Ma Rainey Black Bottom Essay

Aristotle stated “the structure of the best tragedy should…be… complex” representing” incidents arousing pity and fear “. It’s understood that the focus of tragedy is human suffering and a tragedy must be accessible to audiences, creating a shared catharsis. Although Aristotle refers to classical tragedies, a domestic tragedy like “A Streetcar Named Desire” ensures a greater understanding as it is realistic. Blanche, as the protagonist, endures more suffering than Stella, following Aristotle’s theory that a tragic hero should evoke pity and fear. This should reveal harmatia that they do not initially realise, which coupled with their sense of hubris leads to their

In James Baldwin's Sonny's Blues he deals with a man trying to find his identity in a very hostile society. The blues in this story is used in a more emotional manner which recollects the past. It also repairs the relationship between the two brothers who have chosen two different ways of coping in their ghetto environment. The blues also serves as a communication devise between the two brothers. Baldwin uses the blues to state a fact; the ugliness and meanness inherent in the human condition. In order to really understand the message of the blues you have to be one that has suffered just like Sonny and the elder brother. The blues that they play also communicates to other sufferers who have had their own trials, so they know what this music is all about. Sonny's suffering are within himself, but deep suffering is common to all his listeners. Even his brother can attune himself to this suffering, which is brought on by the death of his little daughter Grace. When the brother is at the club listening to the blues he recalls his mother, the moonlit road on

Theatre is not only presented as a piece of art, but as a tool of social reform to express the feelings of humans and contemporary notions of society. Plays are designed to reflect significant issues of a society, on which they were created. The play Black Diggers by Tom Wright, uses certain devices and forms of symbolism to emphasise not only the historical relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, but to link ideas to contemporary issues to provoke ideas of empathy. Wright creates a series of character encounters, to express how an Indigenous racial identity is perceived by society and compare a period of discrimination and infringement of rights to how it is expressed at war during World War 1. This provokes ideas of repentance

In the play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom August Wilson has many characters with many different personalities, which leads to a lot of conflict between the characters. The play is mostly about power struggles between characters in the play. The conflicts that the characters are fighting about are related to the power struggles between members of the band and the producers in charge of the recording studio. There are so many different power struggles that take place throughout the play, and they have a huge effect on what ends up happening to each of the characters in the play. Each of the conflicts that takes place as to do with each character’s different opinion of something or how something should be done. These opinions that each of the

This paper discusses the experiences of African American Women under slavery during the Slave Trade, their exploitation, the secrecy, the variety of tasks and positions of slave women, slave and ex-slave narratives, and significant contributions to history. Also, this paper presents the hardships African American women faced and the challenges they overcame to become equal with men in today’s society. Slavery was a destructive experience for African Americans especially women. Black women suffered doubly during the slave era.

Certain elements of the story help the reader to understand the purpose of the this short story. The setting in the deep south of Memphis Tennessee plays an essential role in reinforcing racial inequality during the 1950s. The 1950s was a time of segregation. In fact, specifically in the state of Tennessee, the Jim Crow Laws were being implemented. These laws included segregation in schools, transportation, marriages, and public accommodations. Thus, racism was not only acceptable and legal, but expected in American culture. Additionally, Walker’s characters, The deacon and Traynor’s fans, reinforce the theme of the racism and exploitation. The deacon refers to African Americans as “you people” and “colored” (Walker). From the outset, the deacon exploits Gracie Mae by offering her a measly five hundred dollars for not just the recording rights, but for all of the records she made of the song. When Gracie Mae tries to get additional money for the purchase of her records, the deacon replies with a disparaging, “What white man—and don’t even need to mention colored—would give you more?” (Walker).

In her song “Prove It On Me Blues”, Ma Rainey speaks about how she “went out last night with a crowd of friends, It must’ve been women, ‘cause I don’t like n men.” The lyrics speak about her liking women without saying it, and almost dares people to question what she is saying when he says “cause they say I do it, ain’t nobody caught me; Sure got to prove it on me.” Women began to express their sexuality in a variety of ways and Ma rainy expressed this in her music. She sang about the institution of marriage and the realities women faced. In her song Misery Blues, she sings, “I’m going to tell you what I went and done; I give him all my money just to have fun; He told me that he loved me, loved me so; If I would marry him, I needn’t to work no mo’; Now I’m grieving, almost dyin’; Just because I didn’t know that he was lyin;” These lyrics represent how men in heterosexual marriages took advantage of black women. Blues singers wanted to share the raw pain and experiences black women were going through. They took their personal and others experiences and used them as a source of inspiration for their

At Pittsburgh’s Halfway Art Gallery he found his audience for poetry, and got to meet some of Pittsburgh’s black literati. In 1981, Wilson submitted Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and it was accepted in the O’Neill Center. It did however, undergo many changes in the summer of 1982, it went on to play at Yale and became the first Broadway play in 1984. His next play that he wrote was Fences. Now Fences is a interesting play to read, because reading the background information I feel as if he was writing this book from his point of view. His dad was not always there, his dad cheated on his mom, his mom raised the kids, and his dad was a worker and then came home and never messed with the kids or played with them. Not so much as he treated the kids like slaves, but in a way you could say he did. Reading the play and then writing this paper has been a wonderful experience. Reading the play gives us some back ground information about what the “1980s” were about. The racism, the abandonment, the shame, the cheating, we see it all in this play. Wilson did a good job at showing us what it was like to be a boy in this time when you wanted to play baseball but could not because you were black, or wanted to go somewhere and you could not because you were black. Some people would think that only “blacks” would like to read something like this because they would “understand” it, but that is not true. Reading Wilson’s

The origin of this novel stems from a time with great attitude changes within the African-American way of life. Tensions between gender specifically had begun to emerge, women, who were thought of as subservient, belonging to the house as well as to their husbands. During the timeframe of this story, women had been beginning to emerge with dignity, grace, and authority. The play takes place in Pittsburgh, during the 1950’s when the gap between genders had been shrinking, as women had been introduced further into society as more than just mothers. To most, this diminishing gap, to most would be a seamless concept, however, to the characters of this play would be a deciding factor for many conflicting scenes. The main characters of this play

Arthur Black is a very opinionated man. In his essays about Canada, he has many short pieces about the differences between Canadians and Americans. He states how there is never anything bad said about Canada, and that Canada could even be considered a “wallflower”. In his essay Canadian Passion Not Flagging, Black talks about how the Americans wave their flag and Canadians do not. Americans have their flag everywhere; hanging inside malls, and even at the gas stations. In his essay Canada: Too Polite to Live, it says how the American Declaration of Independence demands life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Canadians have settled for peace, order, and good government. Another difference between Americans and Canadians according to

Though there was a heightened sense of tension over civil rights in the late 1950s when A Raisin in the Sun was written, racial inequality is still a problem today. It affects minorities of every age and dynamic, in more ways than one. Though nowadays it may go unnoticed, race in every aspect alters the way African-Americans think, behave, and react as human beings. This is shown in many ways in the play as we watch the characters interact. We see big ideas, failures, and family values through the eyes of a disadvantaged group during an unfortunate time in history. As Martin Luther King said, Blacks are “...harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what

The production spearheaded with a solemn poem by Langston Hughes entitled "Harlem." Preparing for an emotionally empowering theater piece, the poem quieted the audience and placed a serious blanket over us. While appropriate for me, I found it extremely coincidental that the poem's title, ties in directly with James Baldwin and his extensive writings on the 1943 Harlem race riots. With the lights off and just a solitary voice reciting the poem, it gave us, the audience, an immediate notion of play's melancholy style.

The brand new mission that involved the 1-502nd Infantry regiment was not only a hostile, but a confusing one in the least. In 2005, the 502nd Infantry Regiment was flung out to the 330-square mile region in Southern Baghdad known as the “Triangle of Death,” homing one of the most dangerous insurgency in the country. This area was the focal battleground between the Sunnis and Shi’ites as well as the central grounds for terrorists to ferry men, weapons, and money into the capital (Frederickson 113). The 502nd Regiment was assigned to the task of root out insurgent strongholds, promote social and municipal revival, and to train the local Iraqi Army battalions into a competent fighting force,

When looking at the origins of African-American Dramas specifically in Mulatto, Native Son, A Raisin in the Sun, Funnyhouse of a Negro, Great Goodness of Life, and Dutchman, the emotions of all these characters created the sense that everyone in this time were still searching for their identity. Each character in the plays had to overcome difficulties relating to their skin color, thus causing either confusion or confidence in their search for what defines them as their self. It created internal conflicts and they often blamed society for specific expectations and stereotypes. How the characters decided to express their feelings in emotions demonstrates a sense of realism and how they viewed themselves. In each play, we are able to see how the characters deal with the searching of their identity through various emotions and internal conflicts through their life choices.

Although the word tragedy is often depicted as an occurring event that leads to catastrophic calamities and misfortunes, the Greek philosopher Aristotle determined that a tragedy, like all poetry, is a kind of imitation that aim’s to bring about the “catharsis” of the spectators and arouse in them a sensation of pity and fear. Shakespeare is very well known to uses these elements in his plays to display emotion in the audience. The play Much Ado About Nothing should be considered a Shakespearean tragedy due to several elements that take place throughout the play. These elements include Catharsis, A struggle between Good and Evil, and External Conflicts that are all present in the play and that are essential to a tragedy.