University of Southern California Real America Essay You will write a three-page or 750-word paper on any one of the plays that we have read in the first t

University of Southern California Real America Essay You will write a three-page or 750-word paper on any one of the plays that we have read in the first three weeks of class or any one of the writers/actors that we have covered in class during the same period.

· You may not write compare and contrast papers between two plays or two authors that we have studied. (ONLY ONE)

· Use the following as prompt:

The plays in the first half of the term talk about the real America, an America that was built on the backs of exploited people. You will develop this argument and back it up with relevant scholastic sources.

· These include avoiding the use of online resources other than relevant news sources or magazines and digital downloads of play texts and journal articles from the library website. NO ONLINE SOURCES ARE ALLOWED!

· Whenever necessary you will cite your sources using the Chicago Manual of Style author-date referencing style. Whenever necessary you will cite your sources using the Chicago Manual of Style author-date referencing style. Use the following guide for sources: one is not enough, two is too little, three is the threshold, four is fantastic, five is fabulous, six is stellar, seven is stupendous, eight is enough, nine is nice, ten is the maximum, eleven is you’re pushing it. GO for 7!

· Your argument while not necessarily original will have to demonstrate rigor and a suitable understanding of the material that you are dealing with.

· You will be expected to have an introduction where you introduce your thesis, several paragraphs in the middle where you develop your argument and finally a conclusion where you demonstrate how you proved your thesis or argument.

PLEASE FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE WRITING ASSIGNMENTS TO AVOID PENALTIES. Rutgers University Press
Chapter Title: THE FIRST ONE (1927)
Book Title: Zora Neale Hurston
Book Subtitle: Collected Plays
Book Editor(s): Jean Lee Cole and Charles Mitchell
Published by: Rutgers University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/j.ctt5hj6w6.10
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at

Rutgers University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
Zora Neale Hurston
This content downloaded from
157.242.56.93 on Thu, 02 Jul 2020 20:17:40 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
the first one (1927)
T
his play retells the biblical story of Ham, which was frequently used by slaveowners
in the antebellum period to explain the origin of the black race as a people destined
to servitude. In Genesis 9, Noah, with his sons Ham, Shem, and Japheth, and their respective wives, escape the great ?ood. One night Noah becomes drunk; Ham sees him
in his nakedness and tells his brothers. Shem and Japheth cover him, averting their
eyes, and when Noah awakens, he curses Ham’s son Canaan, saying that he would be a
“servant of servants. . . unto his brethren.” After Emancipation, African American divines offered a counter-interpretation of the Ham story. Noting that the descendants of
Ham came to rule over the lands of Egypt and Ethiopia, they argued that blacks were
not servants, but descended from royalty; while acknowledging Noah’s curse, they also
pointed to Psalm 68:31, which declared, “Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia
shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.”
Hurston’s version of the story emphasizes the salvation of Ham through the love of
Eve (Ham’s wife is not actually named in the Bible). In con?ating the story of Ham with
that of Adam and Eve, Hurston appears to suggest that the “land of Canaan” is equivalent to a new Garden of Eden, a land “where the sun shines forever,” a land, as described in Genesis, where they could be naked without shame. While Eve initially weeps
at Ham’s blackness, he remains her “beloved”; the kisses she bestows upon him in
love are the antithesis of the repulsion expressed by Shem, Noah, and his wife. Eve and
Ham leave the white world of Noah for one of sunshine, love, and music, and Ham predicts that the whites, while retaining their white skins, will be consumed by their
“?ocks, and ?elds and vineyards, to covet, to sweat, to die and know no peace.”
According to biographer Valerie Boyd, W. E. B. Du Bois considered The First One for
his Little Negro Theatre in 1926, but a production never materialized. However, it was
published in Charles S. Johnson’s 1927 anthology Ebony and Topaz, and reprinted numerous times in the late 1980s and 1990s.
63
This content downloaded from
157.242.56.93 on Thu, 02 Jul 2020 20:17:40 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
The First One
A Play in One Act
cast :
Noah
Mrs. Noah
Their Sons:
Shem
Japheth
Ham
Eve, Ham’s wife
Mrs. Shem
Mrs. Japheth
The children of Shem, Japheth, and Ham and their wives (six or seven)
Time: Three years after the ?ood.
Place: Valley of Ararat.
Setting: Morning in the Valley of Ararat. The Mountain is in the near distance. Its lower slopes grassy with grazing herds. The very blue sky beyond
that. These together form the background. On the left downstage is a brown
tent. A few shrubs are scattered here and there over the stage indicating the
temporary camp. A rude altar is built center stage. A shepherd’s crook, a goat
skin water bottle, a staff and other evidences of nomadic life lie about the
entrance to the tent. To the right stretches a plain clad with bright ?owers.
Several sheep or goat skins are spread about on the ground upon which the
people kneel or sit whenever necessary.
Action: Curtain rises on an empty stage. It is dawn. A great stillness, but
immediately Noah enters from the tent and ties back the ?ap. He is clad in
[a] loose ?tting dingy robe tied about the waist with a strip of goat hide.
Stooped shoulders, ?owing beard. He gazes about him. His gaze takes in the
entire stage.
Noah: (Fervently) Thou hast restored the Earth, Jehovah, it is good. (Turns to
the tent.) My sons! Come, deck the altar for the sacri?ces to Jehovah. It
is the third year of our coming to this valley to give [a] thanks offering
to Jehovah that He spared us.
(Enter Japheth bearing a haunch of meat and Shem with another. The wife
of Noah and those of Shem and Japheth follow laying on sheaves of grain
64
This content downloaded from
157.242.56.93 on Thu, 02 Jul 2020 20:17:40 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
th e first one • 65
and fruit [dates and ?gs]. They are all middle-aged and clad in dingy garments.)
Noah: And where is Ham—son of my old age? Why does he not come with
his wife and son to the sacri?ce?
Mrs. Noah: He arose before the light and went. (She shades her eyes with one
hand and points toward the plain with the other.) His wife, as ever, went
with him.
Shem: (Impatiently) This is the third year that we have come here to this valley to commemorate our delivery from the ?ood. Ham knows the sacri?ce is made always at sunrise. See! (He points to the rising sun.) He should
be here.
Noah: (Lifts his hand in a gesture of reproval) We shall wait. The sweet singer,
the child of my loins after old age had come upon me is warm to my
heart—let us wait.
(There is offstage, right, the twanging of a rude stringed instrument and
laughter. Ham, his wife and son come dancing on downstage right. He is in
his early twenties. He is dressed in a very white goat skin with a wreath of
shiny green leaves about his head. He has the rude instrument in his hands
and strikes it. His wife [Eve] is clad in a short blue garment with a girdle of
shells. She has a wreath of scarlet ?owers about her head. She has black hair,
is small, young and lithe. She wears anklets and wristlets of the same red
?owers. Their son, about three years old, wears nothing but a broad band
of leaves and ?owers about his middle. They caper and prance to the altar.
Ham’s wife and son bear ?owers. A bird is perched on Ham’s shoulder.)
Noah: (Extends his arms in greeting) My son, thou art late. But the sunlight
comes with thee.
(Ham gives bird to Mrs. Noah, then embraces Noah.)
Ham: (Rests his head for a moment on Noah’s shoulder) We arose early and went
out on the plain to make ready for the burnt offering before Jehovah.
Mrs. Shem: (Tersely) But you bring nothing.
Ham: See thou! We bring ?owers and music to offer up. I shall dance before
Jehovah and sing joyfully upon the harp that I made of the thews of rams.
(He proudly displays the instrument and strums once or twice.)
Mrs. Shem: (Clapping her hands to her ears) Oh, Peace! Have we not enough
of thy bawling and prancing all during the year? Shem and Japheth work
always in the ?elds and vineyards, while you do naught but tend the ?ock
and sing!
This content downloaded from
157.242.56.93 on Thu, 02 Jul 2020 20:17:40 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
66 • th e first one
Mrs. Japheth: (Looks contemptuously at both Ham and Noah) Still, thou art
beloved of thy father . . . he gives thee all his vineyards for thy singing, but
Japheth must work hard for his ?elds.
Mrs. Shem: And Shem—
Noah: (angrily) Peace! Peace! Are lust and strife again loose upon the Earth?
Jehovah might have destroyed us all. Am I not lord of the world? May I
not bestow where I will? Besides, the world is great. Did I not give food
and plenty to the thousands upon thousands that the water licked up?
Surely there is abundance for us and our seed forever. Peace! Let us to the
sacri?ce.
(Noah goes to the heaped up altar. Ham exits to the tent hurriedly and returns with a torch and hands it to Noah who applies it to the altar. He kneels
at the altar and the others kneel in a semi-circle behind him at a little distance. Noah makes certain ritualistic gestures and chants:)
Oh mighty Jehovah, who created the Heaven and the ?rmaments thereof,
the Sun and Moon, the stars, the Earth and all else besides—
Others:
I am here
I am here, O, Jehovah
I am here
This is Thy kingdom, and I am here.
(A deep silence for a moment.)
Noah: Jehovah, who saw evil in the hearts of men, who opened upon them the
windows of Heaven and loosed the rain upon them—And the fountains
of the great deep were broken up—
Others:
I am here
I am here, O, Jehovah
I am here
This is Thy kingdom, and I am here.
Noah: Jehovah, who dried up the ?oods and drove the waters of the sea again
to the deeps—who met Noah in the Vale of Ararat and made covenant
with Noah, His servant, that no more would He smite the Earth—And
seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night
shall not cease forever, and set His rainbow as a sign.
Noah and Others:
We are here O Jehovah
We are here
This content downloaded from
157.242.56.93 on Thu, 02 Jul 2020 20:17:40 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
th e first one • 67
We are here
This is Thy kingdom
And we are here.
(Noah arises, makes obeisance to the smoking altar, then turns and blesses
the others.)
Noah: Noah alone, whom the Lord found worthy; Noah whom He made lord
of the Earth, blesses you and your seed forever.
(At a gesture from him all arise. The women take the meat from the altar
and carry it into the tent.)
Eat, drink and make a joyful noise before Him. For He destroyed the
Earth, but spared us.
(Women reenter with bits of roast meat—all take some and eat. All are
seated on the skins.)
Mrs. Noah: (Feelingly) Yes, three years ago, all was water, water, water! The
deeps howled as one beast to another. (She shudders.) In my sleep, even
now, I am in that ark again being borne here, there on the great bosom.
Eve: (Wide-eyed) And the dead! Floating, ?oating all about us—We were one
little speck of life in a world of death! (The bone slips from her hand.) And
there, close beside the ark, close with her face upturned as if begging for
shelter—my mother! (She weeps, Ham comforts her.)
Mrs. Shem: (Eating vigorously) She would not repent. Thou art as thy mother
was—a seeker after beauty of raiment and laughter. God is just. She
would not repent.
Eve: But the unrepentant are no less loved. And why must Jehovah hate
beauty?
Noah: Speak no more of the waters. Oh, the strength of the waters! The voices
and the death of it! Let us have the juice of the grape to make us forget.
Where once was death in this valley there is now life abundant of beast
and herbs. (He waves towards the scenery.) Jehovah meets us here. Dance!
Be glad! Bring wine! Ham, smite thy harp of ram’s thews and sing!
(Mrs. Noah gathers all the children and exits to the tent. Shem, Japheth,
their wives and children eat vigorously. Eve1 exits, left. Ham plays on his
harp and capers about singing. Eve reenters with [a] goat skin of wine and
a bone cup. She crosses to where Noah reclines on a large skin. She kneels and
offers it to him. He takes the cup—she pours for him. Ham sings—)
Ham:
I am as a young ram in the spring
Or a young male goat.
This content downloaded from
157.242.56.93 on Thu, 02 Jul 2020 20:17:40 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
68 • th e first one
The hills are beneath my feet
And the young grass.
Love rises in me like the ?ood
And ewes gather round me for food.
(His wife joins in the dancing. Noah cries, “Pour,” and Eve hurries to ?ll his
cup again. Ham joins others on the skins. The others have horns suspended
from their girdles. Eve ?lls them all. Noah cries “pour” again and she returns
to him. She turns to ?ll the others’ cups.)
Noah: (Rising drunkenly) Pour again, Eve, and Ham, sing on and dance and
drink—drown out the waters of the ?ood if you can. (His tongue grows
thick. Eve ?lls his cup again. He reels drunkenly toward the door, slopping
the liquor out of the cup as he walks.) Drink wine, forget water—it means
death, death! And bodies ?oating, face up!
(He stares horri?ed about himself and creeps stealthily into the tent, but
sprawls just inside the door so that his feet are visible. There is silence for a
moment, the others are still eating. They snatch tid-bits from each other.)
Japheth: (Shoves his wife) Fruit and herbs, woman! (He thrusts her impatiently
forward with his foot. She exits left.)
Shem: (To his wife) More wine!
Mrs. Shem: (Irritated) See you not that there is plenty still in the bottle?
(He seizes it and pours. Ham snatches it away and pours. Shem tries to get
it back but Ham prevents him. Reenter Mrs. Japheth with ?gs and apples.
Everybody grabs. Ham and Shem grab for the same one, Ham gets it.)
Mrs. Shem: (Signi?cantly) Thus he seizes all else that he desires. Noah would
make him lord of the Earth because he sings and capers. (Ham is laughing drunkenly and pelting Mrs. Shem with fruit skins and withered ?owers
that litter the ground. This infuriates her.)
Noah: (Calls from inside the tent) Eve, wine, quickly! I’m sinking down in the
water! Come drown the water with wine.
(Eve exits to him with the bottle. Ham arises drunkenly and starts toward
the tent door.)
Ham: (Thickly) I go to pull our father out of the water, or to drown with him
in it. (Ham is trying to sing and dance.)
I am as a young goat in the sp-sp-sp—
(He exits to the tent laughing. Shem and Japheth sprawl out in the skins.
The wives are showing signs of surfeit. Ham is heard laughing raucously inside the tent. He reenters still laughing.)
This content downloaded from
157.242.56.93 on Thu, 02 Jul 2020 20:17:40 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
th e first one • 69
Ham: (In the tent door) Our father has stripped himself, showing all his wrinkles. Ha! Ha! He’s as no young goat in the spring. Ha! Ha! (Still laughing,
he reels over to the altar and sinks down behind it still laughing.) The old
ram, Ha! Ha! Ha! He has had no spring for years! Ha! Ha! (He subsides
into slumber. Mrs. Shem looks about her exultantly.)
Mrs. Shem: Ha! The young goat has fallen into a pit! (She shakes her husband.)
Shem! Shem! Rise up and become owner of Noah’s vineyards as well as
his ?ocks! (Shem kicks weakly at her.) Shem! Fool! Arise! Thou art thy father’s ?rst born. (She pulls him protesting to his feet.) Do stand up and regain thy birthright from (She points to the altar) that dancer who plays
on his harp of ram thews, and decks his brow with bay leaves. Come!
Shem: (Brightens) How?
Mrs. Shem: Did he not go into the tent and come away laughing at thy father’s
nakedness? Oh (She beats her breast) that I should live to see a father so
mocked and shamed by his son to whom he has given all his vineyards!
(She seizes a large skin from the ground.) Take this and cover him and tell
him of the wickedness of thy brother.
Mrs. Japheth: (Arising takes hold of the skin also) No, my husband shall also
help to cover Noah, our father. Did I not also hear? Think your Shem and
his seed shall possess both ?ocks and vineyard while Japheth and his seed
have only the ?elds? (She arouses Japheth, he stands.)
Shem: He shall share—
Mrs. Shem: (Impatiently) Then go in (The women release the skin to the men)
quickly, lest he wake sober, then will he not believe one word against
Ham who needs only to smile to please him.
(The men lay the skin across their shoulders and back over to the tent and
cover Noah. They motion to leave him.)
Mrs. Shem: Go back, fools, and wake him. You have done but half.
(They turn and enter the tent and both shake Noah. He sits up and rubs his
eyes. Mrs. Shem and Mrs. Japheth commence to weep ostentatiously.)
Noah: (Peevishly) Why do you disturb me, and why do the women weep? I
thought all sorrow was washed away by the ?ood. (He is about to lie down
again but the men hold him up.)
Shem: Hear, father, thy age has been scoffed, and thy nakedness made a thing
of shame here in the midst of the feasting where all might know—thou,
the lord of all under Heaven, hast been mocked.
Mrs. Shem: And we weep in shame, that thou our father should have thy
nakedness uncovered before us.
This content downloaded from
157.242.56.93 on Thu, 02 Jul 2020 20:17:40 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
7 0 • th e first one
Noah: (Struggling drunkenly to his feet) Who, who has done this thing?
Mrs. Shem: (Timidly crosses and kneels before Noah) We fear to tell thee, lord,
lest thy love for the doer of this iniquity should be so much greater than
the shame, that thou should slay us for telling thee.
Noah: (Swaying drunkenly) Say it, woman, shall the lord of the Earth be
mocked? Shall his nakedness be uncovered and he be shamed before his
family?
Shem: Shall the one who has done this thing hold part of thy goods after thee?
How wilt thou deal with them? Thou hast been wickedly shamed.
Noah: No, he shall have no part in my goods—his goods shall be parceled out
among the others.
Mrs. Shem: Thou art wise, father, thou art just!
Noah: He shall be accursed. His skin shall be black! Black as the nights, when
the waters brooded over the Earth!
(Enter Mrs. Noah from tent, pauses by Noah.)
Mrs. Noah: (Catches him by the arm) Cease! Whom dost thou curse?
Noah: (Shaking his arm free. The others also look awed and terri?ed and also
move to stop him. All rush to him. Mrs. Noah attempts to stop his mouth
with her hand. He shakes his head to free his lips and goes [on] in a drunken
fury) Black! He and his seed forever. He shall serve his brothers and they
shall rule over him—Ah—Ah— (He sinks again to the ground. There is a
loud burst of drunken laughter from behind the altar.)
Ham: Ha! Ha! I am a young ram—Ha! Ha!
Mrs. Noah: (To Mrs. Shem) Whom cursed Noah?
Mrs. Shem: Ham—Ham mocked his age. Ham uncovered his nakedness, and
Noah grew wrathful and cursed him. Black! He could not mean black. It
is enough that he should lose his vineyards. (There is absolute silence for
a while. Then realization comes to all. Mrs. Noah rushes in the tent to her
husband, shaking him violently.)
Mrs. Noah: (Voice from out of the tent) Noah! Arise! Thou are no lord of the
Earth, but a drunkard. Thou hast cursed my son. Oh water, Shem!
Japheth! Cold water to drive out the wine. Noah! (She sobs.) Thou must
awake and unsay thy curse. Thou must! (She is sobbing and rousing him.
Shem and Japheth seize a skin bottle from the ground by the skin2 door and
dash off right. Mrs. Noah wails and the other women join in. They beat
their breasts. Enter Eve through the tent. She looks puzzled.)
Eve: Why do you wail? Are all not happy today?
This content downloaded from
157.242.56.93 on Thu, 02 Jul 2020 20:17:40 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
th e first one • 7 1
Mrs. Noah: (Pityingly) Come, Eve. Thou art but a child, a heavy load awaits
thee.
(Eve turns and squats beside her mother-in-law.)
Eve: (Caressing Mrs. Noah) Perhaps the wine is too new. Why do you shake our
father?
Mrs. Noah: Not the wine of grapes, but the wine of sorrow bestirs me thus.
Turn thy comely face to the wall, Eve. Noah has cursed thy husband and
his seed forever to be black, and to serve his brothers and they shall rule
over him.
(Reenter the men with the water bottle, running. Mrs. Noah seizes it and
pours it in his [Noah’s] face. He stirs.)
See, I must awaken him that he may unspeak the curse before it is too
late.
Eve: But Noah is drunk—surely Jehovah hears not a drunken curse. Noah
would not curse Ham if he knew. Jehovah knows Noah loves Ham more
th…
Purchase answer to see full
attachment