Themes in Heroes and Saints and Dutchman

The play Heroes and Saints depicts the plight of a Mexican farming community whose members protest against pesticide poisoning, which they accuse of causing numerous birth defects and cancers among their children. On the other hand, Dutchman depicts the hatred between whites and blacks in America as well as the psychological and political conflicts facing black men in the 1960s. This text studies themes around gender, sexuality, and racial identity emerging from both plays. It also identifies some of the tactics that the playwrights use to minimize resistance.

CRUCIAL EMERGENT THEMES

One of the emergent themes in the area of gender in both plays is stereotyping and the objectification of women. In Dutchman, Lula seductively approaches Clay on a train and uses her female charm to win his trust before eventually murdering him. Clay is a successful intellectual of African-American origin, which stereotypically depicts men as objects of success in society, and women as sex objects for satisfying mens lustful desires. Women are expected to be nurturing, while men are expected to be agentic and dominant. In Dutchman, mens dominance is showed when Clay, angered by Lulas behaviour on the train, manhandles and slaps her, and none of the other passengers intervenes because they perceive such behaviour as acceptable given differences in gender roles. In Heroes and Saints, the author associates womanhood with tonguelesness, which Cerezita, the main character, defines as lacking the power of speech to speak freely and push for ones freedom from oppression. In one of the exchanges with her mother, Cerezita, suffering from birth deformities, accuses her mother of tongue-tying her by refusing to allow her to speak in public just because of her physical appearance.

Towards the end of both plays, however, women emerge to dispute these gender stereotypes and to fight against their perception as the weaker gender. In Dutchman, Lula murders Clay to secure her freedom from oppression. Cerezita in Heroes and Saints equally comes out to demand her freedom. She lacks a physical body but uses ritual performance to speak against the oppression that was being meted on her community through pesticide poisoning. The womens behaviour towards the end of both plays symbolizes a second theme of women-led activism against gender oppression and stereotyping.

In the area of sexuality, an emergent theme is the lack of acceptance for non-conventional sexual...…put on calavera masks while erecting the crosses for their dead peers. Rather than directly criticizing the governments actions, the children put on calavera masks to symbolize their connection to the deceased, whose death is as a result of government decisions. Similarly, rather than directly using government officials to destroy the Mexican community, the playwright uses a helicopter as a symbol of death and destruction to minimize the risk of conflict with government officials. Thus, symbolism and iconography are the two strategies that the playwrights use to minimize resistance.

Finally, both plays adopt an open ending and do not conclude with the American Dreams happy ending promise of democracy. In my view, due to the controversial nature of the topics under discussion, the playwrights adopt an open ending to provide room for the audience to draw their own conclusions and inferences from the play. A closed ending would guide the audience towards a specific conclusion, spurring controversy from those whose feelings or attitudes differ from the playwrights.

In conclusion, thetwo plays effectively demonstrate the themes of gender stereotyping, objectifying of women, positive regard for racial/ethnic identity, societys use of systems to justify disenfranchisement of minorities, and lack of…