Critical Analysis Top Dog Under Dog
Fonseca 1
Eufemio Fonseca III
Theater 1014
Professor Green
October 9,2014 TopDog/UnderDog Critical Analysis
Introduction:
In the play
“TopDog/UnderDog”
Suzan Lori Parks demonstrates many struggles in the story between two brothers Booth and
Lincoln. While both go through dramatics struggles, they both try to figure out ways individually how they can change their lives around. Brothers growing up in poverty and their parents walking out of their lives; they both have no choice but to think out of the box on how they can make money. While booth is an awkward person, he tends to try to take the easy way out by doing illegal stunts such as robbery which causes a turning point in the play.
In this analysis I Am mainly arguing whether this story was a reenactment of the death of Abraham lincoln; when he was killed by John Wilkes Booth in an assassination. My main argument is whether it was a racial thing to reenact the assassination but using african americans in poverty to contribute the roles of one of the biggest assassinations in U.S
Fonseca 2
history. Both brothers going through rough times and Lincoln getting fired and being out of a job. They both have nothing to rely on but Booth thinks getting his brother lincoln back into the game will change their financial stance significantly.
The use of "Lincoln" and "Booth" provides a means of rewriting history in terms of an ironic textuality and a parodic reversal. This becomes a case of laughter in which Parks' ironic use of the names works to undermine the social history of the US and slavery. This irony is the fact that Lincoln's arcade job is an Abraham Lincoln impersonator, assassinated daily by paying customers. This figure of the black man playing as a white man.
As the figures of the white assassin can be made black, these become roles which any individual can take up in his or her own selfliberation. Yet, what this shows is that such imageplay is
not
Eufemio Fonseca III
Theater 1014
Professor Green
October 9,2014 TopDog/UnderDog Critical Analysis
Introduction:
In the play
“TopDog/UnderDog”
Suzan Lori Parks demonstrates many struggles in the story between two brothers Booth and
Lincoln. While both go through dramatics struggles, they both try to figure out ways individually how they can change their lives around. Brothers growing up in poverty and their parents walking out of their lives; they both have no choice but to think out of the box on how they can make money. While booth is an awkward person, he tends to try to take the easy way out by doing illegal stunts such as robbery which causes a turning point in the play.
In this analysis I Am mainly arguing whether this story was a reenactment of the death of Abraham lincoln; when he was killed by John Wilkes Booth in an assassination. My main argument is whether it was a racial thing to reenact the assassination but using african americans in poverty to contribute the roles of one of the biggest assassinations in U.S
Fonseca 2
history. Both brothers going through rough times and Lincoln getting fired and being out of a job. They both have nothing to rely on but Booth thinks getting his brother lincoln back into the game will change their financial stance significantly.
The use of "Lincoln" and "Booth" provides a means of rewriting history in terms of an ironic textuality and a parodic reversal. This becomes a case of laughter in which Parks' ironic use of the names works to undermine the social history of the US and slavery. This irony is the fact that Lincoln's arcade job is an Abraham Lincoln impersonator, assassinated daily by paying customers. This figure of the black man playing as a white man.
As the figures of the white assassin can be made black, these become roles which any individual can take up in his or her own selfliberation. Yet, what this shows is that such imageplay is
not