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The Narrator’s Wife / The Singer
He teaches the narrator how to play classical piano and read sheet music (which the narrator rejects at first). Gradually, he becomes an important mentor for the narrator, fostering his interest in a music career and even briefly housing and supporting him after his mother’s death. (The narrator notes that he had one music teacher as a child and then began taking lessons with his church organist, so it is unclear which teacher coordinated his duet with the violinist and took him in after his mother’s death.)
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The Music Teacher Character Timeline in Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man
The timeline below shows where the character The Music Teacher appears in Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...age seven. Some of his mother’s sewing companions convinced her to send him to a music teacher , who always insisted on tying everything back to the notes, which frustrated the narrator....
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Chapter 2
...to just do his work for him. One day, he was “impetuous” about getting to his music teacher ’s house to rehearse with a violinist he was set to accompany—although he has always...
(full context)
...explain himself: his mother was sick, and would not “be with us very long,” which the music teacher saw through easily—but in fact this was “a prophecy.”
(full context)
Chapter 3
...her son at her side, her fingers running through his hair. He soon moved into his music teacher ’s house, sold and gave away his mother’s possessions, and found himself with 200 dollars...
(full context)
The music teacher convinced the narrator to hold a benefit concert; the violinist, now married, played but was...
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