Williams, Jae`da
June 19, 2012
ENC 1102 Dutchman Thematic Analysis
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 …show more content…

Dutchman raises the attention of readers black or white and makes each think of who they really are. Even through the personalities of each character, any reader can apply themselves to the situation. With America becoming so diverse in the last decades assimilating ourselves into different cultures has become almost second nature, so adapting to other cultures has not caused us to loose who we really are but to accustom ourselves to change. Baraka didn’t want readers to internally kill the person they were inside, but to do away with the person that they weren’t. Complete and total assimilation into another culture is what Clay did to himself and is what Baraka wants Blacks to not do. Instead, he wants Blacks to never forget who they are, but to not be so narrow minded that they are blind to the world around them.

Jae`da Williams Annotated Bibilography

Galens, David M. Dutchman-Amiri,Baraka. Drama For Students. Vol. 3. Detroit: Gale, 1998. 141-59. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Cengage Learning. Web. 31 May 2012. Electronic Book.
Drama for Students gives readers different outlooks on a variety of texts. The approach taken to analyze the piece Dutchman is unique, because instead of offering one theme there are multiple. This allows readers to take it upon themselves to decide what they think about the play. By providing plot summaries it allows readers to take what they thought about