“Clay: If I'm a middle‐class fake white man ... let me be. And let me be in the way I want.” (Baraka). The Dutchman, written by Amiri Baraka during a period in his life when he was embracing Black Nationalism and switching from Leroi Jones (his birth name) to Amiri Baraka. In his play, The Dutchman Baraka tries to spin a tale about blacks assimilating into white culture which leads to their destruction; in this play black-man named clay attempts to repress his history through assimilation, which causes him to be and to ultimately be destroyed by Lula.
Clay attempts to repress his history three distinct times throughout the play; the first time was during a conversation with Lula when she says “those narrow‐shoulder clothes come from a tradition you ought to feel oppressed by. A three‐button suit. What right do you have to be wearing a three‐button suit and striped tie? Your grandfather was a slave, he didn't go to Harvard.” And clay replies “My grandfather was a night watchman.” Showing that he does not think that his grandfather could have been a slave but instead most have been in a higher position repressing the fact most black families can trace their heritage to a black slave because of the fact that to get to the us in the mid-17th century you had to pay for passage and black people where initially treated as servants and then slaves, the second time clay attempted to repress his history was at the last sequence of the play when clay says to Lula, “Ahhh. Shit. But who needs it? I’d rather be a fool. Insane. Safe with my words, and no deaths, and clean, hard thoughts, urging me to new conquests. My people's madness. Hah! That's a laugh. My people. They don't need me to claim them. They got legs and arms of their own. Person...
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Harrison, Paul Carter, Victor Leo Walker, and Gus Edwards. Black Theatre: Ritual Performance in the African Diaspora. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2002. Print.
Klinkowitz, Jerome. "Le Roi Jones [Imamu Amiri Baraka]: Dutchman as Drama." Negro American Literature Forum 7.4 (1973): 123-26. JSTOR. Web. 01 Apr. 2014. .
Shankeswari, J. ASSIMILATION VS IDENTITY:A STUDY ON AMIRI BARAKA’S (LEROI JONES) DUTCHMAN. 2010. ASSIMILATION VS IDENTITY:A STUDY ON AMIRI BARAKA’S (LEROI JONES) DUTCHMAN. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 163-73. Print.
Watts, Jerry Gafio. Amiri Baraka: The Politics and Art of a Black Intellectual. New York: New York UP, 2001. Print.
There has been many discussions about how people try to fit in society, whether it is for music, interests in subjects, or even trying to fit in a specific culture. Groups and individuals seems to have a distinction among each other when it comes down to fitting in society and how they differ and have tensions among each other to conform to social norms. In “Making Conversation” and “The Primacy of Practice” by Kwame Anthony Appiah discusses how all cultures have similarities and differences but sometimes those differences are so different that they can not connect to another nation. Manuel Munoz in “Leave Your Name at the Border” argues how immigrants in a city are forced to act more societal and how it typically affects the diversity in
Lincoln cleverly uses the rhetorical devices of juxtaposition, parallelism, and repetition. Juxtaposition is the comparison of two ...
'With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.' In the delivery of Lincoln's 'Second Inaugural,' many were inspired by this uplifting and keen speech. It had been a long war, and Lincoln was concerned about the destruction that had taken place. Worn-out from seeing families torn apart and friendships eradicated, he interpreted his inaugural address. It was March of 1865, and the war, he believed, must come to an end before it was too late. The annihilation that had taken place was tragic, and Lincoln brawled for a closure. The 'Second Inaugural' was very influential, formal, and emotional.
1. Benjamin Quarles, The Negro in the Making of America. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1966.
Identity is 'how you view yourself and your life.'; (p. 12 Knots in a String.) Your identity helps you determine where you think you fit in, in your life. It is 'a rich complexity of images, ideas and associations.';(p. 12 Knots in a String.) It is given that as we go through our lives and encounter different experiences our identity of yourselves and where we belong may change. As this happens we may gain or relinquish new values and from this identity and image our influenced. 'A bad self-image and low self-esteem may form part of identity?but often the cause is not a loss of identity itself so much as a loss of belonging.'; Social psychologists suggest that identity is closely related to our culture. Native people today have been faced with this challenge against their identity as they are increasingly faced with a non-native society. I will prove that the play The Rez Sisters showed this loss of identity and loss of belonging. When a native person leaves the reservation to go and start a new life in a city they are forced to adapt to a lifestyle they are not accustomed to. They do not feel as though they fit in or belong to any particular culture. They are faced with extreme racism and stereotypes from other people in the nonreservational society.
Wilmore, Gayraud S. "Chapter 1-3." Black Religion and Black Radicalism. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1972. 1-71. Print.
...cy." Western Journal Of Black Studies 28.1 (2004): 327-331. Academic Search Premier. Web. 18 Sept. 2013.
However, his desire conflicts with the racial situation during the time of the play. The play is set during a time when blacks were primarily slaves and considered property. They also didn't own any property. His belief that he is of equal standing with a white man could probably be traced to his lineage with the piano. The piano had symbolized his ancestors since the piano has been around during his grandfather's ...
... generations. Racial tensions have resulted in tragedies; Clay’s murder in the end of the play is a symbolic portrayal of an innocent man attacked for the color of his skin and nothing more. The art of theatre attacks the audience to consider these social issues. At the end of Dutchman the audience is left uncomfortable, shocked and left to piece together the role of Lula, Clay and the flying Dutchman subway cart are metaphors for problems greater than the play’s conflict.
America in the mid to early nineteenth century saw the torture of many African Americans in slavery. Plantation owners did not care whether they were young or old, girl or boy, to them all slaves were there to work. One slave in particular, Frederick Douglass, documented his journey through slavery in his autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Through the use of various rhetorical devices and strategies, Douglass conveys the dehumanizing and corrupting effect of slavery, in order to show the overall need for American abolition. His use of devices such as parallelism, asyndeton, simile, antithesis, juxtaposition and use of irony, not only establish ethos but also show the negative effects of slavery on slaves, masters and
Van Deusen, John. “The Black Man in White America”. Washington, D.C.: Associated Publishers, INC., 1938. Print
In a debate in 1851, famed abolitionist Wendell Phillips presented a moving and forceful argument for acceptance of African Americans into the military by telling the story of the Haitian general, Toussaint-Louverture. Phillips' message survives today, over a century later, not only as a tribute to the hero who rose from slavery to create the first black republic, but also as a compelling statement against racial discrimination. Expertly using a mix of literary devices, including juxtaposition, irony, metaphor, and personification, Phillips enables his audience to see, through the lens of the orator's mind, the ideals that he promotes.
Hoyt, Charles Alva. “The Five Faces of Malcolm X.” Negro American Literature Forum 4 (1970): 107-112.
Karenga, Malauna. Introduction to Black Studies. Los Angeles: University of Sankore Press Third Edition, 2002.
Angeles, Los. (2009). African arts. Volume 28. Published by African Studies Center, University of California.