Caroline theme and Working

[jasonf]

Posted: 2/18/06 at 12:28am

I listened to Caroline, or Change again recently, and at the end came away thinking: "isn't this just the song 'Cleaning Women' from Working stretched to two hours?"

I didn't realize that when I saw it, but thinking about it, at its core, isn't the show about Caroline's children rebelling against what their mother was, the life she was forced to live, and how they were going to be different? "Cleaning Women" is the same thing -- how the singer's daughter isn't going to grow up to be like her mother, cleaning the house of rich folks, and breaking from the racial sterotype that she (and Caroline) were part of.

Really, just about everything in "Caroline" points toward that theme, as "Lot's Wife" is Caroline's struggle with her moral beliefs - the result of that being her basically swallowing her pride and going back to work for the Stopniks. It's telling that the show ends with Emmie singing, (a relatively minor character), about how she HAS already rebelled. Where "Caroline" exceeds Cleaning Women is in the characterization (something needs to fill two hours), and how Emmie has inherited her mother's strength - but will use that to "change."

So does my theory hold water here?

Discuss...

[jasonf]

Posted: 2/18/06 at 1:07pm

bump

[hortonhearsasam]

Posted: 2/18/06 at 1:18pm

I think that there is a major difference here. In "Cleaning Women," the mother sings about wanting her daughter to move on to bigger and better things, and find a way out of the life that she's been forced to live. However, in Caroline, Or Change, Caroline chastises Emmie every time she tries to fight to be more modern and to move forward with civil rights.

Maybe what I'm trying to say is that the woman in "Cleaning Women" is more optimistic, is looking forward to her daughter having a better life, and Caroline, though she realizes that her life is terrible, can't see how she or her daughter can break free.

[jasonf]

Posted: 2/18/06 at 1:25pm

That's true from Caroline's perspective, but what about from Emmie's? Is she living out what the mother in Cleaning Women is singing about IN SPITE OF Caroline's attitude?