Dialogue. Dialogue is conversation involving two or more people or characters. Plays are made up of dialogue and stage directions. In a play, dialogue appears after the names of characters. As you read “A Woman Called Truth,” notice that not all the words after the names of characters are dialogue. Try to identify examples of dialogue by looking for conversations involving more than one character.
Stage Directions. Stage directions are notes included in a play to describe how something should look, sound, or be performed. Stage directions describe setting, lighting, music, sound effects, entrances and exits, props, and the movements of characters. They are usually printed in italics and enclosed in brackets or parentheses. As you read “A Woman Called Truth,” look for such descriptions in its stage directions. See the Elements of Drama on page 694 for more information.
|
• History Connection. Sojourner Truth was born into slavery in 1797 in Ulster County, New York. In 1827, Sojourner escaped from her master, and the following year she was freed under the New York State Anti-Slavery Act. As a free woman she took on the name of Sojourner Truth and began speaking out against slavery and for women’s rights. At six feet tall, Sojourner was an excellent speaker with a booming voice. Traveling on foot, she took her ideas on freedom as far west as Ohio. Her speeches upset many and sometimes put her in great personal danger. Sojourner’s most famous speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?”—delivered in Akron, Ohio, in 1851—made even a white and prejudiced audience pay attention. In 1864 Sojourner was appointed counselor with the National Freedmen’s Relief Association. She died on November 26, 1883, in Battle Creek, Michigan.
• Most African-American slaves toiled endlessly on huge plantations under brutal conditions. Out of their pain and suffering, slaves created and sang spirituals, or religious folk songs, to give them hope, faith, and courage to go on living. With short lines repeating over and over, spirituals were sung in a rich, rhythmic harmony, usually in choral rather than solo form. These deeply sorrowful songs gave slaves a means of communication as well as a way to ease the burden of their imprisonment. Many of the songs contained coded messages that only the slaves could understand. Spirituals flourished in the 1800s.
In each cluster, jot down stage directions that reveal information about the cluster’s label.
How do you feel and react when someone cuts in line in front of you? when someone tries to force you to do something?
|
