Raisin in the Sun...and the Jim Crow South

It is important to understand what was happening in the US at the time that A Raisin in the Sun is set and the place to start the understanding is finding out... WHO WAS JIM CROW?

Describe this picture of "Jim Crow" and discuss in your group how you feel when you look at it. Are the feelings positive, negative, happy, entertaining, degrading, or something else? Why?

If you were to learn that this image represents a white man dressed up with black paint on his face, meant to mimic the black man, does that change your thoughts about the image at all?

A little background information:
The minstrel show was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface. Minstrel shows lampooned black people in mostly disparaging ways: as ignorant, lazy, buffoonish, superstitious, and musical. The minstrel show began with brief burlesques and comic acts in the early 1830s and emerged as a full-fledged form in the next decade.


Watch 2 examples of an old Minstrel skit.
As you watch it, think about the following items:
1. Is this type of entertainment appropriate or not?
2. What is the message behind this type of entertainment?
3. Should it have been allowed?
4. What was its purpose?
5. How did it make you feel as you watched it?
6. And finally..... would you have felt differently if you were an African American watching this?







Now look at the following images associated with "Minstrel entertainment".

Are these images examples of FREEDOM OF SPEECH or are they examples of BIGOTRY?





How far does FREE SPEECH "cover" you?

Or are there consequences of our exercising our Freedom of Speech? What are the consequences of things like the MINSTREL SHOWS and these ads?

And what about the consequences of this example of FREEDOM OF SPEECH? Should there be a "limit" to our freedom of speech?

A Raisin in the Sun

The Civil War in the United States was fought from 1861-1865.
In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln signed the

which formally abolished slavery in the United States and declared all men free when it said:

"That on the 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free...."

So how is it possible that ONE HUNDRED YEARS LATER, the Jim Crow Laws could still be in effect?

Your group's task:

Look at each of the following pictures which are examples of Jim Crow Laws throughout the southern United States in the 20th century.

How do they make you feel?

What do they make you want to do/say when you see them?

What about statements such as these about Jim Crow Laws:

1. One rationale for the systematic exclusion of Black Americans from southern public society was that it was for their own protection.....

2. Allowing Blacks in White schools would mean constantly subjecting them to adverse feelings and opinions which would not be fair for them to experience....

How do these make you feel when you hear them? What could members of society do to actually change these opinions, these laws, and these ways of thinking?!!? Could they do anything?

Sure....they could move NORTH because things must be better there, right?!

A Final Reflection on GOW

We heard former first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt's thoughts about GOW the day we began this journey with the Joads.

"The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, both repels and attracts you. The horrors of the picture, so well drawn, make you dread sometimes to begin the next chapter, and yet you cannot lay the book down or even skip a page. The book is coarse in spots, but life is coarse in spots, and the story is very beautiful in spots just as life is...Even from life's sorrows some good must come. What could be a better illustration than the closing chapter of this book?" ~ Eleanor Roosevelt, 1939

Along that same vein about the effect The Grapes of Wrath should have on its readers, John Steinbeck wrote to his editor:

"I've done my damndest to rip a reader's nerves to rags.
I don't want him satisfied."

Did he succeed in doing that to you?
If so, how did he accomplish it?
If not, why weren't you affected in that way?

and what more appropriate music to wrap up our study than one more tune from The Boss.....

Quote Analysis

In preparation for GOW Writing assignment #2, today's journal is a quote analysis from part 1 of the novel. Your task is to analyse this quote for its literal/figurative meaning, the message it has (who said it, why he said it, what the context was for the quote, etc)for the story as a whole, and Steinbeck's intention in writing it.


"This here is my country. I b'long here. An' I don't give a goddamn if they's
oranges an' grapes crowdin' a fella outa bed even. I ain't a−goin."
--Granpa, Chapter 10, pg. 143

Against the wind...

As the Joads face the final leg of their journey to the Promised Land, we see clearly how much adversity has plagued this family.

For example in Chapter 18 we see several examples of how this new land, this Promised Land, does not even want the Joads or others like them to be there to the point that is wears on even Ma.....


So how does a person or a family keep going on in spite of the adversity? What causes some people to keep going while others give up? And where do you see yourself along this continuum of perseverance.....do you keep fighting and moving no matter what? Or do you quickly give up and move on?

Steinbeck's symbol of the turtle

One symbol that is referred to numerous times in The Grapes of Wrath is the land turtle. We first meet him in chapter 3 as he attempts to make his way across the highway as he foreshadows to the reader the journey of the Joads and many other families just like them.

Your task today is to analyze this symbol through Chapter 17. Why does Steinbeck keep coming back to this creature as he unfolds the story of the Joads and other migrant families?

A few facts about land turtles to help you make some connections:

1. The land turtle is characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield to their bodies.

2. Like other reptiles, turtles are ectotherms which means they can vary their internal temperature according to the environment.

3. Most turtles that spend most of their life on land have their eyes looking down at objects in front of them.

4. Turtles are thought to have exceptional night vision due to the unusually large number of rod cells in their retinas.

5. Turtles do not molt their skins all in one go, as snakes do, but continuously, in small pieces.

6. Land turtles have short, sturdy feet. They are well-known for moving slowly, in part because of their heavy, cumbersome shell, which restricts their stride length.

Ch 12-13 GOW

Listen to this song and the message of the lyrics.....how can you connect it to the story of the Joads and so many others who are on Route 66, headed to their Promised Land?





All The Right Moves Lyrics

All the right friends in all the wrong places
So yeah, we're going down
They've got all the right moves in all the right faces
So yeah, we're going down

Just paint the picture of a perfect place
They've got it better than what anyone's told you
They'll be the King of Hearts, and you're the Queen of Spades
And we'll fight for you like we were your soldiers

I know we've got it good
But they've got it made
And the grass is getting greener each day
I know things are looking up
But soon they'll take us down
before anybody's knowing our name.

They've got all the right friends in all the right places
So yeah, we're going down
We've got all the right moves and all the wrong faces
So yeah, we're going down
They said, everybody knows, everybody knows where we're going
Yeah, we're going down
They said, everybody knows, everybody knows where we're going
Yeah, we're going down

Do you think I'm special?
Do you think I'm nice?
Am I bright enough to shine in your spaces?
Between the noise you hear
And the sound you like
Are we just sinking in an ocean of faces?

It can be possible that rain can fall,
Only when it's over our heads
The sun is shining everyday, but it's far away
Over the world is death.

They've got,
They've got all the right friends in all the wrong places
So yeah, we're going down
We've got all the right moves and and all the wrong faces
So yeah, we're going down

They said, everybody knows, everybody knows where we're going
Yeah, we're going down
They said, everybody knows, everybody knows where we're going
http://www.elyricsworld.com/all_the_right_moves_lyrics_one_republic.html
Yeah, we're going down

It doesn't matter what you see.
I know i could never be
Someone that looks like you.
It doesn't matter what you say
I know i could never face
someone that could sound like you.

All the right friends in all the wrong places
So yeah, we're going down
We've got all the right moves and all the wrong faces
So yeah, we're going down

All the right friends in all the wrong places
So yeah, we're going down
We've got all the right moves and all the wrong faces
So yeah, we're going down

They said, everybody knows everybody knows where we're going
Yeah we're going down
They said, everybody knows everybody knows where we're going
Yeah we're going down