Topsy!

Topsy was a mischievous and clever black slave girl in the anti-slavery novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe. One of the characters treats her like an animal and whistles to her the way "a man would to call the attention of a dog".

She was trained to believe by her masters that as a "nigger", she was naturally bad. She tells another character: "I’s wicked, – I is. I’s mighty wicked, any how. I can’t help it"

Why do you think Miss Aggy refers to Lois as "Topsy"?

"A never see pigs friendly so. Them is mi company."

Do you think it is fitting for Mama to have pigs as company? Why?

Hold dog!

Mama: All right. [She is going, stops, turns.] The dog tie? --Old Story Time Act one pg 32

In what ways does Mama treat Lois like a dog?

Len's Letter

Len finally writes to Miss Aggy. Why do you think his letter is so brief and formal?

Storytelling Tradition

Don't you just love a good story? I'm sure you could still remember a good story that someone told you a while ago!

Pa Ben in Old Story Time is a good storyteller. What does he do or say that reflects the storytelling tradition?

Trevor Rhone

March 24, 1940 - September 15, 2009
Leading and awarding-winning Jamaican writer, actor, director and playwright. He with seven others, started the Barn Theatre.

In Old Story Time (1979), Rhone's most popular play, ‘Pa Ben’, the old story-teller, recounts forty years of Jamaican life.

This is the dark time, my love

All the words in the title are important. Stop and think! Why do you think Carter chose to give the poem this title? Is it appropriate?

Thank You Thinkers

A Poem of Thanks to 4.1/4.4 VSS Lit Students

My goal at the end of the term
Was not only that you'll learn,
But see the beauty that literature can be,
Appreciate every line in poetry,
Read lines dramatically,
And see beyond mere words
As you capably analyzed prose.

Now as I look back
I see much more than that!
You were like literary devices,
Bringing the book to life in our classes!
Ever so willing to read
Shooting eager hands in the air
Hoping loudly that I take heed

And so it was 4.1/4.4 became a little Bonasse
When Bolo didn’t fight for Eulalie
And Ivan Morton come jus so jus so
And he fountain pen win she
What about the day the Spirit come?
Bee preach with power, the Spirit take over
Everybody was responding:
Who jumping, who singing, who clapping
Bell ringing!
Then we had Bonasse election
With stupidy Rufus,
White man Richardson and smart boy Morton

So thank you thinkers for your contribution
Narrators, actors, readers, listeners,
Bloggers, facebookers,
Sharers of articles, jokes and props
To all students who made our class memorable:
Thank you ever so much!

So nobody ain't fighting?

When Bolo ask jumbie-bird to crow
No stickfighter will go
So he stop dancing
Music stop playing
Then Bolo asking:
'So nobody ain't fighting?'
So Bolo gone mad
And mash up all them drum
With the stick in he hand!



Bolo had to get on so??
Share your views, I want to know

I hear the calf moo

The calf in The Wine of Astonishment is an image of HOPE. Can you think of anything within the novel that reflects hope?

Forgive My Guilt

"Two birds on golden legs slim as dream things

Ran like quicksilver on the golden sand"

Share your story: "I am sure of one sin I have done" What childhood sin have you commited against nature without thinking about the consequences?

Bee, a man alone in front all this hard, red earth

Bee's physical struggle with the earth seems to reflect his spiritual conflict and frustration. He is in the hot sun with "his back wet down with perspiration". He exerts much physical effort "lifting up the iron fork in the air and bringing it down and burying it in the earth and lifting up the fork again, sinking it into the earth with his strength as if it was the earth that hurt him and he wanted to stab it, stab it, stab it until he kill it".

Eva is looking at Bee. She wonders "if all this digging and uprooting and sweating and grunting going to bring forth anything, or if all a man could do is dig and uproot and bury seeds in the earth and pray and hope things grow...".

This image of struggle, frustration and even the violence of wanting to stab and kill the land is reflected in other events throughout the novel. Can you think of any?

And what Winston want to do? He want to be a policeman.

" 'Go,' Bee say, very soft. And the boy there with his tall uneasiness. 'Go. You have nineteen years. I can't hold you here. Go!' Bee say, his voice low, stifling.

...'Go!' he say again, his voice rising and breaking as his vexation get the uper hand of him. And Winston stand up in front of him, wanting to move and don't know how to move. 'Go!' And before Winston could do anything, Bee turn to Taffy, 'And you? You don't want to go too? You don't want to be a police too to arrest your own people? You don't want to be one too?'"
--Chap 4 The Wine of Astonishment

Why is Bee so upset when his eldest son Winston wants to sit the police examination?

Where does Eva work?

Eva is no doubt a loving mother, supportive wife, and a spiritually strong, resilient woman. In The Wine of Astonishment, does Eva work outside the home? Prove your response.

Letter to the Brethren

Brethren,

I know our Lord has made us see hard things and make us to drink the wine of astonishment...I know that we have been like lost sheep and the shepherds have caused us to go astray...I know that we dont know if we is black or white!!

But praise the Lord for the rain brethren!! And the one day meh son eh come, de Spirit come!

I wish alyuh coulda tell meh son what happen that Sunday...I wish Bolo did know!

Love,
Old Mother Raymond