Summary

In Chapter 13, Ryan thought about how people often requested that he sing Joe’s song “Ol’ Man River,” which portrays a black slave in a stereotypical way. Ryan hated how people often expected him to sing this song. Even after he sang songs with completed different tunes, beats, and settings, people still told him that they wanted to see him sing “Ol’ Man River. Ryan hated how this song portrayed a black man in such a victimized way.

Ryan considered how he had come on this path of pursuing opera. He thought back to Mrs. Hughes’ classroom and the idea that people would “Not be judged by the color of their skin” (202). Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech had helped Ryan to move forward with his opera dream. He wanted his voice to be so powerful that people would...