Tuesday, November 16, 2010

The Piano Lesson Journal 1

One of my first impressions was that the language used in the novel is very odd.  The characters grammar is  far from correct, and it makes them seem like lower class citizens with little education.  This might be due to the fact that the characters are African Americans living in a country recovering from slavery and the dissent it caused.  It is too early in the play to assume that slavery will play a large part in the story though.  The mention of an automobile shows that it has to be a significant time since the civil war took place, but if I had to guess i would say that slavery will have at least some effect on the characters later on in the novel.  I think that it is a little stranger to read a play than it is to read a novel; I'm interested to see how the experience compares to reading something like Cry, The Beloved Country.

- I agree, many of the characters seem lower class and under-educated.  I'm not quite sure when this book takes place, but I think we can glean some information about the time period from the language.

2 comments:

  1. I like how you noticed the automobile/civil war connection. I also agree with you insight on the language of the characters. The language indicates lesser education, but raises the question "Were they allowed education?". This definitely could be pointing out the the characters are African Americans recovering from the civil war.

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  2. I think it is interesting that you thought of slavery playing a role in the book. I agree though with what you said. But I don't think slavery isn't going to play a part in the book.

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