Blog Post #3: "The Black Walnut Tree" Performance Activity Group Work

The Black Walnut Tree

Group: Ben Lazarus, Luke Gurekovich, Peter Kociba, Kris Pento

Thesis: In the poem “The Black Walnut Tree,” written by Mary Oliver, there is a large representation about the downside of focusing on dreams of the future rather than the present, as the black walnut tree keeps bringing pain and misery to the family, yet they keep it anyway, since the black walnut tree is a reminder of the dream they could achieve if they looked to the future.

My mother and I debate:

we could sell

   the black walnut tree

to the lumberman,          

and pay off the mortgage.

Likely some storm anyway(The Black WalnutTree is either to be sold to help pay the mortgage or kept and risk causing damage to the home)

will churn down its dark boughs, (tree branch)

smashing the house. We talk

slowly, two women trying

in a difficult time to be wise. (rhyme scheme)

Roots in the cellar drains,

I say, and she replies 

   that the leaves are getting heavier

every year, and the fruit

harder to gather away.(It’s getting tougher to take care of the tree)

But something brighter than money (metaphor)

moves in our blood–an edge

sharp and quick as a trowel (tool)

that wants us to dig and sow.

So we talk, but we don't do

anything. That night I dream

of my fathers out of Bohemia (country)

filling the blue fields

of fresh and generous Ohio

with leaves and vines and orchards.

What my mother and I both know

is that we'd crawl with shame

in the emptiness we'd made

in our own and our fathers' backyard.

So the black walnut tree

swings through another year

   of sun and leaping winds,

of leaves and bounding fruit, and, month after month, the whip-
crack of the mortgage.The tree gets to stay another year, and another year of labor to keep it healthy(Irony)

Where am I?

• I am in Ohio, in the Autumn season.
• We are outside, looking over the black walnut tree and I am in an argument with my mother on what we should do with it. They could either ”...sell the black walnut tree to the lumberman, and pay off the mortgage.” or leave it as is; “Likely some storm anyway will churn down its dark boughs, smashing the house.”

Who am I?

• I am a teenager who is probably in her 20’s-30’s. 
• We are not sure what she is wearing, but probably work clothes like an old pair of jeans, shoes, and shirt.
• I am afraid that if we cut down the tree, we would lose a piece of ourselves. “That night I dream of my fathers out of Bohemia filling the blue of fields of fresh and generous Ohio with leaves and vines and orchards. What my mother and I both know is that we'd crawl with shame in the emptiness we'd made in our own and our fathers' backyard.”
• My mother is also with me overlooking the black walnut tree, but we can’t reach an agreement because the tree reminds me of our family members from our past and our connection to nature. 

What do I want?

• I want to keep the tree because there are so many memories that tree has given us and my dream reminded me of this. “...I dream of my fathers out of Bohemia filling the blue of fields of fresh and generous Ohio with leaves and vines and orchards. What my mother and I both know is that we'd crawl with shame in the emptiness we'd made in our own and our fathers' backyard.”
• The poem is about the struggle of achieving our dreams where we live, and the black walnut tree shows us our struggle, from the care of the tree and troubles the tree can cause. Yet we keep it anyway, since the black walnut tree is a reminder of the dream we could achieve if we looked to the future.

1. WHAT IMPRESSION WOULD YOU LIKE TO CONVEY? WHY? WRITE ONE CHUNKY PARAGRAPH JUSTIFYING THIS, USING LINES FROM THE TEXT.

The impression we want to convey of this poem is the sadness of the poem. The reason we chose sadness is because as we stated in our thesis, “The Black Walnut Tree” represents the downside of focusing on dreams of the future rather than the present. The black walnut tree keeps bringing trouble to the family and risks damaging their home, “...some storm anyway will churn down its dark boughs, smashing the house.” Yet, they keep the tree anyway, since it is a reminder of the dream they could achieve if they looked to the future.
“What my mother and I both know is that we'd crawl with shame in the emptiness we'd made in our own and our fathers' backyard. So the black walnut tree swings through another year of sun and leaping winds, of leaves..., month after month, the whip-crack of the mortgage.” They could have sold the tree to help pay off the mortgage, but chose not to, because the backyard would then be empty and as a result give the mother and child an empty feeling as well.

 

2.  WHICH PROPS AND COSTUMING WILL BE USED? WHAT KIND OF LIGHTING WOULD YOU USE? WHY? WRITE ONE CHUNKY PARAGRAPH JUSTIFYING THIS, USING LINES FROM THE TEXT.

To make the Black Walnut Tree realistic, one of us will be wearing black and holding tree branches/sticks that hang loosely,“Likely some storm anyway will churn down its dark boughs, smashing the house.” We will use green construction paper marked with dollar signs to mark “...we could sell the black walnut tree to the lumberman, and pay off the mortgage.”

 

3. WILL YOU DRAW ATTENTION TO CERTAIN PHRASES OR WORDS? WHY ARE THESE WORDS (OR WORD) IMPORTANT? WHY DOES THE REPETITION OF THIS WORD/THESE WORDS REINFORCE THE MEANING OF THE POEM AS A WHOLE. WRITE ONE CHUNKY PARAGRAPH JUSTIFYING THIS, USING LINES FROM THE TEXT.

 “The Black Walnut Tree” contains some very key words, and without these words, the poem may lose a lot of what makes it particularly ironic. For example, the metaphor “brighter than money” in the poem, is an interesting word choice for the poem. The phrase can be taken literally as well as metaphorically, where the ‘something’ that drives them is literally ‘brighter than money’ with money representing the mortgage, or the phrase can be taken as metaphorical, where the thing that drives them is so important to them that it represents much more than money. In both cases, the phrase is ironic, as the same thing that drives them to look towards the future is the same thing that is leading all of their problems.