Literary Allusion

Alexander uses literary allusion in her poem "The Toni Morrison Dreams" by making reference to other literary works. In the second part of the poem, one of the strategies Morrison suggests is to adapt the 1907 play Playboy of the Western World to a contemporary stage. The assumption is that the workshop participants know this work by the late-nineteenth-century Irish playwright, John Millington Synge. The play is about a son's rebellion against his father and the way in which the son is evaluated by others. In order to try out Morrison's strategy, the participants have to know the play. Morrison also asks participants to translate The Birds, a comedy by Aristophanes, which would require them to know Greek.

First-Person Point of View

Alexander uses the eye witness of a single speaker who reports on what Morrison says and does. The speaker quotes Morrison as she addresses her audience...