The Dutchman: A Dramatic Expression of the Relationship Between Whites

Amiri Barakas The Dutchman would be considered a historical allegory that could be understood as this poetic and spectacular 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 the States and Clay seems to stand for the upstart day Uncle Tom, who has over time been shaped by white the States and this slave mentality. The beginning Stage directions seem to pull in this poem in it of itself. The first line establishes the mythic qualities of the play. In the flying underbelly of the city. Steaming hot and summer on top, outside. Underground. The subway heaped in modern myth. (1086) The flying underbelly is the metaphor for the Flying Dutchman, which is presageing the almost doomed area. Also Baraka puts a lot of emphasis on the word the underground which seems to foreshadow the below surface intentions of the play right at the beginning. Then the modern myth suggests that the play will act as a myth for the patterns of clear America. This mythical quality that resonates throughout the play is further established by the stage properties of Lula. She carries onto the subway these paper books which symbolize the written culture of white America this written culture certainly resonates throughout the history of blacks and whites. During the beginning of the Jim Crow laws, the blacks had to take literacy tests to be able to vote, so Lula walking in with paper books represents the agonistic literacy on blacks in the United States. Another stage property that Lula has is her sunglasses which she moves around from time to time. This symbolizes her disguise of friends... ...Clay had been the victim throughout the entire play, absorbing Lulas insults and laughing them off, but with his monologue he has become the chronicler. Lulas stereotype of Clay is finally proven wrong at the end of the pl ay. If Im a middle class fake white man, let me be. And let me be in the way that I want Safe with my words, and no deaths, clean, arduous thoughts, urging me to new conquests. () Here Baraka shows that even though Clay was sucked in by Lulas sexual temptations, he never was never fooled into thinking that she or metaphorically white America would ever accept him. Works CitedBaraka, Amiri. The Myth of Negro Literature. Within the Circle. Ed. Angelyn Mitchell. Durham and London Duke University Press, 1994. 165-171.http//www.associatedcontent.com/article/666803/amiri_barakas_use_of_imagery_metaphor_pg4.html?cat=9