1. In his play, The Escape; or, A Leap for Freedom, how does Wells Brown use language (slang, pidgin and syntax) to establish character? Are the characters complex, multifaceted personalities or do they represent archetypes? Discuss the stereotypes and archetypes he is presenting in this story and why it is important that the characters be fairly one-dimensional. How does the use of characters relate to the main theme of the play? Remember that the main theme addresses how he feels about the subject matter.
2. The Mammy, the pickaninny, the Zip Coon. The Sambo, the Uncle, the Urban Coon, the Yaller Gal are all caricatures created in minstrelsy to justify the enslavement and dehumanizing of African Americans. Unfortunately where the stereotype ends and the true sense of African American identity begins, has become blurred. Discuss how one of these stereotypes is still being portrayed in theatre, television and films today.
3. Bert Williams was the most famous Black minstrel performer and one of the biggest Broadway stars of his day. Still he could not freely enjoy the luxuries of stardom that his white associates could. Using his very well known song Nobody as the metaphor for his experiences in America as a black man discuss how your personal experience has at times made you feel the way he does in the song - made you feel like an outsider, the other, the invisible man/woman. Look beyond the literal meaning of the text and look at the song as a metaphor of an oppressed people. You can draw from race, religion, sexual orientation, weight, gender and/or disability. ( 300 words)
Nobody
When life seems full of clouds an' rain
and I am filled with naught but pain,
who soothes my thumpin' bumpin' brain ?
Nobody . . .
When winter comes with snow an' sleet,
and me with hunger and cold feet,
who says " Ah, here's two bits, go an' eat!"
Nobody . . .
I ain't never done nothin' to nobody,
I ain't never got nothin' from nobody, no time!
And until I get somethin' from somebody, sometime,
I don't intend to do nothin' for nobody, no time!
When I try hard an' scheme an' plan,
to look as good as I can,
who says " Ah, look at that handsome man!"
Nobody . . .
When all day long things go amiss,
and I go home to find some bliss,
who hands to me a glowin' kiss?
Nobody . . .
I ain't never done nothin' to nobody,
I ain't never got nothin' from nobody, no time!
And until I get somethin' from somebody, sometime,
I don't intend to do nothin' for nobody, no time!
Nobody, no time!
~ from the Ziegfeld Follies of 1910