“The Measure Of A Man” Chapter Three: The Time of Ashes (1/2)

V. Chapter Three: The Time of Ashes

A. General Understanding

Working with a partner, answer these questions.

What is the “time of ashes” (47)? According to Sidney Poitier, what rites of passage have young boys gone through in different cultures before taking on the responsibilities of manhood?
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What was Sidney Poitier′s “time of ashes”? What did he learn about the “entirety of his person”(48) during this period?
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Poitier had many “close scrapes” (48). Describe two of them. He attributed his ability to escape them unharmed to either “some mysterious force,” “a spiritual presence,” “an intuitive sense,” or “wishful thinking” (48). What reason would you give for such positive outcomes?
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Why did Poitier join the Army? What did he have to do to get into the Army? What happened in the Army? Why was he eventually thrown out of the Army? What did he learn from the experience?
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Do you agree or disagree with Poitier’s ideas? Why or why not?
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How did Poitier get his first audition for an acting job? For which company did he audition? What happened at that audition? What was Poitier′s immediate reaction, and what did he do in order to improve his chances for survival in the world? How did an old Jewish waiter assist him in the “course for self-improvement” (57) that he embarked on?
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Why did Poitier eventually go for a second audition? What happened at that time? How did he continue to study with the troupe? How did he end up performing the lead role? Which celebrity-to-be did he replace?
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After this first performance, how did one thing lead to another until he landed his first film role in No Way Out?
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Which film director got him connected with producer Zoltan Korda? How did Korda hire him for the role of young priest in the film version of Alan Paton′s book Cry, the Beloved Country? Where did Poitier go in order to do the work for this film?
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Why did Poitier feel very guilty when he visited his family in the Bahamas after not having seen them for eight years? What did he do to make amends?
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Why did Marty Baum become his agent? Why didn′t Poitier accept the role in the first film that Marty Baum had given him a script to read? How did his parents′ example make him arrive at this decision? Why would his decision not ever to veer from this course be critical in his development as an actor?
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How did Sidney Poitier survive when he was not doing work as an actor? What importance did Ribs in the Ruff (at 127th Street and 7th Avenue) have for him at these times?
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Why did Poitier′s struggle to survive go beyond the confines of his own person during this period?
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The Book-Of-The-Semester Project 2007 - 2008