The River Niger (Style)

Style

Music

The only musical accompaniment specified in the play is that of a bass. Interestingly, the Bass Player is listed as one of the characters, although not actually part of the story or seen on stage. The Bass Player, who “provides musical poetry for the play,” is described as “highly skillful at creating a mood.” The bass line fades in and out to create a particular mood at key points in the play, often associated with specific characters. Grandma’s solo trips into the kitchen to sneak alcohol from her various hiding places are often accompanied by a bass line, sometimes as a backup to her frequent singing of hymns. A bass line also accompanies John when he is reading his poetry aloud, either to himself or others, sometimes specifically with a “jazz theme.” A bass line often accompanies Ann during key moments of the play. When she first enters the Williams’ home, “a bass line of beautiful melancholy comes in.” Here, the musical accompaniment is meant to provide a sense of Ann’s inner character and mood. Later, as she tells Mattie the tragic story of her father’s nine years’ imprisonment in South Africa, the “bass melancholy” enters again. When Jeff and Ann kiss at the close of act 1, the bass line “plays under” to accentuate the romantic mood of the two lovers reunited.

Poetry

Poetry is an important theme in the play, and John’s poem “The River Niger” is clearly a key element of the story, as it lends the play its title. In act 1, John has only begun the poem, which he reads to himself from a scrap of paper in his pocket. Later, John reads a different, completed poem aloud to Ann and Dudley. In the beginning of act 2, John continues to work on “The River Niger,” which he reads aloud to himself. Finally, in act 3, after John returns home from a week-long drinking spree, he reads the completed poem, which he has written to Mattie, aloud to an audience that includes the whole family as well as Dudley and Jeffs friends. The poem, which begins, “I am the River Niger — hear my waters!” evokes images of the African roots of African-American people and culture. It suggests that these cultural origins were transported to America with the slave trade,“to the cloudy Mississippi / Over keels of incomprehensible woe” and continue to flow in African-American culture, “Transplanted to Harlem / From the Harlem River Drive.” The poem ends with a plea for African Americans not to “deny” their cultural roots: “I am the River Niger! Don’t deny me!”

Setting

The play is set in Harlem, New York City, on “February 1, the Present: 4:30 p.m.” In specifying the exact time and day of the year, but designating the year as “the Present,” Walker makes the setting specific, yet relevant to the contemporary reader or theater spectator regardless of the year in which the play is actually read or a production attended. The setting is more specifically designated as a “brown-stone on 133rd between Lenox and Seventh.” The setting in a specific neighborhood of New York City is important because Harlem has long been associated with the African-American community. Harlem became occupied primarily by African Americans beginning in the early twentieth century, although, by the end of the twentieth century this demographic was no longer accurate. The setting on 133rd Street between Lenox and Seventh Avenue is further significant in that, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica, landlords in the area first began renting primarily to African Americans along Lenox Avenue, and, by World War I,“the chief artery of black Harlem is 125th Street, popularly called the ‘main stem.’” In other words, Walker has set the Williams family brownstone in a neighborhood that has long been in the heart of black Harlem. This setting is significant to Walker’s thematic focus on African-American identity as rooted in African-American history.