Analysis Of Nella Larson 's Passing, And Amiri Baraka 's The Dutchman

These constant struggles between connection and autonomy are perhaps more palpable when Arnetta called for the brownies troop to call a secret meeting to discuss what they are going to do to get even with troop 909 for allegedly calling one of them a ‘nigger’. When Laurel showed a little hesitation, the other members looked at her like she is an impediment with Arnetta stating “Snot, you are not going to be a bitch and tell Mrs. Margolin, are you?” (Packer 9). This is just one of the situations where Laurel is faced with a tough choice where she has to weigh between her autonomy and group inclusion. Therefore, through the first-person point of view, the author clearly articulates the issue of human prejudices with particular focus on

In Nella Larsen’s Passing: A Problem of Interpretation, Claudia Tate argues that race “is not the novels foremost concern, but is merely a mechanism for setting the story in motion” (344). Tate’s decision to focus on the “psychological ambiguity” (343) of the novel forbids her to elaborate on the relation between race and social class. As a result, I disagree with certain statements from Tate’s argument due to the lack of acknowledging the issue regarding race and social class. Tate initially claims that Irene’s understanding of race becomes a concern “when the impending exposure of Clare’s racial identity threatens to hasten the disruption of Irene’s domestic security” (Tate 344). However, Irene’s fear of being spotted as a

The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B Dubois is a influential work in African American literature and is an American classic. In this book Dubois proposes that "the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line." His concepts of life behind the veil of race and the resulting "double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others," have become touchstones for thinking about race in America. In addition to these lasting concepts, Souls offers an evaluation of the progress of the races and the possibilities for future progress as the nation entered the twentieth century.

Racism is an issue that blacks face, and have faced throughout history directly and indirectly. Ralph Ellison has done a great job in demonstrating the effects of racism on individual identity through a black narrator. Throughout the story, Ellison provides several examples of what the narrator faced in trying to make his-self visible and acceptable in the white culture. Ellison engages the reader so deeply in the occurrences through the narrator’s agony, confusion, and ambiguity. In order to understand the narrators plight, and to see things through his eyes, it is important to understand that main characters of the story which contributes to his plight as well as the era in which the story takes place.

The memoir “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” by Zora Neale Hurston, was first published in 1928, and recounts the situation of racial discrimination and prejudice at the time in the United States. The author was born into an all-black community, but was later sent to a boarding school in Jacksonville, where she experienced “race” for the first time. Hurston not only informs the reader how she managed to stay true to herself and her race, but also inspires the reader to abandon any form of racism in their life. Especially by including Humor, Imagery, and Metaphors, the author makes her message very clear: Everyone is equal.

In this excerpt ZZ Packer clearly points out that the aversion the girls feel towards the whites is not based on their own experiences, but rather their families. According to their parents, dealing with “whites” was a problem every adult had to face. Lauren’s statement clearly exposes the young African-American girls’ lack of reasoning on racism, and thus portrays the parents as the responsible for the children’s behavior. Resentment on behalf of the parents did indeed have a huge impact in the brownies.

This theme helps illuminate how black people came to be treated in America both when slavery existed and beyond into today’s society. The theme that black people are disposable bodies within American society. Because of the tradition of treating black people as objects or whose value strictly came from their ability to make profit, the idea of what it means to be black in America is imbedded in the danger of losing one’s body. Although slavery has ended, the racism remains as a violence inflicted on black people’s bodies. Coates is more than happy to emphasize that racism is an instinctive practice.

This stated prejudice can be noted in a scene where Clare, Irene, and Gertrude are discussing the skin tones of their children. Clare addresses them, “No, I have no boys and I don’t think I’ll ever have any. I’m afraid. I nearly died of terror the whole nine months before Margery was born for fear that she might be dark. Thank goodness, she turned out alright. But I’ll never risk it again. Never! The strain was simply too–too hellish” (Larsen, 25). The extent to which the social stigma of the 1920s had tainted the views of Clare, though she is light-skinned, who is a black woman. She dreads over the thought of having a dark skinned child as if that would be the most despicable thing that could happen to her. Clare describes her African-American genetics as “hellish” and further speaks to the effects of colorism on black women. At this point, Clare is not only passing but she is denying her race in its entirety, making it out to be something wrong. Passing no longer exists as a social construct for African American social mobility, but rather a means for inhibiting any upward mobility through self-deprivation in regards to their culture and race.

Although Irene feels that there is "nothing sacrificial in Clare's idea of life, no allegiance beyond her own immediate desire," it is apparent that Clare's desire to return to her African American race is honest, even if the motives seem rather one-sided (Larsen 144). Irene considers Clare to be "selfish, cold and hard" (Larsen 144). Irene also feels that Clare does not have "even in the slightest artistic or sociological interest in the race that some members of other races displayed…[She] cared nothing of the race, she only belonged to it" (Larsen 182). This may be true, but it does not diminish Clare's own pain at having to deny her African American heritage, and her desire to return to it. Irene represents a portion of society who feel that people who pass must have a morally acceptable reason to return to their African American roots such as a desire to rebel against a white society that has forced them into the role of a white person. Just because Clare feels "no permanent allegiance to either the black or white worlds or any of the classic anguish of the tragic mulatto" does not mean that she is not a tragic mulatto (Washington 48). In her own way, "Clare Kendry belongs with that group of tragic mulattos…emerg[ing] as an individual, not as a stereotype" (Davis 98). Because she wants to return to her own race on her own terms illustrates her individuality in the face of the

Irene’s thoughts and feelings are being filtered through the view of a separate entity: the narrator. And this filtration mimics the alienation caused by racism. Racism is a prominent theme in the novel, from how Clare is received when she pass as white to Clare’s husband’s attitude towards people of black lineage. By examining the role that third person narration plays in Passing, it will be seen how third person narration does not give a voice to the person of narration, but, instead, reinforces the power dynamic create by racism: between the oppressed and the oppressor. The interaction between the narrator and Irene portray race through the perception, silencing, and the breakthrough of oppressed

Through his work, “Of Our Spiritual Strivings,” W.E.B. Dubois takes the reader on a journey through the typical black man’s eyes. He creates a new meaning of the African American man as he shares personal experiences and stories of the past alike. He plays upon the heart strings of every reader, no matter the race, with his literary knowledge of words, use of pathos, and stories of his past experience to pull in emotional ties to his work. The application of dualism allows the reader, who is most commonly white men, to choose a side to sympathize with, for Dubois gives the sense of double consciousness as the African and the American throughout his entire work.

Reading through The Dutchman for the first time, I had the impression that it was just another story of a black man being oppressed by another white person in the mid 20th century. However, upon closer inspection, I have found that this play dives much deeper into a variety of different aspects. For example, if we are reading this play with the knowledge that this is written in a postmodern era, this gives us the freedom to explore which social constructs are being torn down within the play itself. This play and the author, Amiri Baraka, are sending powerful messages through the text that can clearly be identified using the lens of postmodernism. He uses the characters in this play to depict different themes. For example, Clay is the

Families can have a tremendous impact on a person’s beliefs and perceptions on every aspect of life. More often than not, this concept shapes an individual through the values they were raised up on. It is unintentional on the part of the family itself but, more of the fact that lessons taught through experience and seclusion from outside sources, molds a person’s personality and perception of others. The location someone was raised up attributes to a distorted view of others. Laurel said that “When you lived in the south suburbs of Atlanta, it was easy to forget about whites” Whites were like those baby pigeons; real and existing, but rarely seen or thought about” (Packer 4). Laurel and the other six girls in her troop grew up in a predominantly racially segregated area. They went to Woodrow Wilson Elementary, in the inner city. To them, white people were seen as invaders. She describes her encounters with moms and daughters shopping; saying that they could be seen “cooing over dresses” (Packer 4). The descriptions she gives are very derogatory and paint these people as materialistic even though Laurel has never met them. In the short story

In the earlier 20th century, African-Americans had little to no equality when compared to whites, laws were even made to ensure that African-Americans couldn’t have the same rights that whites had. This idea of segregation and unequal racial power is shown throughout the novel Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, and is also shown within the poems I, Too and Mother to Son, by Langston Hughes. In Ralph Ellison’s literary work we are shown what the cruel results of systematic racism looks like from the perspective of the African-American, both in the South and up North in New York. Langston Hughes in his two poems gives us a short glimpse of the segregation that followed African-Americans. With such similar stories and perspectives, the literary

Amiri Baraka’s The Dutchman would be considered a historical allegory that could be understood as this poetic and dramatic expression of the relationship between whites and blacks throughout the existence of the United States. These patterns of history are symbolically acted out by the two characters Lula and Clay; Lula represents white America and Clay seems to stand for the modern day Uncle Tom, who has over time been shaped by white America and this slave mentality.