What is the theme of Jitney?
What is the theme of Jitney?
“Jitney” is occupied with recurring Wilson themes: the gradual gentrification of the Hill District; the economic and psychological oppression that weighs down and sometimes divides the black community.
What is the plot of Jitney?
Plot Synopsis Jitney is August Wilson’s first play, written in and about the late 1970s in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. The action takes place in a run-down station of a gypsy cab company. Becker, who runs the station, is a world-weary man of a certain age who has just received a pair of bitter blows.
Who is Youngblood in Jitney?
Youngblood (Darnell Williams), a driver. Recently returned from Vietnam, working several jobs to provide for his family. In his late 20s. Rena, Youngblood’s girlfriend and the mother of his young son, Jesse.
Who is Shealy in Jitney?
Shealy. Shealy is one of the few characters not driving for Becker’s Car Service. He is the local ”numbers man,” a bookie who spends time around the jitney station.
When was the play Jitney written?
1979
Originally written in 1979, though subsequently revised, Jitney, the last of Wilson’s century-cycle Decalogue to make it to Broadway, is set in 1977 at the station of an unlicensed car service on a crumbling block in Pittsburgh’s Hill District.
Who is the protagonist in Jitney?
The main characters in Jitney are Jim and Booster Becker, Youngblood, and Rena. Jim Becker, a man in his sixties, is the jitney station’s owner-manager. During the play’s action, he also resumes working at a steel mill where he was formerly employed, which leads to his tragic demise.
What is the meaning of Jitney?
Definition of jitney 1 : an unlicensed taxicab. 2 [from the original 5 cent fare] : bus sense 1a especially : a small bus that carries passengers over a regular route on a flexible schedule. 3 slang : nickel sense 2a(1)
How does Joe Turner’s Come and Gone end?
He spent seven years on Turner’s chain gang and only survived by the thought of his wife and daughter. He tells them that after seven years he returned home to find that his wife had left and his daughter was living with her grandmother. The scene ends with Loomis being skeptical of Bynum and his voodoo abilities.
Why is it called a jitney?
A jitney is a vehicle, usually a bus, that carries passengers for a very low fare. The term originated in the early 1900s to describe a private bus or car that ferried people between a city bus and a taxi. The name came from the slang term, jitney, meaning a nickel. Any length of ride on a jitney cost five cents.
What is a jitney driver?
Jitneys are a clandestine, underground form of illegal taxi drivers. They do not carry the proper license, distributed and regulated by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, which is required to legally operate a taxi service.
What is the Jitney Man?
1 : an unlicensed taxicab.
What language is Jitney?
Word History: Jitney entered the English language from another undisclosed language before 1903. Some have speculated it came from French jeton “token”, but no one knows for sure. In any event we do know how the meaning slid over to a vehicle.
Who is the shiny man?
The shiny man is the “One Who Goes Before and Shows the Way” and appears to Bynum in a mystical vision (15). The vision starts when Bynum meets a man on the road who offers to show him the meaning of life.
What does Harold Loomis do at the end of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone?
Apparently, Joe Turner hunts down black men and forces them to labor for him for seven years at a time. When Herald was finally released, he discovered that Martha had left Zonia with the girl’s grandmother, and so he took his daughter and started searching for his wife.
When was the jitney invented?
Jitneys initially emerged in the 1910s, when personal car ownership became more popular and individuals wanted to earn some extra money by charging for a ride.
What is Jitney mean?
Why do they call it a jitney?
What jitney means?
Was Joe Turner a real person?
Joe Turner – Joe Turner is more of a representational character in this play than a literal character. By illegally kidnapping Black men, Turner represents the evil of the Southern, racist white man. He is based on the person of Joe Turney, brother of Tennessee governor Peter Turney.
Who is the antagonist in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone?
Seth and Bertha Holly Seth is very religious, putting great store in his faith and comes into conflict with the vehemently anti-Christian Herald Loomis whom he doesn’t trust enough to let know that his wife now goes by the name Martha Pentecost and has been living in Pittsburgh for several years.
What is the setting of Jitney by August Wilson?
Synopsis. Jitney is the eighth play in August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle. It takes place in The Hill District of Pittsburgh in 1977, in a gypsy cab station, during Pittsburgh’s period of so-called “urban renewal.” As the city tries to shut down businesses — including the cab station — to make way for new building,…
What is the setting of the play ajjitney?
Jitney is set inside a gypsy cab station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and takes place over several days in early fall, 1977. On the walls of the run-down room hang a pay telephone and a sign with owner Jim Becker’s rules, such as keeping one’s car clean, not overcharging, and not drinking. The play’s two acts are each divided into four scenes.
What happens in the beginning of Romeo and Juliet?
Play Summary. As the play begins, a long-standing feud between the Montague and Capulet families continues to disrupt the peace of Verona, a city in northern Italy. A brawl between the servants of the feuding households prompts the Prince to threaten both sides to keep the peace on pain of death.
What is the history of the play by Jitney?
Jitney was written in 1979 and first produced at the small Allegheny Repertory Theatre, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1982. When Wilson took his mother to see that production they arrived by jitney. That was followed by a separate production at Penumbra Theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota.