The beginning of Act One, during Scene One, I found myself a little lost. The story was a bit slow and I was having trouble finding the meaning of the plot because the introduction sort of throws the reader right into the story. Because it was filled with mostly general information and small, unsubstantial dialogue between the characters, I wasn't very interested in what I was reading.
However, upon Scene Two and Three of Act One, my opinion turned around. By the end of Act One, I had a solid knowledge of the personalities of the different characters--Troy is an extremely frugal, hard working and grounded father; Rose is a domestic mother and wife, yet has a strong backbone and a lot of spunk; Lyons is a young man learning his responsibilities but still not too far from the nest; Cory wants to be like his father with his passion for a sport, but just as many adolescents, he doesn't always understand his parents' reasoning; Bono and Gabriel are two characters that I still need to read further about to truly have a grasp on their personalities.
Scene Three was definitely my favorite of Act One; I was actually laughing out loud at some parts and could relate to others. On page 33, Cory and his father, Troy, are talking about buying a TV because Cory is in desperate desire for one. Troy is frugal and would rather spend his money on something more practical, like repairing the roof, but he tells Cory, "I'll tell you what... you get a hundred dollars and I'll put the other hundred with it." I related to this because even though the story is set in the 1950s, mine and many of my friends' parents have made this compromise; mainly this compromise is heard of with helping one buy their first car.
Page 55 holds a discussion between Bono, Rose, and Troy, whom is telling his life story and about how he met Rose. Troy says, "She asked me when I met her if I had gotten all that foolishness out of my system. And I told her, 'Baby, it's you and baseball all what count with me.' You hear me, Bono? I meant it too. She say, 'Which one comes first?' I told her, 'Baby, ain't no doubt it's baseball... but you stick and get old with me and we'll outlive this baseball.' Am I right, Rose? And it's true." Rose responds with, "Man hush your mouth. You ain't said no such thing. Talking about, 'Baby you know you'll always be number one with me/' That's what you was talking." I enjoyed reading this passage because I love that Rose is not afraid to stick up for herself and be completely and brutally honest with Troy. This is in extreme contrast with other stories of this era because most women are too domestic to be this headstrong, but I appreciate Rose's honesty. Troy does also.
Lastly, I thought the baseball analogy on page 58 was very clever. "I'm gonna tell you what your mistake was. See... you swung at the ball and didn't hit it. That's strike one. See, you in the batter's box now. You swung and you missed. That's strike one. Don't you strike out!" I am a huge baseball fan, so this element of the play I can relate to, and I like that August Wilson went to the depth of tying Troy's baseball/sport experience into his wisdom of life.
Vocabulary I wasn't familiar with:
Guile: sly or cunning intelligence
I agree with a lot of what you have said in your blog! Your posts are easy to read and show that you have an understanding of the reading. I liked the story line as well and the baseball analogies did make everything more clear and enjoyable! :)
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