The little automobile moved along parallel with King’s River near the picnic grounds. On this Sunday afternoon five big picnics were going on each with music and dancing: Italians, Greeks, Croats and Serbs, Armenians, and Americans. Each group had its own kind of music and dancing. Spangler stopped the automobile at each group for a minute or two in order to be able to listen to the singing and to watch the dancing. He had something to say about each group. “Those are the Greeks over there...I used to know a family of Greeks…That’s the way they dance in the old country.”

The car moved on a short distance and stopped again. “Those people over there are the Armenians,” he said. I can tell from the priests and the kids”…The car moved on and again it stopped before another group. “Those people are Croats and Serbs, and maybe a few other people from around in there”…

The car moved and then stopped again. “The Italians. Corbett himself is probably over there somewhere with his wife and kids”…

The automobile moved to the last group of picnickers…the music was swing, jive, boogie-woogie, and the dancing was terrific. “Americans!” Spangler said. “Look at them! Americans-Greeks, Serbs, Poles, Russians, Armenians, Germans, Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians, Abyssinians, Jews, French, English, Scotch, Irish-look at them! Listen to them!”

They looked and they listened and then after a moment the automobile moved away.

~ William Saroyan, author The Human Comedy

Copyright 1943, 1971 by William Saroyan, Reprinted by permission of Harcourt Brace & Co.

 Questions:

1. Why is the author fascinated with the American picnic?
2. Look at the date that the excerpt was written. Would an author use the same language and/or descriptions today?
3. Reread Spangler’s description of the types of groups that make up the picnickers. What nationalities would describe today’s U.S. immigrant groups?
4. In the Spangler exerpt, does the term "Jew" refer to a nationality or an ethnic group and religion.  Why?