Isolation In The Dance and the Railroad and The Strong Breed

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Isolation In The Dance and the Railroad and The Strong Breed An overall theme of isolation permeates through both Wole Soyinka’s The Strong Breed and David Henry Hwang’s The Dance and the Railroad. Every character in these two plays suffers from some form of isolation from the rest of their society. Although Hwang’s Lone and Soyinka’s Girl are isolated for markedly different reasons and take opposite roads in their character growth, they share many similarities including often mirroring their society and some of their treatment of other characters. In The Dance and the Railroad, Lone has self imposed his isolation from the rest of the railroad workers. He describes them to Ma as “dead men,” believing that they have lost their spirit working for the “white devils”. Lone does not seem to respect his countrymen and withdraws instead to practice his craft. These feelings change by the end of the play. After the workers are successful with their strike demands, Lone regains his respect for them. He expresses this to Ma: “Maybe I was wrong about them”(1456). Soyinka’s ...

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