The Song and Title
The song "Strange Fruit" correlates with the imagery depicted in the photographic essays, films, and texts that we will be using throughout this unit. In opening my unit using the version sung by Billie Holiday, students will discuss the emotion conveyed and how it relates to the images of the Katrina survivors taken during the crisis. Students will further analyze the songs lyrics and they will discuss them as they relate to Waiting for Godot and the relationship between the plays characters Pozzo and Lucky, who are connected by a rope throughout the play. In Godot, Pozzo appears as a wealthy slave driver who inflicts many indignities on his slave Lucky. Godot paired with "Strange Fruit" explores the depths of humanity and the sentiment conveyed in the song, directly correlates to the emotions felt by the victims of the post-Katrina disaster; feelings of abandonment and despair. In Godot, the characters are waiting for an unknown hero, just as the Katrina survivors were and the dominate images of a tree and a rope create the settings for both the play and song. We will further explore the implications of this imagery during our classroom discussions. The video can be found through Google or on Youtube and the lyrics are located in Appendix A.
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