In Amiri Baraka’s story The Dutchman, Baraka uses metaphor, imagery, and irony to portray a machine society, the strongest of which is Baraka’s emphasis on the subway car as a metaphor for perpetual motion and inevitable motion. of racist, superstitious social norms. Clay’s death proves that the inability to break out of the social machine is fatal. This combined metaphor, among other compelling and eloquent devices, is an example of Baraca himself in his essay, “Myths of Negro Literature.” African-American writers rise from the mediocrity of mediocrity to “high art […]” which must reflect the experiences of man , a category of movement about man, as he is, in the defined world of his essence” (167). Baraka challenges the black community to produce art that portrays the human condition, and provides a paradigm for the Batman.
In “The Myth of Negro Literature”, Baraka keeps the flaws of African American literature up to date and tells what he sees. “From the legitimate resources of the mind the mind must be born in the world. From these resources it can never be born to escape” (167). This becomes an outline for Barac’s symbols and devices in his work, using his struggles and experiences to bring his message to the world. This mission is also evident in the first title, Batavus, which bears the name of a slave ship. The title, mentioning slavery in the modern world, meets another of Baraka’s standards: “Africanisms exist in Negro culture, but they have been so translated and transformed by the American experience that they have become an integral part of that experience” (169). . As a Dutchman in his literary work, both in the sense of play and in the memory of slave ship culture, Baraka makes his slander part of the American experience as a member of the community. chief of the artists.
Furthermore, Baraka outlines his goals for black writing, noting “the greatest successful plot of most Negro writing in his movement. Content” ( 169).For both of the machines that Baraka uses in Batavis is an example of the subway car as a social machine of the passengers helping Lula toss Clay’s body at the end of the story. Go away from me! Ready now! [Others come and drag the yellow body down the porch.] Open the door and throw outside his body. take a long, slow look.
Several themes are at work in this scene. It is Clay’s first act of murder that enables the reader to invest real, personal emotion in the story. This adds to the truth of the story. Second, Lula’s identity proves Clay’s social status and rank. A woman in her thirties, without sexual power, who has a bad mind, Lula is the image that white society has judged to be priceless and impotent. However, when opposed to Clay, a young man with an upbringing that would traditionally be the image of happiness and normality, Lula ironically becomes all powerful because of his race. Lula’s absolute control over the rest of the travelers shows that Baraka’s status as that type is the ultimate determining factor in society. Third, the closing scene directions convey a sense of desperation through the ever-moving maintenance of the subway car. When the next young man gets into the car, it is clear to the reader that he is the next victim of Lula, and he sets off the social machine in such a way that he destroys everyone in his motion.
The image is an important media vehicle for Baraka. Lula is Eve’s character throughout the play, constantly eating apples and tempting Lutu with her sexual act. At the beginning of the story, Clay was not trying to make advances to Lula; in fact, he finds his attraction absurd: “The man looks unhappily as he looks through the window at the face of the woman looking at him, when he notices that the man has noticed the face, the man immediately begins to laugh too, for a moment without a trace of self-consciousness. The reader quickly sees that social convention plays a large part in Clay’s life, inhibiting and informing his instincts.
“You want this? […] Eating bad things together is always the first step. Or walking down the uninhabited Seventh Avenue at twenty on the weekends. ] […] Would you like to get involved with me, Master Mane?” (11). Lula tempts him with sexuality, but also with inhibition. Baraka uses the metaphor of “Seventh Avenue” to convey what everyone can gain from this experience. Lula would feel young again with Clay, using him to feel like he was in his “twenties” again. Dirt could achieve freedom from inhibition, as Baraka’s example of using the word “inhabited” as a play on words with “inhibited” shows. Baraka foreshadows Clay’s downfall with the apple. “[ Tried to be as light as Lula, happily in evil wi] Sure. Why not? A beautiful woman like you. Huh, I’m not stupid” (11). The mud is not yet aware of Lula’s toxic nature because it is blinded by its beauty.
The image of the employer is also significant. It is the image of the color that Americans traditionally consider black Americans. “It’s Uncle Tom. […] The white man hides his ol’ mama’s soil, and he hides his head in the woods with his light gray hair” (32). The guide covers this image. “[Then the old negro conductor comes into the car, making a kind of soft shoe, and speaks the words of a song of some half-footed man. […] Lula turns to face him and follows his movement down the porch.
Baraka also uses irony to show the absurdity of stereotypes. In the story, Lula claims that she knows Clay, she knows his type, even though she just met him. “‘You look like you’re living in New Jersey with your parents and you’re trying to grow a beard. That’s it.’ […] ‘Do you know everything that Lula knows about Clay, and this is because until the end of the story, Clay is the average figure of the middle class of America, whom Baraka so despises. For the whole story, he names Lula without objection , and an insult without any consequence, “In college I thought I was Baudelaire. But I slowed down when.” ‘I never believe you were once a black nigga.’ [ Mock gravity, then laughs. Mud is stunned, but after his initial reaction, he quickly tries to see through the humor.
Dirt is, at this point, everything Baraka stands against. He accepts his assigned place in the world and does nothing to fight it. But when Clay stands up to himself in his monologue at the end of the story, he becomes the paradigm of Baraka. Thus, if the Negro writer wanted to reach his own legitimate cultural tradition, he would have done so by using the entire spectrum of the American experience as part of the history movement of the black a> in this region: as a victim and his annals” (169). You know nothing, except what is there for you to see. Action. Lies. Meditations. Not a pure heart, a black heart blowing. You do not always know. […] And I wish I was a poet. Yes, a poet. All that is necessary is a simple knife. I just disappeared, a great song.”
Here, Lula’s stereotype of Clay is finally proven wrong both for herself and for the reader. “If I pretended to be an average white man, without me. And I would be the way I want. […] I would rather be a fool. Crazy. Safe with my words, no death. And clean, hard thoughts, pushing for new victories” ( 34-35).Baraka points out that even when Clay is sexually attracted to Lula, he is never deluded into thinking that he, or white society, will accept him. , an invisible force within her, an observer” (171). This is Clay, personified. But his actions could never go without consequence, and Clay returned “like another dead American” (171).
Works Cited
Baraka, Amiri Dutch and Slavs. New York: William Morrow and Company,
1964. 3-38.
Baraka, Amiri “The Myth of Negro Literature.” Inside the circle. Ed. Angelyn
Mania Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1994. 165-171.
