Master Harold and the Boys

Hally’s mother calls the tea room again. She is bringing his father home, despite Hally’s pleas. Hally tries one more time, increasingly desperately, to insist that his father stay in the hospital. He tells his mother that things will be terrible if his father comes home; he will steal her money for alcohol. Hally does not want to have to take care of his father and threatens to leave home if his parents start fighting, as they often do. His mother puts his father on the phone, and Hally’s voice changes completely. He is warm and jovial with his father, insisting that the news of his coming home is the “best news in the world” (49). His mother tells him to lock up and bring a bottle of brandy home from the tea room. When she hangs up, Hally is despondent. Sam and Willie try to cheer him up by continuing to talk about the ballroom competition, but Hally becomes upset. He sees all their talk about a better world as a useless waste of time and asserts that the world is a terrible place that is never going to change.