FREN 3231H Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Frequent-Flyer Program, Trading Stamp, Joual
21 Jan 2020
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Document Summary
This entire play is set in the kitchen of the protagonist, germaine lauzon: a middle-aged woman in her forties who has one adult daughter named linda. They come from a large family: germaine has three sisters and an assortment of in-laws, neighbors, and friends. All are at least nominally roman catholic, and all but one of the characters speaks in joual, a working-class dialect of french with its own unique pronunciations and syntax. The use of joual by definition identifies the location and socio- economic class of the women in the play. The play is set in the early 1960s. Germaine, a working-class woman accustomed to a life with few luxuries, has received a windfall: she has won a million trading stamps. Trading stamps were an early customer loyalty program. They were issued by many canadian department and grocery stores in the early 1960s prior to the invention of loyalty cards, electronic reward systems, and other customer loyalty incentives.
