46 pages • 1 hour read
Crumbs From the Table of Joy
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Character Analysis
Ernestine Crump
Ernestine is the play’s 17-year-old protagonist and narrator. She is looking back as an adult and her memories make up the action of the play, so the actor who portrays her might appear or be costumed in such a way that makes her age ambiguous. She is shyer and more obedient than her younger sister, and she finds it difficult to make friends. She demonstrates her thoughtfulness throughout the play, making observations that aren’t necessarily apparent to the others. For instance, she recognizes how grief manifests in each family member, and she sees her father’s questionable actions as attempts to stop the overwhelming sadness of their mother’s death.
The text describes Ernestine as plump, and she eats with grateful relish when given food as if she is only used to getting crumbs. Ernestine also loves movies, occasionally interjecting her movie-inspired fantasies into the narrative as imagined revisions of difficult moments. Ernestine finds escape in the films and a sense of equity in the audience when she sits between two white girls and they share the experience of the movie. Ermina claims that Ernestine wants to be a movie star, but this seems to be a fading childhood dream as Ernestine recognizes that the romantic roles she wants to play are for white women. She is constantly caught between childhood and adulthood, and without a mother to guide her, her aunt Lily helps her see that she is becoming a woman.
While Ernestine is often quiet and reticent, she shows the most growth, working steadily and unobtrusively on her graduation dress, a symbol of her mother’s legacy and the way she is shaping her own future. She is inspired by Lily and picks up the thread of activism that Lily lost before her death. She listens to her aunt’s talk of revolution, and she imagines joining up and finding her purpose and community. In the end, she becomes the revolutionary of the family, graduating high school and college and then joining the Civil Rights movement to devote her life to making change.
Ermina Crump
At 15, Ermina is thin and pretty, favoring her mother in appearance. She is also more outgoing and combative than her older sister, and when both girls are teased in Brooklyn for their unsophisticated clothing and hair, Ermina picks physical fights with the bullies. She is sexually precocious: She gets a letter from a boy in Pensacola shortly after moving to New York, Ernestine jokes in Act II that she is no longer a virgin, and she has a child before Ernestine graduates from college. She refuses to obey her sister, who has been tasked by their father to keep her in line and away from boys.
While Ermina isn’t interested in Lily’s revolution, she carries out her own revolution by making and defending her own choices, regardless of what her father would say. She is not, however, without fear or moral code, and when she steals a piece of lace for her sister’s dress, she is riddled with anxiety about it. This action shows that Ermina cares deeply about her sister, taking the expensive lace because she feels she deserves it to make her graduation dress even more beautiful. When Ermina is nervous, her leg starts to twitch, and it twitches to the point of injury after stealing the lace. Ermina is strong-willed and tough, unafraid to voice her displeasure at being forced to join in on her father’s new religion or ask questions that might seem rude. She is also the one who identifies Lily’s body when it is found, showing that she becomes an adult in her own way and can do what is necessary for her family. She names her daughter after her mother, suggesting that her familial ties run deep, even as she rebels and moves away from home.
Godfrey Crump
At the beginning of the play, Godfrey is 35 years old, meaning he was only about 18 when his late wife, Sandra, gave birth to Ernestine. Sandra’s death has devastated him, as the two shared most of their lives together. For the first time in his adult life, he is alone and must raise his two daughters by himself. When he discovers Father Divine and the Peace Mission, he is grateful to have an authority tell him what is right or wrong. He uproots his family and moves across the country to Brooklyn, erroneously believing that Father Divine lives and keeps headquarters there. Godfrey believes that he is doing this for his daughters, but it is one of many ways he attempts to escape his grief in the play. His preference for escape means that Ernestine and Ermina sometimes find themselves alone in navigating their own lives and feelings.
Godfrey symbolizes the tug-of-war between the painful past that needs to be settled and his relentless pursuit of future stability. He is tempted by Lily, a remnant from his past, so he marries Gerte as a gesture toward moving forward. He hides behind piety, which gives him an excuse to avoid intimacy with his new wife. Instead of confronting the fears and issues that arise in his family, he writes them down as questions for Father Divine. He fills endless notebooks with these queries, believing that Father Divine will save him by providing answers. When he doesn’t show up to the banquet, Father Divine shows that he is not God, and eventually, Godfrey is the only one who can answer his own questions. He ultimately finds love and peace with Gerte as his daughters grow into adulthood.
Lily Ann Green
Lily, age 35, is the late Sandra Crump’s sister. She has been living in Harlem, which Ernestine sees as the dream, but she shows up on the Crumps’ Brooklyn doorstep at the beginning of the play. Lily symbolizes the family’s past, which Ernestine and Ermina appreciate but Godfrey finds challenging. He lets her stay, either out of familial obligation, his daughters’ sake, or his own suppressed desire for her, but he finds her presence frustrating.
Lily arrives in her designer suit, boasting about her accomplishments as a Black woman forcing her way into a white, racist world. She claims to have studied and become an etymologist, although she avoids explaining what an etymologist does and doesn’t go to work during the play. Lily is a proud member of the Communist Party, which makes her dangerous as the Cold War and the Red Scare take hold. She speaks often about the coming revolution, piquing Ernestine’s interest and influencing her in ways that leave a lifelong impact. By contrast, she is a destabilizing force for Godfrey and tries to entice him to dance, drink, and flirt; she dismisses Father Divine as “playing God” (19).
As the play progresses, Lily’s story falls apart. She has no job, claiming that she is unemployable because no one will hire an educated Black woman, and any job that would hire her would be beneath her. She drinks more and more, revealing that she has or is developing an alcohol addiction. Gerte, who is tired of housing a woman who disrespects her and flirts with her husband, points out that she has stopped going (or pretending to go) to the Communist Party headquarters and drinks all day. It’s unclear how much of Lily’s life and accomplishments are fabricated, but Ernestine discovers that the address Lily often cited as the communist headquarters is actually a bar she frequented. Lily dies in obscurity, and she represents a generation of Black activists who were too early to see the fruits of their labor. Lily lives on through Ernestine, who follows her lead to shape her own hopes and dreams.
Gerte Schulte
When Gerte, age 30, meets Godfrey near the end of Act I, she is lost and vulnerable, trying to take the New York City subway to New Orleans. Gerte is a German immigrant from such a tiny rural town that she didn’t use a real toilet until she went to Berlin at age 17. She is also the only white character in the play.
As a foreigner and a white woman, Gerte is ignorant about the way racism works in the United States, although she witnessed the atrocities of the Nazis. When she meets Godfrey on the train, she doesn’t understand that he is trying to distance himself from her for his own safety. After they are married, she is confounded when she witnesses the racist attack on Godfrey for having a white wife. She tries to bond with Ernestine and Ermina, but both are upset that their father married so quickly and are enduring bullying from their peers about their white stepmother. While she is not malicious or unfeeling, her character’s flaw is being unable to see the way social dynamics play out in front of her. This extends even to Nazi Germany, which she sees as something separate from her despite living through it. Gerte symbolizes the future Godfrey wants, and impulsively marrying her represents a step toward that future. She is patient with his decision to be celibate, even as Lily mocks her for it. She also recognizes his obsessive notetaking as a sign that he is afraid to move forward.
According to Godfrey, Gerte is a lot like Ernestine. They both love movies, which suggests that marrying Godfrey right after meeting him was a romantic notion to Gerte. Another commonality they don’t notice in each other is their hunger. Gerte starved during World War II, so she sneaks bites while cooking and appreciates the regularity of a husband who comes home smelling like baked goods and keeps her fed. Near the end of the play, after Gerte forces Godfrey to confront his avoidance in his notetaking, the couple finally kisses. This is the moment that they find each other and start a loving relationship, presumably an intimate one that lasts after the girls have moved out.
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