Be Your Own Person , Write Your Own Story Parks never gave a real name for the main character , he was only ever referred to as the Foundling Father or the Lesser Known to the Great Man . What she was trying to show here was that he was not supposed to be given a name in the play because he was living in someone else 's shoes ( Abraham Lincoln ) . Throughout the whole play , all he did was act as Abraham Lincoln and that is what brought him fame and wealth . He was never once his own person except for when he was a gravedigger with his wife and son . One of Parks ' points of making this play was to be able to make her own history and it connects to the main character because he could have made his own story if he lived his own life as a gravedigger with his family . She also made it confusing to readers so that they are able to make their own ideas of what she was trying to portray in this play . This allows readers to use their imagination to fabricate their own meaning of the play . Parks was trying to show her audience that if the Foundling Father lived his own life instead of trying to live someone else 's , he could have been the " Great Man " of his own story . Referred to in the play as the Great Man , Parks frequently alludes to the historical realities and myths about Lincoln . Like the Great Man , the Foundling Father is " tall and thinly built " with long legs and large hands and feet . He even takes to wearing a false wart like Lincoln ’s wart . There are frequent allusions to Lincoln ’s beard as the Foundling Father keeps several beards in a box with the initials A.L. on the lid . He also complains that wearing a stovepipe hat inside is historically inaccurate but that people do n’t like it when Lincoln appears hatless . The play references the myth of Lincoln ’s log cabin as a " shape around which their entire lives and their posterity shapes itself . " Most prominently , the play continually repeats the scene of Lincoln ’s assassination by John Wilkes Booth as the Foundling Father allows people to shoot him and reenact the historic moment . The words of the Gettysburg Address and references to the hole in Lincoln ’s head from the shooting also dominate the historical allusions made . Supposed quotations from the assassination that are quoted and repeated in the play include : '' The America Play '' tells the story of an Abraham Lincoln impersonator , known as the Founding Father , reenacting the night Lincoln was assassinated . Customers come and pay as little as they want to act like John Wilkes Booth or anybody else the customer chooses to portray , and pretend to assassinate the Lincoln impersonator . The Founding Father was fascinated by Abraham Lincoln , saying Lincoln was his " favorite " , even referring to Lincoln as " the Great Man " . He was especially interested in the last days of Lincoln ’s life , particularly his last show , deeds , and even his last laughs ( 180 ) . The Founding Father is only concerned with these specific moments in Lincoln ’s life because he wants to them perfect for his impersonation act . Before the Founding Father became this established impersonator , he was a gravedigger , and he is so ashamed of that being his past that he refers to his old self as " the Lesser Known " , which speaks to his embarrassment of being someone so simple and ordinary . and that he so desperately wanted to be someone other than himself , someone great
Lincoln ’s assassination
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
The America Play