Guess Who's Coming To Dinner
Guess Who's Coming To Dinner
Guess Who's Coming To Dinner
Family relations
Autumn 2019
Roddy Doyle
Doyle emerged among a group of young Irish writers during the 1980s to become one of the most
popular Irish novelists of his era. His short story “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” is loosely
inspired by the 1960s film 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner', this short story takes a light-hearted
look at the different reactions within one Irish family to the arrival for dinner of Ben, a Nigerian
asylum seeker. In particular the play focuses on Larry Linnane, a man who loves his wife and
family and football and dinners swimming in "gravy you could dye your hair with". He considers
himself a liberal until his eldest daughter brings home "the black fella".
PRE-READING
1) Translate the following words into Danish:
a patriarch prejudice
being open-minded
being independent
3) The story you are going to read takes place in Ireland. Google Ireland and find it on
a map. What do you know about Ireland?
4) Roddy Doyle writes about the 1990s in the foreword of a collection of short stories
about the immigrant experience in Ireland, "I went to bed in one country, and woke
up in another."
Read the following quote about Ireland’s economic boom during the 1990s and then
try to explain what he might mean by “I went to bed in one country, and woke up in
another.”
“Ireland's economic boom during the 1990s brought unprecedented levels of prosperity
and helped transform it into a "country of net immigration" by the early 2000s. For the first
time in its history, Ireland experienced a significant inflow of migrants — both workers and
asylum seekers — from outside the European Union.”
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/ireland-rapid-immigration-recession
POST-READING