Shoes
Levee’s obsession with shoes represents his broader ideas about status, success, and wealth—particularly the idea that Black Americans must embrace modernity and abandon their historical roots if they want to prosper. When he buys…
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The Song (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”)
The band’s disagreement over which version of “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” to record symbolizes the tension in the play surrounding power and creative control. Levee wants to record his own arrangement of the song, which…
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