Cody Dulac May 17, 2017 ENGL200 Professor Powell Social Issues in Reed’s The C Above C Above High C The play The C Above C Above High C is a play that was written in the 1990’s by author Ishmael Reed. The play addresses major social issues that plagued America in the 1950’s. Reed manages to address these issues through many different characters and scenes in the play. Some of the major social issues that Reed addresses during the play are racism, sex drug use and gender. Racism was the most prevalent issue that was addressed as it was the biggest issue during the time frame that the plot of the story took place (Analysis). Reed often speaks of racial injustice and race; it is often the subject of his other literary works. For instance …show more content…
Reed was able to address the issue in a number of ways. He was able to address the issue using satire based on the views on the general public by creating unrealistic scenes that would shock people of the 1950’s in the form of the head of the FBI dressed as a woman. Reed also addressed the issue of women’s roles in relationships in the 1950’s which is historically accurate. Women in the 1950’s were expected to be perfect wives and obey their husbands. Reed addressed that issue in the form of Louis Armstrong’s wives who displayed the aspects of opposite wives. Lil Armstrong was free think, independent and domineering which is why Louis divorced her. Lucille was the opposite she was caring and cooked and cleaned and obeyed her husband. Reed also addressed misogyny through unfaithfulness as depicted by the character of Dwight Eisenhower and Louis Armstrong. Although the issue of race (Armstrong) is the main point the issue of gender is also addressed throughout the …show more content…
3 , 2012. 3 , 2012< http://www.researchomatic.com/An-Analysis-Of-the-C-Above-C-Above-High-C-119165.html >. Armstrong, L. (1997, May 10). 'The C above ...' vividly recounts racial injustice. New York Amsterdam News Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy1.apus.edu/docview/390452386?accountid=8289 Collier, James Lincoln. Louis Armstrong, edited by James Lincoln Collier, Oxford University Press, 1985. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com.ezproxy1.apus.edu/lib/apus/detail.action?docID=253387. Home | University of Colorado Boulder, www.colorado.edu/AmStudies/lewis/1025/women1950s.pdf. Lawrence, v. G. (1997, May 13). Theater. New York Times Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy1.apus.edu/docview/430781902?accountid=8289 Muller, Gilbert H. and John A. Williams. “Reading and Responding to Literature and Film.” ENGL 200: Composition and Literature. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. 2-18. Web. 12 August 2011. Mvuyekure, P. (2000). The critical reception of ishmael reed. Modern Fiction Studies, 46(4), 979-0_4. Retrieved from
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Susan Glaspell was an American playwright, novelist, journalist, and actress. She married in 1903 to a novelist, poet, and playwright George Cram Cook. In 1915 with other actors, writers, and artists they founded Provincetown Players a group that had six seasons in New York City between 1916-1923. She is known to have composed nine novels, fifteen plays, over fifty short stories, and one biography. She was a pioneering feminist writer and America’s first import and modern female playwright. She wrote the one act play “Trifles” for the Provincetown Players was later adapted into the short shorty “A Jury of Her Peers” in 1917. A comparison in Susan Glaspell’s “Trifles” and “A Jury of Her Peers” changes the titles, unfinished worked, and
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The central idea of the play derives from the concept of business and its clash of the arts. Shepard carries this fundamental idea, using it as a metaphor for the current state of California and how society is facing this overall ambiguous battle of whether having the unmitigated business skill can be a substitute for the arts. Moreover, Shepard unearthed the consequences of the clash between culture and counterculture by characterizing Austin, and Lee as extremes of the two. Boundaries or borders did not confound Lee. Counterculture helped Lee escape life and the responsibilities that accompanied it.
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Georgia Douglas Johnson was a playwright of the Harlem Renaissance whose social commentary delved into the hardships of African Americans in the early 20th century. As an African American woman of the time, Johnson often brought to light the difficulties of her race and gender. In Johnson’s play Plumes she invites her audience into an everyday kitchen, with two hardworking early 20th century African American women trying navigate their way through a racially oppressive and patriarchal society. Johnson uses the characters’ desires to provide for those that they love, as an illustration to the adversity of everyday life of the African American in her time, particularly the African American woman. In this paper, I will explore the complications
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life in the mid to late twentieth century and the strains of society on African Americans. Set in a small neighborhood of a big city, this play holds much conflict between a father, Troy Maxson, and his two sons, Lyons and Cory. By analyzing the sources of this conflict, one can better appreciate and understand the way the conflict contributes to the meaning of the work.
In the play, a speaker who stands out and is a big example of this intersection of sexism and racism is Walter. A first example of this is with his addresses colored women in the world specifically. “ This is what is wrong with the colored woman in this world… Don't understand about building up their men and making ‘em feel like somebody. Feel like they can do something.” This connects with the theme because, as a black man that experience racism more often than not, he still degrades women
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