LYNN NOTTAGE: Crumbs from the Table of Joy Remember to support your ideas with details from the writing. Read this passage carefully, and then answer the question that follows it: Ermina: Why'd you lose your job? Lily: Well, babies, a Negro woman with my gumption don't keep work so easily. It's one of the hazards of being an independent thinker. If I've ever had me a job for more than a few weeks then I knew it was beneath me. You see what I'm saying? Ermina: Ernie wanna be a movie star. Ernestine: Hush up! Lily: 'Darling Angel, the star of stage and screen, the virginal vixen.' [Laughs.] Ernestine: But I'd change my name to something special. Like 'Sylvie Montgomery.' Or 'Laura Saint Germaine'; that's French. Lily: Well, pardon me, Miss Bette Davis, when'd you git to be so big and black? Ermina: Oooooooo. Ernestine [ERNESTINE wraps a towel around her hair, feigning brushing long silky hair.] [Playfully.]: It runs in the family. But don't you worry yourself. When I'm onscreen I sure can act very white. That's why I'm a star. Lily: If only they knew you began as a poor colored child. Ernestine: Imagine that. [LILY laughs.] Lily: Imagine that. Miss Bette, I must say, I like ya a wee bit better, just a wee bit now, as a colored child. When's your next picture? I hear it's a romance. [A moment.] Ermina: She ain't never gonna make no romance until she get rid of some of the butt. [ERNESTINE sucks her teeth.] Lily: Hush! Romance is overrated. I've known too many women who relinquished their common sense for a dose of romance. Ermina: Sister, why ain't you been married? [LILY laughs long and hard.] Lily: You're just filled with questions. 'Cause I ain't. [Tugs ERMINA's head straight, wielding the hot comb like a weapon.] Ermina: Nobody ask you? Lily: Nobody ask me ... Besides, I never plan to marry. How you like that? I'm exerting my own will, and since the only thing ever willed for me was marriage, I choose not to do it. And why take just one man, when you can have a lifetime full of so many. Listen up, that may be the best advice I give you babies. And you needn't share that little pearl of wisdom with your daddy. Now, Ermina, sit still! Ernestine [To audience.]: We were Lily's family now, kinda like buying flowers from a store without having to plant the seeds. [ERMINA squirms in the chair.] Lily: Sit still, don't fight me on this. Choose your battles carefully, chile, a nappy head in this world might as well fly the white flag and surrender! [from Act 1, Scene 3]

1. 1How does Nottage make this moment in the play both amusing and serious?[25]