Conversation Cafe -- Reading IV

M (Main point)--Sarah Jones, a 42-year-old American TED Talk presenter from Baltimore, Maryland performs "A One Woman Show". It is a collection of eight very unique characters that Jones' personally has known through out her life. To name a few, one was her French teacher, a friend from school, and a Chinese woman who is worried about her two children's relationships. One in particular that I liked was the "opinionated elderly Jewish woman" (Youtube). To me, Jones is incredibly talented because at first I truly thought she was British, but then as she transitioned into here authentic east coast dialect, I was surprised! I then knew she was putting on a show. Jones does an amazing job trying on these different personas of real-life characters in her life. As she moves to put on a pair of glasses or a shawl, we know that she is performing a new person with a different accent and facial expression. The Jewish woman is realistic and entertaining. Jones performance is credible because this character is her own aunt. Jones' objective is to reveal something about their identities and sometimes biases. Jones says she is interested in "self" and how we can have multiple selves; also, adding that they may be "mutable".

In the performance this woman (as an Example) says:

It’s like a rainbow. It’s okay to say rainbow? I don’t want to offend Anyone. It is hard to keep up "

Analysis of Quote: In this quote, I believe Jones reveals this characters' insecurity about saying the word "rainbow". Lorraine Levine knows that rainbow has multiple meanings to different people. A "rainbow" could connect to being "gay" as the rainbow image is used to show support for gay rights. Lorraine doesn't want "to offend" anyone. She knows that we live in a politically correct world, so she says, "it is hard to keep up". Older people do have a harder time keeping up with the trends. For an 80-year-old woman, Lorraine may not be certain if everyone in the audience understands her idea of what "rainbow" means. To her, it means that the audience is diverse. She is describing all of the different cultures in the audience.

I liked this because even though I am about 30 years younger, I still worry about offending people. It is hard to keep up, but times change and language changes.

Jones shows credibility or ethos in this performance. She reveals that Lorraine is actually her aunt. Because she has known this character since childhood, I feel she has the knowledge and experience. I also lived in New York and met many older Jewish ladies like Lorraine and I believe this is an authentic and excellent performance of an older Jewish woman living in New York.

Link: How does this connect to our themes? It connects to language and it reminds me of "Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan. Lorraine is very different than Tan's mother in that Tan's mom doesn't worry about offending. She speaks her mind. Lorraine, even by the sound of her voice, we can tell that she is nervous and insecure about what she says. But, like Tan's mother, she does speak her mind. When she brings up the fact that Goldy Hawn is in the audience and is "only half Jewish...and that is okay", we know that Lorraine does have strong opinions and may offend people from time to time. However, we all know that older people tend to offend and we kind of give them a "pass". As listeners, we are understand that they can't always "keep up".

Link to our theme.
To watch this clip, go to YouTube. Link