Brecht vs Baraka

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According to the Aristotelian model, the characters within a play must experience a turning point and change. Plays followed this model for centuries, until eventually playwrights began to break out of this cycle and embrace alternative structures. Neither Amiri Baraka’s The Dutchman nor Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children seek change within the show itself. Rather, they both seek to stir the audience into changing their societies and lives; and although they share this similar goal, they approach it in very different manners.

Amiri Barak approaches the issue of forcing change by confronting it head on, oftentimes coming across as offensive. He uses this offensive quality to his advantage though; people remember offensive things, it sticks with them. Baraka does not demand that people end racism; he demands that black people stand up and be themselves in the face of persecution, instead of acting the way white people expect them to. Baraka finds this demeaning and a betrayal of the African American race. Lula represents white people as a race, while Clay represents the ...

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