The homecoming summary

The Homecoming Summary The Homecoming, now considered by many critics to be Harold Pinter's masterpiece, was not universally admired when it was first produced in England by the Royal Shakespeare Company at London's Aldwych Theatre, on June 3, 1965. Many critics, while praising the production directed by Peter Hall, found the play itself to be baffling and enigmatic in the extreme. Harold Hobson, critic for the Sunday Times and an early proponent of Pinter's, predicted that the play...

Summary Chapter 1 On the bus to New York, Dicey finds herself contemplating the concept of home. She realizes that she has long since given up the hope of finding home, and instead is merely looking for a place where she and her siblings can stay and be themselves. She realized that they were not free at Eunice's, as they had to expend energy and time feeling grateful for Eunice's sacrifices. Dicey looks down at Maybeth, who appears tense, and tells her that they may have to go back to Eunice's, and Maybeth nods. They arrive in New York City, and negotiate the bus terminal. They buy tickets for Wilmington separately so as not to be recognized as a group of four. Dicey sleeps on the bus, and when she wakes, she feels renewed, as though she is both mentally and emotionally far from the deadening atmosphere at Eunice's. The children tease each other and laugh in the back of the bus, and at this moment, Dicey experiences the thrill of traveling, reconciling herself with the sadness and abandonment that have set them out upon this adventure. Dicey begins to worry about money, as she wants to keep enough money for them to get back to Bridgeport if necessary, she knows they cannot ride the bus much longer. In Wilmington, they find that the next bus to Crisfield does not leave until the next morning, Dicey, who is afraid Eunice will be looking for them, impulsively buys tickets to Annapolis, on the opposite side of the Chesapeake Bay. In Annapolis, the children wander around the s...

"Homecoming" is a short poem by the American poet Langston Hughes, a leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance. The poem describes a homecoming that's anything but joyful: instead of returning to a happy scene, the poem's speaker walks through the door to find their lover, and all of her things, gone. The poem illustrates how the pain of heartbreak can transform a warm, familiar space into nothing but a lonely, alienating "room." Hughes first published "Homecoming" in 1949. • Where parataxis appears in the poem: • Line 3: “All her clothes was gone:” • Line 4: “She wasn't home no more.” • Line 5: “I pulled back the covers,” • Line 6: “I made down the bed.” • “Homecoming” Vocabulary Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem. • Alley • Made Down the Bed • More “Homecoming” Resources • External Resources • — Read a short biography of Hughes from the Poetry Foundation. • — Read an article by writer and critic Hilton Als about Hughes's careful public persona and the complex, real person behind the poems. • — Read an introduction to the Harlem Renaissance, a groundbreaking cultural movement of which Hughes was an integral part. • — Watch a 2002 film about Hughes's life. • — Learn more about the innovate form Hughes helped pioneer. • LitCharts on Other Poems by Langston Hughes • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

The play takes place during one interminable day and night in a drab Cockney flat in London. Drab is the word, all right; the movie is in color, but the sets are deliberately ugly variations on white, gray and black (and so are the souls of the characters). We’re introduced to a family: Max the patriarch, his sons, Lenny the pimp and Joey the would-be boxer, and his brother Sam the chauffeur. These people hate each other with a violence and depth that must have taken long, bitter years to perfect. It’s literally a household: The house holds them in like a psychic prison. They turn on each other because there are no other targets. Distant reports are received from the outside world; a box of cigars, for example, is presented as a gift from one of Sam’s customers. But somehow we can’t believe there’s anyone outside; these are the last people alive, like Vladimir and Estragon in “Waiting for Godot.” Then, almost shockingly, two more characters appear: Teddy, a third son, who is a teacher of philosophy in America, and Ruth, his wife. The family has never met Ruth before, but they pounce on her with sadistic glee, accusing her of being a prostitute and not a very expensive one at that. Teddy halfheartedly defends his wife, but before the play is over (a) he has decided to return to America alone; (b) she has agreed to stay as the resident sex object for the other males in the family and turn a few tricks on the side, and (c) Sam has collapsed on the floor, making it necessary f...

Buy Study Guide The setting is a working-class London flat in the early 1960s. This is the home of Initially, Lenny and Max discuss the paper and how Max wants to find scissors so that he can cut out a coupon for some clothing at a navy surplus store. Already, Lenny's unresponsiveness to Max's questions, as well as Max's rambling, snapping manner of speech, indicates that this is far from a normal family. The topic of conversation turns to horses, whereupon Max recalls how he used to be a big shot at Epsom (a racetrack) along with his friend Mac. Though he seems fond of the life he led, and particularly admiring of Mac, it is unclear whether his reminiscences are entirely truthful. Max's brother Sam enters the room, having come from his job as a chauffeur. While Sam insists that he is one of the best in the business—with customers lining up to hire him because he knows when not to bother passengers with idle conversation—Max clearly does not think much of his brother's occupation, believing it to be far inferior to his own career as a butcher. Max goes on to say that Sam could bring a bride home to live with him at any time, but Sam is only able to respond meekly that he has no bride. The conflict between the brothers is heightened when Max says that someday Sam will have to move out when he can no longer pay rent, and the two also disagree about the character of Mac; Sam insists that Mac was uncouth and a loudmouth, prompting Max's animosity. Also introduced is Max's othe...

When Beyoncé hit the stage for her two performances at Coachella last year, the audience would have been more than satisfied with a run-through of her greatest hits. Instead, she presented the audience, both in person and streaming at home, with an impossibly ambitious set consisting of big hits and deep cuts that were woven together into an intricately choreographed work of performance art that was unapologetically feminist, and unabashedly steeped in all aspects of African-American culture, especially in its use of the visual iconography of historically black colleges and universities. The show also served as a career summation from one of the biggest names in the contemporary pop cultural firmament. To say that she pulled all of this off would be a grotesque understatement—practically from the moment she stepped off the stage, her show was already being referred to as one of the greatest concert performances of all time. In an age in which virtually every cultural event of note is hyped to the stars, this might seem like hyperbole, but “Homecoming,” the eagerly awaited documentary chronicling both the show and its creation, not only confirms the greatness of her performance but helps give viewers additional appreciation of the entire spectacle. Beyoncé, as you may know, was originally scheduled to appear at Coachella in 2017, soon after the release of her powerhouse “Lemonade” album, but was forced to postpone for a year after discovering that she was pregnant with twin...