For my self-direction learning assignment, I decided to turn Mark Twain’s and Aunt Rachel’s conversation into a scene, a play scene to be exact. The second I read A True Story, Word for Word, As I Hear It, I wondered what it would look like as a scene. It seemed like the perfect advocate for the transmediation. Except, it was quite difficult to pull off.
The biggest thing is—I am not a playwright. I had to look up a few examples of how to write a scene in a play. Crafting the scene itself was a hassle, partly because I decided not to use the language Twain used in the story. To help dig out the message, I paid close attention to what Aunt Rachel’s mother told her and how she reacted when her children were taken away. At the end of the scene, it seemed to me that Rachel wanted to be strong, no matter how hard things got. It also appeared that she was arguing that humans are humans, and we all have a family we want to love and care for.
I definitely picked up on the fact that Twain is very curious about anyone he meets (much like my dad), so he instantly starts a conversation. In the scene, I tried to convey his curiosity by having him ask many questions. Of course, it probably could have been done better. Twain writes about many different people in his stories, and he bases many of his characters on people he has seen in his life. I am certain that Aunt Rachel changed his mindset about slavery forever.
Overall, I think I did a good job of illustrating his curiosity, but I definitely need to brush up on playwriting. I also need to study Twain’s language more thoroughly. It was just easier for me to digest his message if I wrote Aunt Rachel’s speech my own way. So sorry, it’s not word-for-word but more... improvised.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed the assignment and would definitely like to keep improving it. This may be a new hobby for me. If I continue translating texts, I will definitely learn a lot more about Twain and his persona.
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and then Add to home screen.