleasant subject, I think Wilson included it so we could have the conversation.
But getting back on track, King himself represents a seed planted in what may be called nutrient-poor soil. Yet he lives, and by some measure, perhaps, he thrives. He has a dream of running a chain of video stores, a franchise, which was popular in the 80’s. King is a hustler. He and his best friend sell refrigerators of dubious origin to people who may not be able to afford them otherwise. He robs a jewelry store with the same friend, Mister, who is also the son of a Seven Guitars character, Red Carter. He served time for committing a murder. His rap sheet is long and his record is horrible, and yet, he senses in his own self that he is redeemable. He knows his past, yet still, he wonders, repeatedly, if people around him see his halo. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. . .” King’s association with Aunt Ester during her life (he did yard work for her and ran errands to the drugstore) convinced him that he had a purpose in life.
Fast forwarding to the play’s final scene, in a somewhat showdown between King and the murderer of his actual father, Elmore, King ultimately chooses the high ground of forgiveness over blood vengeance and repeating the cycle of violence and death. Elmore similarly chooses the high ground. For a moment, there is hope for the world. For their world. That moment of peace is punctured, however, by a speeding bullet whose intended destination remains unstated. We cannot conclude from the text of the play if Ruby’s intent was to kill her boyfriend and fiance in defense of her son, or her son in defense of her boyfriend. And it is obvious that Wilson wants us to ponder. But we do know the symbolism of the blood from King’s mortal bullet wound flowing into the ground where Aunt Ester’s cat was buried. We know the metaphor because we’ve all been initiated into the same secret society. And when we hear the cat meow as the curtain falls, we know there is hope for the future.
August Wilson's American Century Cycle 