One Friday Morning

Nancy Lee cries three times: when Miss O’Shay tells her she has won the scholarship; when she knows her scholarship has been rescinded; and as she joins her peers in the Pledge. Her tears help reveal her emotional state. Using tears as a motif, chart Nancy Lee’s character arc and personal growth over these three days.

“One Friday Morning” appeared in 1941, more than a generation before the civil rights movement in the 1960s. How does Nancy Lee’s dilemma and her resolution explore The Importance of Activism? Has America fulfilled Nancy Lee’s hope in the closing paragraphs that only with both races can America live up to its own ideals?

The story juxtaposes art and reality. Using the detailed description of Nancy Lee’s painting, how does the story explore the interplay between the ideal and the real? What is the role of a visionary artist in a society or a culture that has deep and significant moral and ethical flaws? Draw on contemporary filmmakers or singers or writers to make your case.