Published in The Brownies’ Book, July 1921
PLOT SUMMARY
Pablo and Rosa (aka “The Boy” and “The Girl”) live in a one-room hut along a roadway. They sell ten of their pigs for a fifty loren gold piece and daydream about what they can buy with the money: a cuckoo clock, hobnail boots, a fringed shawl with red and purple flowers, a granite kettle, a ladle, taper candles, and blue china plates. They are interrupted by an old woman who wanders into their hut. The old woman tells Pablo and Rosa that her son is blind but can be cured by an operation that will cost fifty loren. Pablo and Rosa slip the gold piece into the old woman’s bag without her noticing. After the old woman leaves Rosa asks Pablo if he’s happy without all of the things they had planned to buy. He says he is and asks Rosa if she’s happy. She says she’s happy too.
WHY YOU SHOULD READ THIS PLAY
- The lesson from the play is that capitalism isn’t everything. However, there can be multiple readings, depending on one’s optimism or pessimism.
- It is unclear how much fifty loren is and if the Boy and Girl got a fair deal by selling their ten pigs. There is no context for the reader to determine the value of a loren in the play because it is a made up currency.
- All of the characters experience different forms of delusion about their realities.
- It is uncertain how the Girl and the Boy are going to survive having sold their pigs and given away all of their money. One of their justifications for giving away the gold piece is that they don’t have any vegetables and thus don’t need a pot to cook them in. While they had livestock and some control over their livelihood, they will now need to find employment or another means of making money.
- Although there is a “happy” ending where the Girl and the Boy give their fifty loren to the Old Woman, it seems very likely that the Old Woman is going to be scammed or is the scammer. Her child has been blind since he was born and the doctors she wants to pay will probably not be able to cure his blindness. The Old Woman is expecting a miracle out of a hopeless situation.
MEMORABLE LINES
The Girl and the Boy —(Rising and dancing joyously around and around the little gold piece which glistens and glitters gaily on the floor before the open fire as if it knew it were the cause of their joy)—Oh! How happy we are! Oh! How happy we are! Because we can buy! Because we can buy! Because we can buy and buy and buy!
* * *
The Girl —Your boy is blind?
The Old Woman —Yes, for eighteen years. He has not seen since he was a tiny baby.
The Boy —And where have you been that you are so late upon the road?
The Old Woman —I’ve been into the city and from sunrise I have not rested. People told me famous doctors were there who could make my blind boy see again and so I went to find them.
HISTORICAL NOTES
- Hughes is most famous as a poet and activist during the Harlem Renaissance.
- Published monthly between January 1920-December 1921 The Brownies’ Book was the first magazine in the U.S. published for Black children and was edited by W.E.B. Du Bois
- The Gold Piece was one of Hughes’ first two works to be featured in a national publication. The other was “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” which was published in The Crisis, also in July, 1921.
- In his autobiography, The Big Sea, Hughes writes: “My father reacted to my published work with two questions: “How long did it take you to write that?” And next: “Did they pay you anything?” Hughes admits to his father that he was not paid by the Brownies’ Book or The Crisis for either the play or the poem.
Read the Gold Piece HERE
Photo Credit: Istara, “Gold Bullion,” 2014