Site-Wide Activity

I think that death is an extremely important aspect of life. It also plays a pivotal role in the movie along with religion so using this book to show how that existed outside of the movie is awesome.

Carly and Hannah, I really liked the points you both made. I had never read about the use of acapella in film, or like you mentioned Hannah, in an actual musical. How do you think the film would have differed if […]

Hey Jack, It’s really interesting how you saw that the dichotomy between Chick and Zeke gave the film a better taste. The fact that Zeke had to choose between his spiritual or physical interest is what cause pain […]

Olivia, I really like all of the points you made and how well thought out they were. I especially liked your mention of the “mammy,” character as this was something we learned about in African-American Literature […]

I think you’re right that Death’s Black Train is a song of both hope and fear, although the fear in this Christian message can be seen more as motivation to do good and follow God. I found it interesting that with […]

I like your comment on hoe Zeke changed himself when he became a preacher. I’m not sure if this had to do with their new class status, but I noticed when Ezekiel was preaching on stage the kids started to dance as […]

Howard’s article does a great job of illustrating how the music flows with the characters. I did not think about the Prodigal Son, but the story closely relates to the film. Did you notice Zeke preaching on the […]

First, I really enjoyed your analysis. You took your research a step further contrasting the symbolism of the train during the time of the film until today. It is interesting how the theme of religion drifted away […]

Thanks for trying out my questions, Hannah! I really like your last point about Zeke’s ending compared to other characters like Chick and Hotshot. While they both made individual decisions that led to their fate, […]

Hi Hannah! I read up a little bit about the musical In Transit that you linked on your post, and it sounds really interesting!! According to its website, the story is supposed to follow “the intertwined lives of […]

Olivia, I really enjoyed reading your post and the questions that followed. I was interested in seeing how the general public reacted to Hallelujah when it came out in 1929, and if they shared the same thoughts as […]

Thank you Ty!!!

Thank you, and it was interesting to see him grow from “just a cotton picker” to a preacher.

Hey Sam, That’s a good question. I noticed that they too were getting more respect after Zeke became a preacher, and a specific scene that stood out to me was when they were passing by the community on a carriage […]

Hi Mason, I liked that you wrote about how different types of music are used to bring people together and show emotions. When I was preparing for my blog post, I read that music is relevant in black culture […]

Hi Rekik, I think you make a great point about the whole parade and cheering crowds being similar to the attention and authority granted to celebrity preachers in modern day. I think the idea of being well known […]

Hi Carly! I also liked getting to see Zeke dress up and act out the train analogy. The question you pose is interesting because even while acting as the “conductor” Zeke himself is led astray multiple times, and I […]

That is a really interesting about Chick being the last to leave on the train. It did seem like she was hesitant to get on, so maybe it was her choosing between heaven and hell. It reminded me of the line in […]