Baseball Mythology In August Wilsons Fences

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Baseball Mythology in August Wilson's Fences

Author : Verena Bär
Publisher : GRIN Verlag
ISBN 13 : 3656461554
Total Pages : 17 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (564 download)

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Book Synopsis Baseball Mythology in August Wilson's Fences by : Verena Bär

Download or read book Baseball Mythology in August Wilson's Fences written by Verena Bär and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2013-07-17 with total page 17 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 1,3, University of Bayreuth, language: English, abstract: Wilson said that he “started [his play] Fences with the image of a man standing in his yard with a baby in his arms” (qtd. in DeVries 25). This first picture developed into the Pulitzer Prize winning story of Troy Maxson, a fifty-three-year-old, black garbage collector in Pittsburgh. The play starts 1957 and ends 1965 with the death of Troy. In the play we get an insight into Troy’s life with his wife Rose, his sons Cory and Lyons, his brother Gabriel and his best friend Bono. Troy has to face a lot of challenges. First of all, he has to live in a racist society which denied him to live his dream of being a baseball player. Wang says that “the tragic dimension of the play is delineated by the conflict between characters’ tenacious pursuit of their dreams and an environment which works adversely to prevent them from realizing their dreams” (Wang 63). Furthermore, Troy has to work at a garbage department. His hard job gets him just enough money to nourish his family. Also, in his family he has a lot of problems to deal with, especially with his son Cory, who wants to become a professional football player, but also with his wife Rose. The reason for his problems with Rose is that Troy has an affair with another woman, Alberta, and impregnated her. So, the story of the life of Troy Maxson is a story about racism, friendship, segregation, family, love, shattered dreams, rejection and of course baseball.

Fences

Author : August Wilson
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0593087585
Total Pages : 128 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (93 download)

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Book Synopsis Fences by : August Wilson

Download or read book Fences written by August Wilson and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-08-06 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From legendary playwright August Wilson comes the powerful, stunning dramatic bestseller that won him critical acclaim, including the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize. Troy Maxson is a strong man, a hard man. He has had to be to survive. Troy Maxson has gone through life in an America where to be proud and black is to face pressures that could crush a man, body and soul. But the 1950s are yielding to the new spirit of liberation in the 1960s, a spirit that is changing the world Troy Maxson has learned to deal with the only way he can, a spirit that is making him a stranger, angry and afraid, in a world he never knew and to a wife and son he understands less and less. This is a modern classic, a book that deals with the impossibly difficult themes of race in America, set during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s. Now an Academy Award-winning film directed by and starring Denzel Washington, along with Academy Award and Golden Globe winner Viola Davis.

New Left Revisited

Author : John Campbell McMillian
Publisher : Temple University Press
ISBN 13 : 9781592137978
Total Pages : 284 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (379 download)

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Book Synopsis New Left Revisited by : John Campbell McMillian

Download or read book New Left Revisited written by John Campbell McMillian and published by Temple University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Starting with the premise that it is possible to say something significantly new about the 1960s and the New Left, the contributors to this volume trace the social roots, the various paths, and the legacies of the movement that set out to change America. As members of a younger generation of scholars, none of them (apart from Paul Buhle) has first-hand knowledge of the era. Their perspective as non-participants enables them to offer fresh interpretations of the regional and ideological differences that have been obscured in the standard histories and memoirs of the period. Reflecting the diversity of goals, the clashes of opinions, and the tumult of the time, these essays will engage seasoned scholars as well as students of the '60s.

Baseball and Social Class

Author : Ronald E. Kates
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 1476600880
Total Pages : 207 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (766 download)

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Book Synopsis Baseball and Social Class by : Ronald E. Kates

Download or read book Baseball and Social Class written by Ronald E. Kates and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2012-11-14 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of fresh essays examines the intersection of baseball and social class, pointing to the conclusion that America's game, infused from its origins with a democratic mythos and founded on high-minded principles of meritocracy, is nonetheless fraught with problematic class contradictions. Each essayist has explored how class standing has influenced some aspect of the game as experienced by those who play it, those who watch it, those who write about it, and those who market it. The topic of class is an amorphous one and in tying it to baseball the contributors have considered matters of race, education, locality, integration, assimilation, and cultural standing. These elements are crucial to understanding how baseball creates, preserves, reinforces and occasionally assails class divisions among those who watch, play, and own the game.

History and September 11th

Author : Joanne Jay Meyerowitz
Publisher : Temple University Press
ISBN 13 : 9781592132034
Total Pages : 292 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (32 download)

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Book Synopsis History and September 11th by : Joanne Jay Meyerowitz

Download or read book History and September 11th written by Joanne Jay Meyerowitz and published by Temple University Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays sets the attacks on the United States in historical perspective. It rejects the notion of an age-old 'clash of civilizations' and instead examines the histories of American nationalism, anti-Americanism, US foreign policy and Islamic fundamentalism amongst other topics.

The Routledge Introduction to American Drama

Author : Paul Thifault
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000598691
Total Pages : 192 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (5 download)

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Book Synopsis The Routledge Introduction to American Drama by : Paul Thifault

Download or read book The Routledge Introduction to American Drama written by Paul Thifault and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-06-29 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume provides an accessible and engaging guide to the study of American dramatic literature. Designed to support students in reading, discussing, and writing about commonly assigned American plays, this text offers timely resources to think critically and originally about key moments on the American stage. Combining comprehensive coverage of the core plays from the post-Revolutionary era to the present, each chapter includes: historical and cultural context of each of the plays and their distinctive literary features clear introductions to the ongoing critical debates they have provoked collaborative prompts for classroom or online discussion annotated bibliographies for further research With its accessible prose style and clear structure, this introduction spotlights specific plays while encouraging students to contemplate timely questions of American identity across its selected span of US theatrical history.

Women Characters in Baseball Literature

Author : Kathleen Sullivan
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 078648439X
Total Pages : 207 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (864 download)

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Book Synopsis Women Characters in Baseball Literature by : Kathleen Sullivan

Download or read book Women Characters in Baseball Literature written by Kathleen Sullivan and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2005-05-25 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the early 20th century, American writers have both recorded and fictionalized the real-life activities of great athletes, as well as created original characters for sports stories. How have women fared in this literature? Women Characters in Baseball Literature is the first comprehensive evaluation of the women characters of baseball literature, including women’s crucial roles on and off the field of play. Applying several feminist theories and examining the works in the context of both myth and psychology, the author discusses baseball fiction written by both men and women. Among the topics discussed are the literary implications of motherhood; how patterns of behavior in women characters often recall Greek goddesses; and how women characters and the feminist imagination enrich the literature of this apparently masculinized sport. Authors covered include Bernard Malamud, Mark Harris, August Wilson, Lamar Herrin, Nancy Willard, Silvia Tennenbaum, Karen Joy Fowler, and others.

Recognizing 'Fences' - Troy Maxson's Identity Politics

Author : Johannes Steffens
Publisher : GRIN Verlag
ISBN 13 : 3638753204
Total Pages : 30 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (387 download)

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Book Synopsis Recognizing 'Fences' - Troy Maxson's Identity Politics by : Johannes Steffens

Download or read book Recognizing 'Fences' - Troy Maxson's Identity Politics written by Johannes Steffens and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2007-11 with total page 30 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, University of Tubingen, course: PS II Contemporary US Drama: August Wilson, 6 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: August Wilson's 1985 play Fences focuses on black urban life in the late 1950s and deals with intergenerational conflicts, racial issues, distress, and the search for one's identity and position in life. The play's protagonist, Troy Maxson, has been turned into a loud-mouthed, hard-hearted, and occasionally "crude and almost vulgar" (Wilson 1987, 1) oppressor as a result of the hardships of Afro-American life in the first half of the 20th century and the experiences of his youth; Troy abandoned home at the age of fourteen, after being beaten up by his sadistic father for having watched him rape a thirteen-year-old girl. This paper is intended to examine the identity politics in Fences and will focus on the conflict between Troy and his second son Cory. First, it will highlight the importance of recognition for the development of human beings according to Charles Taylor's theory and then show the negative effects of misrecognition and nonrecognition. Secondly, it will show the different phases of Troy's misrecognition in the play and analyze how this leads to a mutilation of Cory's personality.

Invisible Ball of Dreams

Author : Emily Ruth Rutter
Publisher : Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN 13 : 1496817133
Total Pages : 192 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (968 download)

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Book Synopsis Invisible Ball of Dreams by : Emily Ruth Rutter

Download or read book Invisible Ball of Dreams written by Emily Ruth Rutter and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2018-04-30 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although many Americans think of Jackie Robinson when considering the story of segregation in baseball, a long history of tragedies and triumphs precede Robinson's momentous debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers. From the pioneering Cuban Giants (1885-1915) to the Negro Leagues (1920-1960), black baseball was a long-standing staple of African American communities. While many of its artifacts and statistics are lost, black baseball figured vibrantly in films, novels, plays, and poems. In Invisible Ball of Dreams: Literary Representations of Baseball behind the Color Line, author Emily Ruth Rutter examines wide-ranging representations of this history by William Brashler, Jerome Charyn, August Wilson, Gloria Naylor, Harmony Holiday, Kevin King, Kadir Nelson, and Denzel Washington, among others. Reading representations across the literary color line, Rutter opens a propitious space for exploring black cultural pride and residual frustrations with racial hypocrisies on the one hand and the benefits and limitations of white empathy on the other. Exploring these topics is necessary to the project of enriching the archives of segregated baseball in particular and African American cultural history more generally.

The Ground on which I Stand

Author : August Wilson
Publisher : Theatre Communications Grou
ISBN 13 : 9781559361873
Total Pages : 54 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (618 download)

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Book Synopsis The Ground on which I Stand by : August Wilson

Download or read book The Ground on which I Stand written by August Wilson and published by Theatre Communications Grou. This book was released on 2001 with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: August Wilson's radical and provocative call to arms.

Mr. Wrigley's Ball Club

Author : Roberts Ehrgott
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
ISBN 13 : 080326478X
Total Pages : 511 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (32 download)

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Book Synopsis Mr. Wrigley's Ball Club by : Roberts Ehrgott

Download or read book Mr. Wrigley's Ball Club written by Roberts Ehrgott and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2013-04-01 with total page 511 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chicago in the Roaring Twenties was a city of immigrants, mobsters, and flappers with one shared passion: the Chicago Cubs. It all began when the chewing-gum tycoon William Wrigley decided to build the world’s greatest ball club in the nation’s Second City. In this Jazz Age center, the maverick Wrigley exploited the revolutionary technology of broadcasting to attract eager throngs of women to his renovated ballpark. Mr. Wrigley’s Ball Club transports us to this heady era of baseball history and introduces the team at its crazy heart—an amalgam of rakes, pranksters, schemers, and choirboys who take center stage in memorable successes, equally memorable disasters, and shadowy intrigue. Readers take front-row seats to meet Grover Cleveland Alexander, Rogers Hornsby, Joe McCarthy, Lewis “Hack” Wilson, Gabby Hartnett. The cast of characters also includes their colorful if less-extolled teammates and the Cubs’ nemesis, Babe Ruth, who terminates the ambitions of Mr. Wrigley’s ball club with one emphatic swing.

A Cultural History of Sport in the Modern Age

Author : Steven A. Riess
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 135028310X
Total Pages : 406 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (52 download)

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Book Synopsis A Cultural History of Sport in the Modern Age by : Steven A. Riess

Download or read book A Cultural History of Sport in the Modern Age written by Steven A. Riess and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-08-31 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Cultural History of Sport in the Modern Age covers the period 1920 to today. Over this time, world-wide participation in sport has been shaped by economic developments, communication and transportation innovations, declining racism, diplomacy, political ideologies, feminization, democratization, as well as increasing professionalization and commercialization. Sport has now become both a global cultural force and one of the deepest ways in which individual nations express their myths, beliefs, values, traditions and realities. The 6 volume set of the Cultural History of Sport presents the first comprehensive history from classical antiquity to today, covering all forms and aspects of sport and its ever-changing social, cultural, political, and economic context and impact. The themes covered in each volume are the purpose of sport; sporting time and sporting space; products, training and technology; rules and order; conflict and accommodation; inclusion, exclusion and segregation; minds, bodies and identities; representation. Steven A. Riess is Professor Emeritus at Northeastern Illinois University, USA. Volume 6 in the Cultural History of Sport set General Editors: Wray Vamplew, Mark Dyreson, and John McClelland

Critical Analysis of August Wilson's "Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom"

Download Critical Analysis of August Wilson's

Author : Christina Lyons
Publisher : GRIN Verlag
ISBN 13 : 3346505111
Total Pages : 14 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (465 download)

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Book Synopsis Critical Analysis of August Wilson's "Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom" by : Christina Lyons

Download or read book Critical Analysis of August Wilson's "Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom" written by Christina Lyons and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2021-10-05 with total page 14 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Academic Paper from the year 2006 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: A, Southern Illinois University Carbondale (Department of English), course: English Drama (August Wilson), language: English, abstract: In his play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, opened at the Yale Repertory Theatre on April 6, 1984, the African American playwright August Wilson evokes provocation, individualism versus general conceptions of the Black man’s world, conservatism versus progressiveness, and exploitation. The play surprises by its unanticipated, cruel ending, is relatively poor in action but subtly embeds external conflicts (respectively, racial issues), as well as internal conflicts (trivial quarrels among the characters). Since I see a crucial juxtaposition between two characters – Toledo, the intellectual, and Levee, the ignorant, who theatrically become opponents in the final man-slaughter scene – I am focusing on a comparison between those two after a brief description of the plot and the set of characters. The first third of the play bears a faint resemblance with Waiting for Godot, because it depicts the impatient White producer and manager, as well as the quarrelling Black band members waiting for their singer, the famous Ma Rainey, who takes her time getting her “big black bottom” to the rehearsal scheduled for 1:00 p.m. She banishes one band member, ignorant, conceited, and vain Levee (who is constantly seen polishing his shoes), from future productions. Levee dreams of establishing his own band, anyway, hoping to become famous with his more modern songs – “not this old jug band shit” (16) – that the White producer has promised to record with him. However, the latter retracts his offer, offering him ridiculous five dollars for each of his songs, leaving Levee stranded, who is already so overheated that he overacts, pulls his knife, and in affect stabs his colleague Toledo who accidentally steps on his shiny shoe. This shoe stepping scene (which takes place on page 87: “Hey! Watch it... shit! You stepped on my shoe!”) is foreshadowed by a similar event when another band member, Slow Drag, by mistake commits the same “crime” (p. 26: “Damn, Slow Drag! Watch them big-ass shoes you got.”) The irony of the play is that the most understanding of all characters is killed for nothing, for having left a tiny mark on the unstained, immaculate, eleven-dollars-worth of shoes.

Runner Mack

Author : Barry Beckham
Publisher : Beckham Publications
ISBN 13 : 0931761158
Total Pages : 204 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (317 download)

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Book Synopsis Runner Mack by : Barry Beckham

Download or read book Runner Mack written by Barry Beckham and published by Beckham Publications. This book was released on 2005-12-01 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the compelling story of young Henry Adams road to self-discovery through his encounter and friendship with 'Runner Mack', a self-styled black militant. Henry Adams desire to make the Stars baseball team, for which he is well-qualified, symbolises the larger black struggle first to enter and then to participate with dignity in mainstream American society. His transformation symbolises the impact of black consciousness on millions of other African Americans. On its most surrealistic level, 'Runner Mack' touches on the recurring patterns in black history: events symbolic of the slave auction (Henry Adams interview), the Underground Railroad (Henrys subway ride), the forced separation of families (the invasion of men in goggles), and the futile effort to become an American (Henrys baseball tryout). Rich with metaphor and symbolism, the novel portrays the "grand old game" of baseball as the symbol of America -- for whites, a sanctuary where the American dream is reality, for blacks, a nightmarish world filled with pain, chaos and frustration.

Contemporary Black Men's Fiction and Drama

Author : Keith Clark
Publisher : University of Illinois Press
ISBN 13 : 9780252026768
Total Pages : 268 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (267 download)

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Book Synopsis Contemporary Black Men's Fiction and Drama by : Keith Clark

Download or read book Contemporary Black Men's Fiction and Drama written by Keith Clark and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Demonstrating the extraordinary versatility of African-American men's writing since the 1970s, this forceful collection illustrates how African-American male novelists and playwrights have absorbed, challenged, and expanded the conventions of black American writing and, with it, black male identity. From the "John Henry Syndrome"--a definition of black masculinity based on brute strength or violence--to the submersion of black gay identity under equations of gay with white and black with straight, the African-American male in literature and drama has traditionally been characterized in ways that confine and silence him. Contemporary Black Men's Fiction and Drama identifies the forces that limit black male discourse, including traditions established by iconic African-American male authors such as James Baldwin, Richard Wright, and Ralph Ellison. This thoughtful volume also shows how contemporary black male authors use their narratives to put forward new ways of being and knowing that foster a more complete sense of self and more humane and open ways of communicating with and relating to others. In the work of Charles Johnson, Ernest Gaines, and August Wilson, contributors find paths toward broader, less rigid ideas of what black literature can be, what the connections among individual and communal resistance can be, and how black men can transcend the imprisoning models of hyper masculinity promoted by American culture. Seeking greater spiritual connection with the past, John Edgar Wideman returns to the folk rituals of his family, while Melvin Dixon and Brent Wade reclaim African roots and traditions. Ishmael Reed struggles with a contemporary cultural oppression that he sees as an insidious echo of slavery, while Clarence Major's experimental writing suggests how black men might reclaim their own voices in a culture that silences them. Taking in a wide range of critical, theoretical, cultural, gender, and sexual concerns, Contemporary Black Men's Fiction and Drama provides provocative new readings of a broad range of contemporary writers.

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (Movie Tie-In)

Author : August Wilson
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0593184963
Total Pages : 114 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (931 download)

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Book Synopsis Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (Movie Tie-In) by : August Wilson

Download or read book Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (Movie Tie-In) written by August Wilson and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-12-22 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NOW A NETFLIX FILM STARRING VIOLA DAVIS AND CHADWICK BOSEMAN From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Fences and The Piano Lesson comes the extraordinary Ma Rainey's Black Bottom—winner of the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play. The time is 1927. The place is a run-down recording studio in Chicago. Ma Rainey, the legendary blues singer, is due to arrive with her entourage to cut new sides of old favorites. Waiting for her are her Black musician sidemen, the white owner of the record company, and her white manager. What goes down in the session to come is more than music. It is a riveting portrayal of black rage, of racism, of the self-hate that racism breeds, and of racial exploitation.

Critical Analysis of August Wilson's "Seven Guitars"

Author : Christina Lyons
Publisher : GRIN Verlag
ISBN 13 : 3346505707
Total Pages : 13 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (465 download)

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Book Synopsis Critical Analysis of August Wilson's "Seven Guitars" by : Christina Lyons

Download or read book Critical Analysis of August Wilson's "Seven Guitars" written by Christina Lyons and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2021-10-05 with total page 13 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Academic Paper from the year 2006 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: A, Southern Illinois University Carbondale (Department of English), course: English Drama (August Wilson), language: English, abstract: The unreliable black musician Floyd Barton has great plans to go to Chicago and make more records, trying to get his reluctant girlfriend Vera to accompany him. However, he commits the mistake of robbing a loan office and burying the money in the yard, which is witnessed by his lunatic tubercular friend King Hedley, who eventually kills him with his machete to gain possession of the money, which in his belief was destined to him by the legendary “Buddy Bolden,” according to his late father’s legendary promise. This drama deals with kings, and a king to be born. It is a prophesy in this regard. The plot is rolled up backwards: first, the audience observes a circle of friends after the funeral feast for one group member, Floyd Barton; then, the setting is a couple of days before his publicly unresolved murder, and some components of the rising action are: a discussion of the men whether knives or revolvers are better for killing (48-49), a boxing fight of Joe Louis witnessed on the radio (57-58), young sensual and pregnant Ruby arriving quite unannounced to stay at her Aunt Louise’s house (61), Hedley killing an annoying rooster (69), Hedley receiving his machete (92-93), Ruby giving herself to old sick Hedley out of mercy (95), Poochie getting shot when robbing a loan office (101-102), Vera giving in to accompany Floyd to Chigaco (103), Floyd and his band members and friends coming back from the Blue Goose where they had an exceptionally well-received gig (106), and Floyd’s burying the money from his loan office robbery being discovered by Canewell (107-108). The climax is Floyd being threatened by Hedley with his machete to give him his money (109), but the audience is not absolutely certain that he gets killed. The falling action plays after the funeral again, and brings the solution to the murder case: Canewell is the only witness that Hedley is in the possession of Floyd’s money, which he allegedly received by the mysterious Buddy Bolden (112). The theme of this drama is a persiflage about how the American Dream of an aspiring young black musician (with only one hit record so far) is shattered, because the protagonist is corrupted, and eventually killed by an insane man in fulfillment of the oracle of the latter’s mythical African father.