Passage Discussion

[hnadgauda]

Passage Map:

1: The cakewalk had roots in African American traditions.
2: The cakewalk was parodied by slaves to make fun of their owners' balls and their owners' self importance. Then European Americans parodied the dance.
3: The reason the dance was so successful was because it was a parody of a parody!
4: Walker modified the dance for middle class African Americans so that they would approve. She did the same for middle and upper class European Americans.

I wasn't able to find an overall scale. Seems like there are mini-scales in this passage:
Slaves' parody of the cakewalk vs. European Americans' parody of the cakewalk
middle-class African American view of the cakewalk and how Walker had to make it more graceful for them vs. middle/upper class European American view of the cakewalk and how Walker had to make it more authentic for them

I also didn't get a sense of what the author thought about any of this. The author seems to have written this just to give a history of the cakewalk and how Walker popularized it.

[ohthatpatrick]

Scale
No scale. Book report. Look for what the author was most noteworthy or distinctive about this topic.

Author's VP/Purpose
Tell a Story / Highlight a Distinction

Important Lines (usually Author's view)
1-6 (Walker's most famous for making the cakewalk famous),
20-25 (cakewalk is a complex cultural brew … an ironic mix of parody and authenticity),
33-38 (THIS is what's notable about the cakewalk),
45-49 (THIS is what's notable about Walker's popularization of the cakewalk)

Paragraph 1
Intro to Walker, cakewalk.

Paragraph 2
Evolution of the cakewalk into an ironic mix of things.

Paragraph 3
BECAUSE it was a weird mix, it appealed to a heterogenous, changing society.

Paragraph 4
BECAUSE she was good at customizing the cakewalk to a specific audience, Walker was able to get tons of people into cakewalking.

Takeaway/Pattern: This is one of those Arts/Humanities passages that people will hate on. Instead of having the easier, more typical Arts passages that Defend from Criticism or Clarify a Misconception structure, these "book report" style Arts passages are often harder to absorb on a first read, because the description of why these artists were "special" is often hard to find and artsy-fartsy.

Read closely to find main point sentences that have the ring/feel of, "and THAT'S what makes this person/thing so interesting/special."


#officialexplanation