Green Grow the Lilacs (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Lynn Riggs
- First Published: 1931
- Type of Work: Play
- Type of Plot: Local color
- Time of Work: 1900
- Setting: Indian Territory before it became Oklahoma
- Genres: Drama
- Subjects: United States or Americans, Love or romance, Twentieth century, Midwest, Farms, farmers, or farming, Dancing or dancers, Folk art, Cowboys or cowgirls, Westerns, Braggarts
- Locales: Oklahoma, Indian Territory
Characters Discussed
Curly McClain, a footloose, ballad- singing cowboy. When he stops by Laurey’s farm to ask her to a “play-party” and she refuses, he asks Aunt Eller to go with him, singing the title song about a rejected lover abandoning the green lilacs for the “red, white, and blue” of a soldier’s life. When he notices the handyman Jeeter’s unhealthy interest in Laurey, Curly warns Jeeter off by besting him in a gun duel. At the party, when Laurey turns to him for comfort after she has fired Jeeter, he proposes marriage. After Jeeter’s accidental death...
[The entire page is 945 words long]
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