The Ecstasy of Rita Joe

Ecstasy can be defined as the state of being beside oneself emotion or passion. Using that definition, one can see that the whole play is structured on the basis of Rita Joe's ecstasy. The events...

Rita Joe represents the fundamental challenge that the disenfranchised Native American youth face in a White society. The lack of pure communication between Rita Joe and the magistrate in her...

Ryga's primary characterization of Rita is as "dependent and expendable" before a "dominant" culture that has historically and continually marginalized the dependent culture by ostracizing and...

The Ecstasy of Rita Joe is a Canadian play, but the idea of the melting pot obviously applies to both Canada and the United States of America. While all countries have some immigration, Canada and...

The story illustrates one of the play's main themes: exploitation. Wherever she goes and whatever she does in life, Rita Joe always finds herself being exploited, whether it's by white Canadian...

In one sense, her character changes from innocence and trustfulness to enlightenment and sorrow. She came to the city in full faith that she could assimilate and find a job in the city that the...

The reason Rita Joe follows the path she does is two-fold: She came looking for a job; she was trapped by the city. In other words, the dominant reason Rita is that path is that she was forced onto...

A figure of speech can also be called a stylistic device or rhetorical device. A great many figures of speech can be found all throughout both Ann-Marie MacDonald's Goodnight Desdemona (Good...

This play is set in Canada and was originally staged in Vancouver. The playwright Ryga was born in Athabasca, Alberta. It should be noted that in Canada the use of the term "Indians" for the...