Old Story Time..

‘Old Story Time’ tells of a traditional story in a rural community, which refers to a mother who was ‘enslaved’ by her past. She grew up in a society in which she was of the opinion that ‘anything that was black wasn’t good’ and the black signifies failure and hardship, while white signifies prosperity and advancement.
Mama sells goods at the market for a living. While Mama was at the market she left her son Len at home to study his books in order to not mix up with the ‘black gals’ in the district, whom Mama thought was of no advancement. Upon Mama’s arrival, to her surprise Len was not at home. Mama began her search, it was at this occasion that she outlined clearly to Len while scolding him that “…life is hard when you are black…but with a little education you still have a chance” (Act I Scene I page 11). Len got caught up by Mama at the river with a black girl named Pearl. Mama reprimanded Len for carousing with Pearl whom she thought lacked advancement. Mama described Pearl as Ms. Esmeralda, frowsy-tail, jigger foot, jeysey ears, board head gal. It was after this description of Pearl in this manner that Mama informed Len that she had a girl picked out for him, a nice brown girl with tall hair down to her back. This was Mama’s dominant example of someone of advancement, Margret, Margret, Margret, Reverend Greaves daughter. This was drilled in his head throughout his entire life.
The social context of his period refers to a time when colour discrimination was the norm and was accepted by its victims, into a time when this was the period in which Mama grew up in the 1970s-1980s. She was living in the olden age unlike the others; she lived in a wattle daub house (page 2). She disagreed to the offer of having a gas stove or a water closet. She refused to change her living conditions. In this era, many black people were ‘enslaved’ with the mentality that whites were superior to the blacks. They were often ill-treated and referred to any light skinned person as