If Beale Street could talk! Question pp. 11 – 50 1. When does Tish call Fonny Alonzo, and why does she use that name? When she need to tell him real heavy shit. It is his real name. 2. How old are they? Fonny is 22 years old. Tish is 19 years old. 3. What is Tish’s full name and what is Fonny’s last name? Tish her real name is Clementine Rivers. Fonny his real name is Alonzo Hunt. 4. How many people does the Hunt family consist of? The Hunt family consists of 5 people.
5. Explain the imagery of the Sahara desert. What is the Sahara symbolic of and what about the vultures? The Sahara is never empty. The Sahara is like the Corridors. When you cross the Sahara and you fall. The vultures will circle around you. Just like lawyer, bonds-men and all that. 6. What kind of society do they live in? What criticism can you find on New York? A black people society. The people in the city didn’t like Tish and other black people. They looked at them as if they were zebras. Harlem is only for black people. Illegal things they do. Furthermore there is nothing to do. 7. Explain: ‘Trouble means you’re alone.’ Nobody can be trusted. So when you have troubles. You’re alone, because nobody will help you. 8. How and where does Tish meet Fonny? Tish met Fonny in the dirty streets of New York. 9. Why does Tish hit Fonny? What is Geneva’s role in this? Geneva was fighting with Daniel, a friend of Fonny. And to help her girlfriend, Tish fought with Fonny. 10. What are the first names of Fonny’s parents en Tish’s parents? Mrs. Hunt => Sis
Mr. Hunt => Frank
Mrs. Rivers => Joseph
Mr. Rivers => Sharon 11. When Fonny’s parents make love, it’s clear that real love doesn’t play a part. Explain. Fonny’s mom thinks that she is very religious. Al she thinks of is the Lord and Jesus.
12. Why didn’t Fonny and Tish ever go to church again? The kind of religion is not normal. It’s too much fairly tale. They know that it doesn’t matter if you’re going to that church. 13. What do you know about Tish’s mother? How did she meet her husband? Why did they get married within a week? Her mother was a kind of strange woman, so people say, and she was 24 when Tish born. Her mother was born in Birmingham. She was a singer. In Albany she met Joseph, Tish her father. And she met him in the bus stop. He worked at a ship. When he worked there he wouldn’t be draft. It means that he didn’t need to go in the army. They married very fast because he must go back to the ship. So they couldn’t see each other for a long time. So it was to rescue their relationship. 14. Is there a future for young boys in Harlem? No, it’s very bad. If you’ll fight for a future, white people looked for something so your future will be ruined. 15. How does Tish’s mother react when Tish wants to tell her about the pregnancy? She doesn’t like that Tish didn’t tell her first. 16. Why is the baby ‘the best thing that ever happened to Fonny.’ Why ‘He needs that baby.’? That’s a sign of their love. He’s in prison, but the baby will preserve their relationship. 17. What is ‘the Tombs’? That’s the prison where Fonny ‘lives’. Tombs mean ‘graftombes’. When you stay in that prison, it means that you certainly will die there. 18. Describe the sculpture Fonny gave Tish’s mother. What does it express? It’s his first sculpture and that’s very special.
19. How does Fonny get the wood etc. for the sculptures? He got it from a company. 20. In what way does Fonny differ from other boys in Harlem? He didn’t like drinking cheap wine and drugs. 21. Why did Fonny’s mother and his sisters dislike him? They were jealous, Fonny wanted to make something of his life. 22. What is meant by ‘You’re supposed to be somebody’s nigger.’? Why was it dangerous not to be somebody’s nigger? You are always have to serve the white people. If you’re black you can only serve people. If you want to make something of your life, you have got a problem. If Beale Street could talk! Question pp. 50 – 92 1. Why did Tish hate her sister? In what way has Sis changed? Because she always tough she was beautiful. She was always posh. She always looked in the mirror and all that sort of things. 2. Why does Sis call Tish Jezebel? She worked at a perfume store, only black girl there. She sprays perfume on her hand, and white people nee to smell that. Ernestine thinks it’s a kind of prostitution. Jezebel is prostitute in the Bible.
3. What is the baby symbolic of? Why is the baby so important for both, Tish and Fonny? The relationship becomes stronger because the fact she is pregnant. 4. Why does the River family worry about the lawyer and not the Hunt family? The want Fonny back and the Hunt family don’t want to know nothing about it. 5. Why is Tish frightened when she is told about Hayward? You’ll never know what will happen by a white man. When she meets him he seemed to be very nice. 6. How do Joseph and Sis react when they are told about Tish’s pregnancy? Why is Joseph worried about Frank’s reaction? Joseph first can’t say a word. Then he purposes a toast on the baby. Sis is very happy about the baby. 7. There is a difference between black and white society, but are there also differences among blacks? The Hunt family (mrs. And the two daughters) felt better. Because Joseph had his own tailor shop, so they had a lot of money. 8. Describe the relationship between Fonny and Tish. What kind of relationship is it? They really love each other. They don’t see each other much, but they really want to marry.
9. Why was Fonny away for two or three weeks? What did he make in this period? He was working on his sculpture. And he gave it to Tish her mother. 10. How did Tish feel when she walked with Fonny in Manhattan? Why ‘something hard and frightening’? She felt like she didn’t belong there. The people lived their own life. The frightening thing about it was, that people didn’t care about each other. 11. What does the Spanish restaurant symbolize? It was a place where Fonny and Tish can go. And people were taking care of them. 12. Describe Mr. and Mrs. Hunt, Adrienne and Sheila. They haven’t a good relationship. Mrs. Hunt thought she was very important, but she wasn’t. She thought she was very religious. But she wasn’t either! 13. About the sisters ‘They didn’t hate anybody, and that was what was wrong with them.’ Explain. They accepted everything what was done with them. 14. Characterize Mrs. Hunt and Mr. Hunt. What is their quarrel about? How does Mrs Hunt insult her husband? What does Mrs Hunt do to get Fonny out of prison? Mrs. Hunt said she was very busy to get her son out of prison. But the fact is, that she thought God would solve all the things. And she thought that it’s God will that he was in prison. Mr. Hunt is really caring about his son.
15. Did Adrienne ever visit Fonny in Prison? No, she didn’t 16. How do they react when they are told about Tish’s pregnancy? What is the ‘most terrible thing’ Mrs Hunt said to Tish? Adrienne calls the Rivers ‘funky niggers’, what does this tell you about her? Mrs. Hunt said that she had known that Tish would be the destruction of her son. And that Tish had a demon in her head. That the child would shrivel in the womb. Funky niggers are the lowest in the scale. Adrienne calls Tish her family so. She feels herself very high scaled. 17. Describe the climax of the confrontation. They were yelling to each other and Ernestine said to Sheila that she would move her adams apple, if she would touch her sister one time. Mrs. Hunt would kick the baby out of Tish her stomach. 18. Why is Ernestine in tears? She cried of anger. 19. Do you think the Hunt family will help to get Fonny out of jail? Fonny has only one family. The Rivers. If Beale Street Could Talk
Questions pp. 92-140 1. Will Tish an Fonny have an easy married life? They are young. Not a lot of money. 2. What do you think of the description of their ‘first time’? Why does Tish compare it with ‘a tribal rite’? Something beautiful and magical. 3. They are all stick to traditions. Explain. How do Mrs and Mr Rivers react when Fonny tells them they want to get married. They want to get married, Fonny asks Tish he father for her hand.
4. What kind of impression do you get of Mr Hayward? He is a lawyer. He helps the black people.. 5. Why is extra money needed? They must pay to search Mr. Rogers. 6. Who are the witnesses? Officer Bell
Daniel Carty
Mrs. Rogers 7. Explain in what way the legal system is corrupt. Do you think Fonny stands a chance? White people are better than the black people, so I think Fonny hasn’t a big chance, or he needs to have a very good lawyer. Daniel has been locked up. They will be wiped of the table. 8. What does the sentence ‘He (Fonny) had been dropped into this inferno in the twinkling of an eye.’ mean? Streets always full of black people. Police come by. They take him to Prison. He didn’t do anything.
9. Why does Tish began to cry when they are in Hayward’s office? She’s afraid that everything will go wrong. 10. Tish’s mother has a very important influence on Tish. Explain. She always pulls Tish trough difficult periods . 11. Why was Daniel arrested? Relate what he has gone trough. They said that he stolen a car, but he can’t ride a car. He didn’t do it. But when he was arrested he had grass on him (weed) He confessed. In Prison it was terrible. Later he couldn’t even speak about it, because when he thought about it, he began to cry. 12. Fonny and Tish are happy. Why? They are together. At a place were nobody can come. And nobody is. 13. Why does Tish reflect on women who sell their bodies? She saw prostitutes as something terrible. They sold their body too cheap. And then she thinks of the fact that she needs money to get Fonny out of Prison. 14. Describe the streets of Harlem in the morning. Why is the subway compared to a slave-ship? They behave a if they are only there for themselves. They are like zombies. Trains are seen as slave-ships. Full of people. Almost everyone there is black. 15. Could Fonny have raped Mrs Victoria Rogers? Explain. It is not possible to run from Orchard to Bank in such a short time.