August Wilson's 'Gem of the Ocean' plumbs the real meaning.
Aunt Ester is one of the primary characters in August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean. This is Wilson’s penultimate play in his ten decade play cycle which illustrates life in the 20th century for African Americans. Aunt Ester was born in 1619, the year the first black slave was transported to the new world on the middle passage. The story takes place in 1904, which makes Aunt Ester 285 years.
August Wilson's life and a critical analysis of one of his plays.
Synopsis. August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle (a series of ten plays each set in a different decade) begins with Gem of the Ocean, which takes place in 1904 in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (where all of the cycle’s plays are set).Gem of the Ocean unfolds in the home of Aunt Ester, a well known 285-year-old wise woman of the town whose home has become a sanctuary for the.
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Set in 1904, August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean is the ninth work in his Century Cycle, which has recorded the American Black experience and helped to define generations. In this piece, Aunt Esther, a fiery 285-year-old matriarch, welcomes into her Hill District home Solly Two Kings, who was born into slavery and scouted for the Union Army, and Citizen Barlow, a young man from Alabama.
Conference coordinator, Olasope O. Oyelaran, has gathered these essays in this volume, Gem of the Ocean: August Wilson in the Black Diaspora, which pays tribute to both August Wilson and NBTF founder Larry Leon Hamlin. With this collection, Oyelaran adds to the already expanding canon of writing that celebrates Wilson’s contributions to the world stage. Categories: African American Studies.
August Wilson was born on April 27, 1945, in the Hill District community of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as Frederick August Kittel, Jr. to Daisy Wilson, a cleaning lady, and Frederick August Kittle, a German immigrant and baker. Wilson’s father was absent for most of his life, leaving Daisy Wilson to raise August and his six siblings in.