This week we explore the black family in African American Theater, specifically focusing on the role of women and their multiple roles. As we explore the terms Negro, Colored, Black, Afro-American and African American, and their relationship to the black family, how do these terms define the limits of what roles are available to women? How are women's roles over time reflected in the ways that black people in the United States identify themselves as "black"? Shange's For Colored Girls explores the multiple roles of black women as sisters, mothers, lovers, friends. The play takes place in the 1970s as black women began to assert themselves as feminists and create their own perceptions of black female identity. In Nottage's Crumbs, we see African American women in the 1950s defining themselves both in and outside the family home in realtionship to black men and socially prescribed roles for women. Both plays address the ways that black women define themselves in relationship to dominant society and black men.
As you blog this week, link your ideas about the play to the shifting definitions of blackness reflected in the terms Negro, Colored, Black, Afro-American and African American. How does the historical time period assigned to these terms shape possibilities for black women to self-define?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDuring lecture we discussed some of the representations of women in this week’s plays. In both plays the women are the central figures, yet the men in both plays are the key to any of the relationships (Lecture 2/23). In Crumbs the character Lily makes it very clear what her role is with men. She says, “Vanity is a weapon. I’m not trying to kill ya, I’m trying to make ya beautiful enough to kill others” (360). Although Lily thinks of herself as a feminist and “choosing not to marry one man…when I can have so many” (359), she still depends on men when it comes to her looks. Both Ernestine and Ermina are also relying on men (their father) and he is relying on Father Divine. In almost every poem during For Colored Girls the women were speaking about men. Although the men were not shown, or were secondary characters, the men’s actions greatly affected the women. In the movie, the woman getting an abortion was impregnated by a man, one woman was breaking up with a man in a letter because he never cared for her, three friends were torn apart by a man because he dated all of them and in the last monologue a man was getting back at his girlfriend by killing their children. In all of the prior instances the black man was negatively affecting the black woman’s role in life.
ReplyDeleteI feel that blackness in family relationships is best understood in Nottage’s play that represents the family dynamic through the absence. The mother, who has been dead since before the play’s beginning represents the stereotype of the perfect black woman as a mother who can sew, cook, clean, and play the typical mother role to her daughters while her husband works. It is from her death that we see Godfrey uncomfortable acceptance of raising his children, and in turn uses Father Divine and his letters as a way to raise his children as he pushes them into celibacy, distancing themselves from others both black and white, and trying to keep the growing black women in a position of subservience to himself. Lily’s sudden appearance, her bringing in ideas and education to the girls threaten the “divine” control that Godfrey made for himself. As Lily says, “ Godfrey don’t like nothing he can’t control…” (p. 380), and proceeds to push the girls to become more revolutionary thinkers than falling into the stereotype of the black woman who is uneducated and oppressed.
ReplyDeleteThis control further stereotypes the hierarchy not only in the male to female sense, but also in blackness versus whiteness as Godfrey chooses Gerte as his new wife on a sense of marrying up to a “pure” white woman who obeys and follows him without question, unlike Lily who fights to be heard as a symbol of a educated, independent black woman in a changing world.
The struggle of male versus female and black versus white in our discussion this week is very interesting. We see in Crumbs from the Table of Joy by Lynn Nottage examples of struggle with race and gender. Single father, Godfrey Crump, finds himself a bit lost after the passing of his wife as he tries to raise his two daughters in Brooklyn during a turbulent time in the United States. Godfrey seeks guidance from Father Divine and the theme of gender continues as we see Godfrey raise his children based off the ideas that Father Divine has preached. Both Ernestine and Ermina have lost the only significant woman on their lives in their mother and now Godfrey helps to become both mother and father in one. Lily Crump, sister to Mrs. Crump, is a positive African-American female influence on the girls, “It’s me, your aunt Lily, sister” (351). Lily uses the word sister as positive affirmation for African-American women that show a united front against sexism and segregation. Godfrey pushes the girls to break the mold of an uneducated black woman and teaches his daughters to be a new mold. Lily pushes the girls to be themselves and not what their father wants them to be. Gerte’s presence only seems to be a barrier for the girls and changes how Godfrey is as a person. The lack of females in the lives of the teenagers makes them grow up even faster than expected causing them to make decisions about what kind of person they want to be.
ReplyDeleteFor Colored Girls by Shange and Crumbs from the Table of Joy by Nottage both are exploring black female identity. Interestingly enough the identity of black women in both of these plays were highly dependant on their male counterparts. In Nottage’s play you see the development of two teenage girls in young adulthood who have only their father to look on for guidance until their Aunt Lily comes into the picture. Lily is constantly trying to get the girls to define themselves instead of allowing their father to define them. In the end, Ernestine one of the daughters makes her own decision and goes on to college to help fight for the revolution. The ironic thing is though, that while Lily is pushing feminist thought to the girls she too is defined by the Godfrey, the father. Lily states, “Then why ain’t I the one in your bed?” (Crumbs, 388). In Shange’s play the black men are also the oppressor and help to define the black woman. Whether it is a man who is cheating and constantly saying sorry or a man like Beau Willie Brown, who kills their children. In both shows I would say that the men are oppressors to their women because they are oppressed by society. Whether it is Beau’s inability to get a job and get right after he came back from Vietnam. And Godfrey’s inability to fit into New York where he is either a “country nigger” from his boss (Crumbs, 390), a “nigger” (Crumbs, 368) by some white men on the subway, or a “communist” (Crumbs, 360) from the people at school he is constantly oppressed by society.
ReplyDeleteNottage’s “Crumbs for the Table of Joy” and Shange’s “For Colored Girls” both examine the roles and experiences of African American women, as well as their significance in the “Black Family” dynamic. Nottage chose to set her play in 1950’s American and explore the issues of that time and place. As stated in the lecture, this was a time when gender roles were further complicated by issues of racism and segregation, which resulted in very limited life roles for black women (Lecture, 02/23). Nottage emphasises this with the prospects offered to Ernestine and Ermina – “a life in the bakery [...] with no greater expectation than for the bread to rise” (395). Their race limits them, by preventing them from receiving equal education or opportunities, and they are then further restricted by their gender. Ernestine and Ermina are controlled and defined by the men in their lives, i.e. Godfrey and Father Divine, even to the extent that their names are chosen for them – “For your eldest, Darling Angel. And your baby, Devout Mary” (350). This concept of being controlled and manipulated by men is also reflected in Shange’s play; each poem illustrates how each women reached the described moment in her life, for example a painful and traumatic abortion, as the result of the actions, influence, and force of men. However, as suggested in the Hatch and Shine extract of “Colored Girls”, Shange intended her audience to also recognise the way that these men were in turn used and manipulated by society – “the cops was always messin wit him / plus not getting much bread” (366). Both Authors respond to the limited roles for Black women by using their play to empower them in some way. Nottage illustrates the strength and courage of the female characters in her play in a powerful scene in which Ernestine rejects the life defined for her by her father and outlines the life she sees for herself – “I’m not Darling Angel, I’m Ernestine Crump, it says so on my diploma” (396).
ReplyDeleteWatching the movie For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide when the Rainbow was Enuf was a powerful piece to see. I loved the use of different shades of black women; it made me realize that no matter what skin tone a black woman may have, they all go through many trial and tribulations in life. One part that truly stayed with me was when the actress Lynn Whitfield was laying on her back in an abortion clinical with tears streaming down her face, speaking about how she feels alone and how she was ashamed to even tell her friends of the pregnancy. According to a study done by the Guttmacher Institute in 2008, 37% of abortions done in the United States of America are done by black women (www.guttmacher.org), which is the highest of all ethnic groups. “I have found God in myself and I loved her, I loved her fiercely”. A bold and powerful statement written by Ntozake Shange that gives her a strong feminist quality and more proof of the strength and courage she has as a writer.
ReplyDeleteTerminology has changed to fit the times and has meant to represent the progression associated with the ability to have a comfortable dialogue on race. The terms have changed for Blacks in America, however it has not been necessary for Whites to define themselves as something other than White.
ReplyDeleteIn Andrea Benton Rushing’s article she states that Shange used the word “colored” in the plays title because it was a word her grandmother would understand.(542) It is this relationship to the past that keeps the Black race moving forward and ever changing without losing respect for the memories of those that came before.
For Colored Girls…exemplifies a relationship to the present circumstances of the women and their individual monologues speaks loudly to all. It is about the feelings associated with being oppressed by men primarily, and by the world that encompasses them. The woman in Blue feels suffocated by her six block radius. She also does not see a way out when she becomes pregnant and faces an abortion alone. It is this very dichotomy that exemplifies the struggles and triumphs over identity in the play. The who am I in relation to the world around me and personal choices resonates throughout Shange’s choreopoem.
The struggle of black women to define themselves in a white dominated and male dominated society presented in both for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf and Crumbs from the Table of Joy reflects the struggle of African Americans to define themselves. Historically contingent terms have been used by whites to label African Americans including Negro and Colored, while African Americans have used the terms Black, Afro-American, and African American to define themselves (lecture 2/23). This historical progression of terms reflects the need for freedom in self-definitions and the desire for agency in naming oneself and ones people; both of these needs are centrally important in the lives of the black women in Crumbs and for colored girls. The desire to self-define is complicated in both plays by the effect black men have on the lives of black women. The women in both plays struggle to define who they are in large part due to the central role and effect black men have on their lives. In Crumbs Godfrey is the central male patriarch whose actions not only affect his two daughters, Ernestine and Ermina, but his sister-in-law, Lily, and his new wife, Gerte as well. Godfrey is not the abusive, angry black male figure presented in for colored girls such as Beau Willie (Hatch & Shine 366), however his effect on the black (and white) female characters in the play is undeniably powerful. Nottage presents the tension between black male and black female autonomy and how Godfrey’s actions literally change the lives of the women around him in the following ways: his financial decisions such as counting his money quietly rather than treating his girls to a trip to the movies (Elam & Alexander 350), his ideas of his daughter’s futures such as the job offer to work at the bakery for Ernestine (395)), his literal inscription of his fervent religious beliefs on the bodies of his two daughters by making them wear V’s to symbolize their purity and chastity as virgins (362), and the actual changing of his daughters’ names that both Ermina and Ernestine resist such as when Ermina states: “Not me, Miss Devout Mary. (she sucks her teeth) What’s wrong with Ermina Crump?” (350) and later from Ernestine: “I’m not Darling Angel, I’m Ernestine Crump, it says so on my diploma” (396). While Andrea Benton Rushing criticizes Shange’s work in statements such as: “The unanswerable question is how Shange fastened on troubles with black men as THE roots of black women’s pain” (547), it is nonetheless made powerfully clear after exploring both Crumbs and For Colored Girls that the role of men in black women’s lives has been central in the efforts to articulate a black female identity and self-definition.
ReplyDeleteBecause “Crumbs from the Table of Joy” by Lynn Nottage was placed at the height of the civil rights movement, I was definitely able to see how women in the play began to see opportunities open. Lily, knew that she would never be as high in social status as a white woman, but she went on the get a degree and thought about selling books, then became an etymologist. This shows that women were becoming their own person, and getting the best out of life. Lily said “Well, somebody had to break the barrier, let those white boys know we saying what we please,” (Nottage 1950). This enlightment of ideas shows how blacks shifted away from the “negro” time period. No longer were blacks conforming to what they believed what the whites wanted them to be. Gerte tried to recommend Lily a job and Lily responded, “Nobody wants to hire a smart colored woman. And I ain’t gonna be nobody’s maid. Too many generations have sacrificed their souls in pursuit of the perfect shine,” (Nottage 1950). Lily wanted to do more than be a maid. She wanted to prove that black woman could be just a intelligent as any white woman.
ReplyDeleteI find both these plays interesting and they brought out emotions in me. I believe women in the plays are not given the same opportunities in the world as men and it is interesting that men play a vital role in the plays, though often not in a positive role. Though the women are seen as somewhat “inferior” by the men, they are in my opinion much stronger. They must deal with incredible odds in a world constructed by and for men. They have emotions, wants and needs that they attempt to sort out themselves or with the help of other women, instead of seeking the help of men. In For Colored Girls, when the woman tells the story of how her boyfriend killed their two children by dropping them from the upstairs window to the ground, because he wouldn’t agree to marry her, my heart broke! She confides this terrible tale in her girl friends and accepts their hugs and shoulders as she cries. However, she is a strong woman to even live to tell the tale. I know if something happened to my children, I wouldn’t even want to go on living without them! I think these women playwrights make the women in their stories strong and determined. Though at first glance the women appear to rely on men, they are actually the backbone of the family and have to be strong to hold it all together.
ReplyDeleteI do not think Nottage or Ntozake were not inciting anything but exposing the reality of relationships as a whole. Lilly in my opinion will forever be fighting a battle she cannot win. Because she says she does not need a man but strives to keep herself up to be approved by them. It hits home and it hurts me because I know many women like this. Peaceful and calm on the outside but the tempest inside manifest into what some call stuck up, gold digger, ho, foul, selfish, and or naïve. That is why often I realize that when women accuse and retaliate on me for some reason on my behalf. It is because I understand that women have it harder because at first they’re not afraid of love, at first. It is not wrong or crazy to wrap yourself into someone because that is what love is. It becomes a problem when love is used against you as a tool to fulfill one’s own private agenda and then it becomes feared. Lilly may have encountered this and is forever scarred because she will not let herself overcome it. Aggressive and yearning to be self reliant to establish an identity, yet women continue to disconnect themselves from men only finding out they are not filling the void but making it larger. The healing process and letting go part are far from thought. It may be pride and embarrassment some use this anger or fire to define themselves by their work and not their men. Men however can be severely affected as well. In the story Crumbs Godfrey Crump is so lost without his wife he has to resort to a man named Father Devine. A practitioner of a faith that gives hope to anyone, but in return takes their money. Godfrey Crump’s foundation or direction may be from his wife but without his wife he just crumbled. Nottage was not condoning men but emphasizing the importance of both the male and female bond that is so vital to each other lives. As you can see it can devastate or end someone else’s.
ReplyDeleteThe role of women in many of the plays that we have read are unmistakably vital in the structure of society. The arguments that Ruth and Walter has is the most pristine example of the struggle for a voice that I have seen in any play this semester. In lecture we discussed the role of the tragic mulatto and the black superwoman, but as is true with all stereotypes, this barely scratches the surface of the reality of the situation both in the 1950's and in today's society. Black and African American women are seen as less important in society and their struggle has been marginalized. Ruth helps show strength in standing up to Walter in "A Raisin in the Sun."
ReplyDelete