Zane Zimbelman
Dr. Joycelyn Moody
ENGL 5783
April 13, 2008
Critical Notebook #4
In Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman there are two dualities that play off one another throughout the action of the play. Race and sexuality are the first noticeable and then hyperaware details of the play. White is played off Black in the same way man and woman are compared to one another. The point of this paper in particular is to dissect the notion of race and sexuality in Dutchman and weigh the possibilities that one characteristic may be more important in the play than the other, or if they are of equal importance.
The Dutchman is not a play that you would take a child to. There is no optimism, no hope of a better future, and certainly no hero. It did, however, point out several flaws in society, namely the white man's oppression of Black men. The entire conversation between Lula and Clay demonstrates that, even as society had become more aware of the social inequalities imposed on minorities,......
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Approximate Word Count: 827
Approximate Pages: 4 (260 words per double-spaced page) |