Hardships of Working-Class People
Green Grow the Lilacs is a stage play by Lynn Riggs, which would later be adapted as the musical Oklahoma! The play has multiple themes, but the most dominant theme is the hardships of working-class people in rural Oklahoma, which was still Indian Territory in the play's setting.
Musical Ethnography
The ethnographic elements of the play include linguistic nuances found in rural Oklahoma during the early twentieth century, the practice of local marriage traditions, as well as cowboy and folk ballads. The story between the main characters itself explores the theme of justice, which is viewed by the characters as double-layered: the justice system of the government and the concept of righteousness, or divine justice.
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