What is the theme in The Purple Flower by Marita Bonner?

Leadership and the new man is another theme in the story. The question of leadership is an important theme of the play's concern with social action. The Us's spend their time debating various ways of trying to make It up the hill Average suggests that they could succeed if they had the right leaders, but Cornerstone argues that the problem is not a lack of leaders, It's that the infighting among the Us's prevents the leaders from accomplishing anything. The Old Man with the drum emerges as one of the leaders of the community of Us's, bringing together the traditional culture of the Old Us's and the new ideas of the educated and financially successful Us's. By doing so, Old Man inspires a Young Us, Finest Blood, to step forth as a new leader in the struggle of the Us's with the White Devils Thus, old and young work together to reach the hill as the Wisdom of the Old Man helps to direct the young leader, who will emerge as the New Man.