In the play, dancing represents the only freedom that Willie and Sam, as black men in South Africa, are able to have. They dream of competing in a dance contest, as dancing involves forgetting their troubles and existing in a temporary fantasy world. In the excerpt below, Sam reminds Willie that he must seem romantic when dancing with his partner, Hilda, and must imagine that she is Ginger Rogers:
SAM: You got it. Tapdance or ballroom, it's the same. Romance. In two weeks' time when the judges look at you and Hilda, they must see a man and a woman who are dancing their way to a happy ending. What I saw was you holding her like you were frightened she was going to run away.
WILLIE: Ja! Because that is what she wants to do! I got no romance left for Hilda anymore, Boet Sam.
SAM: Then pretend. When you put your arms around Hilda, imagine she is Ginger Rogers.
WILLIE: With no teeth? You try.
Hally, the white boy whose mother owns the tearoom where Sam and Willie work, bursts Sam and Willie's bubble. He says the following about their dancing:
Do you want to know what is really wrong with your lovely little dream, Sam? It's not just that we are all bad dancers. That does happen to be perfectly true, but there's more to it than just that. You left out the cripples.
While dancing is a fantasy in which people move about with grace, in real life, there is no such grace and beauty. Instead, as Hally says, people are bad dancers, and the fantasy of Sam and Willie's perfect dance is just that, a fantasy. Hally, a white boy, reminds Sam and Wilie that they are not really free and that dancing is not real life.
The kite symbolizes a dream of racial unity that Sam and Hally shared when Hally was a young boy. Sam constructed a makeshift kite for Hally, and, to Hally's surprise, it actually flew. Hally says, remembering that episode from his youth, "Little white boy in short trousers and a black man old enough to be his father flying a kite. It's not every day you see that." In other words, a black man and a white boy being together and flying a kite is a rare sight and a rare moment of racial solidarity in South Africa.
Hally expresses disappointment that Sam left him to fly the kite on his own, but Hally had not realized that Sam was not allowed to sit on the bench, which was reserved for whites. Sam tells Hally,
I couldn't sit down there and stay with you. It was a "Whites Only" bench. You were too young, too excited to notice then. But not anymore. If you're not careful . . . Master Harold . . . you're going to be sitting up there by yourself for a long time to come, and there won't be a kite in the sky.
The bench symbolizes the reality of a racially divided South Africa, one in which people are prevented from making connections to each other. Sam warns Hally that he will be back on this bench, this place of loneliness and division, if he continues to be hateful. Sam says that there will be no kites in the sky, meaning no moments of peace and unity. To write two paragraphs, start with a topic sentence that expresses what you think is the meaning of each of the symbols. Then include and analyze relevant quotations from the play.
Tuesday, December 27, 2016
What do the kite/bench and dance metaphors mean in this book? I need quotes to back up an explanation. I need help forming two paragraphs explaining both of these. I need at least one quote as well.
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