Demo

Demo Topics

TWO CAN PLAY

By the end of the topic, pupils should be able to;
  1. List the major characters in the text.
  2. Give a brief account of the story
  3. Relate story to personal experiences.

1.0 SUMMARY

  • Two can play is played by two characters; Jim and Gloria.
  • It is set in Jamaica, Kingston town.
  • Jim and Gloria maneuver their lives around the violence and crime struck city.
  • They live with Pops who is sick.
  • They have sent all their children to America where they hope they will have a better life and better opportunities than they had.
  • After Pops dies they are forced to make hard decisions about how they are going to continue to live.
  • They go through a transformation process both as a couple and individually.
  • They are forced to confront their past and face the skeletons in their closets.
  • This process however does them good as they end up growing closer and rebuilding their relationship.

2.0 PLOT

By the end of the topic pupils should be able to;
  1. Define a plot
  2. Describe the development of the plot in a text
  3. Analyse a plot giving their own inferences

2.1 Introduction

  • This is how series of events in a story unfold.
  • A plot diagram is used to breakdown a story into parts that can be analyzed.������������������������� ������������������
  • In the introduction there is the foundation of the story; characters are introduced, setting is established and the conflict is unveiled.
  • In the rising action stage, developers come into play.
  • The conflict that has been established in the introduction probes the characters into action.
  • These actions build up a chain of events that lead to the climax.
  • The climax is when the storyline reaches its peak.
  • At this stage nothing else can happen except to try and resolve the conflicts thus the falling action.
  • At the falling action stage there are series of events that lead to the conclusion.
  • Finally there is the conclusion; at this stage solutions are found.

  • We are introduced to Jim and Gloria who are lying in bed and outside there are gunshots.
  • Jim is having a hard time falling and staying asleep even after he has taken a lot of sleeping pills.
  • He is so scared that when he hears more gunshots he hides in the closet and comes out only when the shots have died down.
  • Gloria tries hard to sooth Jim by singing a song.

2.2 Conflict

  • The first conflict commences when Jim regrets not leaving this neighborhood, Gloria reminds him that he is the one who could not leave because of his friends.
  • Another conflict ensues after they start discussing about their children, Gloria starts crying and Jim is unsympathetic and argues that it is better if Suzie is in America.
  • As they are talking Grandfather starts coughing hard and they look for his pills but they cannot find them.
  • Another conflict ensues between Jim and the doctor who refuses to come in the night but tells them to come and get the medication themselves.
  • The above conflicts ignite a series of events that make up the rising action.

2.3 Rising action

    • Jim and Gloria argue on who is to go and get the medication for Pops.
    • After the death of Pops Jim and Gloria are left alone.
    • They consider going to America but they do not have money.
    • They also consider selling their home but it is hard to find a buyer in that part of their town.
    • Gloria goes to see a Mr. Charles Wright, who offers to help them with identikits or marriages of convenience.
    • When she tells Jim about it he is skeptical about it at first.
    • They try out different ways of smuggling money into America.
    • Jim goes to get money from the streets and does not test it.
    • When police knock at their door he panics and orders Gloria to flush the money, only to breakdown when he realizes that they have the wrong house.
    • He calms down after he is told that the money is safe.
    • Gloria has been gone to America, for three weeks.
    • Jim is all alone living in an untidy house.
    • Gloria walks in on him masturbating and asks for money to pay the taxi driver.
    • They have a heated argument about why he does not care about her.
    • Gloria narrates the ordeal she went through in America, sleeping in men's toilets, finding a place in unfamiliar territory.
    • Gloria has second thoughts about going back to America.
    • When Jim demands that Gloria cooks for him, she stands her ground and refuses.
    • Jim, not amused tries to �re-assert his dominance' (page 51).
    • Gloria does not succumb and he tries sexual blackmail and that does not work too.
    • She makes demands on how she wants to be treated as from there on.
    • She also tells him that she has enrolled at a college to train as a nurse much to Jim's shock.
    • Gloria also demands that he pulls his weight in the kitchen.
    • While they prepare dinner, they reminisce about their past; pleasurable memories for Jim and bad memories for Gloria.
    • Gloria tells Jim that he never satisfied him in bed and so she had to resort to other means to carry herself �over the hill' (page 60).
    • They have a heated argument and Jim walks out and Gloria calls her new husband Mr. Peters.
    • Gloria has packed her stuff and Jim walks in and tries to talk things over.

2.4 Climax

  • Jim walks in enraged after he has listened to a recorded conversation between his wife and the new husband.
  • He is convinced that these two are having a real affair behind his back.
  • He hurls insults at Gloria and he even calls her a �bitch' (page 66).
  • Jim tries to call Mr. Peters and Gloria manages to stop him.
  • Their argument intensifies and Gloria tells him she will give him half of the money.
  • At this point it seems a breakup is imminent.
  • Jim is so infuriated he tries to rape Gloria but she lays still, motionless and he gives up defeated.

2.5 �Falling action

  • After the attempted rape, Jim has given up.
  • He tells Gloria to go but she tries to explain her actions.
  • She tells him that �all A wanted was a little reassurance from you' (page70).
  • A calmer atmosphere ensues, the two converse peacefully.
  • Jim confesses that he also masturbates.
  • He tells Gloria that he loves her, for the first time in their twenty years of marriage.
  • They receive a call from Paul who tells them good news.
  • Paul tells them that he is now married to an American citizen.
  • Jim gives a very touching speech to Paul.
  • He advises him to treat his wife well, to listen to her and make sure they go over the hill together.

2.6 Conclusion

  • After the call they look at each other and Jim says �jus' you an me alone now…'(page72)
  • The man who is supposed to buy the house comes by and they tell him they are not selling anymore.
  • Jim decides that he will move into Pops' room and court Gloria again properly.
  • Gloria is happy and says he does not have to.

2.7 Plot analysis

    • The storyline revolves around two characters; Jim and Gloria.
    • In the development of the plot the author uses dramatization to bring to life the couples' imagination.
    • This is done when Jim and Gloria act out what will happen at the airport if she goes to America as a returning citizen.
    • This dramatization is effective in that it helps the reader to visualize what the characters are describing.
    • The author also uses vivid descriptive stage directions.
    • For example; he goes across and throws her picture down. Jim exits Gloria stops for a moment, then goes to her handbag. She takes out a piece of paper, goes to the phone and dials 113 (Page 61).

    • These stage directions describe to the last tiny detail, by so doing the play is made live in the readers mind.
    • The storyline develops through the six stages; introduction, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action and conclusion.
    • The characters journey through their internal and external conflicts but ultimately find resolution at the end of the play.
    • In the introduction Jim and Gloria are presented and the sounds of gunshots determine their setting.
    • Jim represents the male stereotype that men are the masters of the household.
    • �The author also presents him in a comical way where his macho façade is watered down by his fear and panic which are expected in the female individual.
    • Gloria is presented as this female stereotype that is submissive but her personality is in sharp contrast with it.
    • She is strong and is not scared to take action, she is even prepared to face the storm of bullets to go and get Pops' medication and she also goes to America alone and faces a lot of tribulations on behalf of her family.
    • The reversed roles bring in a lot of humour in the development of this plot.
    • The climax is reached when after an intense argument Jim tries to rape her and fails because Gloria lies there motionless and neither fights or gives in.
    • This prompts Jim to give up and accept defeat, the irony of it becomes the fact that all along he has been fighting to assert his dominance and when he has the chance to do that without any opposition he fails.
    • This event marks the undoing of this complex web they had set up for themselves.
    • It is at this point that they realize that it is not a competition but they actually have to work together.
    • The author uses this drastic extent to show that sometimes all it needs is a life changing event to normalize things.
    • It is effective because instead of being the final nail to the coffin it becomes their moment of clarity and unifies them again.
    • The events that follow are touching as we get to watch the characters evolve and become this beautiful and normal couple that have rekindled their love.
    • Trevor Rhone takes the reader through a journey of emotions and comedy in his play Two can Play.

3.0 CHARACTERISATION

By the end of the topic pupils should be able to;
  1. Define characterization
  2. Describe character using adjectives
  3. Assess character development
  4. Analyse characters in relation with the development of the plot.

3.1 Definition

  • This is how an actor is portrayed in a play through their actions and behaviour.
  • The process of figuring out the distinctive qualities of characters in a text.
  • A play consists of major characters and minor characters.

Major character

  • This is a character who appears most in the play or text.

Minor characters

  • This character does not appear much or say much in the play.
  • A protagonist is the lead character in a story.
  • An antagonist is the main opponent against the protagonist in a story.
  • The author is responsible for building a character through description, through what other characters say about the character, what the character says and the character's actions.

3.2 Characterisation

3.2.1 Gloria

Submissive
  • She is portrayed to be an obedient wife who lets her husband make all the decisions for her.
  • She is a traditional wife who believes in the husband being the head of the home she allows her husband to lead.�
  • She is obedient to the point that she allows her husband to send her children to America.
  • She puts on hold her dream of going to college because Jim does not want her to (Page 54).
Brave
  • She is prepared to go out in the storm of bullets to get Pops medication.
  • She carries money illegally to America and risks being caught and sent to prison.
Selfless
  • She puts her children's needs and future first by allowing them to leave their war torn country and go to America so that they can have a brighter future.
  • Gloria also sacrificed her marriage by divorcing her husband so that she could get married to an American in order to get her family papers.
Forgiving
  • Gloria has a kind heart she is able to forgive her husband's emotional abuse the way he talks down on her and treats her bad.
  • She is also able to forgive her husband's extra marital affairs.
  • She also forgives his incompetence in bed she stays with him even though he does not satisfy her.
Deceptive
  • Gloria does not tell her husband that she is communicating with the children; in fact she comes up with a secret code to communicate with them which Jim does not know about.
  • She does not tell Jim that she is not satisfied in bed but she ends up masturbating to satisfy herself.

3.2.1 Jim

Abusive
  • He abuses his wife emotionally by calling her names.
  • He is demeaning; makes his wife clean up after him ,he never helps with the house cleaning even in Gloria's absence he turns the house into a pig sty.
Selfish
  • He is selfish to the point that he would eat all the food in the house and not leave anything for his wife.
  • He left Gloria to take up all the difficult tasks no matter how dangerous.
Jealous
  • He is possessive and jealous to an extent that he taps his home phone so he could listen in on his wife's conversations.
  • He becomes angry when he suspects that Gloria had slept with her husband from her fake marriage.
Coward
  • When the police knock on his door by mistake, he urges his wife to flush away the money for fear of being caught.
  • He puts Gloria on the forefront of all the risky situations while he stays at home doing nothing.
Cautious
  • He would rather not communicate with his children for fear of them being deported.
Weakling
  • Jim is so scared of the gunshots being fired outside that he turns into a cry baby and Gloria has to comfort and sings to him.
  • He hides in the wardrobe when he hears gun shots, and he doses himself with valium to avoid facing the reality of the war.
Unfaithful
  • Jim has an extra marital affair.
  • He is even disrespectful to the point that he calls his other woman while Gloria is in the house.
Ungrateful
  • He does not appreciate all the sacrifices that Gloria does for him.
  • He never says thank you instead he complains all the time and accuses his wife of being a cheat.
  • He gives applauses to the other woman's cooking and says it is the best he has ever had.

3.3 Character development

Gloria

  • Gloria is a dynamic character who realises her potential later on in the play.
  • She starts off weak and allowing Jim to walk all over her.
  • She later realises her potential and tells him off and warns him to respect her.
  • She confronts Jim about the way he mistreats her.
  • She evolves with the play; her character grows and Jim finally gives in to her demands.

Jim

  • Jim's character struggles to grow with the play.
  • He is rigid and stubborn, he fears letting his guard down and loving his wife.
  • He realises towards the end of the novel that he needed his wife and he promises to change.

3.4 Character analysis

Gloria

  • Though she is the woman in the marriage Gloria possesses the qualities of a man.
  • She is strong and she is not afraid to go outside where there is ragging gun shots while her husband stays inside hiding.
  • However Gloria's strong qualities do not work in her favour, ironically she is able to stand up against the world but when it comes to Jim she becomes submissive and allows him to bully her.
  • This shows that Gloria had two personalities.
  • She represents women in our society, the hard worker and the peacemaker.

Jim

  • Jim represents the lazy possessive black man.
  • He is abusive towards his wife; this fulfills the stereotype that blacks are abusive by nature.
  • He is weak and skeptical of trying new things.
  • He is inconsiderate; he eats all the food and leaves nothing for his wife.

4.0 SOCIETY AND SOCIAL SETTING

By the end of the topic pupils should be able to;
  • Give an account of the author's background.
  • Relate the author's background to the text.
  • Give inferences on the aforementioned.

4.1 History of the author

  • Two can play is a play written by Trevor Rhone.
  • He was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1940, being the last born in a family of twenty-three.
  • He was educated in Jamaica.
  • He furthered his studies in London at the Rose Bruford Training College of Speech and Drama.
  • In the 1960s he was instrumental in the establishment of the Barn Theatre in Kingston, where he staged many productions.
  • Some of his productions include, Smile Orange, Old Story Time, Two Can Play and Bellas Gate Boy.
  • He was also involved in films which include Milk and Honey.
  • Rhone is a recipient of many awards which include Jamaica's 2003 Prime Minister's Award for Lifetime Achievement and The Musgrave Gold Medal in 1988 for his work by the Institute of Jamaica.
  • Rhone also wrote and acted in the one-man autobiographical play Bellas Gate Boy in 2002.
  • Trevor D. Rhone died on 15 September 2009 of a heart attack, and was buried in Bellas Gate, St. Catherine, Jamaica.
  • He is survived by his wife Camella, three children and a grandchild; Sofia.

4.2 History versus Text

  • The text Two Can Play is set in the seventies, when the country was plagued by political violence.
  • The setting of the play is a true reflection of the time that the author grew up in.
  • The play opens with a gun battle in the streets of Kingston, which is a reflection of the political violence that ravaged the city in the 1970s.
  • It should be noted that in this time residents of the Caribbean went into America illegally to escape poverty and the civil war.
  • Rhone puts this perspective in the play when Gloria and Jim smuggle their three children into America for a better way of life.
  • Jim guards against his children's possible deportation from America by establishing that they should not communicate until they obtain citizenship.
  • This shows the predicament that parents faced in this era, where they had to send their children to make a better life in the US and yet the family unit was broken.
  • Parents also feared for their children's well-being even though they were said to be far away and in a better country.

4.3 Analysis

  • Rhone having been born in Jamaica in 1940 uses much of his history in this play.
  • He uses the local Pidgin English dialect; this makes the play, reader friendly for the local Jamaicans and it is very easy for them to relate to the play.
  • The civil war that was raging in the streets of Kingston is well articulated in the play. It also explains thoroughly, how the families secured their houses.
  • With the war comes difficult decision making for instance; do we live in this neighborhood? Do we have the capacity to move? Can our children live a normal life in a war?
  • Rhone manages to explore issues on how marriages can sustain the tests that they may face.
  • He also manages to tell the story that America cannot be the answer to the problems of the people of Jamaica.

5.0 THEMES AND VALUES

By the end of the topic pupils should be able to;
  1. List themes found in the text.
  2. Describe how the themes are brought out in the text.
  3. Relate the themes to experience.
  4. Give an analysis of the author's intention.

5.1 List of themes

  • War
  • Sacrifice
  • Migration
  • Marriage
  • Family
  • Women abuse

5.2 Theme Analysis

War
  • There is a civil war between the capitalists and the socialists in Jamaica.
  • The house that Gloria and Jim live in is full of security measures just because of the war.
�the window and front door are secured by bolts, pins and frillwork. The bedroom window too is secured by bottles and grillwork' (page 5).
  • The full scale of the war is also witnessed when Jim goes to bury Pops.
  • War breaks out between the capitalists and the socialists and those who were supposed to help Jim bury his father flee the scene.
Sacrifice
  • The theme of sacrifice is also seen in the opening act of the play.
  • Gloria and Jim sacrifice their family unit by smuggling their children into the United States for them to escape poverty and the raging war.
  • Jim also goes a step further by ordering his children not to make any contact with them in case they might get caught and brought back to Kingston.
  • Gloria on the other hand makes sure that she communicates with her children by with the use of code names.
Jim: "At least him have that much sense. Him sign him name?" Gloria: "Just Boogie" (page 8).
  • Their eldest son also makes the sacrifice of working three jobs so that he fends for his brother and sends him to school.
  • The theme of sacrifice runs throughout the play.

Migration

  • Jim and Gloria send their children to America to pursue their education and better employment opportunities.
  • They also consider going to America to be reunited with their children and to have a better life for themselves.

Marriage

  • Jim is married to Gloria, they have been married for twenty years.
  • The author gives the reader an insight into their marriage and the struggles they go through.
  • They are constantly quarrelling and arguing and Jim does not perform his duties as the man of the house, taking advantage of Gloria.
  • Their twenty year old marriage is put to test when Gloria flies to America and gets married to Jonny Peters the third.
  • Both marriages are explored in the play and the real marriage is put to test by the "marriage for convenience."

5.3 Themes versus experience

  • The play is set in Jamaica in the 1970s during a time where there was a civil war between the capitalists and the socialists.
  • Rhone uses a family to articulate the themes of war, marriage, migration, sacrifice, family and women's rights.
  • The war forces Jim and Gloria to send their children to America to give them a shot at having a better life and to avoid being casualties of the war.
  • Rhone having been born in 1940 might have experienced the civil war at some point in his life.
  • On the other hand the theme of sacrifice is explored by the fact that Jim and Gloria stay behind to take care of his ailing father.
  • Pops also sacrifices his life by not taking his pills and giving Jim and Gloria a shot at escaping the war.
  • This shows that during that era a lot of sacrifices had to be made in-order to survive.
  • Rhone received some of his education in London and therefore might have had the same experience in migrating.
  • The family in the text also has their fair share of the migrating experience.
  • They send their children to America and they explore how they might migrate and obtain American citizenship.
  • Rhone explores the dilemma the families face in trying to raise the money needed for them to make it.
  • Still using the migration theme Rhone brings out the issue that the grass is not always greener on the other side when Gloria explains to Jim what she witnessed whilst she was in America.
  • Here the author tries to give a clear picture that not all who make it to America find the milk and honey that they crave for since there are two America's; one for the blacks and one for the whites.

5.4 The Authors Intention

  • Rhone in a humorous way manages to bring out his themes.
  • The author gives the reader an experience of an ordinary family during the civil war in Jamaica.
  • His intention is to show how the war affected marriage and the family as a unit.
  • Rhone explains how the war destabilizes the family unit, by how they send their children to America for a better life.
  • He also intends to show how disruptive the war was on the people in general; for instance Pops dies because they fail to get medical help for him because of the war.
  • Rhone shows that the Jamaican people opted to migrate to other countries to escape from the war and poverty.

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