4/22 Discussion Questions

Concerning the differences between the movie and the story, is Joey really more credible in the movie? Or is he just discredited in different ways?

Why did the movie choose to show more of the aspects of Ireland and make less gestures towards African Americans? How would it have been different if the film was more like the book? If the book was more like the film? Would it change the audience’s reception of either?

Are gestures from the Irish destined to fall short or suffer some kind of problematic disconnect? In connecting themselves to the black experience, are they really trying to reject colonialism and failing to mimic the colonizers (Onkey 4)?

 

 

 

Discussion Questions (4/22)

  1. Can we compare the Irish and African-Americans without also discussing Irish-Americans?
  2. Did the Irish have a choice of who to throw their allegiance behind when they arrived in America?
  3. How do these articles complicate the history of minstrelsy and does that change the way we should look at it in texts such as The Octoroon?