Lula M. White
Day One
Tell your students that they’re going to role play a scene between Tom and a future shipmate. Tom will discuss why he joined the Merchant Marine and how he feels about his sister and his mother.
Then ask students to come up with characterization of the shipmate. Is he older? Younger? Does he have a family? Does he help his family out financially?
Ask for or choose two students to do the role-play. Tell them to think about it overnight.
Day Two
After the role playing, discuss the differences between the two characters. If the two characters are too similar, ask why do you think other people would treat their families differently.
Goals
I hope the students will come to look back on the past and explain why they have taken certain actions. I hope they will come to recognize another’s position.
Activity
View the film which is available from the New Haven Public Library.
Activity
(writing exercise)
Compare and contrast the relative independence of Tom and Laura in relationship to their mother. Why has Amanda not been able to cripple Tom as much as she crippled Laura?
The Oxcart
by Renée Marqués
A three generation family lives in a rural district in the mountains outside San Juan, Puerto Rico. Don Chago is the grandfather; widowed Dona Gabriela is the mother; Luis, the elder son; Juanita, the daughter, and Chaquito, the younger son.
The family is gathering its meagre belongings and waiting for an ox-cart which will take them to the outskirts of San Juan. There they will take a bus into the city. After all no one wants to arrive in San Juan in an oxcart.
There is a lot of bickering about why the farm failed. Don Chago is resolved not to move with the family, while Luis is the chief motivator for moving. He sees moving as a way to better their lives. Though they are leaving relatives, friends, and their roots—their past and all they are accustomed to—still they mount the oxcart when it arrives, leaving Don Chago behind.
When they arrive in one of the poorest slums of San Juan, they find that life is no better than it was in the mountains. They live in an alley with a bar in it. it is noisy. There’s crime. Juanita is raped. Honest jobs are hard to come by. Chaquito becomes a petty thief instead of going to school. The second time he is apprehended, he is sent to reform school. The urbanization process has taken its toll on another rural family.
Ultimately even Luis sees no point in staying. The airplanes overhead send his thoughts in the direction of New York. He borrows money from the bartender’s wife for the flights.
New York seems little better than the rest of the world they have seen. Dona Gabriela hates the cold weather and misses her village and the close ties one has in such a place. She is unhappy that Juanita ha moved away from home, is no longer abiding by the moral standards of her youth, and has permed her hair. Dona Gabriela wants to return to Puerto Rico because her son will be getting out of reform school soon.
Juanita hates the mechanization of New York and the racism to which Puerto Ricans are subjected. Only Luis is happy in New York:. he enjoys the material comforts he buys, even if he must work many overtime hours. He is magnetized by the machines.
A letter from Uncle Tomas arrives, offering the family four acres on shares. Luis is contemptuous, But Juanita and her mother want to return to their native village.
The play comes to a shocking end when Luis is killed by one of the machines he so adores.
Some discussion questions
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1. Why does Don Chago choose to stay in the village?
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2. Why does Chaquito try to take the rooster to the city with him?
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3. Why does the final decision about moving rest with Luis instead of his mother?
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4. Why is the village so poverty-stricken?
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5. Why does the family abandon the oxcart just outside the city?
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6. Why does everyone think Luis is romantically involved with the bartender’s wife?
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7. Why do you think Chaquito keeps stealing?
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8. How do you think Juanita changes?
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9. What pictures do you think go through Luis’ mind when he sees airplanes overhead?
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10. Which family member misses the village the most?
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11. What do you think family members miss most when they move to New York?
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12. The Census Bureau shows a reverse migration of American blacks from the north to the south. How can you explain this?
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13. Do you know anyone who moved from the mainland back to Puerto Rico? Do you know the reasons?
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14. For each move Luis makes, what decision would you have made? Why?
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15. Who, if anyone, was hurt the most by the move from the village?
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16. Why does Luis like machines so much? Is this a genuine expression of his character, or the author’s way of ending the play?
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17. Why do you think Marqués has Luis killed by a machine instead of having him die in some other manner?
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18. Why do you think the author entitled the play
The Oxcart
?