Dutchman

Kelli Orr
October 31, 2016
English 333
Short paper Assignment 2
Identity Confusion and Stereotyping in Baraka’s Dutchman
During this semester, we have taken a look at a number of African American literature in which a variety of themes have appeared. One reading we dove into was Amiri Baraka’s play called Dutchman. This play displays an interaction between two main characters by the names of Clay and Lula. The readers are introduced to this story with Lula accusing Clay of watching her from the train window. From there, Lula manipulates almost everything that Clay says and does until she finally kills him in the end. A variety of things happen throughout this play that help to highlight the relationship that was shared between the races of
these two characters. One could claim that the situations of this story show identity confusion and stereotyping. These two aspects bring this story around full circle in the way that each time the reader sees this confusion or stereotypes, within the story, the reader is once again made aware of the obvious contrasts of between these two main characters. It is imperative that, as the audience, we notice the subtle yet dominating force that racial difference plays in the outcome of situations.
Baraka first approaches the aspect of identity confusion within the manner that he describes his two main characters. Lula is describes as “a tall, slender, beautiful woman with long red hair…wearing only loud lipstick in somebody’s good taste” (77). After reading through this story, the audience may be able to tie the stereotype of women with red hair being more aggressive and seeming to add a sense of seductiveness to her character as well. While Lula comes off as this strong-willed independent woman, Clay is described as a young, middle-class, educated black man. He is described as wearing a three piece buttoned suit and carrying books. From this description, the reader can probably assume that he talks, dresses, and carries the mannerism of a white male. Readers realize these presumptions of identity all throughout the story as it Clay and Lula continue on with their conversations.
A great amount of stereotyping occurs throughout this work of art. The aspect of stereotyping through racism is very evident throughout this story. As the story begins, the reader can suspect that Lula assumes a lot of things about Clay due to his race. She openly states that she hardly knows a thing about him, but she knows much about his type. She carries on spitting off facts about himself, his family, and his character. The audience can easily see that because Lula and Clay have never met, she must either be a stalker or basing all of this knowledge off of what she knows about African Americans. These assumptions cause Clay to become inquisitive towards figuring out how Lula is so aware of his life, whereabouts, and friends. Clay is not free from these assumptions, though, for he calls Lula out to be a Jew and follows by stereotyping Jewish people as a whole. There is a constant struggle, throughout the story, that successfully distorts cultures due to what is assumed and what is actually known, which does not seem to be much the way this story end.
One important allusion to note, within this story, is the reference to the apple in which Lula brings upon the train.
Baraka refers to the children’s story Snow White. He states, “Hey, what was in those apples? Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest one of all? Snow White Baby, and don’t you forget it” (94). Readers can interpret this reference as a criticism for the stereotype of black meaning bad and white meaning good. Maybe white women are not always the fairest. In this play work, it is the white woman who turns out to be the bad person as she passes out the “poisonous apple” and kills someone. Before I thought of the allusion of Snow White, I thought of the Biblical reference towards Adam and Eve, in terms of gender roles. Lula can be read as an evil (racist) Eve working towards causing Adam, or any black man, as much pain as possible through the intake of her
apple.
Throughout the entire play, the interactions between Clay and Lula are really Clay’s struggle over his racial identity. Baraka is able to not only able to bring up the issue of racial identity as a parallel, in this story, but he is also able to dip into gender roles a little bit as Clay is represented as a more passive male and Lula as the aggressor of the story. Lula takes this “power” and manipulates their relationship up until the point that she finally kills him. Both characters act as a transgressor of their boundaries, whether or not this is in terms of race or gender.
It is not until scene two where everything comes to light for the audience. Clay attempts to reclaim what he feels is his black masculine identity. He has an extended dialogue where he is able to truly assert what is left of his selfhood. He aggressively asserts his identity, allowing his true feelings for white people to be made very evident in the manner that he states white people think they know black people and they do not. Clay begins to vocalize his African American beliefs, but now a reader has to sit back and wonder, was Clay already in touch with this side of him or was it Lula who forced Clay into his real identity? Clay initially appears to have a somewhat normal grasp of reality, but Lula seems to waver between being completely crazy and sane. She lives in a more fiction filled world and makes it a point to drag Clay into it with her.
Despite all of the criticism and cruelty towards Lula during his lengthy monologue spoken to her, he loses his “white man mentality.” Clay tends to stay in control throughout this entire play until Lula insults his African American identity.
Clay handles this oppression by becoming violent and threatening Lula. This Clay is so thoroughly different from his calm and collected composure at the beginning of the play makes it hard not to think that Lula’s behavior is what pushed Clay to his prideful asserting of his African American culture. This on and off again inconsistency displays how distorted cultures have become even for an African American male or female tries to defend their culture while still following another culture. This type of multiculturalism is grasped through the continuous contacts of different cultures. Clay does admit that sometimes African Americans can present this cover up to the world, so it would not be improbable to state that Clay actually did not support the movement of Blacks underneath is normal exterior. This play work shows how assumed and stereotypical mindsets spread widely and can successfully misinterpret cultures. The identity confusion that Clay is forced to face is a result of the pressures of the world. He confounds to these social pressures by fleeing his own culture and stepping into the life of his oppressor’s culture and that culture eventually kills him. The piece of art depicts a little bit of reality through the eyes of the
black man. It is difficult to decipher whether or not Lula truly exposed the realness of Clay or if she pushed him towards his outburst. What is obvious is that the many interactions between Clay and Lula were conflicts of Clay trying to grasp his true identity. Lula continually claimed to know Clay’s type and, from there, was determined to take his life, regardless of what evidence he may have provided her contrary to her beliefs.