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Father Divine/religion

Father Divine is the leader and founder of the Peace Mission, a religious group that gave teachings around the idea of racial equality, he claims he is god and sends blessings to people via letters, where he does things like giving people new names, and advertising the “Holy Communion Banquet” which seems to be the main purpose of the text.
Godfrey discovered Father Divine while he was trying to heal from the grief caused by the death of his wife, previously he was not religious, but he became completely devoted to Father Divine and vowed devotion to “divine righteousness”. His religious faith helps him in moments of uncertainty and gives him a sense of purpose, but it also makes him feel a moral obligation towards him, as he is his savior. Godfrey moved to NYC to be closer to him, he believes everything he says, he constantly asks him questions, and even has a picture of him on the house. He uses this act of writing questions on a notepad as an excuse to escape from his problems or delay taking action upon them, and it is also implied that this dependence has affected his ability to act on his own, as Lily says “Ask him (Father Divine) what to think”.
The other members of the family however, are not very fond of Father Divine. The girls see him as something that takes away from their fun, as it prevents them from doing things like listening to the radio on Sunday, and have to deal with their father imposing religious values on them, such as wearing the V’s (Virtue, victory, and virginity). Lily directly says that she hates Father Divine, as he is just a man who “plays god” and because as a communist she is against religion.
Gaia B

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Throughout the play Lynn Nottage uses recurring symbols to convey big ideas. Due to the huge theming in the play, it is a very clever resource to use visual imagery to convey indirect messages in a show-not-tell way, and the way these symbols change throughout the story is a representation of the evolution of said themes, which is a very interesting way of showing progress in the story.

One of the main symbols is the dress Ernestine makes for her graduation. This dress is a symbol of hope and self sufficiency, as well as opportunities of black people. Ernestine is the first person in her family to graduate, which is a very big occurrence considering how at the time it was very hard for a black woman to actually manage to graduate. The fact that Ernestine was able to reach this point gives expectatives of her as a person and opens up new opportunities that not many people like her would have due to her efforts, thus being a representation of this empowerment. We also know how important this dress is to her because “Mommy(Sandra) promised Ernie a graduation dress” the dress was something her mother wanted her to have, and now that she is gone Ernestine is taking on the task of fulfilling her mother’s promise. This also makes the dress a symbol of the bond between Ernie and her mother, as well as how proud Sandra was of her. The fact that Ernestine makes her own dress is a symbolism of her dedication and self sufficiency that drives her to actually take on the task, as well as her independence.

On another note, the dress is also used to represent the struggles of black people when it comes to presentation. Lily tells Ernie that presentation and the way you look is everything, yet later she says that Ernie is “expecting too much from a blanched mess of fabric” which shatters the hope that this brings, saying that looking good can’t simply make everything right due to the conditions the world is in.  Another comment on race that is made through the lace on the dress, as Lily comments how the lace makes it look girly and feminine, which is “exactly how people like to see negroes” and how Ernie should try to eccert the opposite image to prove herself worthy.

Another strong theme is the notebook that Godfrey carries around throughout most of the play, until the very end when said notebook gets destroyed. It is a symbol of running away from your problems, putting things off and not facing reality. Godfrey is often “putting all these questions for him” on the notebook and writing reminders “i’ll make a note to speak to her later” in doing this he not only runs away from direct confrontation, but he made a list that “would take three lifetimes to go through all of it” it is commonly interpreted that Godfrey uses this as a coping mechanism by avoiding hardship and putting all his faith in father divine, as all the questions and things he asks are to be consulted with him. Near the end of the play Gerte snaps at him and says “if you paid attention to the world around you, maybe you wouldn’t have so many questions” and ends up breaking down the notebook, finally making him snap out of it and face reality

Another important symbol are the movies, which are said to be one of Ernestine’s favorite things. The movies are a symbol for the ideal life and sometimes for whiteness. Ernestine always imagines scenarios where people behave like movie stars “a bright spotlight hits the center as she slowly traipses across the table singing falling in love again” it is worth mentioning that Ernestine’s dream is to “be a movie star” yet it is mentioned how at the time, most people in the cinema were white, again symbolizing one of Ernestine’s ambitions that are harder for her to reach for being black.

The final symbol is the iron comb. This symbol only appears once in the play yet it is an important part of the discussion about race. The iron comb represents being ashamed of your identity. Lily uses it to straighten the girls’ hair to get rid of the natural curls of black women and make them fit in with the beauty standards more. While doing this, she mentions how “we’re at war babies, you don’t want to be walking around school with a scar across your forehead. You want people to think your hair is naturally straight, that it blows in the wind” This implies that the girls will face less discrimination if their hair was straight, evidently hiding their blackness “when i'm done with you, you’re gonna look just like a little indian girl” the aim of the iron comb is hiding this part of their identity or trying to make it less evident. In the eyes of Lily and the girls, having straight hair makes them more beautiful.

Personally I really like the use of symbols, because of how much it can implicitly add to a story, and because it can enrich the reading experience by leaving details for the reader to interpret and find meaning instead of conveying things directly, and I believe Lynn Nottage does a splendid job at using this symbolism throughout the play on these examples and many more.

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“How does Lynn Nottage make this moment of the play so striking?”

At the beginning of act 2 we are already met with a very shocking moment that seems to mark a before and after in the story, specifically on Godfrey’s character, the absence or even betrayal of Father Divine. The writer, Lynn Nottage, makes a clever buildup to this moment and an emotional reaction from the character’s part that makes it all the more striking.

The unfolding of this moment starts with the banquet, where Godfrey is shown to be anxious and excited for Father Divine’s arrival, as it is something he had been expecting since moving to Brooklyn “I’ve planned this for so long, I’m shaking” Throughout the play we constantly see him preparing for this moment and we know how much it matters to him, meanwhile we also get expectatives of finally knowing who Father Divine is, so the hope for this moment rises for both Godfrey and the audience, combined with eagerness and anxiousness.

When it is revealed that Father Divine might not show up, Godfrey still doesn’t lose hope and firmly believes that he will find a way “Trust me, he won’t let us down” Godfrey’s extreme faith and trust in Father Divine makes the final revelation more striking both for him and the audience. Godfrey assures that Father Divine will come and we want to believe it as well, we follow along with his fantasy, while in some part questioning what will truly happen.

The revelation comes as a simple and straightforward “But he did” the wording makes this moment more striking, as it is not saying that Father Divine didn’t come, it is saying that Father Divine let them down, let us down. With this line we see Godfrey’s hope being shattered, he firmly believed and had hope in Father Divine yet he didn’t show up, he had planned for many of his problems to be solved by Father Divine through the questions and had developed a dependence on meeting him in that moment, yet he would not be able to meet Father Divine for at least another year. Seeing Godfrey’s reaction and him “sitting alone” makes the moment much more upsetting. This whole scene shows Godfrey’s dependence and desperation, the line “If he is the god he proclaims to be, I need his answers now, I need him to help me move on” is the first time we see Godfrey questioning Father Divine and his legitimacy, which comes as a second shock to the viewer. The line “I need him” makes us feel worse for him, his desperation makes us feel worse. The buildup and the feeling in this scene make it striking for the reader.

After this moment, Godfrey is so completely heartbroken that not even Gerte’s words of comfort can help him “Godfrey slowly exits” This is a side of Godfrey that hadn’t been explored before, where not even the reassurance of his new wife can help him, so it adds to the shock of the scene.

This scene marks the shattering of Godfrey’s faith and hope, we as an audience knew that the obsession would eventually lead him to extreme disappointment but actually seeing it unfold is striking, both because of the buildup and surprise, and because of the presentation of Godfrey’s suffering, which are elements that were cleverly used by the author in this moment.
Gaia B

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DALL·E 2023-09-01 12.03.42 - mujer negra, comunista y bien vestida de 1950 con una bandera de la USSR de fondo mirando de frent y con el puño izquierdo levantado

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“Crumbs From the Table of Joy” is an interesting title that is never mentioned or explained in the play. Suggest different meanings.

The title of the play “Crumbs from the Table of Joy” comes from a poem called “Luck” by Langston Hughes, but interestingly, the name of the play is never mentioned or explained in the actual script. But we can get some meanings in the play that relate to it.

The play is set in New York City, on the 1950’s fall. It covers the story of the Crump family, who has recently lost their mother. His husband Godfrey experiences a strong sense of grief “Death nearly crippled my father” But he managed to find hope and faith in Father Divine. His daughters, Ernestine, and Ermina are affected by this, since they are forced to wear a big V, which represents “Virtue, Victory and Virginity”. This first situation relates to the title. It seemed as if the Table of Joy was their stable family before the death of their mother, and then when she died, all that was left was the crumbs from that stable family, the memories that kept them together.

As the rest of the play develops, we are presented to new characters. One of them is aunt Lily, their mother’s sister. Her first impression brought some kind of hope to their situation “And there now is Aunt Lily, the first colored woman we’d seen dressed up like a white lady” everyone was surprised by her appearance. Especially to Ernestine, this also gives a meaning to crumbs from the table of joy. As I said before, the table was like the family before the incident, and Aunt Lily coming to them could have been a crumb from what there was before, as she is the sister of her mother.

In act two, we are presented to another character, Gerte. Gerte meets Godfrey in the train when he was trying to clear his head from a fight he had with Lily. They get close very quickly and get married out of the sudden. This is similar to Ernestine situation with Aunt Lily. Godfrey had lost the most important thing to him, but he found a crumb of his joy from Gerte.

To conclude, this play handles a lot social situations. And even though the title is never explained in the play or given an actual meaning, as we read it and analyze it we can find several situations that may relate to the title. I like that it is not explained, since it gives us, the readers, freedom to explore the different meanings and take them up to our interpretation.

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Floro Viton

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Francisco Mila

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1)    Discuss the role of Religion in “Crumbs From the Table of Joy”

In the play “Crumbs From the Table of Joy” by Lynn Nottage, there are quite a lot of social problems as well as personal situations. The religion plays a huge part in this story, and every character has a different perspective for it.

Godfrey, who has just experienced the death of his wife, experienced terrible grief, “Death nearly crippled my father… taking away his ability to walk at will.” He was struggling the most, and was finding it hard to have hope and faith in anything, until he found Father Divine. He went into this new religion, and made it ‘rule’ his life. He started to write questions for father divine, to ask him. This questions were mostly about the decisions he couldn’t make, and he made them when he didn’t know how to continue.

Godfrey also pushed this beliefs into his daughters, “Father Divine… Ever since Mommy passed on, he stands between us and our enjoyment.” Father Divine gave them new names and Godfrey made them wear a big V, representing Virtue, Victory and Virginity.

In scene two we are presented to Aunt Lily. She knows this religion that Godfrey has started isn’t anything but all lies and games. “Oh I see, the Peace Mission, Father Divine. He still alive and playing god?” Lily does not like this, especially because she has different ideas than Godfrey, and he especially hates them.

In act two, we are presented to Gerte, which becomes Godfreys new wife as soon as they meet. In one of the last scenes, Lily and Godfrey fight. This leads to Lily leaving, since she doesn’t like the situation she is in, as she feels she is not appreciated enough by Godfrey, but then Gerte feels like her leaving is the best choice, “She is so full of ideas, but you must decide how you feel about me.” This makes a little discussion between Godfrey and Gerte, as he just can’t let Lily leave like that, since she is also family, but Gerte insists for him to talk to Lily. Godfrey takes pout his notepad as to note that, but Gerte gets tired of him always trying to get Father divine to solve his problems, “If you’d pay attention to the world around you, you wouldn’t have so many questions to ask.”  so she grabs the papers and breaks them.  This action, makes Godfrey more present, and Gerte manages to become seen by the family.

In conclusion, I feel like the role of religion is very ample. It shows how religion can help some people overcome difficult situations, as well as how some people don’t believe in certain stuff and deal with problems in different ways. It shows how religion can affect someones life and relations, in a good or bad way.

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Boey Kim Cheng's poem, 'The Planners,' dives into the constant growth of cities. The voice, probably the poet, feels really let down by the uniform and overly perfect look of modern city building. Boey Kim Cheng powerfully expresses his attitude about this situation, highlighting his discontent with the lack of uniqueness and character. Through simple language and vivid imagery, the poem becomes a strong critique of the ongoing urbanization, revealing the poet's deep disappointment with the monotonous and soulless aspects of modern development.

The poet uses easy words to tell us what the speaker thinks about the 'planners' and the always building stuff they do. Calling them 'planners' is a big deal because it makes them sound like machines, not real people. It's like saying what they do is more important than who they are. This language choice shows that the speaker feels left out and doesn't like what's happening because also The poem has things that make us know  how much the speaker doesn't like the 'planners'. The speaker talks about buildings lining up with roads, connecting to bridges, all made with the 'smarts of math'. This vibe of perfect math is really different from the wild, messy beauty of nature. It makes it seem like we're losing something special and unique because of all this city growing.

The poet used some particular things that were perfect  such as  the lines were the poet mentioned teeth. The part that goes "The country wears perfect rows / of shining teeth" uses our imagination to think about tooth pictures to imagine  city scenes.  What the poet tried to say with this way of talking  was that the buildings in the city are like teeth - all the same, clean, and not special. The 'neat lines' make it even clearer how the planners are making everything super organized and not natural. Also, when it says “ They erase the flaws, / the blemishes of the past, knock off / useless blocks with dental dexterity" it keeps talking about teeth. This time, the planners are like dentists, taking out the 'mistakes' or 'pointless blocks'  , maybe old buildings or parts of our history , kind of like a dentist pulling out bad or ugly teeth. This way that the poet talks shows us that we really don't like how the planners don't care about our history and traditions when they're trying to move forward.

At the end  of the poem, the Poet talking about how, as a poet, the new world made around him is just not exciting at all. His poet's heart won't be sad about these spots, sounds, and no past around him (or what he guesses will be around him in the future). This means the poet feels stuck and can't make more poems because everything is just too dull.

To conclude in the poem 'The Planners', Boey Kim Cheng really says how he feels about cities growing with his pick of words, strong pictures, and weird structure. He's basically saying that if a place keeps getting bigger and changing all the time, it might lose what makes it special and unique.

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In the play “Crumbs from the Table of Joy” by Lynn Nottage, we are presented to Lily Ann Green, Ernestine, and Ermina’s aunt. She comes out of nowhere and is a surprise for everyone in the room, mostly because of the way she acts.

She is presented as something never seen before by them “The first colored woman we’d seen dressed up as a white lady.” Aunt Lily seemed to have a confidence that they had barely seen in other black women and that quickly made her stand out from the others. When Godfrey came in, he was also shocked at the sudden appearance of his wife’s sister. It seemed as if aunt lily was into Godfrey, because of the way she said certain things “Well now! That tongue still got a taste of honey.” Lily acted flirtatiously with Godfrey, which made him uncomfortable and constantly wanting to change the subject. Even though we see Lily as a very confident woman, she still has a soft place in her heart for her family “My heart was there with ‘y’all. I cried for nearly two weeks straight.” She missed her sister as much as the others, and maybe that’s why she acted these certain ways, to cope with the death of her sister.

Aunt Lily presented herself to her nieces as some powerful who did not care about others, “You know they hate to see a Negro woman look better than they do.” She told them how white woman envied her because of much better she was from them. When she asked for a hug from one of her nieces, she noticed how much they had grown, “Ya better watch yourself, you’re liable to attract ya a grown-up man.” This, in a way, felt shameful for her niece, and instantly made her insecure about her body.

It is also revealed to us that Lily Ann has certain opinions that Godfrey didn’t like, “Go on say it, tongue won’t fall out. The communist party” They started to have a discussion on their disagreement, and when aunt lily had enough, she said “I promised Nana I’d look after these gals for her.” The real reason to why she was there was to take care of her nieces, because she thought they wouldn’t be okay with a man.
Camila Castellon

In conclusion, Lily Ann Green is presented to us as a woman who seems to be rich, confident, and has certain ideas that many people might not like. But in the end, we can see that she’s still a person, who cares about her family and that is also suffering from the death of her sister.  “Take away this suit and there’s still a little country.”