Part 1: So What??
1. Important Characters (Characteristics, appearance, thoughts, actions, speech, what other characters say, character development):
- Troy (the main character). Troy is African American and in his late 50’s. He Used to play baseball and was apparently very good at it. He relates problems and situations in life to baseball. Troy also is all talk.
- Rose (Troy's wife). Rose is more level headed than Troy. She doesn’t believe his tall stories and she keeps him grounded. She cares deeply for him and her family.
- Bono (Troy's best friend). Bono is like Troy’s side-kick. He works with Troy as a garbage man and he goes along with Troy’s stories because they are entertaining.
- Cory (Troy and Rose's son). Cory is a lot like Troy and resents that fact. He is a teenager and plays football. He could have had a career in the sport, but Troy stopped him. Cory tries to be himself and not his father.
- Gabriel (Troy's brother). Gabriel has a metal plate in his head and is a little slow, we assume. He is very friendly and greets everyone with a song. He also believes that He is the Angel Gabriel and that his horn will open the gates of Heaven. True?
2. Essential Plot Elements (Introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement):
The play begins with Troy and Bono sitting on the porch, drinking and telling stories. Troy, Bono, and Rose are introduced. You immediately get in on their dynamic. Troy tells big stories, Bono laughs along with him, and Rose brings them back to reality.
The rising action is the whole middle of the play. You notice how Troy and Rose begin to argue more and more. You see Bono coming by the house less and less. Cory tells his dad that he wants to pursue Football after High school and Troy does not take it well. He makes Cory quit the team and Cory becomes extremely angry with him.
I consider the climax when Troy comes clean to Rose about Alberta. He tells her that he has been fooling around. Cory and Troy’s fighting grows more intense.
Nine months later Alberta gives birth to Troy’s baby and dies in the process. Rose agrees to take care of the baby and give it a good home. Cory explodes and Leaves after a fight with Troy.
At the very end of the play, the family is getting ready for Troy’s funeral. Alberta’s daughter, Raynell, is now 7. Cory arrives at the house and says that he doesn’t want to go to the funeral. Gabriel tries to blow his horn to open the Gates of Heaven, but nothing happens. Then he dances and they open. (Real or figurative?)
3. Setting (place, time, mood, weather, social conditions):
The play takes place in the late 1950’s at Troy’s house. The characters are usually lounging on the porch and talking. The mood varies from relaxed in the beginning, to tense towards the end. It’s relaxed when Troy, Bono, and Rose talk on the porch and tell stories. It gets more tense when Cory talks about playing football, or when Troy talks about Alberta. By the way the characters talk about their job and how Troy talks about not being able to pursue baseball as a profession, I assume that the social conditions are still racist against black people. Troy speaks of racial injustice throughout the play.
4. Central Conflicts (internal or external):
I think that the main conflicts in the play are man vs. man and man vs. self. It seems like Troy is against everyone throughout the whole play. He doesn’t listen to Rose when she tries to reason with him. He insists that all of their problems are solved when they are in the bedroom. Troy is also against Cory. Cory wants to play football but Troy doesn’t want him to be cast away from sports, like he was. At least that is what Troy says.
I think that Troy is also against himself. He always talks about being a good dad and being honest and respectful, but he really isn’t any of these things. He tells lies all the time, he limits his son’s opportunities in life, and he refuses to take anyone else’s advice.
5. Major Themes (central message, controlling idea, important insight about humanity):
-The central message is that you can’t always do what you want. Troy wanted to be the perfect father, but he came up very short with Cory. He wanted to be a faithful husband, but he gave into temptation and cheated on Rose with Alberta. He wanted to be a great brother, but towards the end he was ready to make Gabriel live in an assisted living home.
- The controlling idea of this play is death. From the beginning, Troy talks about how he has battled with death and won. He says that death is going to come back, and when it does, he’ll be ready. Then in the end he really does die. I think that he only talked about battling death to convince himself. He wanted to seem tough and think of himself as invincible.
-I think the important message about humanity is what I discussed above. The fact that even though you want to do something, you can end up contradicting yourself. You can say that you never want to be one of those parents that yells at their kids, but when push comes to shove, you scream all the time. Troy was like that. Also, the play says that death is inevitable. You can try to prevent it all you want, but it won’t work. Everybody dies.
6. Emotion (Why are you moved by the story?):
I liked this play a lot. I was really upset when Cory announced that he didn’t want to go to the funeral. Yeah, his dad was a jerk, and yes, they didn’t get along. But Troy still raised him, supported him, and loved him deep down. It’s rude, disrespectful, and heartless not to go to your own father’s funeral. If you don’t do it for him, at least do it for your mom. She needs someone there to help her. That part of the story really stirred up some emotions (and a rant) in me.
Part 2: How??
1. Imagery:
I thought this play had great imagery. I liked the part when Troy was thinking back about his dad and getting madder and madder. He remembered when he saw his dad raping a young girl that Troy was in love with. Even though it’s not the nicest part of the play, it put a horrific picture in my head, which was the purpose. It was supposed to make the dad seem like a monster, and it did.
2. Ambiguity/complexity (connotation, denotation, implication, shifts in meaning.):
I thought that the last portion of the play was ambiguous. Specifically, the part when Gabriel tries to open that gates of heaven by playing his horn. When nothing happens, my first reaction was of sadness because I thought it meant that Gabriel was going to realize that he wasn’t the Angel Gabriel. But then he does a dance and it says that the gates opened. Did they really? Was it symbolic or literal? Was Gabriel really the Angel?
This part is left up to the audience to discuss and think about. I like that, but I also hate it. I like to theorize and discuss possible meanings as much as the next girl, but eventually I want to know what really happened, if only for bragging reasons.
