10 Who Is The World's Best Golfer

Who Is The World's Best Golfer in 2023

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All Our Worlds Are Stages!

Compares, questions, and comments on the worlds and views presented in the plays Los Vendidos by Luis Valdez; Dutchman by Imamu Amiri Baraka; and A Chorus Line by James Kirkwood Jr. and Nicholas Dante.

All three plays, A Chorus Line, Dutchman, and Los Vendidos, seem to suggest that reality is a construct based on Marxian principles of socio-economic survival and dominance; language, in my estimation, is central to this construct, since it is a system employed to name and define people, situations, objects, and systems-among other things. All three plays suggest that even self is a construct based on experience and expectations. At the end of Los Vendidos, one realizes that the models of the Mexicans are not what they had been perceived to be. In an ironic reversal, the machines are real people, while the salesman, thought to have been a human, is actually a machine! Similarly, in Dutchman, the playful dialogue between Clay and Lula implodes into a conflict between the black and white races that ends tragically. Likewise, When Morales, in A Chorus Line, tells Zach that she will "be" whatever he wants her to "be," one realizes that the human mind and being are malleable by both internal and external forces. Morales's recognition of her mercurial nature, by virtue of her humanity, indicates that she is cognizant of the fact that one reality can be distorted, redefined, or reshaped; thus, nothing can be said to be real. The only reality is that what we think of as reality is in constant flux.

In terms of subject matter, both plays deal primarily with racial stereotypes and, to a lesser extent, the marginalized minority's attempts to assimilate into the prevailing, dominant culture; however, the approach taken by each playwright, in the relaying of the sensitive subject matter, differs markedly. In Dutchman, the protagonist is reminded, sarcastically, of his heritage as a descendant of slaves. Using racial slurs, Lula mocks Clay cruelly; "You are an escaped nigger . . . you crawled through the wire of plantations," she tells him. Likewise, in Los Vendidos, associations and typifications based on race are clearly portrayed; at "Honest Sancho's Used Mexican Lot, one can choose from among three different Mexican models, or types, among them the "standard farm worker model" who is "built close to the ground" and only requires " one plate of beans and tortillas" to "keep him going all day". Also, characters in both plays use clothing and language in attempts to become assimilated into their societies. Miss JIM-enez, for example, opts for the "Anglo pronunciation" of her surname, while Clay is "so full of white man's words". In Dutchman, the unlucky protagonist, like the Mexican-American model in Valdez's Los Vendidos, uses language to assume an image of the dominant group, the former in "Jackets buttoning up to his chin" and the latter "in a business suit, with glasses" chanting " GOD BLESS AMERICA" . In Los Vendidos, the oppressive other is spoken of but never seen; Miss Jimenez is the agent of this force, sent to purchase "a Mexican type" for the office of the Caucasian governor. However, in Dutchman, the other, the oppressive force, is directly confronted in the form of Lula, and Clay becomes very vocal in his hatred of the antogonist.

In both plays, although the stereotypes are deconstructed, they are done so via divergent propelling forces. Take Los Vendidos; the many perceptions of Mexicans are constructed via a makeshift theatre of sorts, in that of Honest Sancho's Used Mexican Lot and Curio shop. Essentially, the models are actual men who are pretending to be robotic typified Mexicans. They are basically actors whose roles have been furnished by society's perceptions; in other words, the "models" are self-constructed constructs modeled on their deconstruction of the range of stereotypical views held by the dominant group. Consequently, there is acting within the acting, a play within the play. However, Miss Jimenez, herself a member of the stereotyped group, unwittingly, becomes the expected, but ironically, improvised act. The exploiter or, to be more apt, the agent of the exploiter, is exploited. In Los Vendidos, the stereotypes are exploited by the stereotyped for financial gain. In Dutchman, this is not the case. In fact, when clay attempts to debunk the stereotypes of oppressed blacks as conciliatory, docile citizens he meets a fatal end. Clay mercilessly and angrily challenges Lula's notions of the status quo; he mocks her sense of reality, telling her that Bessie Smith and Charlie Parker "sing curses" at white people "in code".

Whatever else they may have in common, the atmosphere evoked in each play is markedly different. Although they are both punctuated by humor, they are not both comedies. In fact, the mood pervading both Los Vendidos and Dutchman is central to the way in which the playwrights treat their thematic concerns. While one can identify the former as a comedy enmeshed in satire, the latter is, in many ways, a tragedy. Consequently, atmosphere becomes especially important in both plays, but for very different reasons. In Los Vendidos, one sees that, to a great extent, the models "on display" in Sancho's shop burlesque their stereotypes; the subject matter is brought immediately to the forefront and done so in a comedic manner, a manner which is sustained to the very end of the pay. This is not so in Dutchman. It may prove difficult to leave the theatre in laughter after seeing Baraka's one act sledgehammer. Dutchman is clearly concerned with the repressed or the subterranean, as indicated by the "underground subway" which becomes a microcosm of the society. Lula and Clay is, essentially, a tragic binary pair with conflictual intimations of black and white, male and female. Lula's eating an apple is not incidental; her proclamation that "eating apples together is always the first step" is suggestive of the Christian doctrine of the fall of man. The name "Clay" itself is suggestive of the human body and, if one applies Christian doctrine, the first man whom god fashioned out of Clay. The woman, the bearer of the fruit, in the person of Lula, becomes Clay's downfall; she is the agent of his demise. The verbal conflict between the two and Clay's vitriolic outburst, expressed in poetic rage, plunges the play into tragedy. In fact, the play evolves by devolving into a fatal confrontation between the two. The world created in Dutchman becomes a sort of abattoir, and the train's moving on, after Clay's corpse has been thrown out, is suggestive of the perpetuation of conflicts such as the one between the male protagonist and female antagonist.

The validity of racial stereotypes depends, to a great extent, on the perceptions and experiences of individuals who judge others based on logical systems of thought or on whatever prejudices they may offer. Stereotypes, like beauty, are in the eyes of the beholders. Though perpetrated by various entertainment media, like the movies or popular music videos, the racial stereotypes portrayed in both Los Vendidos and Dutchman are not valid today; the civil rights struggles of the 1950's and 60's, have afforded minority groups opportunities for advancement beyond the traditional stereotypes. Minority groups are active in the political and other socio-economic aspects of their communities; Mexicans and African- Americans are successful intellectuals, politicians, judges, and playwrights, among other things. Ultimately, however, the extent of the disparity between seeming and being will always be a concept subject to an individual's personal opinion and prejudices. Alas, we are not omnipotent beings, and so we are forced, by a kind of self appointed necessity, to discriminate between what we believe to be true and what may actually be true; we almost always choose the former.

Hence, in the final analysis, I can only conclude that reality is indeed a human construct; reality is what we believe to be true. Consequently, stereotypes are constructs; the plays Los Vendidos, Dutchman, and A Chorus Line are all construed artistic reactions to the reality of their subjects in their day. Each, in its own way, is an offering of a version of the prototype of the issues it reflects. Each, in its own way, is an offering of an alternative form of reality.