Monologue

Oceana Monologue from The Naturewoman

From The Naturewoman by Upton Sinclair

female · anguished · 2:17 min

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Yes... the people I have loved all my life. And I've tried so hard... I've pleaded with them, I've wept and prayed with them! But they're lost! (LETITIA: You mean rum?) I mean everything. Rum, and cocaine, and sugar, and canned food, and clothes, and missionaries... all civilization! And worse yet, Aunt Sophronia... ah, I can't bear to think of it! (MRS. MASTERSON: What?) You wouldn't let me tell you what. (In a low voice.) Imagine my people, my beautiful people, with the soft, brown skins and the big black eyes, and hair like the curtains of night. They are not savages, you understand... they are gentle and kindly. They ride the rushing breakers in their frail canoes, they fish and gather fruits in the forests, they dream in the soft, warm sunshine... they are happy, they are care-free, their whole life is a song. And they are trusting, hospitable... the wonderful white strangers come, and they take them into their homes, and open their hearts to them. And the strangers go away and leave them a ghastly disease, that rages like a fire in their palm-thatched cabins, that sweeps through their villages like a tornado. And the women's hair falls out... they wither up... they're old hags in a year or two. And the babies... I've helped bring them into the world... and they had no lips... their noses were gone! They were idiots... blind...

About this piece

20s · sadness · colonialism · loss · innocence · suffering

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