Crumbs From the Table of Joy Study

Guide
Crumbs From the Table of Joy by Lynn Nottage
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Contents
Crumbs From the Table of Joy Study Guide................................................................................. 1

Contents...................................................................................................................................... 2

Plot Summary.............................................................................................................................. 3

Preface - Prologue....................................................................................................................... 5

Act One, Scene 1....................................................................................................................... 10

Act One, Scene 2....................................................................................................................... 14

Act One, Scene 3....................................................................................................................... 18

Act One, Scene 4....................................................................................................................... 21

Act One, Scenes 5 - 6................................................................................................................ 25

Act Two, Scene 1....................................................................................................................... 29

Act Two, Scene 2, Pages 57 - 64............................................................................................... 33

Act Two, Scene 2, Pages 64 - 72............................................................................................... 37

Act Two, Scene 3....................................................................................................................... 41

Act Two, Scene 4....................................................................................................................... 46

Epilogue..................................................................................................................................... 50

Characters................................................................................................................................. 55

Symbols and Symbolism............................................................................................................ 59

Settings...................................................................................................................................... 61

Themes and Motifs.................................................................................................................... 63

Styles......................................................................................................................................... 68

Quotes....................................................................................................................................... 71

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Plot Summary
The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Nottage, Lynn.
Crumbs From the Table of Joy. Published in Crumbs From the Table of Joy and Other
Plays, Theatre Communications Group, Inc. 2004 Edition.

The play’s narrative and thematic identities are grounded in realism, in that the
struggles of the central Crump family are a relatively accurate representation of life for
black Americans in the 1950’s. At the same time, the narrative offers glimpses of
imagined, emerging in the narration of central character Ernestine. Her telling of the
story frequently shows the audience reality as she wishes it had been, not as it actually
was.

The play begins with a Prologue, in which Ernestine describes the deep and
transformative grief of the Crump family in the aftermath of the death of wife and mother
Sandra. The play’s first scene then shows a day in the life of the family, with Ernestine’s
father Godfrey having taken refuge in deep religious faith even as he struggles to make
a better life for his daughters, both the scholarly Ernestine and the flirtatious Ermina.

The family’s life is first disrupted by the arrival of Lily, Sandra’s sister. She presents
herself as a free spirit, not only smoking and drinking but also proud of her education
and her work as communist and activist. She continues to fight for the rights of black
people in general even as she shas come to live with the Crump family to help him raise
his two daughters. There are hints of a sexual and/or emotional history between Lily and
Godfrey, hints that become more specific as the two characters struggle to
accommodate each other’s attitudes and behavior.

At around the same time, Ernestine begins work on a white dress that she intends to
wear to her graduation from high school. Lily encourages her, while Ermina seems to be
more interested in finding ways to get and keep the attention of boys than in education.
Meanwhile, Godfrey’s near-obsessive religious faith becomes even more intense and
more demanding, bringing him into even greater conflict with the increasingly volatile
Lily. At one point the tension between them becomes so intense that Godfrey feels it
necessary to leave for several days. While he is away, he encounters a white German
woman named Gerte, whom he helps out of a difficult situation and whom, on an
impulse, he marries.

When Godfrey brings Gerte home, he is met with resistance from both Lily and his
daughters, who resent both the new mother figure and the fact that that mother figure is
white. Godfrey urges them all to try and get along, but it is a difficult battle. Meanwhile,
Ernestine continues to work on her graduation dress. At one point, she and Ermina steal
some lace to put on it as trim. At another point, however, an argument with Lily leads
Ernestine to tear the lace off.

A few months into their marriage, Godfrey and Gerte are the victims of a racist attack.
When they arrive home, the family is shocked, but manages to keep Godfrey from going

3
out and hunting down the attackers. Meanwhile, long-simmering tensions between the
Crumps, Lily, and Gerte erupt into at first an intense argument, and then into a tension-
releasing eruption of merriment.

A few months afterwards, the family – minus Lily – has gathered to celebrate
Ernestine’s graduation. Godfrey announces that he has gotten Ernestine a job at the
bakery where he works, but she does not want to live that kind of life. She announces
her intention to go and work with Lily in Harlem, but then in an Epilogue spoken directly
to the audience, Ernestine reveals that she was not able to do so, in part because Lily
died of what Ernestine suggests was a drug overdose. Ernestine then describes what
happened in her life after she moved away from home – reconciliation with Godfrey and
Gerte, Ermina having a baby, marriage and a family, and life as an activist.

4
Preface - Prologue
Summary
The Preface is a quote from “Luck,” by black American poet Langston Hughes.
“Sometimes a crumb falls from the table of joy / Sometimes a bone is flung. / To some
people love is given, / to others only heaven” (3)

The Prologue begins with a description of “Ermina, Ernestina, and Godfrey Crump
sit[ting] on a bench with their heads slightly bowed” (7). There are physical descriptions
of all three characters, with the text emphasizing that Ernestine is slightly plump while
Ermina is slender, and both have their hair in “mismatched pigtails” (7). Godfrey is
described as being slender and good-looking, his “appearance … always neat and well
assembled” (7)

Ernestine speaks in poetic language about how grief made them both howl in pain and
laugh in happiness at memories of “Mommy” (7). She describes other ways that death
affected the family, and how it eventually led them to move from the country to a new
apartment in Brooklyn, New York. Ernestine describes how difficult she and Ermina
found fitting in, and how they continued to value things like their dresses, which she
says “were sewn with love” (9). She also describes Ermina fighting the girls who bullied
her, with Ermina revealing how proud she was of standing up for herself. Ernestine also
describes going to the movie theatre, sitting between two white girls, “practically
touching shoulders” (9), and how they all wept together at the story and emotions of the
film. As Ernestine continues her description, Ermina joins her, and they weep together.

There is the sound effect of a radio, which plays first a brief commentary relating to
“Senator McCarthy” (10) and then a romantic song from a Broadway musical, “Some
Enchanted Evening.” The song plays throughout the remainder of the scene, which
takes place in the Brooklyn apartment of the Crump family. An important element of the
set is “a photograph of Sandra Crump, Ernestine and Ermina’s mother, smiling
gloriously” (10). There is also a photo of the leader of the Crump family’s church, Father
Divine.

Ernestine tries to listen to the radio, but Godfrey makes her turn it off, saying that it is
Sunday. Ermina’s leg starts shaking, “a nervous tic that is triggered when she becomes
agitated” (11). Godfrey jokes that her leg is going to fall off. Ernestine says to the
audience that it “almost did, but that comes later” (11). Godfrey and Ermina argue about
listening to the radio, with Ernestine describing, in her narration, just how intensely
Godfrey has been following the teachings of Father Divine, whose advice he believes
helped him recover from Sandra’s death. She comments on how Godfrey moved to
Brooklyn in hopes of meeting Divine, who sent him “a miracle elixir boasting to induce
‘peace of mind’ ” in a package that had a return address of Brooklyn (12). Divine was
not there, Ernestine adds, but Godfrey continued to believe, adding that he wanted his
daughters “to wear the ‘V’ – Virtue, Victory, and Virginity” (12). Ermina then asks to go

5
upstairs and visit the Levys, and maybe listen to their radio. Godfrey says “they white
people” do not know any better than to focus their lives on material things, leading
Ernestine to comment on how Godfrey dismisses everything the girls want with the
phrase “they white” (13). Ernestine then offers comments in her narration about how the
family’s evenings were all the same, and how they can all hear people in the other
apartments laughing. It seems to her that “only white folks can laugh on Sunday” (14).
There is the sound effect of laughter. The family is silent.

Godfrey remembers he has treats in his coat pocket for his “babies” (14), and the girls
hurry to collect them. As she eats, Ernestine comments in her narration on how he
makes them forget all the rules with treats and sweets, and always promises them he
wants “the best” (14) for them. Ernestine comments that according to him, “something
better is always on the horizon” (14). She then stuffs the treats into her mouth.

Analysis
It is important to include the Preface in consideration of the play as a whole primarily
because of its reference to the play’s title. The reference is particularly significant
because of its clear resonances with one of the play’s central themes, its consideration
of religious faith. Specifically, the phrase “crumbs from the table of joy” is a paraphrase
and/or an echo of a phrase from a prayer in the Christian religious tradition. That prayer
is sometimes referred to as “The Prayer of Humble Access,” and is often spoken prior to
the sharing of communion with the congregation. The prayer is spoken by the
congregation, as led by the minister, or celebrant. As a whole, the prayer’s language
references human unworthiness to receive the blessings of God, and specifically the
blessings promised by the sacrifice on the cross of Jesus Christ, a sacrifice represented
by the sacrament of communion. The prayer contains the phrase “we are not worthy so
much as to gather up the crumbs under thy table,” or a similar paraphrase. The word
“table” here refers to the church’s altar, which represents the table of God and also the
table at which Jesus celebrated the last supper – in other words, “the table of joy.” All of
this goes to evoke the central experience of the play’s characters as they struggle to
find “a crumb” of “joy” in their lives, in the form of either a “bone” – which represents
food, either spiritually or physically nourishing – or “love.” The last is particularly
important, in that all of the characters are, in one way or another, struggling with
experiences of love, either searching for it or trying to let it go, or both. This, in turn, is
another of the play’s themes.

All of this is foundational to the play’s central thematic consideration. This is its portrayal
and exploration of the experience of being black [sic] in America (the lower case “b” in
black represents how the term is used in the script). As the play portrays that
experience, there are powerful influences of religious faith – specifically, of Christianity.
These influences manifest primarily as hope for transformation that verges into
desperation, desperation that verges into denial, and a longing for both love and some
form of heaven. All these elements are, again as the play portrays them, connected to
thematically central considerations of what it means to be black in America. With that in
mind, it is important to note that the quote’s author, poet and philosopher Langston

6
Hughes, has long been recognized as one of the most significant and influential voices
of blackness in America. The quote as referenced here clearly ties his thoughts and
perspectives to those of the play as a whole.

The story of the play begins with the Prologue, which puts the play’s themes – as
referenced in the Preface – into action. Specifically, Godfrey’s faith-based obsession
with the teachings and instructions of Father Devine portrays him as striving, with a
desperate intensity, to find and maybe even create some “crumbs from the table of joy”
(3). He is striving for this not only in terms of his own needs and feelings, but those of
his two daughters.

Ernestine’s narration in the first moments of the Prologue establishes the circumstances
defining the family’s desperation and need – specifically, the death of Sandra, who was
Godfrey’s wife and the mother of Ernistine and her sister Ermina. Other defining
circumstances referenced by Ernestine include the fact of the family’s move. As the play
unfolds, this aspect of the family’s situation seems to be a significant part of the sense
of separation from others that their grief and their Blackness have also shaped to a
significant degree.

Other important points in Ernestine’s opening narration include the reference to the
dresses she and Ermina wear. Specifically, the comment that they were “sewn with
love” (9) offers an initial statement in the play’s thematic consideration of longing for
love. In this same reference, there is also a foreshadowing of a dress that Ernestine
constructs and eventually wears later in the play.

There is also the reference to Ernestine’s emotions while attending the movies. The
comment is an additional piece of foreshadowing, referencing ahead to other references
to Ernestine’s fondness for movies and also to how her perceptions and expectations of
reality are in some ways defined by that love. In addition, the reference to the movies is
important because of its reference to Ernestine’s physical and emotional closeness to
the white girls she is sitting with. This is a rare glimpse of racial harmony and
connection in a narrative that for the most part is defined, both thematically and in terms
of plot, by tension between blacks and whites. At the same time, the reference to
closeness between the races foreshadows other forms of black-white closeness that
emerge into the narrative in later scenes.

The final point to note about Ernestine’s initial narration is how it establishes a
fundamental convention, or narrative style, for the play. It is the first of several
occasions in which Ernestine steps out of, or away, from the story to address the
audience directly. Here, as on those other occasions, her narration offers valuable
commentary, leading the reader into meaning and insight.

Another convention that the narrative establishes in these early stages has to do with
the presence of sound from the radio. Here and throughout the play, the radio and the
programs it broadcasts are a symbolic representation of the world outside the home and
the life of the Crump family. More specifically, the combination is representative of the
pleasures and freedoms of being outside the family – in particular, the pleasures and

7
freedoms associated with being non-Christian, and non-black. In a related point, the
reference in stage directions to the song “Some Enchanted Evening” is a foreshadowing
of moments at the play’s conclusion. In those moments, a variation of this same song is
played in a particular way and/or set of circumstances that evokes Ernestine’s overall
journey of transformation over the course of the narrative. That journey of
transformation is also, in that moment, defined as being connected to an aspect of the
play’s central thematic consideration.

That central theme explores the experience of being black in America. The section of
the Prologue taking place in the Crump home lays the foundations of the play’s
dramatization of this theme, more by implication than by overt action. That sort of active
playing out of the theme comes later in the play. For now, the almost in-passing
comments made by Godfrey and Ernestine in the action and in the narration about
whiteness as related to their experience of Blackness are simple but pointedly clear
statements of what this play is primarily about.

One further point related to the music from the radio, and specifically the reference to
“Some Enchanted Evening.” The song contains the lyrics “you may see a stranger,”
which means that the reference to the song as a whole foreshadows an important
encounter between Godfrey and a stranger later in the play that changes the lives of all
the characters.

Meanwhile, there are several other important pieces of foreshadowing in the second,
home-based portion of the Prologue. These include the references to Ermina’s twitching
leg, and to Ernestine’s reference to it almost falling off. This last reference foreshadows
a point in the play at which actions by Ernestine and Ermina cause the sort of intense
anxiety that seems to be a primary trigger, in general, for the twitching. Then there are
the references to Father Divine, who at the time in which the play is set – the year 1950
– was a real-life black preacher with a profound national influence. The references here
foreshadow many future references to Divine later in the play, whose name and
influence are a defining component of the play’s thematically central consideration of
religious faith. The references to the three V words is also a piece of foreshadowing –
specifically, of a comment made by Ernestine later in the play about Ermina’s behavior
in relation to at least one of those V’s.

Finally, the Prologue ends with the introduction of one of the play’s most important
metaphors. The treats that Godfrey has in his pocket represent his thematically
significant efforts to bring love and joy into the lives of his daughters, efforts that are
clearly more effective than those he makes in response to the commands of Father
Divine. As the narrative unfolds, the presence of the treats becomes a motif, or repeated
image, that develops deeper significance as the characters struggle to maintain
connection and love within the boundaries of their changing, challenging circumstances.
Further: the introduction of the treats here foreshadows a profoundly significant moment
later in the play, when the full symbolic connection between the treats and the play’s
themes and title becomes clear.

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It is important at this point to define the nature of the treats. In the text, there is no
reference to what they actually are. The audience, however, is likely to see that they are
baked goods, cookies or something similar. This is because later in the play, the
narrative makes it clear that Godfrey works in a bakery. This circumstance which offers
a clear image and definition of what the treats in his pocket actually are. This is
important to remember when it comes to the aforementioned reference to the full
symbolic meaning of the treats, and the crumbs they leave behind, later in the play.

Discussion Question 1
What aspects of the Prologue, including its references to grief, relate to the play’s
overall thematic interest in the longing for love?

Discussion Question 2
In what ways does the last name of Ernestine’s family relate to the Preface, and to the
ideas referenced in the Preface?

Discussion Question 3
What does Ernestine mean when she says that she sometimes thinks that “only white
folks can laugh on Sunday” (14)?

Vocabulary
pigtail, inflection, impeccable, banshee, infamous, nauseous, unison, defiant, cashmere,
cardigan, bask, unabashedly, unadulterated, duration, sparse, phonograph, mantle,
glorious, charismatic, wane, audible, tentative, ordain, elixir, induce, diminish, devotion,
marital

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Act One, Scene 1
Summary
Act One is subtitled “Winter.” Scene 1 is set in the family living room. Ernestine hems a
pair of her father’s trousers, while Godfrey polishes his shoes with a piece of
newspaper. The radio playing in another apartment is heard in the background. As
Godfrey brags about how admired his shoes are, Ernestine tells the audience that the
family is staying in because a short while before, “a madman went on a rampage” killing
people “with a bread knife” (15). Godfrey complains about how unpleasant it is for
country people to live in crowded city conditions, saying that God has left the city. He
asks Ernestine about the mail, anxiously awaiting the newest letter from Father Divine
with the answers to his questions.

The sound of the radio in the background changes, with “laughter, then gunshots,
emanat[ing] from behind the wall” (16). Godfrey wishes that Mrs. Levy would turn the
radio down, because it makes it difficult for him to concentrate. He also comments that
“it ain’t good enough for white folks just to have a television, they got to let the whole
neighborhood know” (17). At that point, Ermina comes in with the mail, and says that the
mailman told her that if the family gives him some money, he will make sure the family
gets their mail “in the morning like the white folk do” (17). Godfrey says it does not
matter, then asks about the mail from Father Divine, a magazine called “New Day” (17).
Ermina does not answer, but focuses first on what seems to be a letter from home from
a boy, someone whom Godfrey says will forget her by summer. Ermina then focuses on
a dress pattern that has come in the mail for Ernestine, not giving it to her and then
revealing to Godfrey that Ernestine is going to need money to pay for material for her
graduation dress. Godfrey becomes excited that Ernestine is actually going to graduate
high school, but becomes confused when she says she had already told him. As he
checks the notebook he keeps constantly by his side, Ermina reveals that the “New
Day” has come. Godfrey looks at it excitedly at the same moment as Ernestine looks at
the dress pattern.

Godfrey starts reading the letter that came with the magazine, but has difficulty and
passes it to Ernestine. She reads words of encouragement to Godfrey, and that “there
are no differences between the races in this Kingdom” and that “segregation is the
creation of the ignorant to punish those who are in touch with God” (19). At that
moment, Ermina opens her letter and starts to read it. Meanwhile, Ernestine continues
to read the letter, and is surprised to learn that Father Divine has given the family new
names. Godfrey is now “Godfrey Goodness,” while Ernestine is now “Darling Angel,”
and Ermina is “Devout Mary” (20). Godfrey is excited, but Ermina hates the idea,
wondering “what sorta boy is gonna wanna ask out a gal named Devout Mary?” (20).
Godfrey tells her that Father knows best, and Ernestine comments in her narration to
the audience that sometimes it was hard to tell which Father he meant when he said
things like that. The letter concludes with a request for money so that the members of
the ministry would not starve. Godfrey takes out his money, and “in a broad theatrical

10
gesture” says he is taking the girls out to the movies to celebrate (20). In her narration,
however, Ernestine says that she would have liked for him to say that, but in fact “sat
and counted his money” (20).

Ernestine then says, “You ever have the feeling of floating out of your body, entering the
Milky Way and getting stuck in it just as it’s curdling?” (21). She puts the pattern under
her arm.

Analysis
The definition of this scene as Act One Scene 1 clearly indicates the author’s intention
that this point marks the beginning of the play’s actual story. That sense of intention is
reinforced by the fact that the events of this scene set in motion the play’s main plot,
along with the journeys of transformation of two of its primary characters, Godfrey and
Ernestine.

Those elements – plot, and journeys of transformation – are initiated by the arrival of the
mail. Of the three pieces that arrive, two are more significant, one of which is the most
significant of all. Ermina’s letter from the boy back home is the least important of the
three, in that its content and implications do not play much of a defining role in the
action. The letter, and the comments it triggers, do foreshadow later revelations of
Ermina’s perspectives on life, and how those perspectives shape the person she
becomes – at least, according to Ernestine’s commentary in the play’s final moments.
That becoming is foreshadowed in Ermina’s wondering about “what sorta boy is gonna
wanna ask out a gal named Devout Mary?” (20).

The second, and second most important, piece of mail is the dress pattern. Its arrival
sets in motion what might be described as an important sub-plot of the play, one that
manifests several important themes as it simultaneously defines Ernestine’s journey of
transformation. As the narrative progresses, her efforts to construct the dress based on
the pattern received here represent and manifest her determination to change the
circumstances of her life, specifically through the power of education. As such, the
arrival of the pattern is clearly connected to the play’s thematic interest in the promise
and appeal of escape. It is also connected to the play’s concurrent thematic interest in
the power and presence of imagination, since Ernestine’s longing to succeed in getting
an education is part of her imagining of a better future for herself. Finally, all this is also
connected to the play’s core thematic consideration of the experience of Blackness in
America – see “Discussion Question 1.”

The third, and most important, piece of mail is the magazine received by Godfrey. The
magazine is a symbol and manifestation of the influence of Father Divine, a power that
Godfrey seems desperate to cling to. He seems determined to follow Divine’s guidance
– perhaps divine guidance is a better way to put it – to improve his life, and the lives of
his girls. As such, the arrival of the magazine is also a component of the play’s thematic
interest in the promise and appeal of escape, as well as its consideration of the power
of religious faith. Godfrey clearly sees the teachings of Divine as a way to not only

11
escape his own grief, but to help himself and his girls escape the thematically central
difficulties associated with being black in America in their particular set of
circumstances. If religious faith is the means, then the magazine is the map that
Godfrey uses to traverse the means in order to reach the goal of a better life.

The key point to note here is that the arrival of the magazine is as significant in terms of
plot as it is in terms of theme. This is because the magazine represents the forces
against which Ernestine, Ermina, and other characters have to push in order to claim
their own identities and purposes. It is, in other words, a force of antagonism, a force
that blocks their progress, their journeys of transformation. This thematically significant
sense of Divine, and of religious faith in general, being an antagonistic force in the play
is emphasized throughout the narrative. It comes into particularly clear focus here as
Godfrey passes on the names that Father Divine has decided to give the girls. This is a
clear, thematically central indication of how both Divine and Godfrey have little regard
for who the girls actually are, or may want to become. Instead, Godfrey is determined to
be controlling – he has good intentions, but is clearly going about realizing those
intentions the wrong way. This aspect of the play, in terms of both plot and theme,
comes into even clearer and more vivid focus in the following scene, with the arrival of a
character who deliberately and actively opposes the influence of religious faith in
general, and of Father Divine in particular.

There are other important symbols in this scene as well. The first is Godfrey’s shoes.
For him, they represent pride in himself, pride in his work, and pride in his place in the
world. All these are, perhaps, false and empty prides, in that none of those situations
are in fact as good as Godfrey seems to think they are. But those prides give him the
courage and the strength to continue, a circumstance and belief system that are
ultimately challenged later in the play.

Another important symbol introduced here is Godfrey’s notebook. Initially, what he does
with it and the nature of the notes he is taking is unclear. Eventually, the narrative
reveals that it contains the questions he wants to ask Father Divine, and the concerns
Godfrey is trying to resolve. The notebook is, in many ways, a symbol of Godfrey’s lack
of self-trust. He does not seem to have faith in his own perceptions and opinions,
second-guessing himself in the name of confirming everything with the faith-based
influence he trusts much more. The appearance of the notebook here foreshadows
several other appearances it makes later in the play. Most particularly, it foreshadows
the climactic point in the narrative, and in Godfrey’s personal journey of transformation,
at which he realizes what his true priorities need to be.

What is arguably the most important new element introduced in this scene appears just
before its conclusion. This is the moment at which Ernestine imagines a behavior in,
and from, Godfrey that does not exactly happen. First, it is important to note just how
this moment would probably work in an actual performance of the play. The action
would likely be continuous, with Godfrey’s comments about going to the movies flowing
directly out of the reading of the letter without any changing of light, sound, or other
circumstance to indicate that reality has shifted. The audience would become aware
that this was not actual reality only when Ernestine tells them so. This is exactly how the

12
text on the page works in this moment, an indication that a production team – director,
designers, actors – would work towards implementing. This, in turn, would mean that
Ernestine’s comment about the truth of what happened would come as a surprise to the
audience, setting them somewhat off guard and wondering, as the narrative progresses,
just how much of what they are watching is a representation of what happened to the
family and how much is a thematically significant representation of Ernestine’s
imagination. At this point, that is not clear. Later in the narrative, it becomes clearer.

Ultimately, the main point about Ernestine’s narrative departure from her “reality” is not
that it keeps the audience on their toes. Instead, it becomes a representation of the
book’s thematic interest in the power of imagination. The inclusion of these diversions
suggests that Ernestine’s imagination is not only powerful. It is also something of a
delusion, or at least wishful thinking. There is a sense, therefore, that other acts of
imagination in the play are similarly forms of delusion, or a thematically significant effort
made by Ernestine and other characters to escape their realities. Thus the diversions
from reality are both narratively and stylistically engaging, but thematically ironic. The
audience, like the characters, is diverted from the truth for a moment, only to find, like
the characters, that imagination runs the risk of becoming a delusion, and deflecting a
necessary awareness of, or connection to, reality.

Discussion Question 1
What do the various events and circumstances of this scene suggest in terms of the
play’s core thematic consideration of being black in America?

Discussion Question 2
What are the metaphorical and/or literal parallels between the pieces of mail received
by Godfrey, Ernestine, and Ermina?

Discussion Question 3
What does Ernestine mean when she talks, in her narration, about “the feeling of
floating out of your body, entering the Milky Way and getting stuck in it just as it’s
curdling…" (21)?

Vocabulary
meticulous, buff, expectant, unbridled, segregation, flabbergasted

13
Act One, Scene 2
Summary
Scene 2 is again set in the Crump family living room. It begins with “Lily Ann ‘Sister’
Green standing in the Crumps’ doorway … she is a nonconformist, a ‘dangerous’
woman’” (21)., Ernestine describes Lily Ann to the audience by saying she is “the first
colored woman we’d seen dressed up like a white lady” (21). She adds that “Aunt Lily”
had “been to Harlem,” which she says was “the equivalent of reaching the promised
land” (21). Neither girl seems to recognize her, and neither does Godfrey when he
appears. The conversation reveals that Lily is Sandra’s sister, and that Lily is fine with
not being recognized. “Memories need maintenance,” she says (22). She speaks
flirtatiously to Godfrey, who seems embarrassed and talks about how difficult it has
been to track Lily down. She comments on how people in the city do not want everyone
to know them, says that he and the girls still seem very much like they are from the
country, and continues to flirt with him, joking about his well-polished shoes.

As Lily settles in, she catches sight of the photograph of Sandra. She apologizes for not
coming to the funeral, and suddenly starts to cry. When she catches Ernestine staring at
her, she recovers from her fit of weeping and models her suit, saying she got it from a
store in an expensive part of town and adding that she likes to dress well to make white
women jealous. As Godfrey talks about how long it has been since they heard from her,
Lily comments that she has studied to become an etymologist, partly because she
wanted to “let those white boys know we saying what we please” (25). As Godfrey takes
out his notepad, Lily complains about being hungry. He says they have nothing
prepared, adding that Lily is the family’s first visitor. He tells Ernestine, calling her
“Darling Angel,” to go prepare some food. Lily comments on how much Ernestine has
grown, pointing out the size of her breasts. Godfrey and Ernestine are both
embarrassed, and Ernestine goes out, “her arms covering her breasts” (26).

Lily asks Godfrey to get her bags from the hall, the conversation suggesting that she is
moving in, with Lily commenting that she “didn’t see a Negro face” for several blocks
(26). She asks for a drink, and when Godfrey says there is no liquor in the house, Lily
asks with some surprise about whether he has become a Christian. She then notices
the photo of Father Divine, and asks whether Divine is “still alive and playing God” (27).
As Godfrey comments on how helpful Divine and his teachings have been, the
conversation reveals that the family had come from Florida, and that Godfrey thinks if it
had not been for Divine, he would still be there. Lily reminds him of the sort of person he
was, and that she is still involved with the communist party. When Ermina giggles, Lily
speaks passionately about how important it is for people, particularly black people, to
fight for their rights. Godfrey insists that she be quiet, saying that talking the way she is
will lead to her being kicked out of the house. Lily tells him that she promised the girls’
grandmother that she would take care of them, since “Nana … don’t think it’s proper
that a man be living alone with his daughters once they sprung bosom” (28). She tells
Godfrey to relax, then asks for a soda. Ermina fetches it.

14
Godfrey and Lily are left alone, “tense, awkward … not quite sure what to say to each
other” (28). Lily smiles seductively. Godfrey makes some notes, and when Lily asks
what he is writing, he says that he is writing down questions to ask Father Divine. Lily
comments that she “thought it was something interesting” (29). Ernestine comes in,
without the other two noticing her. Lily and Godfrey speak sharply to each other, and
then Lily notices Ernestine and the sandwich. Lily does not seem too excited about it,
but chews it down rapidly as she comments about how much Ernestine looks like
Sandra. She also pointedly wonders if her bags are safe in the hallway. As Godfrey
reluctantly goes to get them, Ernestine comments that a lot of people back home
thought she looked like her mother. She also says that Lily does not really seem like
Sandra’s sister. Lily assures her that she is.

Godfrey returns with Lily’s large suitcases, wondering what she has in them. “My life,”
Lily says, “and when ya look at it in those terms them bags ain’t that heavy” (30). As
Godfrey takes Lily’s bags into the bedroom, Ernestine speaks to the audience. She
speaks of a situation back home in which the mother of a friend of hers came back from
New York “smoking cigarettes and with her face painted up” (30), and that the preacher
gave a long sermon about sin. Ernestine then says that the night Lily arrived, she
(Ernestine) “confronted sin … and it didn’t seem half bad” (30).

Analysis
With the entrance of Lily into the play, its development of plot and theme moves up to a
new level of intensity. She becomes a direct challenge to Godfrey and his thematically
significant obsession with religious faith, as well as a direct and affirming influence on
Ernestine and Ermina. Eventually, truths about who Lily really is undermine the sense of
confidence and self-security that she presents here. Even now, there is a sense that in
her own way, Lily is as self-righteous as Godfrey, and therefore in some ways as
dangerous to herself. For now, though, she is an agent of change in the lives of her
family, an agent of change in their thematically central experience of being black in
America.

Key and noteworthy components of Lily’s first appearance include Ernestine’s reference
to her being “dressed up like a white lady” (21), an evocation of the pervasive,
thematically significant power of whiteness in the lives of the play’s black characters.
There is the implied sense, in this description, as well as in her own actions and
comments, that Lily feels she has to behave in ways that whiteness expects, or can
accept, in order to achieve her goals. This is also true of Godfrey, to a significant
degree. Later, it becomes true of both Ernestine and Ermina as they engage with
aspects of whiteness because they feel they have to do so in order to transcend what
whiteness assumes about their Blackness. All this is an important element of the play’s
central thematic consideration of what it means to be black in America, and of
Ernestine’s overall journey of transformation towards a new and different understanding
of what that means.

15
All these elements are also connected to Ernestine’s reference to Lily having been in
Harlem. At the time in which the play is set, the early 1950’s, Harlem was a center of
black community and culture, very much a sort of “Promised Land,” or goal of safety
and home, for black people of the period. The reference is also ironic foreshadowing of
the moment at the end of the play when Ernestine actually makes the trip to Harlem and
discovers the truth of what Lily has been saying about herself, and also the truth about
Lily’s relationship with what Harlem is and what it represents.

As the action of the scene unfolds, there are several other important elements. These
include the implications of a previous relationship between Lily and Godfrey,
implications which foreshadow further revelations about that relationship later in the
play, and the conflict arising from those revelations. There are also Lily’s pointed
comments about Godfrey’s shoes, which are significant because as has been
previously discussed, Godfrey’s shoes are an element of pride and identity for him. With
her comment, Lily is beginning what becomes an attack on what Godfrey has defined as
who he is, an attack that continues throughout the play.

There is also the reference to Lily having become an etymologist, or a person who
studies the meaning and origins of words. This is interesting on a couple of levels. First,
it explains some intriguing aspects of Lily’s vocabulary, which contains words that come
across as the product of education as well as words and phrases that come across as
the product of a life on the streets, and within a particular community. There is also the
sense, as Lily offers this information, that she is perhaps exaggerating to make herself
and her accomplishments seem more important. This is a common characteristic of
Lily’s dialogue, an aspect of her identity that becomes increasingly clear as the play
continues, and the reality of who she is and how she lives becomes increasingly clear.
All this, in turn, contributes to the overall sense that Lily, as a person and as a character
in this play, is a darker-edged manifestation of its overall thematic consideration of the
nature and power of imagination.

As the conversation between Lily and Godfrey continues, there are further important
elements. For example, there is Lily’s reference to the sorts of faces she saw while
traveling through Brooklyn, a clear and thematically significant comment on an aspect of
the Crump family’s experience of being black. Meanwhile, Lily’s comments about her
communism and her activism offer a clear picture of what her experience of being black
is, and how she sees ways in which the experience of being black in general needs to
change.

Then there is the conversation about Godfrey’s note-taking. At this point in the narrative,
it becomes explicitly clear what Godfrey is actually doing when he makes his notes. As
was the case with every appearance of Godfrey’s notebook, in this moment there is
clear foreshadowing of the climactic moment in the play at which Godfrey rejects
everything the notebook represents in favor of accepting what he has actually been
searching for all along.

Finally, there is Lily’s reference to what is contained in her luggage. There is the clear,
metaphorical sense that for her, what she has lived carries more weight – i.e. emotional

16
weight – than her actual possessions. There is also the sense that her comment has
implications for the lives being lived by Godfrey and his daughters – that because they
too are trying to live as black people in America, what they are living is generating
significant “baggage” in their lives as well.

Discussion Question 1
How does Ernestine’s reference to Harlem as “the promised land” (21) relate to the
play’s overall thematic interest in the promise of escape?

Discussion Question 2
What does Lily mean when she says that “memories need maintenance” (22)?

Discussion Question 3
When Ernestine says that Lily does not seem like Sandra’s sister, what does that
suggest about the kind of person Sandra was?

Vocabulary
bebop, extinguish, equivalent, seductive, composure, subversive, perfunctory,
etymologist, impulsive, stamina, pickaninny, proletariat, ravenous, prescience, retrieve,
infatuation

17
Act One, Scene 3
Summary
Act One, Scene 3 is set in the Crumps’ kitchen. Ernestine reads a magazine and speaks
to the audience, commenting on how she has been pushed into the middle of a three-in-
a-bed arrangement with Lily and Ermina. Lily uses a hair straightener on Ermina as they
talk about why Lily is not able to keep a job; she is too high-spirited, and too much of
“an independent thinker” (31). Ermina jokes about Ernestine wanting to be a movie star,
and all three banter about how hard it is for a black [sic] woman to be a star. “When I’m
onscreen,” Ernestine says, she “sure can act very white” (32). Lily jokes about
Ernestine’s next movie being a romance, but Ermina says there will not be any romance
until Ernestine loses some size in her butt. Lily comments that romance is overrated,
talking about knowing too many women who have lost their common sense in the name
of pursuing romance. Ermina then asks why Lily is not married, and Lily says her
independence is too important to her. She then tells Ermina to sit still, and not ask so
many questions.

Ernestine speaks again to the audience, saying that Lily kept talking about a revolution.
She describes wondering when it was going to happen, and whether she would have to
leave school. Lily continues to sculpt Ermina’s hair, suggesting that getting rid of “a
nappy head” (33) is part of the revolution and talking about how she is able to “turn a
man’s head in any part of this country” (33). She then accidentally touches Ermina’s
head with the hot iron, and Ermina cries out. Ernestine comments that that is exactly
what their mother used to do, and Lily comments that Sandra “never could handle a hot
comb” (34). Ermina continues to cry out. “Vanity is a weapon,” Lily says. “I’m trying to
make ya beautiful enough to kill others” (34).

Stage directions suggest that “lights fade on all but Ernestine” (34), who then speaks to
the audience. “Smothered in gossamer smoke and dizzying assertions,” she says, she
started researching revolutions and communism, and that she wrote an essay in school
that got her into trouble with her teacher and with “Daddy Goodness” (34).

Lights then come up “on Godrey shining his shoes in the living room” (34) as Lily reads
a movie magazine. Godfrey and Lily argue playfully about politics, about how Lily thinks
that Godfrey is cheap, and how Godfrey was afraid that this sort of argument was going
to happen when Lily moved in. Godfrey tells Ernestine that she is going to have to
apologize to her teacher for writing the essay. Lily tries to defend her, but Godfrey says
that the essay “upset that white teacher and she seemed like a smart lady” (36). Lily
starts reading the essay and compliments Ernestine’s writing, but Godfrey grabs the
essay from her and insists that Ernestine is going to apologize, saying that the family
was fine before Lily arrived and that she should maybe leave. Lily chooses to not
respond – that is, until Godfrey starts making notes. When she sees that, she angrily
suggests that Godfrey even needs to ask Divine what to think.

18
Lights fade on Godfrey as Lily laughs, and Ernestine speaks her apology, saying her
only intention was to consider the labor movement, “God-fearing patriotic Americans
dedicated to improving the conditions for the working man” (36). The National Anthem
plays, and Ernestine begins the Pledge of Allegiance. Lily says she never stands for the
Anthem, preferring jazz. Lily then disappears, and Ernestine continues, saying that if
Godfrey had actually become a little more communist, he might have fought harder
when he was passed over for promotion at work. She then comments on how, when
they lived in Florida, he only fought for himself once, calmed down by Sandra, “his
anger a faint memory at rest” (37).

Analysis
Many aspects of the action in this scene are connected to the play’s central thematic
exploration of the experience of Blackness in America. Right off the top, Lily’s
straightening of Ermina’s here is arguably, in action and intention and language – i.e. “a
nappy head” (33) – a fundamental aspect of the lives of black-identified women, and
many men. Then there is the banter about Ernestine’s ambitions to be a movie star, with
its comments relating to how difficult it was – and arguably can still be – for black-
identified women to be thought of in terms of romantic roles.

Then, in the second half of the scene, the conflict over Ernestine’s paper is almost
entirely defined by the characters’ differing perceptions of whiteness, and its relationship
to Blackness. Godfrey clearly sees whiteness as something to be appeased and
obeyed, while Lily just as clearly sees whiteness as something to be fought and defied.
Her actions here are somewhat paradoxical, in that they contradict her attitudes towards
hair, dress, and sex appeal as referenced in the first part of the scene. It could be
argued, however, that this apparent contradiction is fundamental to the experience of
Blackness, i.e. that whiteness has a power that has to be attended to even as it has to
be rebelled against.

The conflict between whiteness and Blackness comes to a symbolic head at the end of
the scene. To begin with, Ernestine’s apology places her clearly on Godfrey’s side of the
debate, a choice that she likely made because of her continuing, thematically significant
belief that for her, education is her path to escaping from her experience of being black.
This is why the playing of the National Anthem is so significant. For all their patriotic
sentiments and connections to the trans-racial appeal of the American Dream,
America’s National Anthem and Pledge of Allegiance, recited here by Ernestine, are
inextricably connected to the whiteness-defined power structure running America. This
means that as Ernestine gives voice to her apology, and as she is reciting the Pledge,
she is connecting herself to that power structure, and to the whiteness-defined
perspectives of the Dream. In that context, Lily’s comment about preferring jazz
becomes powerful and potent, in that jazz is widely acknowledged as being a form of
music originating with Blackness, and with black musicians. In saying she prefers jazz,
Lily clearly aligns herself with that Blackness, with her comment foreshadowing later
points at which other characters do something similar by aligning themselves with jazz,
and with language that is itself defined by jazz.

19
The other main element developed in this scene is the play’s thematic consideration of
religious faith. Here, Lily continues her push against the controlling influence of Father
Divine who, it must be remembered, was black. He and his teachings are aligned with a
faith, Western Christianity, that has for centuries been defined by connection with
whiteness, maleness, and a conservative sense of both power and responsibility to
others. This scene makes it even more clear that in his own way, Godfrey is as aligned
with whiteness as Ernestine, and for the same reasons, i.e. a desperation to improve
their lives. Lily’s challenge to Godfrey’s faith, and to Father Divine, is another aspect of
her challenging confrontations with whiteness, the whiteness that, as referenced above,
she acknowledged as powerful in the earlier part of the scene.

Discussion Question 1
What elements of this scene can be seen as developing the play’s overall thematic
interest in the promise and appeal of escape?

Discussion Question 2
What does Ernestine mean when she says she started researching revolutions and
communism after being “smothered in gossamer smoke and dizzying assertions” (34)?

Discussion Question 3
What does Lily mean when she says that if Godfrey had been a little more of a
communist, he might have gotten his promotion?

Vocabulary
gumption, virginal, relinquish, feign, superstitious, allegiance, concede, tirade

20
Act One, Scene 4
Summary
The scene is set in the Crumps’ living room. “Ermina is dressed for a visit to the Peace
Mission in a pristine white pinafore” (38). Lily comes in, “drunk and disheveled” (38).
She collides with the mannequin that Ernestine has evidently been using to construct
her graduation dress. As Ermina and Ernestine, also dressed in white, try to calm her
down, Lily talks loudly about going dancing with a Cuban black man that she met. She
takes Ernestine in her arms and starts teaching her the sexy mambo, in spite of
Ernestine’s discomfort and Ermina’s jealousy. Ernestine tells the audience that the
dance reminded her of her thoughts about “the man at the watch counter at Loesser’s”
(40).

The dance is interrupted by a very angry Godfrey, who tells the girls to go. Lily tells him
to not make a fuss. The girls get their coats and stand by the door as Lily reminds
Godfrey of how he had once danced with her, and that he had initiated their encounter
down in Florida. Godfrey tries to reminder that “liquor and loose moral character are the
cripplers of our race” (42). Lily then tells Ernestine and Ermina that she hates “Sweet
Father” (i.e. Father Divine), leading Ernestine to comment in her narration to the
audience that she wishes Lily had not used the word hate. Godfrey tells Lily to go and
pray, to “sleep off this bewitching” (42). Lily says she cannot sleep it off any more than
Godfrey “can make Sandra rise from the dead” or that she herself “can return home a
virginal bride primed for marriage to an ignorant sharecropper” (42). Godfrey calls what
she said about Sandra “disrespectful” (42), leading Lily to comment that there are a
number of people who think that he “drove poor Sandra into the grave” (42). Godfrey
then shouts at Ernestine and Ermina to leave, takes their arms, and pushes them into
their bedroom.

Godfrey then shouts at Lily to be quiet, asking where she was when Sandra was
suffering, and dying, and being buried. She defends herself, saying that yes, she was
up north, because she should not have to stay where she was treated badly. Godfrey
accuses her of disrespecting him and the choices he made. She says she is not
disrespecting him, but then says that just because he has “purged [his] life of passion,”
it does not mean she has to (43). She also suggests that all his connection with “some
preacherman” has brought him nothing but “a sorry pair of shoes and an apartment
barely fit for human beings” (43). He accuses her of making the neighborhood think he
is a communist, and of upsetting his home. She asks whether he wants her to
apologize, and then kisses him.

Godfrey responds to the kiss, but when it ends, he tells her that he is determined that
his girls will have the best, that Father Divine is the family’s leader, and that she can
always leave. He goes on to say that before he found Divine, he had nothing to really
live for. The change that Divine has brought to his life may not be the same sort of
change that Lily means when she speaks of revolution, but it calms him and gives him

21
strength. He asks for her respect, fighting down the temptations of liquor and sweat and
music that he senses with her. He briefly imagines himself in his old life, but then
pushes Lily away and goes out. “Lights slowly fade on a dejected Lily as they rise on
Ernestine, swathed in the blue glow of the cinema” (44). She speaks to the audience of
how perfect the movies always seem to be – and how white.

Analysis
As this scene begins, there is a powerful and vivid visual contrast between Ermina, who
is described as wearing “a pristine white pinafore,” and Lily, who is described as being
“drunk and disheveled” (38). The first point to note here is how these descriptions, in the
form of stage directions, offer not only suggestions about what happens and how things
should look, but also offer indications of story.

Ermina’s dress, for example, is one of several symbolic elements that reinforce the
presence and power of whiteness in the lives of the black characters. That sense of
whiteness is echoed in Ernestine’s dress that she also wears in this scene, and later in
the dress that Ernestine constructs to wear for her graduation. The whiteness of all
three dresses is evocative of principles of whiteness that the Crump girls are being
forced into in order to reshape their Blackness in the image of whiteness. Those
principles are associated with religious faith here, while later in the play Ernestine’s
dress is associated with education. In both cases, the girls’ beliefs are evocative of the
play’s overall thematic consideration of the power and presence of imagination. They,
and their father, both imagine that embracing whiteness will save them from lives
associated with Blackness, an imagining that, as the play suggests here and throughout
the narrative, is in fact a delusion.

The contrast with Lily’s appearance here is powerful, and perhaps a bit controversial.
Given the symbolic values associated with the whiteness of the dresses worn by the
girls, Lily’s disordered appearance could conceivably be perceived as symbolically
representing her Blackness, and perhaps Blackness in general – or rather, how
Blackness is perceived by the characters in the play. Lily’s appearance is, perhaps, as
much a comment on Godfrey’s disordered thinking about Blackness as it is about her
attitude towards herself, troubled and perhaps even self-loathing to the point of self-
destruction. This idea is reinforced by Ernestine’s description of Lily’s later life at the
play’s conclusion. Here, though, it serves to suggest that Lily is not as secure in herself,
and arguably in both her Blackness and her communist-ness, as she professes to be.

One last point to note about Lily’s entrance into the scene is the stage direction’s
comment that she bumps into Ernestine’s sewing mannequin. Here again, the stage
directions contain elements of story and theme. Given that the dress being built on the
mannequin is connected to Ernestine’s dreams of completing her education, and given
that education here is just as linked to whiteness as religion, the stage direction
suggests that Lily is metaphorically “bumping in” to Ernestine’s perceptions of herself
and her aspirations to whiteness. This means that the incident is both an echo and a

22
foreshadowing of how Lily “bumps into” Godfrey’s similar, religion-based perceptions
here and throughout the play.

With Godfrey’s entrance, the complex history between him and Lily erupts into open
confrontation. For the first part of their confrontation, Godfrey seems to be trying to
retain some self-control, perhaps trying to protect the girls from his rage. Lily, however,
seems to have no such inhibitions, drunkenly attacking places in Godfrey’s sense of self
that she clearly sees as being his most vulnerable. Once Ernestine and Ermina have left
the scene, however, Godfrey releases his anger and resentment, with the fact that he
responds to Lily’s kiss suggesting that his strong anger is at least in part the result of
repressed sexual desire.

In contrast, Godfrey’s comments to Lily in the aftermath of the kiss come across as
being the most vulnerable and emotionally intimate things he has said to this point in the
play. There is the very clear sense that something in, or about, the kiss has freed him up
to speak honestly, to speak the truth of the longing and feeling beneath his desperately
controlling actions towards his daughters. He portrays himself and Lily as wanting the
same things for themselves and for the girls, and asks for her understanding of the fact
that they are doing the same thing in very different ways. If this is in fact part of
Godfrey’s experience in the scene, it might go some way to explain his somewhat
surprising actions in Scenes 5 and 6.

After Godfrey goes out, the stage directions once again offer a clear sense of story with
their reference to the lights fading “on a dejected Lily,” who in this moment seems to be
revealed as having come into the family with a deeper desire for Godfrey than she had
initially declared. That sense of story in stage direction continues with the description of
the light that appears around Ernestine, “the blue glow of the cinema” (44). Throughout
the play, references to the movies, or the cinema, make thematically significant
comments about the nature of, and the need for, escape in the lives of the characters.
The visual juxtaposition of Lily’s sense of abandonment with movie-associated lighting,
along with Ernestine’s comments, suggest multiple layers of a desire to escape that
verges into delusion. The idea of this verging becomes particularly apparent as a result
of Ernestine’s comment about how white the movies seem. There is the very clear
sense here that for Ernestine and for the play, whiteness and escape are closely linked.
This idea becomes particularly relevant when considered in relation to the action and
events of the following scene, in which whiteness makes its most powerful entrance yet
into the lives and stories of the characters.

Discussion Question 1
What do the various elements and confrontations of this scene say about the play’s
overall thematic interest in aspects of religious faith?

23
Discussion Question 2
What does Ernestine mean when she says that dancing the mambo with Lily reminds
her of her thoughts about “the man at the watch counter at Loesser’s” (40)?

Discussion Question 3
In her argument with Godfrey, why is Lily’s comment about his shoes particularly
significant?

Vocabulary
pristine, pinafore, disheveled, decorum, forsaken, sharecropper, recompose, volition

24
Act One, Scenes 5 - 6
Summary
This scene takes place in a number of locations. In her narration, Ernestine describes
how Godfrey stayed away for the next several days, even though the weather forecast
said it was going to rain.

The action then shifts onto a subway train. Godfrey sits sleeping, with his hat over his
eyes. He sits next to Gerte, a German woman. Stage directions describe her as having
“the posture of a film star from the [19]30’s and the waning beauty of a showgirl” (45).
Their conversation reveals that Gerte is recently arrived from Germany, and that she is
uncertainly trying to make her way to New Orleans. Godfrey tries to help her, offering
some of the sweets from his coat pocket. At the same time, he is clearly being careful
because she is white. Eventually they introduce themselves, and Godfrey offers to help
Gerte to the Peace Mission. She accepts, and the two “are basked in a heavenly glow”
(49).

As lights fade on Godfrey and Gerte, lights come up on Ernestine and Lily on the front
steps of their tenement in the aftermath of the drain backing up because of the rain In
her narration, Ernestine describes how a centuries-old oak tree had to be cut down after
telephone wires got caught up in it, and that Lily described the cutting-down as a sign.
In the three days that that cutting down took, Ernestine says, Godfrey did not return.
Ernestine describes Lily trying to calm her and Ermina, “soothing us with the hope that
with the death of a great oak comes life” (49).

Scene Six takes place in the Crump family living room. Godfrey returns, but Ernestine
and Ermina are initially not very welcoming, with Ermina’s leg starting to twitch, but
calming as she goes to hug Godfrey. He gives her one of the cookies from his pocket,
and then shows in Gerte, whom he introduces as his new wife. The girls are shocked
and silent. Gerte offers them a greeting and some compliments that she has clearly
rehearsed, with Godfrey’s help. Ermina blurts out that Gerte is white. Godfrey tries to
get everyone to sit down, but Gerte just laughs loudly and noisily. Ernestine comments
to the audience that the situation would have been better if Gerte had been anything but
German, comparing her unfavorably to quieter, more graceful American movie stars.
Godfrey prompts his daughters to be more polite. Ernestine shakes Gerte’s hand, but
then angrily blurts out that her mother would not be happy, and had been dead less than
a year. Gerte comments that she lost her own mother when she was young.

Lily watches from the bedroom doorway as Ernestine says she does not want Gerte
there and Ermina’s leg begins to twitch. Lily asks what the situation is all about. “We
met,” Godfrey says, “we fell in love, we married” (52).

The lights blackout. End of Act One.

25
Analysis
This pair of scenes builds to Act One’s point of narrative and thematic climax –
specifically, the revelation that the black Godfrey and the white Gerte have gotten
married. The sense of peak intensity about this moment is defined as much by its
thematic and symbolic context as much as it is by its visual and narrative context. In
short, Godfrey’s marriage to Gerte is a metaphoric reference to just how much he is
actively defining his life in terms of whiteness, as represented by Gerte.

Here it is important to note that later in the play, Godfrey reveals that he believes Father
Divine – a black Christian pastor – told him that his life would be better if he married a
white woman, helping to break down the barriers associated with segregation. This
means that here, Godfrey is making choices defined by him by the leader of a primarily
white faith, who seems to be urging him to behave in ways that will help him step away
from his Blackness, and therefore make his life better. In other words, Father Divine is a
racist.

This aspect of Godfrey’s relationship and encounter with Gerte is both echoed and
defined by two elements. First, there the fact that Godfrey takes Gerte to the Peace
Mission, which is the basis for Father Divine’s activities in Brooklyn. Second, there is the
description of Godfrey and Gerte being bathed “in a heavenly glow” (49), with the
language of this stage direction suggesting just how thoroughly Godfrey’s encounter
with Gerte is connected to his experiences, understandings, and expectations about
faith.

Godfrey’s faith in what whiteness, in the form of Gerte, can bring to his life is
metaphorically foreshadowed by his actions in the first part of the scene – specifically,
his encounter with Gerte on the subway. In his offering of sweets from his pocket, the
image suggests that he intends to do for her what he is trying to do for his daughters
with the same action – make their lives a little better. Yes, this can be seen as simply
compassion. But in the context of the play as a whole, the offering becomes a symbol of
something much deeper. The contents of Godfrey’s pocket represent offerings from the
so-called, title-defined “table of joy.” This means that his gesture is an offering of
connection with the joy he believes is offered by Gerte and her whiteness in the same
way as the gesture is an offering for the joy he wants to bring out in the lives of his
daughters. And because the context of the offer is further defined by Godfrey’s clear
obsession with whiteness, there is the equally clear sense that, like the whiteness-
defined faith he is obsessed with, he sees his marriage to Gerte as a thematically
significant way out of the suffering associated with being black in America.

The second half of Scene 5 serves as something of an interlude and/or a suspense

builder, as the audience is left wondering what is going to happen in terms of Godfrey
and Gerte. In terms of content, Ernestine’s narration not only reveals exactly how long
Godfrey has been gone, a length of time – three days – that carries particular
significance. In Christian teaching, three days is the amount of time that Christ spend in
his tomb before he was resurrected. It may not be an intended connection, but given the

26
play’s thematically central consideration of religious faith, it is at least a possibility that
the length of time Godfrey is gone is intended to suggest that he too is having a kind of
“resurrection,” or rebirth into a new life, when he returns with Gerte.

The other point to note about the interlude-like section of Scene 5 is its reference to the
oak tree. This is the only point in the play at which the tree and its destruction are
referenced, and seems to be placed at this particular point for a metaphorical reason. It
may be that the destruction of the old tree is meant to symbolically foreshadow the
destruction that is about to come into the Crump family in the form of Gerte. It may be
that the old tree and its destruction are meant to symbolize the destruction of Godfrey’s
lingering grief over the death of Sandra. It is arguably most likely however, that the
destruction of the tree is intended to symbolize what Godfrey believes will be the
“destruction” of the old suffering associated with his being black in America. This idea is
reinforced by how the play’s symbolic representations of the power of whiteness,
particularly Gerte’s whiteness, are tied in with faith, and Godfrey’s belief that his faith will
transform his life. This idea is also reinforced by Lily’s comment about the destruction of
the “great oak” bringing “life” (49).

On the other hand, Lily’s comment could also be seen as a metaphoric foreshadowing
of the destruction of Ernestine’s faith in her father, and in what he is trying to do for her
and for Ermina. That destruction is set in motion by the events of Scene Six, and builds
throughout Act Two of the play, through circumstances that both trigger and define
Ernestine’s growth into a new life of her own.

In Scene 6, As Godfrey brings Gerte into his home and into his life, there are several
points to note. The first is the reference to Ermina’s leg which, here as elsewhere,
suggests how high strung she is. Then there is the reference to Godfrey giving her one
of the treats from his pocket. Again, here as elsewhere, the symbolic value of the
incident is that Godfrey is trying to bring his girls joy and goodness. Here, the gesture
seems to be suggesting that for Godfrey, that joy and goodness is in the form of Gerte,
experiences that he seems to have had with her already and experiences that he wants
to share with his daughters.

Then there is Ernestine’s reference to Gerte being German – or rather, that her father’s
marriage to a white woman would be better if that woman was anything other than
German. Here, it is important to remember that the play is set only a few years after the
end of World War II, which had many causes but which was primarily triggered by the
rise of Nazi Germany. At the time in which the action of the play takes place, Germany’s
actions – and particularly the racially-motivated actions of the Nazis, who believed in the
purity and ultimate power of the white race - were still very much on the minds of the
world. In her reaction to, and comments about, Gerte, there is a clear sense that
Ernestine sees Gerte as a Nazi, and as bring whiteness-defined, racism-defined
attitudes and behavior into their black home.

Act One concludes with the surprising revelation that Godfrey and Gerte are married, a
climactic point of tension, confrontation, and the potential for change. On one level, the
announcement is not all that surprising, given that throughout the play to this point,

27
Godfrey and the narrative have clearly indicated just how far integration with whiteness
is both accommodated and preferred in the Crump household. On another level,
though, it does still come as a surprise, given that Godfrey has given no indication, to
this point, of just how far he is prepared to go to make thematically significant changes
to his life as a black man in America. In this moment, he is engaging in the most
significant, and the most transformative, thematically significant experience of escape to
this point in the play. As the act concludes, the audience / reader is left wondering what
will happen next in response to, or because of, that escape.

Discussion Question 1
What elements of this scene develop, either literally or metaphorically, the play’s overall
thematic interest in the longing for love?

Discussion Question 2
Why is it particularly significant that Godfrey offers Gerte some sweets from his pocket?
Given what the sweets have been shown to represent elsewhere in the play, what does
Godfrey’s action say about his feelings for Gerte?

Discussion Question 3
What are the metaphorical parallels between what happened to the oak tree and what
happens to Ernestine and Ermina in Scene Six?

Vocabulary
expletive, devout, implore, haggard, contemptuous

28
Act Two, Scene 1
Summary
Act Two is subtitled “Spring.”

“Ernestine, dressed in her finest clothing, stands in a circle of light. She wears a huge
black ‘V’ sewn above her bosom” (53). Lily is in the living room, putting together some
personal possessions. Ernestine speaks to the audience, describing her family’s
routine, including Lily’s habit of going “uptown to commune with ‘possibility and the
future’” (53).

Lily reminisces about her earlier life with Sandra, and how everyone thought that Lily
would be the one to marry first because she was “the better looking of the two” (54).
She comments that she “didn’t like standing still, and you gotta stand still long enough
to attract yourself a man” (54). She tells Ernestine to go on down to the Peace Mission,
adding that she does not think that Father Divine would “understand the mystique of this
pretty face” (54).

The scene then shifts to the Peace Mission, where there is an “elaborately set banquet
table” (54). Godfrey, Ernestine, Ermina, and Gerte are all there, with Ermina also
wearing a black “V” on her dress. Godfrey nervously prepares the questions he wants to
ask Father Divine when he arrives. Ernestine, in her narration and in her action, focuses
on the food at the end of the table. So does Gerte, marveling at how much food there is,
and how much variety. Suddenly Gerte takes off her outer clothes “to reveal a slinky
white cocktail dress” (55). She climbs onto the table, and sings a song made popular by
German movie star Marlene Dietrich. Godfrey stops eating. Gerte finishes the song, and
everyone is silent. Ernestine breaks the silence by commenting to the audience that she
wished that had happened, but instead everyone sat silent and waiting, looking forward
to making Godfrey proud.

Ernestine then reveals that Father Divine’s car caught a flat tire, and he ended up not
attending the banquet. Godfrey sits in shock as the others clear the table, talking of how
he once knew how his life would be and now all he has is “a new pair of shoes worthy of
the finest angel and a handful of misgivings” (56). Gerte reassures him that they
became a couple as a result of Father Divine’s influence. Godfrey goes out. Gerte then
comments to Ernestine that she knows of “a half-dozen messiahs waiting to replace”
Father Divine (56).

There is a visual image of Lily, smoking and laughing as she takes her jewelry into a
pawnshop. Ernestine comments on the comments made about God by both Lily and
Gerte, neither of whom seem to suggest that God and/or his influence are real.

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Analysis
On the one hand, Act Two begins on a note of suspense, as audiences are likely to
come back into the theatre after the intermission wondering what is going to be revealed
about life within the Crump family now that Gerte has been added to the household. On
the other hand, that suspense is almost immediately dissipated by the visual of
Ernestine, and later Ermina, with the large “V” on their dresses. The image is a
reiteration of something Godfrey mentioned earlier in Act One, a suggestion on how he
could positively influence the girl’s behavior that was, in turn, offered to him by Father
Divine. The image here clearly suggests that Divine’s influence on the family has
intensified in the aftermath of Gerte’s arrival. As such, the image functions as a vivid
representation of the play’s overall thematic interest in religious faith, and also its
thematic consideration of the experience of being black in America. This sense arises
from the fact that the girls are in white, Gerte is white, and the religious influence of
Father Divine is associated with whiteness.

Then, in Ernestine’s introductory narration, her comments on Lily’s behavior and

intentions when she goes “uptown” (53) function on two levels. First, there is the sense
that Ernestine is referring to Lily’s claim that she is actively engaging in communism-
related, revolutionary activities. At the same time, Lily’s behavior and conversation in the
early part of the scene suggests that there is a level of irony in Ernestine’s comment. In
other words, Lily’s conversation suggests that to some degree, “‘possibility and the
future’” (53) involve relationships with men. This implied, ironic layer of meaning
becomes apparent in the image that appears in the scene’s final moments – specifically,
the image that implies Lily is selling her jewelry at a pawn shop. It is important to view
and consider this image within the context of what the play has previously shown of Lily
– specifically, her tendency towards drunkenness. There is a sense here that in going
into the pawn shop, Lily is selling her jewels to buy alcohol, or perhaps even some other
substance. This last possibility becomes even more likely when Ernestine’s comments
about Lily from the Epilogue are taken into account, comments suggesting that Lily
had / has a drug problem. All in all, the sense of Lily throughout this scene is that her
carefully cultivated image and sense of self are starting to unravel.

When the scene shifts its attention to the party at the Peace Mission, there are several
noteworthy elements. The first is the fact that Gerte is present, and clearly both active
and important in the life of the family. A second, and related, important element is the
fact that Lily is absent, which suggests that she is making herself distant from both the
family’s activity and from the family’s new configuration. Here it is important to again
remember that Gerte is a symbol of both whiteness and the power of whiteness-defined
religious faith. This aspect of her identity, and of her function in the play, is reinforced by
the presence of the “V” on Ermina’s dress, which has the same symbolic value as the
“V” on Ernestine’s, which was referenced at the beginning of the scene. In all this, the
play continues its visual and/or symbolic representation of being black in America – or,
again, the pervasive effect of whiteness on Blackness. Lily’s absence from this moment
of anticipated celebration in the life of the family is a further representation that she is

30
distancing herself from everything that she sees the family becoming – that is,
distancing herself from the increasing power of whiteness.

In the middle of the scene, Ernestine’s narration again detours the story into an
experience of her imagination – i.e. an experience of what she wishes reality had been,
rather than a further straightforward retelling of what her family’s reality actually was.
The key point to note here relate to the qualities and content of this particular act of
imagination. Here again, Ernestine is using the movies as a point of reference for her
imagination, with Gerte’s song being portrayed as a clear evocation of real-life German
movie star Marlena Dietrich.

Ernestine’s description of what happened to Father Divine can be seen as

foreshadowing a key point later in the narrative at which Godfrey becomes even more
disillusioned by Divine’s lack of genuine engagement with his life. That event is
foreshadowed even further by Gerte’s comment about there being “half a dozen
messiahs” that could replace Divine (56). The comment reveals a degree of cynicism
about Divine that seems at odds with Gerte’s previous attempts to reassure Godfrey
that Divine’s influence is still worthwhile. The two apparently contradictory statements
occur almost one on top of the other, suggesting that Gerte is perhaps not telling
Godfrey the entire truth about her feelings on the subject of Divine, which in turn raises
the question of what the real reason is that she is with him. The sense of undermined
faith in Divine filters into subsequent scenes, until the climactic moment at which the
core truths of Godfrey and Gerte’s connection are eventually revealed.

Another key point to note about Gerte’s comments is their juxtaposition with the visual
image of Lily preparing to pawn her jewelry. The juxtaposition makes the metaphorical
visual suggestion that on some level, Godfrey is pawning the “jewelry” of his personal
integrity and/or the love of his daughters in order to receive the approval and support of
Father Divine. In other words, he is valuing Gerte and her whiteness, on what is later
revealed to be Divine’s orders, over the true identities of his daughters. . This idea is
reinforced by Ernestine’s comments at the end of the scene, a foreshadowing of how
the thematically significant influence of Father Divine on Godfrey and his family
eventually frays completely.

With all this in mind, a key question then emerges. Did Father Divine’s car really get a
flat tire? Was he really on his way at all? Or was he just manipulating Godfrey in the
way that the narrative suggests he has been manipulating Godfrey all along, and
arguably the rest of his followers? The play does not answer this question directly, but
the seeds of doubt raised here seem to develop roots over the course of the rest of the
play, and blossom into a celebration of a different sort of truth at a key point in the
narrative.

Discussion Question 1
What elements of this scene develop, either literally or metaphorically, the play’s overall
thematic interest in the promise and appeal of escape?

31
Discussion Question 2
What does Godfrey mean when he says that all he has to show for his new life is “a new
pair of shoes worthy of the finest angel and a handful of misgivings” (56)?

Discussion Question 3
Given what the narrative has revealed about Lily to this point, what does the description
of her taking her jewelry into a pawnshop suggest about her circumstances?

Vocabulary
hibiscus, mystique, elaborate, prodigious, allay, rapture, incite, porcelain, oblivion,
dutiful

32
Act Two, Scene 2, Pages 57 - 64
Summary
Scene 2 begins in a park. At first, Ermina stands alone in a pool of light, speaking what
Ernestine describes as “the language of the city,” language associated with jazz, music,
and dancing (57). Ernestine also comments that Ermina lost the third V – virginity –
recently. She tells Ermina to spend less time with boys, and Ermina says to leave her
alone. Ernestine then comments that she and Ermina both know they are being talked
about only because of Gerte. Ermina shouts to be left alone. Music plays in the
background.

Ernestine and Ermina continue their conversation about boys, with Ermina saying she
has four invitations to a dance, and Ernestine saying that Ermina needs to behave, or
else she will tell Godfrey, who had told Ernestine to watch her sister. Ermina comments
that no-one was watching Godfrey when “he run off and married he-self a white lady,”
adding that she believes Sandra is “scratching to get out of her grave” and is going to
start “a good old-fashion haunting” (59). Ermina says she knows someone who knows
someone who could hurt Gerte enough to make her go away. When Ernestine reacts
with disbelief, Ermina cries out that she hates it in the city, and that “it ain’t normal for a
white lady to be living in a house with colored folks” (43), adding that Gerte does not
know how to cook.

The scene then shifts its attention to the apartment, which has been decorated with
some potted plants. Ernestine’s graduation dress, still on the mannequin, is taking
shape. She is working on it as Gerte is in the kitchen, chopping cabbage. Ermina
watches her closely, at one point asking whether she was a Nazi. Gerte says that that is
a ridiculous question, and asks what made Ermina ask. Ermina mentions Mrs. Levy, and
Gerte says that “as long as there is rent in the envelope” Mrs. Levy can mind her own
business (61). Ermina leaves the conversation, saying that Gerte is “a little too
persnickety” (61). Gerte tries to talk with Ernestine, saying that she is not used to having
things so quiet. She suggests that they go to the movies together, since they both enjoy
them so much. Ernestine refuses. Gerte also offers to help with the dress, leading
Ernestine to comment to the audience on how beautifully Sandra could sew. Gerte then
turns on the radio, but Ernestine tells her that Godfrey does not like music on a Sunday.
Gerte then turns it off, mentioning how her father and brother were musicians.

Lily comes out of the bedroom, hungover. Gerte gives her some water, and then goes
back to cutting cabbage. Meanwhile, Lily turns on the radio, and dances to some music,
commenting on how bebop music “takes a melody we’ve heard a hundred times and
makes it familiar in an entirely different way” (63). Gerte says she likes bebop as well,
speaking of how much she enjoyed it in Germany, how much she enjoyed hearing “the
Negro voice” (64), and how she was just starting to know who she was when she had to
leave because of the Nazis. She then turns off the radio because Godfrey does not like
it.

33
Analysis
The first part of Scene Two is one of the few occasions in which the narrative shows
Ernestine and Ermina in an environment outside the home. This is particularly
significant given that the focus of Ernestine’s narration is on ways in which she and her
sister start experiencing Blackness outside of the ways they experienced Blackness
within the boundaries of both Godfrey’s apartment and Godfrey’s religion-defined rules.

The first point to note about the narration at the beginning of this scene is the re-
emergence of jazz as a motif, or repeated image. It had been referenced earlier by Lily,
with the reference here showing how Ernestine and Ermina have been influenced by
Lily, and also how they are coming into their own sense of Blackness. This all has to do
with the fact, as referenced elsewhere in this analysis, that jazz had its origins in the
work and artistic perspectives of black musicians – in short, for the play’s metaphorical
purposes jazz is a manifestation of Blackness, which it arguably is for black culture in
general. The reference here is particularly important in that it foreshadows ways in
which jazz becomes a symbol for the increasing presence of Blackness in the lives of
the girls throughout the play, and most particularly in the final moments of Ernestine’s
Epilogue.

The Epilogue is also foreshadowed by Ernestine’s reference to Ermina having lost her
“V”irginity. The reference, and the subsequent conversation between Ermina and
Ernestine about boys, is an echo of Ermina’s comments on the subject in Act One, with
both sets of comments offering a clear sense of the sort of person that Ermina is, and
wants to be. There is also the sense, again in the conversation between Ermina and
Ernestine, that this aspect of Ermina’s identity and perspectives are a clear point of
tension between Godfrey and his younger daughter.

Another clear point of tension in the family emerges in the conversation between the
two girls, and into the remainder of the scene as a whole. Gerte’s presence, and more
specifically the whiteness of her presence, becomes a clear point of conflict as the
scene progresses. The description of potted plants having been added to the household
is a visual representation of Gerte’s influence, as is the description of how much work
on Ernestine’s dress has advanced. Here it is important to remember that the dress is
white, and that Ernestine intends to wear it at her graduation from high school. This
means that the dress is a further visual symbol of the presence and influence of
whiteness in the house. As such, it is both an echo and reinforcement of Gerte’s
presence and influence, also defined by whiteness.

In the midst of these images of whiteness, Ermina’s question about whether Gerte is a
Nazi becomes particularly pointed. Historically, the policies and actions of the German
Nazi party were defined by extreme whiteness, an obsession with racial purity that led
to the destruction of millions of lives that the Nazis believed were, in essence, not white
enough. This implied sense of racism in Ermina’s question combines with the visual
representations of encroaching whiteness in the scene to create the sense that on some
level, Ermina and Ernestine – and later in the scene, Lily – all believe that their

34
Blackness and identity are under attack by whiteness, or at least are in the process of
being overwhelmed by it.

In the middle of all these tensions, there is the intriguing mini-conflict about Mrs. Levy. It
is important to remember that the Levys have been clearly identified as being Jews,
which was the ethno-cultural community that was a particular target of the Nazis. This
means that the juxtaposition between the reference to Mrs. Levy, Ermina’s question,
and Gerte’s somewhat testy response is a significantly loaded exchange that perhaps
calls into question the truth of Gerte’s negative answer to Ermina’s question. On the
other hand, there are Gerte’s references to bebop and her pleasure at hearing “the
Negro voice” (64), which can arguably be seen as representing perspectives much less
defined by racism than those of the Nazis.

All that said, there is a clear sense, in the conversation between Gerte and Ernestine,
that the former is making a genuine attempt to connect with the latter. Within the larger
symbolic context of all the aspects of whiteness around her, Ernestine’s rejection is as
much a rejection of Gerte’s whiteness as it is a rejection of a step-mother. This aspect of
their relationship becomes even more vividly present as a result of Ernestine’s
comments about how well Sandra could sew.

The tension within the household becomes still more apparent when Gerte turns on the
radio, and later engages with Lily when she does the same thing. It is a brief moment of
alliance between whiteness and Blackness that comes to an end when the religion-
defined whiteness of Godfrey’s attitudes defines Gerte’s choices. In other words, her
awareness of his conservativism leads her to deny herself, something that plays out in
similar ways in the lives of Ernestine, Ermina, and Godfrey himself.

A key component of the brief moment of harmony between Gerte and Lily, aside from
Gerte’s reference to how music was an important aspect of her family life, is the
enjoyment of bebop music shared by the two women. Bebop is a form of jazz defined by
freestyle playing and singing, or improvisation. On a larger level, this means that bebop
musicians take a more formalized musical structure and break it down, reshaping it with
their own individual talents, tastes, and musical impulses. All this means that the
references to bebop, here and elsewhere, become a metaphorical rebuttal of the rules
around formalized behavior that Godfrey imposes on his life and family. It could be
argued, in fact, that in the same way as Gerte is a symbolic embodiment of whiteness,
Lily is a symbolic embodiment of bebop.

The other important point to note about the reference to bebop here is that it
foreshadows several other references to this particular form of jazz later in the play.
Ermina uses the language of bebop at several key points, while Ernestine makes
particular reference to bebop in the Epilogue. There, the importance of bebop’s function
as a form of improvisation becomes particularly significant.

35
Discussion Question 1
How do the various elements and encounters in this section of the play develop its
central thematic consideration of the experience of being black in America?

Discussion Question 2
What does Ermina mean when she suggests that Sandra is “scratching to get out of her
grave” (59)?

Discussion Question 3
What parallels and contrasts between Lily and Gerte, in life experience and/or life
perspective, emerge in this scene?

Vocabulary
copacetic, prissy

36
Act Two, Scene 2, Pages 64 - 72
Summary
The action is continuous from the previous section of the play.

Lily comments that “Godfrey don’t like nothing he can’t control,” commenting that it is
tempting to “scratch up his shoes, crumple his hat” (64). Gertie comments that she likes
how he always comes home with sweets, her comments making it clear that Godfrey is
a baker. As Lily pours herself some whiskey, Gerte and Ernestine both ask her how
things are going with her revolution, but Lily avoids the questions by asking Gertie for a
cigarette, and a light. Gerte then offers to help Lily find a job, but Lily says no-one wants
to hire “a smart colored woman” (66) Gerte says that she wishes they did not always
have to talk about race, saying that when she looks at the others she does not see
color. Lily becomes increasingly angry, saying that she does not want to be lectured
about race. Gerte suggests Lily is drinking too much, and that she (Gerte) knows about
pain, having almost starved after the war. She then asks Ernestine to fetch her a bowl,
saying please when Lily insists that Ernestine not be treated like a servant. After
Ernestine goes, Gerte says that she is speaking to Ernestine as a step-mother, and
hints that she knows that Lily is selling off her belongings. When Lily makes pointed
comments about how Gerte and Godfrey are not being sexual together, Gerte says they
love each other, and are just obeying the teachings of “Sweet Father” (68). Lily says that
Godfrey loves his shoes more. They both say they know Godfrey, but are interrupted by
Ernestine, returning with the bowl. Gerte takes it and goes back out.

As Ernestine goes back to working on the dress, Lily turns the radio back on and talks
poetically about how important bebop and jazz are to black people. Ernestine then says
to the audience that she wished Lily had actually said that. Instead, Lily sits and smokes
as Ernestine enthusiastically tells her again about how Sandra picked out the dress and
helped her start making it. Lily comments on the poor fashion sense of white people,
and particularly of Gerte. Gerte comes back in to clean the table, arguing with Lily about
ways to complete the dress with some lace. Ernestine then tells the audience about how
expensive the lace is, and how Ermina actually stole it, since “that’s how girls do up
North” (70).

Ermina appears, her leg shaking. As Ernestine describes how Godfrey had recently
bought Gerte a pretty sweater that he could not afford, and which made it impossible for
him to afford the lace, Ermina relives the experience of stealing it. She also describes
how “Ermina’s leg shook so violently on [their] bus ride home that [she] thought it was
gonna come right off” (70) and how that night, they were seriously frightened that it
would. The next day, however, they saw the lace and realized that the theft was worth it.

Ernestine’s thoughts return to the present, and to her argument with Lily about the
dress. Lily says that it is dangerous to put too much hope into a piece of clothing,
adding that the lace makes the dress look exactly like white people expect Negroes [sic]

37
to look. Ernestine says that the dress represents an accomplishment and that she is
grown, but Lily says that no matter what, she will end up stuck at home and only going
out to the movies. Ernestine speaks angrily to her, saying she does not like how drink
makes Lily talk. She also says that Lily might have big dreams, but “some of us are
struggling for little things, like graduating from high school” (72). Lily says that she just
wants Ernestine to get out more. Ernestine rips the lace out of the dress. Lily tells her
that “the world gives nothing … it takes” (73). The light fades off Lily, leaving Ernestine
alone with her dress.

Analysis
As Scene 2 of Act Two continues, there is a notable ebb and flow of emotion, of
connection, and of disconnect between the characters. It is important to note that all this
takes place within a context of Godfrey’s absence – he is not physically present in either
the first part or the second part of the scene. This means that the four characters that
are – Gerte, Lily, Ernestine, and Ermina – are all, to some degree, free from his overt
presence and direct control. This does not mean that his presence is completely absent.
There are significant arguments and revelations here that all relate to who Godfrey is
and what he wants for both his own life and the lives of the women he is connected to.
Ultimately, though, there is a sense of freedom, or at least a sense of pushing against
restriction, that is present throughout the entire scene. Within that larger context,
thematically significant discussions of race become even more potent, and more
defined by the tensions between whiteness, as represented by Gerte, and Blackness,
as represented by Lily.

The pushing against restrictions comes in several forms. First, there are Lily’s pointed
comments about Godfrey’s behavior, specifically about his shoes and how powerfully he
is still influenced by Father Divine. On the other hand, there are Gerte’s comments
about how she and Godfrey are just – still? – doing what Divine asks them to. There is,
however, a sense in these comments that she is saying them just for the sake of form,
or of habit, and that she is perhaps as uneasy about the lack of sexual relationship with
Godfrey as Lily suggests she should be. In this sense, there are echoes of Gerte’s
earlier comments about jazz, and foreshadowings of what eventually happens between
her and Godfrey. As all this progresses, it starts to become apparent that there is
perhaps something genuine and not just convenient, or Divinely conceived, about their
relationship.

Pushing against restrictions related to whiteness also comes in the form of Lily’s
comments about Ernestine’s dress. Here as elsewhere, the dress represents an aspect
of Ernestine’s desire to shape her life so that being black is less of a point of conflict for
her. As Lily sees it, however, Ernestine’s focus on the dress and education are more
about following the lead of whiteness than about genuinely engaging in Blackness.

Within this context, the lace takes on a complex set of symbolic values. To begin with,
Ernestine’s desire for the lace is part of her desire to make the dress beautiful. Because
the dress is a symbol of her accomplishment in terms of embracing whiteness, the lace

38
– which, it must be remembered, is itself white – becomes part of that symbol. The fact
that the lace is also expensive is part of this symbolic value, making the metaphoric
suggestion that whiteness costs, and costs a lot.

All this, in turn, leads to the various symbolic values associated with the theft of the
lace. First, it shows how desperate Ernestine is to accomplish her goal of education –
metaphorically speaking, her goal of whiteness, and the safety it represents. Second,
the theft is another pushing against boundaries and restrictions, since both Ernestine
and Ermina know that Godfrey and Father Divine would be angry if they found out about
the theft. Again, Ernestine is so desperate to achieve whiteness, as represented by the
dress and the lace, that she is willing to risk the wrath of her father, Father Divine, and
the Heavenly Father – God.

Third, and in a related way, the theft of the lace is a trigger for the most extreme
instance of Ermina’s leg shaking to this point in the play. Initially, there is a sense that
the shaking occurs because Ermina fears the three sorts of fatherly wrath in a way that
Ernestine does not. On a more metaphoric level, however, it could be that Ermina –
who, here as elsewhere, seems more determined to embrace her Blackness than
Ernestine – is having a subconscious negative reaction to the powerful whiteness she is
abetting and supporting.

All this then leads to consideration of the moment at which Ernestine rips the lace off
the collar of the dress. In essence, it is a symbolic representation of Ernestine’s
rejection of what the lace represents – or rather, it marks the beginnings of that
rejection. Either way, the gesture initiates the next phase in her overall journey of
transformation over the course of the play, a step in a new direction. That direction is the
one that Lily pushes her into in their argument here, i.e. a movement towards a full
rejection of both whiteness and Godfrey’s goals for her, which are arguably the same
thing. What happens for Ernestine from here on in is a discovery of a desire to
accomplish her goals on her own terms, and in some cases to refine her goals
completely. Yes, she rips the lace off the dress here out of anger, and simply to get Lily
to leave her alone. There is also a sense that Ernestine is upset because her
thematically significant imaginings of escape into a better life are becoming unraveled.
Ultimately, though, her actions are connected to a spirit of rebellion that up to this point
has just been emerging, but which from now on takes a more defining and motivating
role in her life.

One last point to note about the moment in which Ernestine rips off the lace is that it
foreshadows the moment in the following scene in which Godfrey experiences a similar
rebellion, and a similar declaration of freedom.

And finally, this scene is notable for the fact that it is the only point in the play at which
the nature of Godfrey’s job – being a baker – is explicitly revealed. From this piece of
information, it becomes possible to backspace into earlier moments of the play and see,
with hindsight, what the sweets in his pocket actually are, i.e. baked goods of some sort,
cookies or donuts or other pastries. This is significant for a couple of reasons. First, it
adds layers of meaning to his giving of the sweets to his daughters and to Gerte,

39
meaning associated with the play’s thematic interest in religious faith. This is because
bread, or baked goods of some sort, are a significant part of the Christian communion
service, in which bread is metaphorically considered to represent the body of Christ. In
the service, members of the congregation – who have perhaps just said the so-called
“Prayer of Humble Access,” referenced in the play’s Preface – consume the bread as
part of their commitment to acknowledging Christ’s sacrifice, and to bringing his spirit
and the spirit of the sacrifice into their lives. All this means that on a metaphorical level,
when Godfrey is bringing sweets into the lives of his wife and daughters, he is
essentially doing the same thing as a pastor or priest.

All this, in turn, lays the thematic groundwork for considerations of a key image in the
following scene. At that point, in a moment at which Godfrey is declaring his freedom
from Divine’s influence, Ernestine reaches into his coat pocket and finds nothing but
crumbs – crumbs from the table of joy, a complex metaphor discussed in the Analysis
for the Preface and Prologue.

Discussion Question 1
How might the theft of the lace relate to the play’s overall thematic consideration of the
promise and appeal of escape?

Discussion Question 2
What is particularly significant about Lily’s comment that she might like to “scratch up”
Godfrey’s shoes (64)?

Discussion Question 3
In the context of the play’s story and themes, and also in the context of what the play
reveals of Lily’s life, what does she mean when she says that “the world gives nothing…
it takes” (73)?

Vocabulary
scrutiny, cautionary, convalesce

40
Act Two, Scene 3
Summary
This scene is set in the family’s living room. Ernestine is there as Godfrey and Gerte run
in. “Godfrey’s clothing is disheveled, his forehead is covered with blood … Gerte’s
brightly colored dress is stained with blood” (73). Godfrey searches for a weapon, and
eventually takes up Ernestine’s sewing scissors. He tries to go back out, but Gerte
stops him. As he fights to go back out, Ermina and Lily come in, asking what happened.
Gerte and Godfrey explain that they were at the movies and were at first verbally
assaulted by a group of white people who called Godfrey “nigger” and said he should
not be with a white woman (73). As Lily asks what he expected, Ermina covers her ears
and tries to block out the sound of the story, and the emotions of the room, by reciting
the jazz / music terms she recited earlier (Act Two, Scene 2).

Godfrey accidentally knocks over the mannequin with the dress on it. Ernestine
suggests they get the police, and Gerte agrees. Lily says the police will not do anything,
and starts taking care of the cut on Godfrey’s head. As Gerte tries to take over, she asks
Lily where the help and power of her revolution is. Ernestine finds nothing but crumbs in
Godfrey’s coat pocket. Godfrey continues to try to go out, Gerte tries to comfort him,
and Ernestine shouts that everything is Gerte’s fault. Gerte goes out to get some ice.

Lily comments that Father Divine has filled Godfrey’s head with ideas, but has not given
him any clue how to deal with their consequences. She and Godfrey argue over how
hard it is for Godfrey to live up to Lily’s ideals about race and revolution, with Lily
seductively suggesting that he could be happier and truer to himself and his race if he
was with her rather than with Gerte. As Gerte overhears, Godfrey says that he is no
longer the man that she once flirted with, and because she is communist, she is trouble,
and that perhaps she should leave. Lily says she is tired of being attacked all the time,
and suggests again that he is being foolish for both listening too closely to Father
Divine, and being with Gerte. “You’d have these children buried along with Sandra” (77)
she says, and cries out that she deserves an apology for the things he did to her.

Lily storms out, and Ernestine starts to follow her, but Godfrey holds her back. Ernestine
tells him to go after Lily, hinting that Lily will end up in more trouble if he does. As he
asks both Ernestine and Gerte for advice on what to do, Godfrey takes out his
notebook. Gerte voices her concerns about Lily still living in the house, but Godfrey
maintains that because Lily is his wife’s sister, he has a responsibility to her. Gerte
suggests that Lily should leave. Godfrey suggests that Gerte is asking him “to cast off
everything that came before” (77). Gerte comments that that is what she has done with
her own life.

As Godfrey makes a note to speak with Lily later, Gerte angrily accuses him of making
“miles and miles of lists” (78) and not doing anything about them. “She retrieves boxes
of lists hidden beneath the furniture. She rips up the individual pieces of paper” (78).

41
Godfrey tries to stop her, and they struggle, with Gerte ripping the pieces of paper into
small pieces. Soon Godfrey and Gerte realize how silly the situation is, start laughing,
and start throwing the pieces of paper into the air. Ernestine plays along, telling the
audience that “upstairs, Mrs. Levy watches television … laughing” while she, Godfrey,
and Gerte were “showered in [Godfrey’s] uncertainty, no more questions unanswered”
(78). Suddenly, Godfrey and Gerte are lit like movie stars and kiss passionately. There
is music as Ernestine comments that they had “recovered [Godfrey] from Divine only to
lose him to passion” with their kiss being “a movie-time solution” (78).

Gerte demands that Godfrey make a decision about Lily.

And then there is a change in lights, leaving Ernestine alone in light as she stares at the
mannequin and then starts to pick up the pieces of paper.

Analysis
This scene of the play builds on the emotional momentum of the final moments of the
previous scene to propel the narrative towards its climax. First, there is a sense, as the
violence experienced by Godfrey and Gerte explodes into the story, that it is in many
ways a continuation of the violence that Ernestine did to her dress. Her actions in the
moment of ripping off the lace are, on some level, her acknowledgement that Lily is right
about the negative power of whiteness. The arrival of Godfrey and Gerte reinforces
Lily’s point in a visceral, visual way that is powerfully and unavoidably connected to the
play’s core thematic consideration of the experience of being black in America.

That reinforcement continues in the argument that erupts as soon as Lily sees what has
happened. The point at which Gerte leaves and Lily and Godfrey are essentially left
alone is particularly telling. Lily’s deliberate seductiveness at this point is not only a
thematically significant effort to escape her loneliness, and also the disintegration of her
belief system and sense of self that the visit to the pawn shop has suggested. In terms
of the play’s core theme, and on a metaphorical level, Lily’s actions here represent the
seductive power of Blackness, which she clearly thinks is the right perspective for
Godfrey to engage in, rather than the seductive whiteness associated with Divine and
also of Gerte.

It is also important to note that Gerte hears most of the conversation between Godfrey
and Lily. This fact that, along with Godfrey’s resorting to his notebook, is part of what
triggers Gerte’s angry reaction to the notes later in the scene. Her overhearing of the
conversation also triggers her urging Godfrey, at the scene’s conclusion, to make a
decision about what to do about Lily. In short, Gerte is pushing him to let go of all the
things that have defined his life to this point. There is a clear sense that in urging him to
take this action, she is referring to his grief, to his anxieties, and to his desires for Lily.
Most importantly, she is also referring to all the restrictions he has placed on himself
and the people around him as a result of his religious faith. The boxes of notes that she
finds and destroys are a vivid example of her point, of just how thoroughly Godfrey has
abandoned his own identity and how determined Gerte is that he reclaim it.

42
Another key component of this scene’s exploration of the play’s thematic interest in the
experience of being black is the means that Ermina uses to block out the sounds and
emotions associated with the aftermath of the attack. Essentially, she uses musical style
and language associated with jazz – i.e. music that the play has associated with
Blackness – to drown out the sounds and emotions associated with the attack by
whiteness. The use of jazz here, and in particular the use of the language, echoes
similar references to jazz earlier in the play, particularly those made by Lily. They also
foreshadow the play’s final moments, in which Ernestine also defines herself and her
experience by taking refuge in Jazz, and therefore in Blackness.

Also in relation to this theme, there are Godfrey’s interactions with the mannequin and
the scissors, and indirectly, with Ernestine’s dress - see “Discussion Question 2.” Finally,
there is the discovery that Ernestine makes about the contents of Godfrey’s pocket,
which is arguably the most complex and the most potent image in this confrontational
sequence.

Specifically, the fact that Ernestine discovers crumbs instead of the usual sweets in
Godfrey’s pocket functions on multiple levels of meaning. First, the sweets that Godfrey
had produced from his pocket up to this point in the play represented joy, affection, and
possibility. This was true no matter who he gave them to, his daughters or to Gerte. The
fact that Ernestine pulls out only crumbs is a vivid representation of how, in the
aftermath of the attack, any pretense of joy is gone from the family, at least momentarily.

On another level, the sweets had been associated with Godfrey’s best efforts to create a
better life for himself and his daughters. Throughout the play, those efforts had been
closely associated with whiteness, and more specifically with Godfrey’s beliefs about
whiteness. The fact that Ernestine pulls crumbs from his pocket suggests Godfrey’s
beliefs about whiteness have themselves crumbled, or are at least in the process of
crumbling.

Finally, because the treats are also associated with religious faith and ritual, the
discovery of the crumbs is a metaphorical suggestion that that faith is crumbling, or that
it was only crumbs to begin with, or both. This ambivalence of meaning is what makes
the sweets and the crumbs the most complex, multi-faceted image in the play.

The discovery of the crumbs, however, is not the play’s actual climax. That moment, its
overall moment of peak intensity, comes later in the scene, beginning at the point in
which the characters rip up the notes that Godfrey has been writing to Divine. Again, the
event and the image function on several levels. The tearing of the notes represents the
destruction of Godfrey’s ties to Divine, and therefore the worst of his ties to whiteness. It
is a celebration, for all the characters, of freedom. It is a potent and visceral gesture of
escape. Finally, the tearing up of the notes is a rejection of a truth that has turned out to
be false, what Godfrey had believed was a form of escape but which was, in fact, a form
of imprisonment.

Ultimately, the tearing up of the notes is in fact the next to last step towards the play’s
actual, pinpoint climax. That pinpoint climax is also the climax Godfrey’s overall journey

43
of transformation. Both these climaxes occur in the moment at which Godfrey and Gerte
kiss passionately, a moment when Godfrey reveals himself to be as free as he can
make himself from the negative influences of whiteness. Yes, he kisses a white woman,
but the place of that woman in his life had been defined for him by the negative,
controlling whiteness of Father Divine, and of Christian faith. In the moment when
Godfrey kisses Gerte, he is a man who wants and loves a woman, who wants and loves
him in return. This is also a moment of freedom for Gerte, who finally gets a chance to
be the sort of woman that the play has previously suggested she wants to be. In short,
the sensual and emotional and romantic union between Godfrey and Gerte in this
moment – note the parallel first initials – comes across as a celebration of humanity
unfettered by the conventions and beliefs of race that have defined the relationship of
the characters to this point in the play.

This idea is reinforced by another element of the images around the destruction of the
paper, and the kiss. This is the idea that Godfrey and Gerte throw the torn pieces of
Godfrey’s questions into the air, an image that has clear metaphoric resonances with
confetti, the small pieces of paper thrown into the air at wedding ceremonies. There is a
sense here that Godfrey and Gerte, now free of the constraints of what Father Divine
has told them their relationship has to be, are in fact engaging in a marriage – what
William Shakespeare perhaps described as “the marriage of true minds,” as opposed to
a marriage defined by the imposition of rules.

The joy and freedom of the “wedding” are further reinforced by the reference in stage
directions to the sound of laughter coming from next door. Both Mrs. Levy and whatever
is on her television express a similar, almost contextual joy. Earlier in the play, when the
sounds from the Levys’ apartment could be heard, it suggested something that the
Crumps, in their Blackness, could not have. Now, there is a sense that finally, the joy in
the apartment is as real and as achievable as the joy next door, or out in the world – or,
more particularly, the joy of out-in-the-world white people that Ernestine said earlier was
not possible for black people.

A key point to note about this moment of the play, and how it is described in the text, is
that even though Ernestine’s narration references it as “a movie-time solution” (78), and
even though the stage directions indicate it is lit in a way that reinforces this idea,
Ernestine’s narration does not contain a reference to it having been something in her
imagination. At earlier points in the narrative – e.g. the moment of Godfrey offering to
take the girls to the movies, or the moment of Gerte dancing at the Mission – Ernestine
has explicitly stated that what the audience has just seen was, in fact, an act of
imagination. There is no such reference in this moment. This arguably suggests that the
event actually happened, and while Ernestine suggests that it contained elements of the
unreal-ness associated with the movies throughout the play, the moment is actually
genuine, and so is the transformation it represents for the characters.

It is also important to note that that transformation is not necessarily complete, as the
images at the end of the scene and those of the next scene, which seem to flow
seamlessly into each other, suggest. In the image of Ernestine picking up the “confetti,”
there is the lingering sense that while she and Godfrey both have made a start on their

44
own independence and connecting with their own truths, they are both still haunted by
questions, a sense that again, continues and flows into the opening images of the
following scene.

Discussion Question 1
How do the various elements of this scene relate to the play’s overall thematic
consideration of religious faith?

Discussion Question 2
Given the sense that Ernestine’s dress is a symbol of hope and possibilities throughout
the play, why is it significant that Godfrey intends to use the scissors used to make that
dress as a weapon, and later knocks over the mannequin?

Discussion Question 3
What is ironic about the fact that Godfrey and Gerte were at the movies when they were
assaulted?

Vocabulary
inadvertent, berate, sanctify

45
Act Two, Scene 4
Summary
Even though the text includes a clear division between scenes, there is a sense in the
text that at least the visual level of the action is continuous - i.e. with the stage directions
describe the scene as beginning with Ernestine cleaning up “the remains of her father’s
questions” (79). She reads a few of them aloud, each addressed to “Sweet Father” (79)
and asking about things like Ermina’s interest in the opposite sex, and the way that the
family seems to be doing the same things in this new city as they did back home in the
country.

As Ernestine continues to clean and read, a light appears on Godfrey, who speaks
some of his questions aloud. He asks for guidance about what to do when he is called
“‘the country nigger’” at work (79). He also asks what to do about the temptation he
feels towards Lily, and about his thoughts to send the girls back to Florida. He also
references having married a white woman like Divine told him to, but wonders about the
effect on his daughters. As light disappears off Godfrey, Ernestine reads his final
question aloud – “Will you help me calm my rage?” (80).

Lily appears with a bottle of whiskey. As Ernestine explains what is all over the floor (i.e.
the pieces of paper), she comments that she was not sure that Lily would be back. Lily
explains that she has been invited to address a conference on “the plight of the Negro
woman” (80), and adds that she has too many possibilities in her life to stay in once
place for too long. She then suggests that Ernestine could have similar sorts of
opportunities once she graduates high school in her white dress. Ernestine says she is
nervous, but Lily tells her she has to make her own choices and stop “picking up [her]
father’s questions” (80). Ernestine asks if she can have a sip of Lily’s whisky. Lily pours
her a small glass. Ernestine drinks, but does not like the taste.

Ernestine reveals her longing to be in a place “where folks don’t come home sullied by
anger” and confesses that she might be a communist (81), adding that she wants to be
part of Lily’s revolution “so folks heed when [she] walk[s] into a room” (81). Lily laughs,
and speaks at length about the reasons why she came to New York. She tells a story of
when she was back in Florida, and how speaking about racial oppression in ways that
differed from those of the preacher led her to feel ostracized by the town to the point
where she felt she had to leave. She then tells Ernestine to get herself a profession like
a nurse and make herself both indispensable and respectable. She adds that Ernestine
is not a communist – she is just thinking about things.

Gerte comes in, looking for the source of a noise she had heard. She and Lily look long
and hard at each other. Lily then offers Gerte a drink. Gerte accepts, and after taking
some whisky, starts dancing a mambo with Lily as music plays and lights change.
Ernestine then tells the audience that she wishes that had happened, but in fact Lily and

46
Gerte just stood staring at each other. The lights return to their usual state and the
music stops.

Lily then ensures that Gerte does not want a drink. Gerte says no, and goes back to
sleep. Before she goes, she starts to apologize. Lily says “please don’t embarrass me
with your articulation of regrets” (83). Gerte goes. Lily tells Ernestine that she is looking
tired. Ernestine goes to bed.

Lily goes to Ernestine’s dress, still on the mannequin. “She rips the lace off of the
bottom of her slip and begins to sew it around the collar” (83).

Analysis
In the aftermath of the multi-layered thematic and narrative climax at the end of the
previous scene, the actions and implications of this scene are quieter, but no less
influential, and no less layered. There is a sense, for example, that as she picks up and
speaks the bits of questions left scattered around the room, Ernestine is picking up bits
not only of her father’s questions, but also some of her own, questions about what she
understood about her life, her perspectives, and her opportunities.

Godfrey’s voicing of the questions, meanwhile, suggest that while he seems to have
begun the process of rethinking himself, and particularly his relationship with Father
Divine, that process is by no means complete. It seems that even though he has found,
and connected with, a sense of truth and passion that he was ignoring before, he does
not yet have full and complete trust in it. There is also the sense that he has not let go of
the rage he experienced in the aftermath of the attack, a rage that seems, at this point
in the play, to be an accumulation of all the rage that he has experienced to this point in
his life. It may be that there is a sense of rage around his grief over Sandra’s death. The
circumstances of the narrative, however, suggest that his rage is more likely defined by
his thematically significant experiences of being black in America. This idea is reinforced
by some of the language Ernestine uses in her conversation with Lily, in particular her
reference to wanting to live in a place “where folks don’t come home sullied by anger”
(81). There is a sense here that she is referring to Godfrey being sullied by both the
anger of whiteness, as manifest in the attack, and by his own anger. Perhaps there is
also reference, in this comment, to white people being sullied by their own whiteness, or
rather what whiteness has led them to believe Blackness should be.

The sense of Godfrey’s rage being associated with his Blackness is reinforced by the
arrival of Lily. That arrival takes place at almost the same moment as Godfrey, through
the notes on the floor, is referencing his rage. Here as elsewhere, there is a sense that
Lily is an embodiment of the sort of self-destruction – rage? – that can come into black
lives when they encounter whiteness. All this makes her claim of being invited to a
conference on “the plight of the Negro woman” (80) ironic, if not necessarily credible.
Here more than ever, the narrative creates the very clear sense that all is not as well in
Lily’s world as she seems to want the other characters to believe. All this, in turn, adds
yet another layer and level of meaning to Ernestine’s comment about being in a place

47
“where folks don’t come home sullied by anger” (81). As Lily’s conversation continues,
there is the sense that in making this comment, Ernestine is referring to her aunt as well
as to her father.

Meanwhile, Lily’s conversation with Ernestine marks a significant change in perspective

for Lily, as she now seems to be advocating for Ernestine to stay in school. What has
led to Lily’s change of heart is not entirely clear, but there is a sense that having
apparently continued to experience a spiral into alcoholism, Lily sees Ernestine’s
education as a way for the younger woman to avoid that same fate. This idea is
reinforced in the implications of the moment at which Ernestine tries some of Lily’s
whisky, but does not like it. The metaphorical implication here is that Ernestine is
sampling Lily’s way of life, and realizes that she does not want to go down the same
path.

The idea and process of Lily’s change of heart deepens throughout the scene, as she
speaks of the beliefs that drew her into a life of activism and communism. It is important
to note that she seems to still have those beliefs, and that her state of being at this point
in the play has to do with a sense of defeat, resulting from her struggle to bring those
beliefs into reality. Lily’s shift in perspective and thematically central sense of truth about
blackness shows up even more vividly at the end of the scene – i.e. the moment in
which Lily takes the lace off her slip and starts to sew it onto Ernestine’s dress. In this
moment she is visually and metaphorically doing the same thing as she did
conversationally earlier in the scene. In both circumstances, she is repairing Ernestine’s
dream, and repairing Ernestine’s perspective on Blackness and education. In both the
literal and metaphorical layers of this moment’s meaning, Lily is offering what part of
herself she can to the young woman that she has seen, from the beginning of the play,
as a kind of beacon of hope and possibility. Lily has been unable to follow her own
calling, but in her support of Ernestine at this point, she seems determined, or at least
willing, to help Ernestine find a truth of hers.

In the middle of the conversation between Ernestine and Lily, and in the middle of their
movement towards a shared meeting of the minds and perspectives, there is Gerte’s
interruption. Here it is particularly important to note Ernestine’s description of the dance
shared by the two women as a thematically significant act of imagination. The comment
is particularly important at this point in the play because it reinforces the fact that she
does not make this sort of comment in the moment of Godfrey and Gerte’s kiss in the
previous scene. Again, the reference here and the lack of reference there suggests that
that moment was, in fact, real, in spite of Ernestine having associated it with the un-
realness of the movies. For further considerations of this moment, see “Discussion
Question 3.”

Discussion Question 1
What elements of this scene relate to the play’s overall thematic consideration of
different aspects of religious faith?

48
Discussion Question 2
Given what the play reveals about Lily here and elsewhere, how likely is it that she is
telling the truth about having been invited to speak at a conference?

Discussion Question 3
Given the play’s thematic interest in racism, what are the metaphoric implications of the
dance between Lily and Gerte that Ernestine imagines?

Vocabulary
sully, articulation, swathe, implore, cringe

49
Epilogue
Summary
The Epilogue is subtitled “Summer.” “Ernestine stands in a spotlight wearing her white
graduation gown, with the ragged lace border around the collar” and holding her
diploma (84). She comments that at her graduation ceremony, the principal said that the
world “is to be approached like a newborn, ‘handled with care’” but did not say anything
about what to do “when the world doesn’t care for you” (84).

Lights then change to reveal the living room, decorated and with a white cake on the
table. Godfrey brags about the cake, asks to take the diploma down to the bakery where
he works, and suggests that if she wants, Ernestine can get a job there. Ernestine asks
the audience to imagine a life with her at her father’s side “with no greater expectation
than for the bread to rise” (85). She then tells Godfrey that she is not sure that that is
what she wants to do. Godfrey says that he already told his employers she would be
working there. Ernestine says she wants to go to Harlem, but Godfrey warns her against
following in Lily’s footsteps and then asks her not to upset the happiness and
excitement of the day. Ernestine accuses him of doing things for her and for Ermina
according to what he wants, not according to what they might want. When he starts to
defend himself, and calling her by the name given to her by Father Divine, Ernestine
asks to be called by her own name. Godfrey tells her she does not know what is out
there in the world, and Ermina asks why she wants to leave.

Ernestine comments to the audience that Ermina will carry the memory of Ernestine in
her leg, “a limp that will never quite heal” (86). Meanwhile, Godfrey acknowledges that
Ernestine is old enough to make up her own mind, after he had picked up where Sandra
had left off and given Ernestine everything he had. Ermina urges everyone to go outside
and have fun, putting off all the plans for the future until the next day.

Lights disappear off everyone but Ernestine “who is swathed in the blue, flickering glow
of the movies” (86). Gerte sings the song she sang before, and Godfrey speaks of
having something in his pocket. Ernestine comments to the audience that “in the
movies, the darkness precedes everything … the theatre whispers with anticipation”
(87).

There is then a shift in lighting and atmosphere, placing Ernestine “lost and confused on
a noisy, crowded street corner in Harlem” (87). She relives moments of searching for
Lily, and finding that the address Lily had given her for the center of the revolution was,
in fact, a bar. Ernestine orders a drink, speaking eagerly of joining the revolution, of her
interest in “the status of the Negro in this country” (87), and using Lily’s language about
African heritage and the making of African music. The bartender directs her to a big
gray building – City College.

50
Ernestine then describes how “years from now” she will visit Godfrey and Gerte in
Brooklyn, where they will all realize how they have experiences of escape in common.
She then speaks of Ermina giving birth to a little girl named Sandra, and of being “the
one to identify Lily’s cold body poked full of holes, her misery finally borne out” (87).
Ernestine describes the books on communism and Black history that she will read,
finding her “dear Lily amongst the pages” (88). She also describes how later in her life,
she will return for a visit to Florida, and even later will marry a government employee
and argue about politics and activism. “Years from now,” she adds, she will “send off
one son to college in New England and [will] lose the other to drugs and sing loudly in
the church choir” (88).

But for now, Ernestine says, she is just “riffing and walking as far as these feet will take
me” (88). She repeats the word “riffing” as lights fade, and a traditional version of “Some
Enchanted Evening” plays, followed by a bebop version.

Blackout. End of play.

Analysis
The first point to note about this final scene of the play is that is titled “Epilogue.” In
traditional narrative structure, the term “epilogue” refers to a section of story that takes
place in the aftermath of a climax, and/or in the aftermath of a story’s conclusion. This
means that the use of the term to identify this scene reinforces the idea that the play’s
climax has already happened – that is, in the moment of connection between Godfrey
and Gerte. The use of the term also makes the clear suggestion that what happens to,
and because of, Ernestine in this scene is a consequence of that climax, not necessarily
the climax of the play.

What Ernestine chooses here, though, is arguably the climax of her own personal story.
From both the beginning of her narration and of her direct engagement in the narrative,
she has been presented as someone whose life is defined by circumstances. She has
learned and come to understand a lot over the course of both living the story and telling
it, to the point where she has become able to define herself by her desires and her
choices, i.e. in response to an inner need as opposed to an outer influence. Her
decision to refuse the job offered by her father is a clear and decisive manifestation of
this shift in her behavior and her perspectives.

That shift is vividly defined by different rejections of whiteness, and thematically

significant embracing of what it means to be black in America. The job offered by
Godfrey, for example, is one that is clearly defined throughout the play by whiteness – it
is important to remember, as Godfrey offers Ernestine the job, that one of his references
to his work environment included his description of being called a “nigger.” A related
image reinforcing this point is that of the cake, with the stage directions making the clear
and explicit point that it is covered by white icing. Given that Godfrey is a baker, it was
probably made in the shop where he works, if not made by Godfrey himself. Here again,
stage directions offer not only information about what the characters are doing. It also

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offers thematic and story information, with the whiteness of the cake echoing previous
instances in which whiteness has intruded into, and defined, the lives of the black
characters.

Ernestine’s defiance of those instances, and her creation of a new identity and set of
circumstances for herself, are represented first by the dress she wears. Yes, it is white,
which means that she is still engaged in pursuing at least some degree of whiteness.
But the more telling point about the dress, as referenced specifically in stage directions,
is the fact that it has the “ragged lace border” (84), taken from Lily’s slip, at the collar.
There is the metaphoric suggestion, in this image, that Ernestine has taken what she
can from Lily’s teaching and/or example and striven to accept the whiteness
represented by the dress on terms defined by that teaching. Her closing monologue
suggests, in fact, that she is starting the process of sorting out the truth from Lily’s lies
and illusions, coming to an understanding of what Lily, and perhaps Godfrey, were trying
to escape from even as she comes to an understanding about their very different, and
thematically significant, means of escape.

As the scene develops its portrait of Ernestine’s transformation and discoveries, there
are a couple of points that occur almost in passing, but which are nevertheless rich with
meaning and significance. They are likewise related to aspects of the play’s portrayal of
experiences associated with being black in America. One of these is Ernestine’s
perception of life in the bakery, which she defines as waiting “for the bread to rise” (85).
The reference to bread is the key point to note here. As referenced elsewhere in the
analysis, bread and other forms of baked goods are metaphorically connected to
religious faith, both in the play and in Christian faith in general. More specifically, there
is a paralleling of bread with the Body of Christ in the sacrament of Communion. With
that in mind, it becomes possible to see that Ernestine’s comment is a metaphorical
refusal to wait for faith (i.e. bread) to “rise” and live up to its promise of salvation.

Then there is Ernestine’s reference to Ermina’s leg. Here as elsewhere, the twitch that
Ermina cannot seem to control is related to her experience of anxiety, which seems
connected to aspects of her thematically significant experience of being black in
America. Here, though, the image takes on an additional layer of meaning, suggesting
that the twitch is, in fact, a wound associated with that experience. More specifically,
Ernestine’s comment suggests that for both her and Ermina, Ernestine’s near-escape
from the power and control of whiteness is a wound that Ermina will carry with her for
the rest of her life.

An important part of both the wound and the escape emerges from, and within,
Ernestine’s search for both the truth of Lily’s example and for what she can make of that
truth. That search continues into the speech that concludes the play. As Ernestine
describes herself in that speech, there is a clear sense that on some level, she is still
significantly idealistic. As the speech begins, she describes herself as not having come
to an understanding of the truths about Lily’s life, and about the world that taught Lily
those truths. As the speech goes on, what Ernestine says about Lily, and about her own
experience of Harlem, shows her integrating those truths into her identity in the same
way as the lace from Lily’s slip has been integrated into the dress. The truth and the

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lace are both ragged, are not clean, and are far from being the ideal that Ernestine
pursued.

All that said, the lace and the dress are both still elements of Ernestine’s reality, a fact
that is reinforced by the juxtaposition between Ernestine’s description of her arrival in
Harlem with one last reference to imagination. In that reference, the movies and Gerte’s
singing and what Godfrey found in his pockets all come together in one last call of
wishful thinking. The spell of all that escape, all that imagination, and all that hope –
including Ernestine’s hope for education to be her escape – is vividly and sharply
broken down by the evocation of the real world, i.e. life in Harlem and, in particular, the
life lived by Lily.

On a more realistic level, there is also a sense in Ernestine’s speech that she is making
a thematically significant attempt to escape from the reality of her home life into the
more idealized world that Lily described. That attempt, however, ends in a degree of
failure, as Ernestine learns more and more about the truth of Lily’s life, and about the
world. In learning about those sets of truths, Ernestine is encountering thematically
significant truths about the experience of being black in America.

It is at this point in the play that the tension between these two thematic elements
becomes particularly noteworthy. There is, in the Epilogue, the sense that there is no
real escape from that experience – except, perhaps, through learning more truth about it
via the process of education. This is the core meaning of the instructions that Ernestine
receives from the Bartender. At a pivotal moment in the play and in Ernestine’s life, he
reinforces the idea that education is the way forward for her, the best way for her to
achieve her goals. His indication that she should go to City College moves her in the
direction of understanding that education does not necessarily mean she is embracing
whiteness, but that she can learn more truths about Blackness.

That idea, that more truths about Blackness can and will emerge from education, is born
out a few lines later in the final speech. Ernestine’s references to books, to politics, and
to all the things that happen to her family, both positive and negative, are all defined as
aspects of her education – that is, her learning more about Blackness both from reading
and from life. The idea is reinforced even further by the final lines of the speech, and of
the play. In her reference to “riffing” (88), she is using a jazz-related term, one that refers
to the practice of improvising, or “riffing” off an established theme, idea, or melodic line.
In other words, when a musician is riffing, he or she or they are making the music up as
they go along, albeit with some degree of foundation or inspiration.

The reference to riffing here, therefore, is particularly significant, not only because
Ernestine is saying that that is essentially what she is doing as she is living her life. The
reference is significant because Ernestine portrays herself as living her life in terms that
are specifically tied to experiences of Blackness, as indeed all jazz-related terms are
throughout the play. This idea is reinforced by the music that plays, a “riff” or variation,
or improvisation, on a piece of music that, as referenced elsewhere in this analysis, is
something of an embodiment of romance – or, at least, of romance as defined by
whiteness. The music, with its jazzy, bebop-influenced, Blackness-influenced variation,

53
reinforces the idea that Ernestine, even though she is making it up as she is going
along, is in control of her life, not in spite of her Blackness, but because of it.

This ending them becomes the play’s ultimate statement of its thematic exploration of
what it means to be black in America. All the characters, including Gerte, have their
behavior and actions governed, somehow and to some degree, by the expectations and
control of whiteness. One by one, and to differing degrees, they find themselves
inspired by the power of Blackness, they break that sense of control, and they find
themselves. Lily does not like what she sees. The other characters do, however, an
experience that is particularly true of Ernestine. The play’s final moments are a
celebration of that liking, and of the power to choose – freedom, life, and celebration of
Black identity.

Discussion Question 1
How do the various elements of the Epilogue develop the play’s thematic interest in the
promise and appeal of escape?

Discussion Question 2
What does Ernestine’s principal mean when he says that the world “is to be approached
like a newborn, ‘handled with care’” (84)?

Discussion Question 3
What is the significance of Ernestine insisting that she be called by her own name?

Vocabulary
sloe, enlist

54
Characters
Black Americans
The play’s portrayal of its central characters, the Crump family, is essentially a portrayal
of Black Americans as a community. The portrayals of the individual characters are
manifestations of their individual identity, but are also representative of different facets
of the overall, thematically significant experience of Blackness in America. For example,
Godfrey’s intense religious faith can be seen as representing how many Black
Americans find comfort and safety in Christian faith, while Ernestine’s desire for
education is one of several ways that the dreams of the characters for a better life
represent the dreams of Black Americans for a better life as a community, and as a
culture. This is also true of Lily’s desire for a revolution. In other words, the play is
essentially a parable of Blackness in America, with its individual characters standing in
for an entire group of people.

All this is particularly important when the play’s setting in time and place is taken into
account. The period in which the action is set, 1950, is significant for two main reasons.
The first is that 1950 marked the beginning of a period of prosperity for America,
emerging into its culture and society in the aftermath of the deprivations of World War II.
It is arguable, however, that that prosperity did not extend, for the most part, to
America’s Black citizens. This relates to the main reason that the play’s setting in time is
significant, i.e. the fact that this setting pre-dates the full emergence of the American
Civil Rights movement. In this period, the movement was starting to take root, but it had
in no way reached the intensity and impact that it had even a decade later, with the
emergence of leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King, Angela Davis, and Malcolm X. With
this in mind, the actions and choices and perspectives of the characters can again be
seen as a thematically significant parable of not only Blackness in America, but a
similarly significant portrayal of the black community’s desperation to escape from the
circumstances that its experiences.

The presence of the white Gerte in the play literally brings the tension between
Blackness and whiteness to the forefront of the parable. Simply because of her race,
Gerte represents the forces and circumstances against which Blackness, as
represented by the Crumps, struggled and, arguably, continues to struggle. Gerte, in her
presence and her engagement with the Crumps, becomes a metaphoric manifestation
of the pressures and presence of whiteness as shifting and defining the intentions and
experiences of Blackness. For example, Godfrey’s marriage to her is a metaphoric
representation of the desire of some Black Americans to assimilate into whiteness. The
violence that they encounter in response to their marriage functions as a similarly
metaphoric representation of what often happens to black Americans in general, and to
sympathetic white Americans, when they attempt to move further into assimilation and
co-operation than the racism-defined perspectives of America in general are prepared to
acknowledge, allow, or accept.

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Ernestine
Ernestine is the play's narrator, and one of its central characters. At the time in which
the play is set, she is 17 years old. There is a sense, however, that when she is offering
her narration to the audience she is speaking from a place of adulthood. This means
that she moves in and out of different ages over the course of the play, with her adult-
narrator self offering commentary on the situations and experiences of her teen-aged
self. As the narrator, Ernestine is poetic, insightful, and imaginative. As a teenager,
Ernestine is still imaginative, but more naive and more anxious. At that time in her life
she, like everyone else in her family, has been somewhat traumatized by the death of
Sandra (see below), Ernestine's mother. Ernestine is also somewhat traumatized by
having lived through the experiences of being both black and poor, experiences which
have led her to the somewhat desperate determination to improve her situation through
getting an education. Completing her studies is a primary goal of the character
throughout the play, but by its conclusion, she learns that education is not going to be
the universal cure for her troubles that she thought it was going to be. In the play's
Epilogue, adult-narrator Ernestine describes what happened in her life, and in the lives
of the other characters, in the years after the events of the play. She portrays herself as
having become an activist, a wife, and a mother, doing her best to live her best life day
by day.

Ermina
Ermina is Ernestine's younger sister, fifteen years old at the time in which the action of
the play unfolds. She is portrayed as being less thoughtful and more outspoken than her
sister, and more interested in boys. She has a nervous tic in her leg which manifests
when she is particularly anxious, a circumstance that arises at several points in the play.
In Ernestine's concluding narration, in which she describes what happened to her family
in the years after the events of the play, Ermina is described as having had a baby at a
very young age.

Godfrey
Godfrey is the father of Ernestine and Ermina, and another of the play's central
characters. He is described as being thirty-five years old at the time in which the play is
set, which means that he fathered his two daughters when he himself was only in his
late teens. He is hard working and ambitious, desperate to do well by his daughters, but
going about doing so in a way that is more constrictive than constructive. He has
become a devout follower of Father Divine (see below), and has shaped his life and
purpose in ways that have been dictated to him by Divine's faith. Over the course of the
play, he finds himself struggling to maintain authority over his family, particularly when
that authority is challenged by his sister-in-law, Lily. When he becomes romantically
involved with a white woman, Godfrey is initially following the instructions of Divine, but
eventually finds himself finding joy in the relationship on his own, and in spite of the
challenges of being in a racially mixed marriage. In Ernestine's Epilogue, she describes

56
Godfrey and Gerte as having found lasting contentment in each other, and in their
marriage.

Lily
Lily is the sister of Godrey's dead wife Sandra (see below), and the aunt of Ernestine
and Ermina. She is of a similar age to Godfrey, and shares a past with him that has
significant qualities of mutual attraction. She is portrayed as being outspoken, angry,
and an avowed communist. She portrays herself as putting her energy into fighting the
oppression faced by black people, poor people, and women - although at the same
time, she engages in certain activities that she believes make her less of a threat to
white people. Throughout the narrative, however, her actions reveal her to be more
troubled than she initially shows herself to be, as she struggles with addictions to
alcohol and to drugs. Even as she is taking a firm hand in teaching Ernestine and
Ermina how to be powerful, independent black women, she loses her own
independence and sense of self-worth. In the Epilogue, Ernestine suggests that much of
what Lily showed of herself was to some degree a lie, and says that she died in a way
that suggests an overdose of drugs.

Gerte
Gerte is a white woman, slightly younger than Godfrey and Lily. She is a recent, and
struggling, immigrant from Germany, and is helped by Godfrey when he encounters her
on the subway. They impulsively marry, and when Godfrey brings her home, her
presence becomes a trigger for conflict between him and his family. Gerte is well-
intentioned but awkward, aware that her presence in the family is creating difficulty but
not entirely sure what she can, or should, do to make the situation better. She gets into
bitter conflict with Lily, but as Ernestine portrays her in the Epilogue, eventually
becomes a loving and stable partner for Godfrey. Gerte's presence and influence are
symbols of the presence and influence of whiteness in the lives of the black Crump
family. As such, she is a trigger for thematically significant considerations of what it
means to be black in America.

Sandra
Sandra is Godfrey's wife, Lily's sister, and the mother of Ernestine and Ermina. She
never actually appears as a character, but is nevertheless a powerful and motivating
influence in the play. Her death before the play begins defines her family's
circumstances emotionally and geographically, with Godfrey having moved his family
from New York to Florida in an attempt to escape his grief. The photograph of Sandra
that is prominently displayed in the Crump family home symbolizes her presence and
lingering influence on her family.

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Father Divine
Father Divine does not appear as an actual living character in the play, but like Sandra,
he is visually present in the form of a photograph. Also like Sandra, his presence is very
much felt by the characters, but his presence has a very different quality. There is a
clear sense that Divine's presence is negatively controlling to the point of being
destructive, even though Godfrey regards Divine's presence and influence as being
positive. Divine is a Christian pastor, and leader of the faith community to which Godfrey
belongs, and which he insists his daughters join. For Godfrey, Divine is the one source
of wisdom and guidance he feels he can trust, and puts what appears to be a
delusional, almost destructive amount of faith in the guidance that he believes Divine
offers. Father Divine is based on a real-life black Christian preacher of the period, also
named Father Divine, whose followers are recorded as having been as determined in
their devotion as Godfrey.

Mr. and Mrs. Levy

These characters do not appear in the play, but are referenced several times. They are
portrayed as being elderly, Jewish, and as accepting the help of the Crumps to manage
certain aspects of their lives. The radio that plays in their home is both a source of
conflict for the Crumps, in that Ernestine, Ermina, and Lily all want to play their own
radio as much as the Levys do. The programs played on the radio, heard in the Crumps'
apartment, are a representation of the experiences of joy and freedom that the Crump
girls long to have themselves.

The Bartender
This character does not appear in the play, and is referenced only once - in Ernestine's
Epilogue. He is significant, however, because as Ernestine portrays him, he gives her
an important piece of advice that seems to change the course of her life. He suggests
she continue her education, a circumstance which, again as Ernestine suggests, led her
into a productive life as an activist for the rights of poor people, black people, and
women.

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Symbols and Symbolism
The Radio
Throughout the narrative, the sound of the radio being played in an apartment next to
that of the Crump family represents the existence of the outside world. More specifically,
it represents experiences in that outside world that Ernestine feels are denied to her,
while Godfrey feels like he needs to keep them out.

The Movies
When either Ernestine or the stage directions refer to the movies, they are described as
elements associated with the play's themes of escape, or illusion. They are one way
that Ernestine defines both her reality and her hopes for how reality will change.

Godfrey’s Shoes
Godfrey's shoes represent what he sees as his status and degree of accomplishment.
They are a source and focus of pride for him, a pride that comes under attack from Lily
when she makes fun of both the shoes and how well he takes care of them.

Godfrey’s Sweets
The sweets that Godfrey brings home from the bakery and gives to those he loves are
representative of the joy and happiness he intends to bring into his life. At the play's
climax, when Ernestine discovers only crumbs in the pocket where he usually keeps the
sweets, it reveals just how little value the sweets actually have, and/or how false the
value they represented actually was.

Godfrey’s Notepad and Lists

The lists of questions that Godfrey writes into his notebook represent his lack of self-
confidence, and his determination to trust the guidance of Father Divine over anything.
When the notebook and collection of questions are destroyed, it represents a significant
step forward in Godfrey acknowledging his reality and identity.

Ermina’s Twitching Leg

Throughout the narrative, the twitch in Ermina's leg represents severe anxiety. There is
a sense that it shows up not only at times when she herself is anxious, but at times
when her thematically significant experience of being black is most difficult for her.

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New Day Magazine
The magazine to which Godfrey subscribes, and from which he takes much of his
guidance, represents the power and presence of religious faith in Godfrey's life. His
longing for the magazine represents his longing for freedom and truth, and the fact that
for much of the play, he finds it in a faith and practices defined by whiteness.

The Dress Pattern and the Dress

The dress that Ernestine makes, and the pattern from which she makes it, represent
what she believes to be the power of education in her life. The dress, and Ernestine's
construction of it, are initially associated with whiteness, and the subconscious,
metaphorical belief in Ernestine and the rest of the family that embracing aspects of
whiteness will help them escape the difficulties of their lives as black people in America.
Eventually, however, Ernestine lets go of most of this set of beliefs, wearing the dress
and graduating from high school on her own terms, and with her own goals.

The Lace
The two types of lace that appear in the play both contribute to the layers of meaning
associated with the dress. The first set of lace, stolen by Ernestine and Ermina,
represents the power of whiteness that they are desperate to bring into their lives. The
second set, taken from Lily's slip and sewn onto the dress, represents how Ernestine
integrates Lily's teachings about Blackness and about life into her dreams and her
ambitions for an education.

The Color White

The various manifestations of the color white that appear throughout the play represent
the pervasive and dominating power of whiteness in the lives of the black characters.
The white dresses worn by Ernestine and Ermina, the white woman that Godfrey
marries, the white cake that marks Ernestine's graduation from high school, and other
images of whiteness all represent the ways in which the Crumps bring whiteness into
their lives, and shape their perceptions, values, and actions in terms of that whiteness.

The Oak Tree

Late in the first act, the references to an old oak tree being destroyed by a rainstorm
metaphorically foreshadow different experiences of destruction that emerge into the
narrative, and into the lives of the characters. Principally, that destruction takes the form
of the family's views on whiteness, and their false illusions about the thematically
significant promise of escape offered by whiteness, falling apart.

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Settings
America
The United States of America, with its history of racial tensions, is the broad strokes
setting for the play. Its action unfolds within both its geo-political boundaries and its
socio-cultural ones, specifically those constructed around and within issues associated
with race.

New York City

The city of New York is the locality in which the action of the play takes place. The play's
story is played out within the context of the city's reputation and history for being a
primary welcoming place for immigrants and outsiders, and as such, its reputation as a
defining center for opportunity and achievement.

Brooklyn
The borough of Brooklyn, within the boundaries of New York City, is the area in which
the action of the play is set. As the play portrays it, and at the time in which the play is
set, Brooklyn was populated primarily by whites. This environment and circumstance
contributes to the sense of loneliness and isolation of the Crump family, as well as to the
racial tensions that they feel and are victimized by.

Harlem
This borough of New York City is referenced a few times in the play, but only becomes
an actual setting for the action in its final moments. At the time in which the play is set,
Harlem was populated by black Americans, and was a center of culture and community.
Lily claims to be working as an activist there, but when Ernestine goes searching for
her, she finds that Lily has misrepresented herself. In the play's final moments,
Ernestine visits Brooklyn and finds out the truth of Lily's activities there, and finds out
degrees of her own truth at the same time.

1950
This is the play's setting in time. The year is significant for two main reasons. First, it is
part of a period of prosperity that filtered into American life and culture in the aftermath
of World War II in the 1940's, and continued throughout the 1950's. The point to note
here is that in general, black Americans did not experience the same degree of
prosperity as white Americans. This relates to the second reason why this setting in time
is important. The year 1950 is several years before the active emergence of the

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American Civil Rights movement. This means that the revolution spoken about by Lily is
actually several years away, and that there was relatively little public action on the civil
rights violations perpetrated by whites in this era.

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Themes and Motifs
The Experience of Blackness in America
The play’s core thematic element is its portrayal and consideration of the experience of
Blackness in America (NB: this analysis utilizes “Blackness” as a concept, even though
the concept does not appear in the play, while the term “black” is not capitalized here,
as befits the period in which the play is set and the way the word / concept appears in
the text).

The core experiences of the play’s black characters are both a consequence of their
Blackness and their determination to rise above how whiteness has shaped Blackness,
both their own and Blackness in general. The verbal and physical violence, the
exploitation and oppression experienced by the various members of the Crump family,
and their thematically significant struggles to escape it all (see below) are arguably used
by the author to suggest that while the play is very much a period piece, its situations
transcend its setting. In other words, the experiences of the Crumps come across as the
experiences of black Americans both before and since the 1950’s, the era in which the
characters live.

The Blackness of the characters and their experiences is vividly contrasted, and
therefore more vividly defined, by the various manifestations of whiteness in their lives.
Visual manifestations include the presence of Gerte, the various white dresses worn by
Ernestine and Ermina (including Ernestine’s graduation dress), and the white cake. All
these elements suggest different influential, and arguably controlling, aspects of
whiteness that define the lives of the black characters. There are also the references to
the verbal and physical violence of whiteness, references that likewise represent and
evoke the oppressions under which Blackness in general exists. Those oppressions
manifest in the specific black lives of the characters as they struggle to exist and to
matter, let alone to thrive.

It is important to note, however, that throughout the play, and particularly as it

concludes, Blackness as represented by the black characters is also infused with hope,
and a striving for change. There is definitely a sense of failure in some of this striving,
not only in terms of what happens to Lily but also in terms of what happens to Godfrey
in his attempt to live a Christian life – the American version of the Christian faith does,
after all, have its origins in white belief systems. This fact is profoundly ironic, given that
the real-world Father Divine was himself black. That said, even the attempts of the black
characters to engage safely with whiteness – e.g. Godfrey’s marriage to Gerte,
Ernestine’s attempt to get an education – can be seen as representations of that
striving. This is in spite of the fact that they are doing the wrong thing (i.e. engaging in
whiteness) for the right reasons (i.e. attempting to improve their lives, and perhaps even
the lives of black people in general).

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All this means that a fundamental component of the play’s thematically central
consideration of Blackness in America becomes a second major theme – specifically, its
consideration of the need for escape.

The Promise and Appeal of Escape

The actions of all the play’s characters are defined, to one degree or another, by a
desire to escape from their circumstances. Those circumstances include racial
elements, with the black characters striving to escape from the circumstances that
whiteness has created for their Blackness. Those circumstances also include emotional
elements, such as Godfrey’s attempt to escape from the suffering associated with the
death of Sandra by moving the family north from Florida to New York. Finally, there are
also cultural elements which, aside from the cultural elements associated with the
Blackness of the main characters, also include the cultural elements of life in Germany
– i.e. the presence and power of the Nazis – that led Gerte to make her desperate
attempt to escape to America.

Throughout the play, the Black characters make efforts at escaping their Blackness – or
rather, the circumstances through which whiteness has defined their Blackness. Lily
does it through politics and other sorts of rebellion, but eventually seems to find the
experience too painful and takes another form of escape, i.e. different forms of
addiction. There is also Ermina’s apparent attempt to escape her suffering through
promiscuity and flirting. Finally, and perhaps most significantly, there is Ernestine’s
desire first to escape into the fantasy life of the movies, and then into the more realistic
fantasy of education. The Epilogue suggests that she managed to make at least some
escape from the oppressions of whiteness, even as she matured into her own life and
continued to fight for it.

The most significant and pervasive thematic and narrative considerations of escape,
however, manifest in the character of Godfrey. Not only does his desperation for escape
from grief and memory lead him to make a geographical move across the country. He
also makes a profound psycho-emotional and/or spiritual move to escape in the
direction of a deep, obsessive Christian faith. In doing so, he escapes from his grief into
a similarly obsessive desire for guidance from Father Divine, which in turn leads him
into another form of escape. This is his marriage to a white woman, Gerte, which is
essentially an attempt at a metaphoric escape into whiteness. His attempt is initially a
failure, but as the play portrays him, Godfrey’s eventual embrace of love and his letting
go of his desperate need for approval from Father Divine eventually lead him to a true
escape – into a thematically significant experience of love, and joy.

Experiences of Love
In the same way as the actions of the characters are defined by a need for escape,
many of those same actions are also defined by a co-existing need for love. To begin
with, the events and circumstances of the play are set in motion by grief around lost

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experiences of love – specifically, the love that Godfrey and his daughters felt from
Sandra, and their uncertainty and frustration about what to do with the love they can no
longer give her. Then: Godfrey replaces his experience of loving, and being loved by,
Sandra with a desperate desire to love, and be loved by, Father Divine. At the same
time, he expresses his love for his daughters in one way that looks a bit like love – i.e.
giving them sweets from the bakery where he works – and in other ways that look more
like oppression and control. Those ways are connected to his love for Father Divine, in
that it is Divine who gives Godfrey instruction in how to “love” his daughters in ways that
will give them a good life. It is interesting to note that in the text of the play, the efforts
that Godfrey makes to show love to his daughters that are not connected to Divine –
that is, how he brings home sweets from the bakery where he works – are the ones that
actually bring him closer to them. The Divine-influenced efforts result in further tension
and resentment.

It could be argued, meanwhile, that the actions of Lily when she comes into the Crump
family home are also expressions of love. She never actually uses the word, and her
actions very rarely come across as representative of what might be described as an
affectionate, or softer kind of love. Instead, her actions might be described as “tough
love,” in that she does what she does and says what she says as a result of wanting
Godfrey and her nieces to have a realistic sense of how the world works. She loves
them and wants them to both do well and not experience pain, both within the context of
a lived, painfully wise experience of Blackness. For Lily, love equals truth, as painful as
that truth might be.

The most significant experience of love in the play, however, comes late in the narrative,
at what might be considered the play’s climax. This is the moment at which Godfrey
rejects, literally and metaphorically, the control of Father Divine. Godfrey has mistaken
for love, and also used it as an outlet for the love he could no longer give Sandra. In
rejecting Divine’s influence, Godfrey instead chooses to celebrate his feelings for and
connection to Gerte, a celebration that becomes an experience of love. The stage
directions make this point clearly and vividly. In the aftermath of the tearing up of the
notes he has made about his questions for Divine, he gives Gerte the sort of
passionate, loving kiss that Divine had told him to abstain from. For Godfrey, love finally
wins, a victory that resounds in Ernestine’s final monologue as she describes how love
seems to have deepened between herself, her father, and her father’s new wife as they
all matured into their lives.

Religious Faith
The play’s consideration and portrayal of religious faith is another facet of the play’s
thematic interest in escape. This is because, as referenced above, Godfrey’s actions in
response to the guidance of Father Divine are those of a man who has become
obsessed with religious faith and the promise of freedom and escape that it offers to
him. Also as noted above, religious faith becomes the source of the somewhat curdled
way that Godfrey expresses his love for his daughters. That faith also becomes
something of a cudgel that he uses to attack Lily, specifically her beliefs and her

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behavior. Eventually, his rejection of the controlling power of religious faith becomes an
expression of true and joyous freedom for him, a moment that makes the important
thematic suggestion that religious faith in general, for people like Geoffrey and perhaps
even for black people in general, is not the real source of truth and power that so many
think it is.

But the play’s consideration of aspects of religious faith goes even deeper. As
referenced in the analysis of the Preface and Prologue, religious faith is a fundamental
component of the play’s title, and also of the quote from which that title is taken. This
means that a central image of the play, the one that evokes the play’s title – i.e. the
crumbs that Ernestine finds in Godfrey’s coat pocket – is connected to the play’s
thematic commentary on religious faith. It is arguable, in fact, that by the end of the play,
all that is left of the family’s religious faith is crumbs. With that idea in mind, it is
important to note that in Ernestine’s Epilogue, there is no reference to religious faith at
all. This fact, combined with Godfrey’s apparent rejection of religious faith – at least as
preached by Father Divine – makes the clear thematic suggestion that religious faith,
and particularly Christianity, is not the way to truth and identity that it often professes
itself to be.

All that said, there is an interesting parallel to be noted and considered between the
religious faith practiced and preached by Godfrey, and a different sort of faith practiced
and preached by Lily. This is her faith in communism and revolution, which for Lily is as
much a valid and desperately sought means of escape as Father Divine’s Christianity is
for Godfrey. She believes as thoroughly and as deeply in the revolution as Godfrey
believes in Father Divine, and maybe in God – although there is some question as to
which Godfrey believes in more. In any case, Lily’s near-religious faith in the revolution
ends in in a realization of futility that is similar to Godfrey’s realization of the futility of his
religion. Both are accompanied by a similar letting go. Although Godfrey lets go of his
faith in order to embrace love, and Lily finds herself letting go of her “faith” because her
faith in drugs and alcohol is stronger, they encounter parallel empty-nesses in their
respective faiths. Those parallel empty-nesses essentially emphasize the uselessness
of both sorts of fate, at least in the lives of these two characters.

The Power and Presence of Imagination

There are several ways in which the play considers and explores the power and
presence of imagination. First, the play’s primary characters – Godfrey, Lily, and
Ernestine – all have powerful imaginations that lead them to put a great deal of faith in
what they see as their opportunities for escape, and well-being. Respectively, they
imagine that religion, the revolution, and education will all lead them to personal and
ethno-cultural freedom. Over the course of the play, however, they find that all their
imaginings are essentially futile. In that sense, the power and presence of imagination
becomes more like delusion.

Then there is the way that as she narrates the story, Ernestine’s storytelling frequently
takes detours into imagination. Gerte’s dancing at the Mission, and also her dancing

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with Lily, are prime examples of this. Ernestine’s differing imaginations of Godfrey’s
behavior are similar detours from reality as portrayed by the rest of the play. As
theatrically engaging as these detours are, and as potent a form of storytelling, there is
nevertheless a clear sense that for Ernestine, such acts of imagination are essentially
wishful thinking. They are, in their own desperately hopeful and sometimes playful way,
as much of a delusion as the characters’ imaginings associated with religion, the
revolution, and education.

The power and presence of imagination is also active in the reactions of the various
characters to Gerte. Godfrey imagines that she and her presence will lead him out of
grief, while Lily, Ernestine, and Ermina all imagine that Gerte and her presence will lead
them into suffering. All of them are right, but all of them are also wrong. The true value
of Gerte and her presence ultimately transcends imagination, which is a key point that
can also be made about the other forms of imagination referenced above. The truth is
ultimately more powerful.

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Styles
Point of View
The play’s narrative point of view is that of its central character and narrator, Ernestine
Crump. She speaks directly to the audience, stepping in and out of the action to offer
commentary on and / or description of the events that she and the other characters are
playing out. It is important to note that for much of the play, Ernestine’s primary function
is, in fact, that of narrator. She does not play a particularly active role in the early events
of the story, reacting more to events and choices brought into the narrative by Godfrey
and Lily. There are glimpses of her story, but she does not really become a central
character until some way into the second act. That said, it is also important to note that
on several occasions, as part of her narration Ernestine describes events that the
audience has seen as representative of her own imagination, not of things that the
characters actually did or said. This is a primary component of the play’s overall
thematic consideration of the power and presence of imagination, and reinforces the
sense that the central narrative point of view is Ernestine’s, even though she is not
always a vividly active presence in the plot.

The stories of Ernestine and the other characters are told from a thematically central
point of view defined by the experience of being Black in America. While the events of
the story are defined by the experiences of Black Americans who were alive in the pre-
civil rights years in which the play is set, those events awaken echoes and resonances
of similar experiences both before and since the era in which the play takes place.

This aspect of the play – i.e. that the Blackness-related experiences of the period
characters are similar to the experiences of Black Americans in general – can be seen
as the play’s authorial point of view. In showing how the Crumps experience racism-
defined behavior, including physical violence, the author seems to be suggesting that
even though decades have passed since the time in which the play and those incidents
are set, the experiences and circumstances of Black Americans have not changed all
that much. At the same time, there is also the sense that the experiences of the Crumps
are the result of decades, if not centuries, of similar experience. In short, the play’s
thematic and authorial points of view both suggest that the Crumps, as individuals and
as a family and as Black Americans in general, are archetypal representations of a set
of universal experiences. Those experiences, in the play’s overall point of view, can be
perceived as transcending time and circumstance, even though their situation is
portrayed as being specifically connected to a particular period in American history.

Language and Meaning

The first point to note about this piece’s language and its relationship to meaning is that
because it is a play, its story is told almost entirely through dialogue. There are several
important stage directions, i.e. prose descriptions of actions. In many cases, those

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stage directions highlight points of action or the use of a particular object, or prop. Both
the timing and content of those stage directions often have metaphorical meaning – see
below. For the most part, however, communication of character, relationship, and
situation takes place as a result of what the characters say, how and when they say it,
and to who they say it. The “why” of their dialogue is generally left to the audience to
discern, with that “why” being a primary component of what is called the play’s subtext –
literally, what is beneath the text.

The play’s stage directions, or descriptions of visual / physical action, are arguably more
present and more significant than they are in many plays. This is because several of the
play’s symbols and layers of metaphorical experience appear almost entirely in stage
directions. The metaphoric importance of, for example, the radio being played in other
rooms, or of Godfrey’s shoes, or of the mannequin Ernestine is using to build her dress
becomes apparent not only as a result of what the characters say about them, but about
when stage directions reference them. A key example of this comes in Act Two Scene 3.
As the characters are figuring out how to deal with the assault that Godfrey and Gerte
have experienced, Ernestine discovers that there are only crumbs in the coat pocket in
which Godfrey usually carries sweet treats from the bakery where he works. The
symbolic meaning of the empty pocket is both clarified and heightened by its
juxtaposition with the violence, i.e. the loss of innocence and joy, that Godfrey and
Gerte have just experienced. The discovery of the crumbs and their metaphorical
meaning is also connected to the play’s title.

Another important point to note about the use of language in the play is how it is used to
define character and situation, and how it is shaped by theme. More specifically, the
language of the extended Crump family is very much defined by their thematically
central experience of being Black in America, and particularly at a specific time in Black
American history – that is, a period in which jazz and bebop, forms of music originating
with and shaped by African Americans, were emerging into the mainstream. A key
component of this use of language is the range of words the Crumps use, and that
Gerte occasionally uses, to describe their blackness. The words “nigger,” “Negro,”
“black” [sic] and “colored” all appear at different times, most often in the dialogue of
Godfrey and Lily, although Gerte does use “Negro” and “colored,” never “nigger.” There
are also several points at which language, specifically the use of terms associated with
bebop and jazz, become part of the attempts to escape from their circumstances as
experienced by several of the characters. This is particularly true of, and for, Ermina.

Structure
The play’s core structure is essentially linear, as the events of its plot move from a point
of beginning (i.e. the establishment of the Crump’s life in Brooklyn) through a middle
(i.e. the experience of complications and struggle associated with that life) towards a
climax (i.e. Ernestine’s confrontation with her father) and an ending (i.e. Ernestine’s final
epilogue). There is also what is often referred to as an inciting incident – that is, an
event that sets the story in motion that might not actually be included in the play. Here,
that incident is the death of Sandra Crump, Godfrey’s wife, Ernestine and Ermina’s

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mother, and Lily’s sister. That event creates the set of circumstances in which the play
begins. It is a defining element of the story without actually being included in the story
itself.

The story built around that central framework is constructed in two acts, One and Two.
There is also a Prologue, in which the circumstances of the Crump family are defined,
and the narrative / stylistic convention of Ernestine’s speaking to the audience is
established. The play concludes with an Epilogue, in which Ernestine’s story takes
central focus and in which, at the play’s conclusion, Ernestine describes the lives of the
characters in the years after the events of the play.

Within that story, and also tied to its overall framework, there are a few places where
linear reality is disrupted, for lack of a better term, by Ernestine’s imagination. This is a
particularly intriguing structural element of the play, in that the audience and/or reader
experience a scene as unfolding in what might be described as a usual way, but then
has hat experience interrupted by an interjection from Ernestine. In that interjection, she
reveals that what has just been shown, or the action that just unfolded, was, in fact,
something that she wished could have happened, or would like to have happened. After
her interjection, the action of the scene picks up at the moment at which the interjection
occurred, returning the story to what might be described as its “real” trajectory. This is
one of several ways in which the play functions in ways that plays in general can, and in
ways that other forms of narrative are not as effective at – that is, the experience of
bending reality, and of communicating story with explorations of different sorts of
bending.

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Quotes
Ever since Mommy passed on, [Father Divine] stands between us and our enjoyment.
Daddy discovered Father Divine when he was searching to cure ‘the ailments of the
heart,’ those terrible fits of mourning that set in … Father Divine, the great provider, sent
his blessing via mail. And shortly thereafter Daddy was cured … he let Divine strip away
his desire and demand of him a monk’s devotion. This a man who never went to church
and never tipped his hat to a woman, until we got to – Brooklyn.
-- Ernestine (Prologue)

Importance: This quote from early in the play establishes the fundamental nature of the
relationship between Godfrey and Father Divine. The relationship, the primary
embodiment of the play's thematic consideration of the power of religious faith, is clearly
one grounded in Godfrey's desperation, and Divine's determination to exploit that grief.

Can hear Mrs. Levy upstairs in her rocking chair shifting back and forth from laughter.
Can hear the television in the Friedlander’s apartment. We sit and listen to all the white
laughter.”
-- Ernestine (Prologue)

Importance: This quote is one of several in the play that not only reference the
neighboring Levy family. It is also part of the first reference in the play to how the white
Levys and their enjoyment of life represent possibilities for joy, and a degree of freedom,
that are denied Ernestine. That denial is partly because of Godfrey's religious faith, but
as Ernestine portrays it here and elsewhere, partly because the Crump family is black.

Godfrey: Country folk come up here and turn on each other. That’s what happens when
you live pile dup on top of each other day in and day out. Ain’t natural … God’s done
retreated from this city, I can tell you that much without being a scientist. “Ernestine:
Where’d God go? Godfrey (Thinks): Philadelphia, my rosebud.
-- Godfrey, Ernestine (Act One, Scene 1)

Importance: This darkly funny quote is taken from a conversation in which Ernestine
challenges Godfrey's faith in God, albeit in a relatively mild way. At this point in the play,
Godfrey is confident and comfortable in his experience of religious faith, sure that he is
doing the right thing for both himself and for his daughters.

You know how [those white gals] hate to see a Negro woman look better than they do.
It’s my own little subversive mission to outdress them whenever possible. Envy is my
secret weapon, babies. If ya learn anything from your auntie, let it be that.
-- Lily (Act One, Scene 2)

Importance: This quote is taken from Lily's first appearance in the play, a scene in
which she appears confident, insightful, and determined to help her nieces - Ernestine
and Ermina - find those qualities in themselves. Lily is determined to weaponize both

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their experience of being black and their experience of wanting to assimilate into white
culture, efforts that eventually have the opposite effect from what Lily intends.

I’m exerting my own will, and since the only thing ever willed for me was marriage, I
choose not to do it. And why take just one man, when you can have a lifetime full of so
many … you needn’t share that little pearl of wisdom with your daddy.
-- Lily (Act One, Scene 3)

Importance: Here again, Lily offers her perspectives on being a woman to her nieces.
She is also, in essence, offering her perspectives on life in general, saying that
independence is a goal to be sought and an experience to be celebrated.

In the movies the clothing is always perfectly ironed, the seams even and pointed. In the
movies, when families argue it is underscored by beautiful music and reconciliation. In
the movies, men are heroes, broad-shouldered and impervious to danger. Their lives
are perfect formulas resolved in ninety minutes. But as Daddy would say, ‘They white.
-- Ernestine (Act One, Scene 4)

Importance: Here again, Ernestine's comment about the movies positions them as
being sources of unrealistic expectations and opportunities for escape. Godfrey's
comment adds layers of implication to the quote, suggesting that that lack of realism is
primarily defined by the fundamental whiteness of the movies. This aspect of the quote
is significantly ironic, in that the embracing of whiteness is, throughout the play, one of
Godfrey's main actions and goals.

It was freeing to know that someone so far away could give a musical shape to my
feelings. I wanted to visit America, see the people who create this music. Go West. The
pictures. Same dreams everyone has … it was wonderful, at least for a while. Then it
got difficult, the Nazis, the war and things happen just as you’re finding yourself.”
-- Gerte (Act Two, Scene 2)

Importance: This comment of Gerte's about music adds layers of vulnerability to how
she is portrayed in the play. It also establishes a seemingly unlikely parallel to Lily, in
that both women define aspects of themselves by their relationship to, and feelings
about, music.

Listen to it, Ernie. That’s ours. We used to live communally in African villages. That’s the
truth. And when conflict arose we’d settle our differences through music. Each village
had its own particular timeline, a simple rhythm building outward towards something
extraordinary … and folks would meet at the crossroads with drums, to resolve their
problems, creating intricate riffs off their timelines, improvising their survival. It’s a
beautiful notion, ain’t it? It’s more than beautiful it’s practical.
-- Lily (Act Two, Scene 2)

Importance: This quote is one of several in the play that manifest the metaphorical idea
that Lily is a symbol of Blackness. Her comments here reference both the past and the
present of Blackness, and particularly its history as associated with music. The quote is

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one of several in the play that make this connection. As such, it foreshadows the final
lines of the play, in which making that connection turns out to be a life-defining
experience for Ernestine.

You see, Ernestine, that’s your America. Negro sitting on his couch with blood dripping
down his face. White woman unscathed and the enemy not more than five years back.
You can’t bring order to this world. You can’t put up curtains and pot plants and have
things change.
-- Lily (Act Two, Scene 3)

Importance: Here again, Lily's dialogue evokes her metaphoric presence as a

representation of Blackness. This time, however, she is making note of the suffering
associated with that experience, rather than the joy associated with the previous quote.
This dichotomy of experiences is, in fact, a fundamental dichotomy in the character of
Lily as a whole.

You know what a miscalculation is? It’s saying ‘If y’all peasy-head Negroes ain’t happy,
why don’t you go up to city hall and demand some respect. I’m tired of praying,
goddamnit!’ … those words spoken by a poor colored gal in a small cracker town meant
you’re morally corrupt. A communist. Whole town stared me down, nobody would give
me a word.”
-- Lily (Act Two, Scene 4)

Importance: This quote is taken from the section of the play in which Lily describes the
reasons why she felt forced to leave Florida and move to New York. It is a voicing of her
ideas, and ideals, about how Negroes handled racism, and how she believed racism
should be handled. The quote is yet another example of how Lily functions, in the play,
as a manifestation and embodiment of its thematically central consideration of the
experience of being black in America.

It's only men. They make me nervous. But they remember Lily. Everyone does. So I tell
them, 'I've come to enlist, in the revolution, of course. To fight the good fight. I got a high
school diploma. I'll do anything. I'll scrub floors if need me. You see, I care very much
about the status of the Negro in this country. We can't just sit idly by, right?
-- Ernestine (Epilogue)

Importance: This quote is taken from the final speech of the play. In the first part of the
speech, Ernestine describes what happens when she attempts to follow in Lily's
footsteps, both her literal footsteps into the black community of Harlem and her political
footsteps into activism. As the speech progresses, Ernestine's descriptions reveal how
misguided both she and Lily were.

I’ll visit Daddy and Gerte and we’ll eat a huge mean of bratwurst and sweet potatoes
and realize that we all escape somewhere and take comfort in things we don’t
understand.
-- Ernestine (Epilogue)

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Importance: This quote is taken from the latter half of Ernestine's final speech, at a
point where she looks forward to what her life has become and describes how she and
others in her family have found a degree of peace. It is a positive manifestation of the
play's thematic consideration of the need for, and value of, escape, one of only a few
such manifestations in the play. Elsewhere, escape is portrayed as a negative. Here, it
is portrayed as something healing, something that offers safety even in circumstances
that are not, as Ernestine says, entirely logical or that make sense.

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