The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Nottage, Lynn. Crumbs From the Table of Joy. Published in Crumbs From the Table of Joy and Other Plays, Theatre Communications Group, Inc. 2004 Edition.

The play’s narrative and thematic identities are grounded in realism, in that the struggles of the central Crump family are a relatively accurate representation of life for black Americans in the 1950’s. At the same time, the narrative offers glimpses of imagined, emerging in the narration of central character Ernestine. Her telling of the story frequently shows the audience reality as she wishes it had been, not as it actually was.

The play begins with a Prologue, in which Ernestine describes the deep and transformative grief of the Crump family in the aftermath of the death of wife and mother Sandra. The play’s first scene then shows a day in the life of the family, with Ernestine’s father Godfrey having taken refuge in deep religious faith even as he struggles to make a better life for his daughters, both the scholarly Ernestine and the flirtatious Ermina.

The family’s life is first disrupted by the arrival of Lily, Sandra’s sister. She presents herself as a free spirit, not only smoking and drinking but also proud of her education and her work as communist and activist. She continues to fight for the rights of black people in general even as she shas come to live with the Crump family to help him raise his two daughters. There are hints of a sexual and/or emotional history between Lily and Godfrey, hints that become more specific as the two characters struggle to accommodate each other’s attitudes and behavior.

At around the same time, Ernestine begins work on a white dress that she intends to wear to her graduation from high school. Lily encourages her, while Ermina seems to be more interested in finding ways to get and keep the attention of boys than in education. Meanwhile, Godfrey’s near-obsessive religious faith becomes even more intense and more demanding, bringing him into even greater conflict with the increasingly volatile Lily. At one point the tension between them becomes so intense that Godfrey feels it necessary to leave for several days. While he is away, he encounters a white German woman named Gerte, whom he helps out of a difficult situation and whom, on an impulse, he marries.

When Godfrey brings Gerte home, he is met with resistance from both Lily and his daughters, who resent both the new mother figure and the fact that that mother figure is white. Godfrey urges them all to try and get along, but it is a difficult battle. Meanwhile, Ernestine continues to work on her graduation dress. At one point, she and Ermina steal some lace to put on it as trim. At another point, however, an argument with Lily leads Ernestine to tear the lace off.

A few months into their marriage, Godfrey and Gerte are the victims of a racist attack. When they arrive home, the family is shocked, but manages to keep Godfrey from going out and hunting down the attackers. Meanwhile, long-simmering tensions between the Crumps, Lily, and Gerte erupt into at first an intense argument, and then into a tension-releasing eruption of merriment.

A few months afterwards, the family – minus Lily – has gathered to celebrate Ernestine’s graduation. Godfrey announces that he has gotten Ernestine a job at the bakery where he works, but she does not want to live that kind of life. She announces her intention to go and work with Lily in Harlem, but then in an Epilogue spoken directly to the audience, Ernestine reveals that she was not able to do so, in part because Lily died of what Ernestine suggests was a drug overdose. Ernestine then describes what happened in her life after she moved away from home – reconciliation with Godfrey and Gerte, Ermina having a baby, marriage and a family, and life as an activist.