The Role Of Double Consciousness In Amiri Baraka's Dutchman

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If you are Black in America you cannot be truly content with your place in life, because you are constantly trying to find and prove yourself. This idea is portrayed admirably throughout Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman. The protagonist Clay Williams is seen in a constant inward struggle between his two identities of being American and being black. He is also seen in a constant outward struggle with Lula, who is representative of White society and culture. I will look into how assimilation and the idea of “Double Consciousness” in Black Americans is represented in this play. The intense one act drama, set in the 60’s starts as a playful and somewhat intriguing first encounter and rises to suspenseful and symbolic demise of our protagonist. The play …show more content…

“Come on, Clay. Let's rub bellies on the train. The nasty. The nasty. Do the gritty grind, like your old rag‐head mammy. Grind till you lose your mind. Shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it! OOOOweeee! Come on, Clay. Let's do the choo‐choo train shuffle, the navel scratcher (Baraka 31)”... “Come on, Clay ... let's do the thing. Uhh! Uhh! Clay! Clay! You middle-class black bastard. Forget your social‐working mother for a few seconds and let's knock stomachs. Clay, you liver‐lipped white man. You would‐be Christian. You ain't no nigger, you're just a dirty white man. Get up, Clay. Dance with me, Clay (Baraka 31)”... “There is Uncle Tom ... I mean, Uncle Thomas Woolly‐Head. With old white matted mane. He hobbles on his wooden cane. Old Tom. Old Tom. Let the white man hump his OI' mama, and he jes' shuffle off in the woods and hide his gentle gray head. OI' Thomas Woolly‐Head (Baraka 32)”. Within a minute of dialogue Lula goes from trying to get Clay to have sex with her on the train, to belittling him and calling him an Uncle Tom. everything she has done in this play has been an attempt to confuse Clay, and get him to see himself like White America sees …show more content…

He makes it clear that he is aware of his choice in identity “You telling me what I ought to do. Well, don't! Don't you tell me anything! If I'm a middle‐class fake white man ... let me be. And let me be in the way I want(Baraka 34)”. Meanwhile, he also shows that he actually hasn’t forgotten his blackness, telling Lula that she doesn’t know what she thinks she does. “You don't know anything except what's there for you to see. An act. Lies. Device. Not the pure heart, the pumping black heart(Baraka 34)”. His declared double consciousness’ are in opposition with each other, and are a sentiment to his personal

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