Seven Guitars (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: August Wilson
- First Published: 1996
- Type of Work: Play
- Genres: Drama
- Subjects: African Americans, United States or Americans, Memory, Racism, Music or musicians, 1940’s, Death or dying, Funeral rites or ceremonies, Guitars or guitar players, Pittsburgh, Angels
- Locales: Pittsburgh, PA
The play opens with five friends—Canewell, Vera, Red Carter, Hedley, and Louise—gathered in the backyard of a Pittsburgh house. They have just returned from the cemetery where they paid their final respects to their friend Floyd “Schoolboy” Barton, mysteriously murdered at thirty-five. It is 1948.
Ironically, his death occurs at precisely the time that his first blues records is fast becoming a hit. The scene is somber until Louise, Floyd's landlady, erupts with a ribald song, which imparts a joviality to what had been a sad event.
As the play develops, Floyd's...
[The entire page is 704 words long]
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