Julian C. Rice showed by the implication that Lula gives, within the play, of her accusation of Clay running his “mind over people’s flesh” shows how the white population is quick to conclude that blacks were “uncivilized”. By guiling Clay with, as Reed says, the “Puritan ethic” Lula tries to impose her will on Clay. Thus Jones insinuated the thoughts of his society. In such, he stated, although seemingly hard to understand, just what the problems with white men were. (Rice 44) He confronted- at every turn- the fictitious impressions they held over those they thought of as “less superior”.
Words alone, as we know, do not simply make a man- or play for that matter. The structure of his work, as Andrzej Ceynowa said, will show just as much about Jones as his characters’ dialogue. Within his piece, “The Dramatic Structure of Dutchman”, Ceynowa recounts the cultural background in all Jones’ works and their underlying meaning in a dramatic sense. The vastness of interpretation, as Ceynowa says, can yet be argued with. Even so, we find it critically evident that the structure of “Dutchman”, displays Jones’ character and outspokenness in support of the Civil Rights …show more content…
Lula’s actions contain a wicked poison to Clay; such as a white man’s words affect a black man’s actions. For example, when you put a drop of color into a cup of water and stir the water by mixing the cup, so even one negative word has a contagious affect on other people. As Daphne S. Reed said, “The same facility is demonstrated in Dutchman (1964) as the crazy white woman on the subway spits out the insane notions of white society toward Negros in general.” (Reed 55) Reed’s conclusion displays the understanding that Jones had for the plights of those like himself- being of different skin