Assignment+Two

Question 2 at the end of the chapter asks that you do the following: Choose one of the stories, and write a short essay that includes your responses to the following questions: a. What do we come to learn about the character from the story? b. What images in the story make the strongest impression on you? c. How does the story relate to the events of the play and the play's meaning?

I chose to write about Bynum's story in which he describes the process of finding his Binding Song. Through this story, we come to learn that Bynum is a very trusting man. He trusts in other people very easily. For instance, he obeys everything the shiny man tells him to do without second thought. Most people would not have followed him or would have become very skeptical once the shiny man told them he had the Secret of Life, but Bynum did follow him. He is very spiritual as well. He follows the man simply because he has a look about him that makes him want to follow the man. He also talks of having blood rubbed onto his hands and seeing his dead father. Bynum says, "Turn around that bend and everything look like it was twice as big as it was. The trees and everything bigger than life! Sparrows big as eagles!" He later talks about seeing his daddy and "He was the same size he always was, except for his hands and his mouth. He had a great big old mouth that look like it took up his whole face and his hands were as big as hams. Look like they was too big to carry around." These images made a strong impression on me because they reminded me of the painting by Romare Bearden, //Mill Hand's Lunch Bucket.// He no doubt took the idea of the big hands and mouth from the painting, but, to me, it also seems like there is symbolism expressed by the imagery. Maybe the large hands represent the burden that his daddy carried throughout his life-the life of being in slavery. His big lips could have referred to the fact that slaves had no say in life, and they could not speak out. Another image that stood out to me was when Bynum says, "I turned around to look at this fellow and he had this light coming out of him. I had to cover up my eyes to keep from being blinded. He shining like new money with that light." This imagery is important for the entire rest of the play. This story is essential to the entire play for many reasons. He gains his Binding Song in this story, and, later, we discover that he binds Martha to her daughter, Zonia. This brings Loomis to the house in the first place, and Bynum tells Loomis he needs to find his own song because he has lost it. Also, throughout the entire play, Bynum is searching for his shiny man because his daddy told him that if he were to ever see another shiny man, it would mean that his song had been accepted and had worked its full power, and Bynum could then lay down and die a happy man. At the end of the story-when Martha is reunited with Zonia-Loomis becomes a shiny man and is "shining like new money," and we know that Bynum's Binding Song has been accepted and has worked its full power.