James McCaffery

Help Received: Back Talk from Appalachia: Confronting Stereotypes: Donesky, Norman

James McCaffery

June 7, 2017

So between Donesky and Norman, very little love is given to The Kentucky Cycle, and even less to it’s author Robert Schenkkan. While Donesky really goes in depth and blows Schenkkan out of the water including his drive by shooting quote; Norman is the silent killer and the true critical assassin of The Kentucky Cycle. Norman simply lays down fact after fact as to why Schenkkan’s play is off, starting from the out right lies upon which Eastern Kentucky is subjugated, how because of convenient dating, Schenkkan can get away with avoiding some major victories of the Kentucky people. He also mentions how Schenkkan’s play hold too much “-isms” and that simply bringing forth a play to support a political agenda is nothing short of low and shallow. the biggest nail that Norman drives into Robert Schenkkan’s coffin is perhaps his conclusion in stating that in his play, he created a symbol of Radical leftist hatred in a country that was already being divided by the radical right and their symbol. In a way Robert Schenkkan had given the conservative party the ammunition they needed to show the left off as the uninformed haters of Appalachia and the South, whether it was true or not. the fact this play won the Pulitzer further solidified the idiocy of  the “city folk” and caused great damage toward relations from the cities to the Appalachian region. What makes Norman great is although he mentions some of this, you can feel all of it through his voice and verbiage. The pain and anguish are clear. While Donesky was blunt, Norman stole the show.