A Review of Sunday Dinner by Caleen Sinnette
Sunday Dinner is a one-act play written by Caleen Sinnette Jennings.
It is a comedy written in 1993. It is set in the Morgan family home.
An elegant old house which stands in what once was a beautiful,
upper-class Black neighbourhood. Inside, the Morgan home has all its
original furnishings, meticulously and loveingly cared for. The living
room where most of the story takes place is a picture of life in
another age. A settee, an overstuffed chair, doilies, an antique table
with framed family pictures on it, ornate lamps, family portraits on
the walls. The room is cluttered, somewhat somber and in need of
painting.
Charl (Charlene) Morgan, Nat (Natrelle) Morgan and Ray (Rayette) James
are three African- American sisters who live extremely different
lives. Nat, the eldest, is a teacher who lives for the church and
preserves the family home as a monument to their decreased mother.
Ray, the middle one, is a home maker. She has two toddlers at home,
Ronnie and Paul, and is pregnant again, with an unemployed husband.
Charl, the youngest, is an up and coming TV reporter, living in the
fast lane. She is always out late at night coming in at all hours of
the morning and is mad about aerobics. After a long period of
estrangement, the three come together for Sunday Dinner in their
childhood home. Nat prays, Charl does aerobics, and Ray shows off
pictures of her children, as each test the possibility of
reconciliation.
Caleen Sinnette Jennings is a student of William Shakespeare, August
Wilson, Sam Shepard and Lorraine Hansberry. In the early 1970s who,
after years of speech and drama and S...
... middle of paper ...
...ass neighbourhood and the Johnstones in Blood Brothers
are also upper-class. The main characters in both plays (Ray, Nat,
Charl, Eddie, Mickey) are people that we can relate to, we feel pathos
with them as they face the trials and tribulations of life. Russell
uses pathos to involve the readers so they feel pity when Mickey loses
his job, fear at the end of the play when the shooting scene takes
place, and experience childhood joy when Eddie and Mickey share jokes.
Humour, in its various forms, plays a large part in bothn Blood
Brothers and Sunday Dinner. It keeps the readers interested and
balances out the conflict and sadness in the play. Also both plays are
composed of fairly simple storylines. There is nothing too difficult
to understand which helps the audience to stay focused and feel more
involved with the play.
The essay Four Menus by Sheila Squillante challenges mainstream pieces of writing in various ways. This essay closely resembles poetry with its metaphors and symbolism. This similarity is not a surprise given that Squillante is also a poet. Most essays explain an idea in a structured format which is greatly different from this piece. Four Menus jumps from scenes starting at a Korean restaurant and later at a house. Within the essay she tells flashbacks of times with her friends. These flashbacks are rather random and there seems to be scattered ideas. While pondering all of these aspects of her work I came the conclusion that an essay does not have to be black and white; as long as a main idea is covered it can be left as is. Most of us grew
“Food as thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating,” is an article written by Mary Maxfield in response or reaction to Michael Pollan’s “Escape from the Western Diet”. Michael Pollan tried to enlighten the readers about what they should eat or not in order to stay healthy by offering and proposing a simple theory: “the elimination of processed foods” (443).
The central idea in the novel that I read, “The Kid Table” by Andrea Seigel, is about the main character, a girl named Ingrid, falling in love with her cousin Brianne’s boyfriend named Trevor. The story surrounds several family events where where Ingrid and her cousins wish to be treated as adults and no longer seated at the kids table. As the plot continues, Ingrid and Trevor’s secret love continues to develop and is finally exposed during Brianne and Trevor’s wedding, where the truth is uncovered about Ingrid’s relationship with Trevor.
When Thomas Jefferson wrote the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, it became one of his greatest legacies. In the first line he wrote, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal" (U.S. Constitution, paragraph 2). Jefferson wrote these words to give inspiration to future generations in the hopes that they would be able to change what he either would or could not. The word “men” in the Declaration in the early 1700 and 1800’s meant exactly that, but even then it only was true for some men, not all. Women, children, and other segments of the population such as slaves and Native Americans were clearly not included. Jefferson himself was a slave owner and held the belief that women were inferior to men. Though women played no role in the political environment, they were crucial to the development and economic success of the times. The strength, courage and work ethic of pioneer women like Martha Ballard in “A Midwife’s Tale” (Thatcher, 1990) created the very fabric of the community and wove it together so the community could thrive.
In America today, race/ethnicity, class categorization, and gender inequalities are just some of the most controversial issues that have created social division in every facet of our society. Gender inequality for one, remains a significant issue from the past up to this day. Looking at history, women have struggled to gain equal rights as well as equal pay against their male counterpart. As described in her book, “Cutting into the Meatpacking Line”, Deborah Fink detailed the inequalities against women and ethnic groups in the meatpacking plant where she had a first-hand experience as a worker. Furthermore, capitalism played an important role in the inequalities in race, gender, culture, and ethnicity, and it has also legitimized the disparities
“The Pastoralization of Housework” by Jeanne Boydston is a publication that demonstrates women’s roles during the antebellum period. Women during this period began to embrace housework and believed their responsibilities were to maintain the home, and produce contented and healthy families. As things progressed, housework no longer held monetary value, and as a result, womanhood slowly shifted from worker to nurturer. The roles that women once held in the household were slowly diminishing as the economy became more industrialized. Despite the discomfort of men, when women realized they could find decent employment, still maintain their household and have extra income, women began exploring their option.
Kathy Harrison starts her personal story happily married to her childhood sweet heart Bruce. Kathy was living a simple life in her rural Massachusetts community home as the loving mother of three smart, kind, well-adjusted boys Bruce Jr., Nathan, and Ben. With the natural transitions of family life and the changes that come with career and moving, she went back to work as a Head Start teacher. Her life up until the acceptance of that job had been sheltered an idyllic. Interacting in a world of potluck suppers, cocktail parties, and traditional families had nothing in common with the life she would choose after she became a Head Start teacher.
In Catherine Steiner Adair's," The Revolution in the Living Room," i think the examples she chose are representative, even though their are some examples she gave that contradict her perspective. Her main point was developed using true stories and examples. She gave an example using the fathers point of view of how technology is effecting his children and related it to the mother and her view point. In another example we can clearly see that the parents both agree on the same opinion. The author states at the end, "Families thrive when parents have strong, healthy relationships with their children..." The way the author wrote this example makes it seem like it is the parents are at fault, when in reality, the kids are the ones who
Ever since the creation of the golden arches, America has been suffering with one single problem, obesity. Obesity in America is getting worse, for nearly two-thirds of adult Americans are overweight. This obesity epidemic has become a normal since no one practices any type of active lifestyle. Of course this is a major problem and many wish it wasn 't in existence, but then we start to ask a major question. Who do we blame? There are two articles that discuss numerous sides of this question in their own unique way. “What You Eat is Your Business” by Radley Balko is better than “Don 't Blame the Eater” by David Zinczenko due to its position in argument, opposition, and it’s reoccurrence in evidence.
Supersize Me. Dir. Morgan Spurlock. Perf. Morgan Spurlock, Daryl Isaacs and Lisa Ganjhu. 2004. DVD.
There are many themes that occur and can be interpreted differently throughout the novel. The three main themes that stand out most are healing, communication, and relationships.
The United States has lots of freedoms, and one of those many freedoms is the option to have a last meal before being executed. There are not many limits to what can be served to someone on death row, as long as it fits the guidelines and is not a ridiculous sum of money. Some states, such as Florida limiting it to $40, have a limit already set. When a prisoner on death row chooses their last meal, most of the time it will be large, extravagant, or sometimes just strange.
The story “My Favorite Chaperone” was written by Jean Davies Okimoto. The idea of this story is of a teenage girl that moved from Central Asia. Also, along the way they are challenged with everyday decisions the Americans make easily. When Maya goes to her new school she stumbles upon getting a dance permission slip. She thought it was just scrap and to just ignore the dance since she thought Papa and Mama wouldn’t approve. Later on, Nurzhan gets bullied and fights back while Maya get blamed on keeping an eye on him while they’re in different schools. Then it was Maya’s turn to get in trouble by getting picked up by an American boy for fun even though it wasn’t serious. She knew for sure she wouldn’t go to the dance. Her brother decided to
The Last Supper is one of the greatest work of art created by Italian inventor and innovator Leonardo de Vinci. The famous piece of work is located in Milan Italy on the wall of Santa Maria delle Grazie. Last Supper is proof of de Vinci astonishing artistic talent and vision. Da Vinci uses both, along with his perception of the Holy Scriptures, and gives reality to the last moments before Jesus’ betrayal.