Themes in OLD STORY TIME

Themes of Old Story Time

One of the themes that is conveyed in Old Story Time is race and class consciousness. This is evident in Ms. Aggy's desire for Len to marry Magaret, a woman she considers of superior standing because of her lighter skin and straight hair. Ms. Aggy believes that by Len marrying Magaret, he will automatically become elevated in society.
In contrast, Ms. Aggy believes if Len should marry Lois, a local woman of very dark skin, that he will be regressing in social status. Thus, she tries very hard to discourage this relationship and when she realises that Len is indeed married to Lois, tries her utmost to criticize and denigrate her daughter-in-law. She even resorts to obeah to try to destroy the relationship.

Another theme that evolves is that of the importance of Education to gain upward mobility both economically and socially. Ms. Aggy works hard in the market and sacrifices modern amenities so that she can afford to educate Len in England. She believes he is doing medicine, the international profession that connotates success and and social importance. When she learns that his doctorate is in Finance, she is disappointed but realises that there is much importance to his job and her pride heightens.

The theme of love and family relationship also plays a part in this play. Ms.Aggy's love for her son is demonstrated in her ambition for him, however sometimes misguided. She wants him to have a home and allows George to encourage her to invest in his "real estate" scheme. She just wants the best for her son or what she perceives to be the best and unfortunately becomes a target for George's scheme. However, her misguided notion of what she believes is best for Len blinds her to accepting his wife as the person he loves. Steeped in the mental slavery of her past and the notion that white is superior and black is derogatory, she sees Lois as a setback to her son. Only when Ms.Aggy learns of Lois's role in protecting and caring for Len when he was young and a victim of George and Magaret's taunts, does she realise her mistake and begins to make amends.
Friendship also is explored in the relationship between Pa Ben ad Ms. Aggy. Even though it was tried and shaken up when Ms. Aggy learns that Pa Ben knew of Lois and Len's marriage before her, it was able to stand the test and after some time of discord, the two resolved their conflict.

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Old_story_time_trevor_rhone_themes#ixzz1Eybimjxw

Miss Aggy is a Mother to Lenn but her attitude is one of ignorance because even though she is a black woman she tries to grow her son up on the belief that "Anything Black Nuh Good" And when she trys to make him grow up with an education like she never had.

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_a_character_sketch_on_Ma_Aggy_in_Old_Story_Time_-_Trevor_Rhone#ixzz1EycB4ALB

Rhone's most popular play, Old Story Time (1979), in which ‘Pa Ben’, the old story-teller, recounts forty years of Jamaican life, reveals the playwright's comic vision at its most luminous. Rhone's realistic comedies about Jamaican life all combine serious social criticism with buoyant humour, and are acutely sensitive to a wide variety of dialects and modes of speech. If: A Tragedy of the Ruled (1983) and Hopes of the Living Dead (1988) are both historical allegories set in turn-of-the-century Nigeria. He also co-authored and produced the internationally successful film The Harder They Come (1972).

Read more: Trevor Rhone Biography - (1940– ), The Gadget, Old Story Time and Other Plays, Smile Orange, School's Out http://www.jrank.org/literature/pages/5544/Trevor-Rhone.html#ixzz1EycyWHsG

Trevor Rhone   bornMarch 24, 1940 in Kingston, Jamaica

diedSeptember 15, 2009

website

http://www.geocities.com/jamaican_theatre/

genre

Theater

about this author

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Trevor Rhone was a Jamaican writer and playwright.

He began his theatre career as a teacher after a three year stint at Rose Bruford College, an English drama school. He was part of the renaissance of Jamaican theater in the early 1970's. Rhone participated in a group called Theatre '77, which established The Barn, a small theater in Kingston, Jamaica to stage local performances. The vision of the group that came together in 1965 was that in 12 years, by 1977, there would be professional theatre in Jamaica.

Among his works is the script to The Harder They Come, a 1972 crime film, which was instrumental in popularizing reggae in the US. He also wrote the script for the 2003 romance One Love.

Trevor Rhone's Old Story Time Today's Jamaica seems overly preoccupied with the issues of class and colour. In Old Story Time Trevor Rhone mirrors a Jamaica struggling with the same subject in the Mid Twentieth century. Discuss these concerns of the play in detail making comparisons/contrasts to the current Jamaican and Caribbean societies.

In Old Story Time Trevor Rhone mirrors a Jamaica struggling with similar subjects in the mid century. Concerns that are brought out in Old Story Time are still evident in the Jamaican society today. The issues of class and colour that are presented within the play are still issues in Jamaica today. In the effort to rise to a European standard of beauty, blacks are still slaves to this mentality. This European standard of beauty (aquiline nose, l...

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OLD STORY TIME
This book tells of a traditional story in a rural community. The tradition of the story telling idea originated from Africa.
This book tells about a mother who was enslaved by her past. She grew up in a society, which she was taught, "any thing that was black wasn't good" and also that black signifies failure and hard ship, while white signifies prosperity and advancement. This belief was passed down as a result of slavery and has followed her through out her life.
The story tells of a single mother by the name of Miss Aggy also called mama, who lived alone with her son Len and beside her lived her best friend Pa Ben. Mama would normally beat her son Len for associating with the black persons in the community; especially girls of his age group. She would tell her son what is it that she wanted for him and what is best for him; also that if he does as she said, and then he wouldn't have a problem.
As the years go by Len had left home to study overseas and his mother was getting really worried about him but after writing her she felt much better. In one of the letters that she received from him he told her that he was married and sent a picture of his wife who was a black woman; and this got mama very agitated. She also thought that Len's wife Lois was turning her son against her. Pa Ben who was secretly keeping in contact with Len told mama that it was nothing of that sort, but mama thought that she had to do something about it.
One day Len came to the house; and they were very surprised and happy to see him, mama hugged, kissed and welcomed her son home. While talking him she would of course passed her remarks about his wife, which he did not like to hear. While he was away mama paid down on a house for him at the bank and George also known, as Mr. Mac was her financial advisor and also one of Len's old enemies.
When Len came back to Jamaica with his wife to stay, mama gave him the papers about the house since he was an economist and had a knowledge of banking. While they were living there, mama would pass their remarks about Lois, whenever she went to visit them.
George, who wanted to talk about the house with Len, went to his house and because of the rumors that Len heard about George he did his own check on him; and found out that George was a very sly and cunning fellow. He was known to be a trickster. He would go around and trick persons and he would use the money that those people would invest in the bank. Due to Len's experience in the banking system George tried to convince him to invest in his bank and Len choose not to.
Mama hated that Lois; so she told George that Lois was the one who told Len not to invest. George was upset and because he head some secrets for Lois he thought he could black mail her and Len. Lois who was a teller at his bank had borrowed some money to help George in acquiring his education, and so George wanted her to sleep with him and also to convince Len to help his business, she refused to and left the room and ran right into Lens arms who had over heard every thing. Len was very upset but that was the least of his problem for his was concentrating on protecting his wife from the obeah that his mother placed on her. Len too went to an obeah woman to protect her but that woman was a fraud and this caused him to panic. He sent Pa Ben for his mother while he talked to George telling him that he cant possibly tell the police about Lois, for then he Len would tell the court about George's actions and he can be charged for conspiracy to defraud. George started to beg Len not to do so and Len told him that he would have to tell mama what he did to him when he was younger and also how he tricked her.
After George told mama that him and his friends ganged Len, when he wrote a love letter to Margaret; and how he lied to her about her money for the house, mama wanted to kill him but he ran away. After Len told mama that he had to go to Lois's house to stay until his wounds healed, she apologized to her and asked her for her forgiveness. Then because the obeah boomeranged they had to pray for mama all night until the spirits came out of her. She hugged them both and called them her children, and they became a family.
By : A.D