Blues I'M Playin

Mrs. Ellsworth was keeping Oceola (whether consciously or subconsciously) from experiencing the world around her. She tried to live vicariously through Oceola, thereby making her whole focus on music and nothing else. Mrs. Ellsworth was always taking new artists under her wing to help them get on their way but when Oceola showed up, she saw that this girl was different and therefore put all of her time and effort into showing her the real way to experience music and art. She attempted to remove Oceola from any distraction including men, jazz, and parties full of people "actually drinking gin from bottles and dancing the most tom-tom-like music she had ever hear" (Hughes 111)

Because of her "loyalty" to Mrs. Ellsworth, Oceola had to give up much of the stuff she enjoyed. She was unable to experience the joys she had previously known. "She no longer had pupils or rehearsed in the church choir." (Hughes 110) While she was sill able to play at Harlem house parties, Mrs. Ellsworth tried to keep her from doing this. For example, "Mrs. Ellsworth organized weekends in the up-state mountains where she had a little lodge and where Oceola couldÐ'...forget about jazz" (Hughes 111) She was clearly trying to rid Oceola of the ideas she'd had about art and music and replace her thoughts with Mrs. Ellsworth's thoughts. Up in this lodge, Mrs. Ellsworth would read about Tennyson or Browning in order to fill Oceola's mind with the thoughts and interpretations that Mrs. Ellsworth believed in.

Mrs. Ellsworth went so far as to sending Oceola abroad for two years in order to saturate her mind even more with art and the "arguments ranging from Garvey to Picasso to Spengler to Jean Cocteau, and thought they all must be crazy." (Hughes 112) This practically hurt Mrs. Ellsworth's plan because it made Oceola believe that art and these new ideas being presented to her were "based on air" (Hughes