Master Harold: Differing Influences on Fugard Athol Fugard's drama, "Master Harold" . . . And The Boys, was written during a time of great conflict in South Africa, where he was raised. Fugard was torn between his mother, who was "Afrikaaner," (1291) and his father, who was "of English decent" (1291). These differing influences caused Fugard to use the discussions between Sam and Hally to demonstrate the religious, racial, and political tensions of his lifetime in South Africa. The discussion between Sam and Hally about who was "a man of magnitude" (1300) represents the religious tensions of Fugard's lifetime in South Africa between the growing belief in evolution an