Dutchman Dutchman written by Amiri Baraka is a perfect example of how race can play in important part in how you are perceived. In this story a powerful middle-aged white women tries to seduce a younger aged African-American man that presented himself as intelligent and well dressed. This play was written during a time when our world was very closed minded about race specifically with those who were of color. In the early 1960’s white was the major race and white americans were who were superior to those of color. Later on in the 1960’s is when African-Americans started to fight for full and equal rights. They wanted to not be used or treated as if they were not humans. Majority of African-American families were lower class and poor because that is how society viewed and valued them. If you were not white you did not mean anything or have anything of value. Usually they were slaves for white families and were told to do as they instructed. This provoked for the Civil Rights Movement. That eventually lead to African-Americans having the same privileges as Whites. Now many years later we would think racism and discrimination does not happen but it does daily. Tying all this together was a play called Dutchman. Which is a strong play that expresses race and how racism is the dominate trait in the story and also stereotyping african americans. The narrator through out the play in Dutchman deals with the issue of race by letting a white women talk and disrespect a black man.
A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry shows how people’s actions can be perceived as both good and bad. In this play, the Younger family is trying to achieve the American dream, “the ideals of freedom, equality, and opportunity traditionally held to be available to every American”(cite dictionary.com). The Youngers are a black family living in a poor part of Chicago. The family inherits ten thousand dollars from a relative. Each family member has their own idea about how to use this money to fulfill their dreams. The play uses the decisions of the family members to make the reader think about what are the right choices. Mama is the matriarch of the family, and she wants to use the money to buy a house in a white neighborhood. She wants to move to this neighborhood because it is a better environment for her family. Lindor is a man who lives in the white neighborhood and he appears to make decisions for the benefit of the family. The decisions that Mama and Lindor make and the actions they take can be viewed as good or bad for both the individual and the community.
The play uses stereotypes and biased cultural
A lack of self-awareness tended the narrator’s life to seem frustrating and compelling to the reader. This lack often led him to offer generalizations about ““colored” people” without seeing them as human beings. He would often forget his own “colored” roots when doing so. He vacillated between intelligence and naivete, weak and strong will, identification with other African-Americans and a complete disavowal of them. He had a very difficult time making a decision for his life without hesitating and wondering if it would be the right one.
Othello by William Shakespeare raises the issue of how rampant beliefs and attitudes in a society can cause a person to question their sense of self. In a society where racial equality is near non-existent, Othello, a black skinned foreigner in the Venetian society, is constantly reminded of his status as an outsider. Othello, however, is not depicted in a stereotypical manner and despite occupying a highly respected position he is often confronted with blatant racism throughout the play. The prevailing attitudes and beliefs of Venetian society towards Othello are exploited by Iago in order to manipulate Othello’s self confidence and emotional state.
The overarching theme of racial discrimination is bought upon by the differing contexts, is bought upon by the different contexts and therefore settings. Shakespeare’s play is set in
This play defiantly opened my eyes up to the different races out there and how they are treated in different jobs. I also feel bad for some nannies that are of a different race because
In life a person will read many stories that will either be forgotten or ones that will leave a life long impact on them, years after reading. The reason those stories will not be forgotten is because the themes or lessons it is trying to get across to the reader. Sometimes the those lessons are ones that are new and specific to the era written, or its an age old lesson that has to be retaught each decade. The lessons that commonly need to be retaught are lessons on race and gender. Discrimination based on race and gender have been presented for centurie,women are expected to act a certain way and certain people believe there needs to be a separation of races. In Othello by William Shakespeare the cultural lens reveals to the modern world the
Though there was a heightened sense of tension over civil rights in the late 1950s when A Raisin in the Sun was written, racial inequality is still a problem today. It affects minorities of every age and dynamic, in more ways than one. Though nowadays it may go unnoticed, race in every aspect alters the way African-Americans think, behave, and react as human beings. This is shown in many ways in the play as we watch the characters interact. We see big ideas, failures, and family values through the eyes of a disadvantaged group during an unfortunate time in history. As Martin Luther King said, Blacks are “...harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what
The population of African Americans imprisoned is 5 times larger than the population of caucasians imprisoned. This is because of the racial prejudice that police officers have against them. The amount of police officers in a African American dominated neighborhood is much higher than the amount of police officers in a predominantly white neighborhood. These are examples of how race affects our daily life. In the play Othello written by William Shakespeare and in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn written by Mark Twain, race is challenged through conflicts in the plot, social class, and character relationships.
Another example of racism in Act 2 is the jokes that the cast keep saying back and forth to each other. For instance Steve asks the cast ‘”how many white men does it take to change a light bulb?” and Kevin replies by saying “one to hold the light bulb and the rest screw the entire world”. Then Steve replies with another racist joke asking “what is long and hard on a black man?” As the cast keeps bickering and talking over each other Lena decides to tell the most racist joke of the entire play. She asks “why is a white woman like a tampon?” As Steve tries to figure out the answer Lena tells them that it is because they are both stuck up cunts. After all of this is said everyone continues to argue and talk over each other. Nothing seems to be solved and people start to leave because of all the racist comments.
This essay is firstly going to look at racial prejudice. There is much racial prejudice shown in Of Mice and Men towards Crooks the black crippled stable buck. Crooks is more permanent than the other ranch hands and has his own room off the stables with many more possessions than them. This room is made out to be a privilege and also because it means he is nearer to the horses but in fact it is really because the other ranch hands do not want him in the bunk house with them. As a result of this prejudice Crooks has become bitter and very lonely.
When looking at the origins of African-American Dramas specifically in Mulatto, Native Son, A Raisin in the Sun, Funnyhouse of a Negro, Great Goodness of Life, and Dutchman, the emotions of all these characters created the sense that everyone in this time were still searching for their identity. Each character in the plays had to overcome difficulties relating to their skin color, thus causing either confusion or confidence in their search for what defines them as their self. It created internal conflicts and they often blamed society for specific expectations and stereotypes. How the characters decided to express their feelings in emotions demonstrates a sense of realism and how they viewed themselves. In each play, we are able to see how the characters deal with the searching of their identity through various emotions and internal conflicts through their life choices.
Racism, prejudice and stereotyping, as the main themes of the movie, control all the sub-stories that are somehow linked to each other. Moreover, as the stories go on and events develop, it becomes possible to see how characters start to have changes in their perspective and attitude towards each other, either in a good or a bad way. An incident which can demonstrate our thesis on racism and stereotyping and how it might change in just one moment which brings people closer could be shown as the conflict between the racist police officer and the African American woman who gets harassed by him, and whose life is saved by him on the next day. The first encounter of the woman and the officer resulted with the woman
In the play Othello written by Shakespeare, the issue of racism is addressed. Othello, the protagonist of the play, is African American or black. “According to Lois Whitney, many of Othello’s specific attributes probably derive from Shakespeare’s reading of Leo Africanus, whose Geographical Historie of Africa which was translated and published in London in 1600”(Berry, 1990). Many critics have different views on this. “If Shakespeare depended upon Leo Africanus for such details, he must have been much more interested in racial psychology than critics such as Bradley or Heilman suggest”(Berry, 1990). One of the most prominent features of this Shakespeare play is the
The phrase “racial tension” is a small description of the main theme in Dutchman by Amiri Baraka. While race is a vital part of the underlying messages in the play, it stems to a much broader term. In Dutchman Amiri Baraka attempts to grasp the attention of the African American society. Baraka uses Clay’s character to show readers that complete assimilation into another culture is wrong. He wants to awaken the African American men and women in a predominately Caucasian American culture to subconsciously kill the person that is portrayed by Clay in the play. Not only does Baraka want readers and audience members to kill their inner Clay, but refuse to conform to