The Old Story Time free essay sample

The author Old Story Time, Trevor Rhone uses strategies for his readers to understand his play. The following will be considered in this essay: How the writer enables the readers to understand the culture of the play/Caribbean people, How mamas view of black people in the play and how does racism affect the life of two characters. In this play there are a lot of culture the writer makes us understand about the Caribbean. Such as the game touch that was played by peal and Len. After Len was not studying for school he seemed to have the time to play touch with Pearl. The way Pearl and Len plays the game is when girl or boy must touch any private part of each other body. Story Telling is one of the culture the Caribbean like to do. It is mention in the play, stories that are told by Pa Ben and the others. We will write a custom essay sample on The Old Story Time or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page They like to share what they know of that their parents or grandparents tell them. Mama believes in Obeah (voodoo). In the Caribbean it is called obeah. Mama believes that when something bad happens to Len she blames it on Obeah, thinking it all has to do with the spirits of dead. The Nine Night is a caribbean culture to pay respect to the dead. Usually there is a celebration after the funeral where they invite everyone that was there to come and eat and dance. The singing and dancing is required in the Caribbean. Pa Ben says â€Å"Come, we going sing sankey tonight,† it is a Banahim (song book). He starts to sing and dance to. And there is the remembrance/gossip. Remembering the dead and what has happened during the day. The gossip is when they talk black people in society, for example. Mama hates black people! Mama does not like anything black. â€Å"she wouldnt even have a black chicken in her yard. mama has become mentally racist, to her son and to her self. It affects others around her since she is black too. Mama does not encourage any thing black how many times A must tell you, anything black nuh good? All mama wants is for Len to get get with Revrend Greaves daughter, Margret because they are white and white people are achievement with ambition. Mama is racist to Pearl, especially mama does not like her because she is a black girl with no ambition she is not going anywhere other than finding men and getting pregnant. Now mama has made a mistake thinking black people are no where near the white people, but look at Len for an example. Hes not white, hes black like his mama and pearl, but even though he has qualified and now in college, he is still struggling. Pa ben does not encourage this, what mama is doing with Len and Margret, trying to get them together when he knows that Len does not want to be with Margret. He knows what Miss Aggy wants, just for her son to do good in life with a white woman, at least. Pa Ben knows that Len has met a girl when he was away and she is not Margret, she is a black girl. Pa Ben knows that mama would not be happy her son is with a black girl. But mama does not realize her son is not happy until he met the black girl. Pa Ben became a confederate. Len began sending letters to him begging him not to tell his mother. And Pa Ben kept the secret. Racism affects anyone. But in this story, it affects Mama, Len, Pearl etc. The two that it mostly affects is Mama and Pearl, but I have said enough about Mama, so it is Len and Pearl who are really affected. In the play Pearl and Len seemed to liked each other but mama did not accept it. Mama wants Len to have nothing with Pearl because she has no education and no upward social mobility, Len is the opposite of her, he is symbolic of men in society, who had the rare chance of getting education. Mama knows best Mama knows what she is talking about for Len. He does need education if he wants to go off to college, but yet again its mamas dream to send him off for his own benefit. Back then Len could not get a decent job because he is black when racism had just been abolished. And it was still hard for Len to get a good education and to be in college. The white people bullies Len because of his race. It was hard for Pearl too. Since she had no education cause she did not go to school.. And the only thing Pearl can do is just make babies with different men. In the Old Story time book you can learn many thing life challenges, lessons and its culture like racism, the background, the music, the stories and etc. Ive learned about how hard it was for Len and how hard it is out in society even todays generation. But I also got to learn about things I didnt even know about the Caribbean.