After the War Blues and Zoot Suit Themes

Themes in After the War Blues and Zoot Suit

The play After the War Blues depicts the plight of Japanese Americans who return home from detainment during World War II, only to find their homes occupied by African-American communities. The play Zoot Suit, on the other hand, presents the story of Henry Reina and his 38th Street Gang members, who are unfairly jailed as a result of racial prejudice. This analysis depicts how the two plays demonstrate themes around home and belonging, and how they exemplify the themes of self-hate and calibanization.

THE THEME OF HOME AND BELONGING

The first theme around home is homelessness and the lack of belonging. In After the War Blues, the Japanese Americans begin to experience alienation when they are held in detention camps during World War II by their very own government due to their race. This detention leaves them with questions around their place in the American society. It also spurs perceptions of a lack of belonging given that society still progresses in their absence, with African-Americans and other racial groups even moving into and occupying their neighborhoods. The theme of physical homelessness sets in when the Japanese-American soldiers return to their Japanese town after the war and find that their residences had been sold and businesses re-let by African-Americans.

The group of Japanese-Americans struggles to re-establish their identity as a result. They lack a place to call home and have to establish some form of bicultural community in which they coexist with the current inhabitants. Such co-existence introduces the theme of inter-racial competition for resources, including land, ownership, culture, and women. One character, Chet Monkawa, has to borrow money to buy back his parents’ boarding house, despite being unemployed.

Another evident theme among the Japanese Americans is emotional homelessness, which is characterized by feelings of being unwanted and not belonging. For instance, Chet is regarded as an outcast among the Japanese-Americans owing to his refusal to take a loyalty oath. He is lonely and alienated by his fellow Japanese-Americans, who regard him as a traitor and a loser, differently from his brother, whom they perceive as a hero after he died as a US soldier. Thus, despite being a recovering addict, Chet lacks the post-war support of the very people he regards as his brothers, which fosters emotional homelessness as he has to deal with the post-war effects alone.

On their part, the African-Americans mainly face the challenge of emotional homelessness. Despite currently occupying the Japanese-American neighborhoods, they live in fear as the inferior race. They are at risk of losing their homes and businesses because the latter still claim ownership of the neighborhoods they left behind. Thus, both the Japanese-Americans and the African-Americans face some state of homelessness as a result of the prevailing situation

In Zoot Suit, the theme of racial alienation emerges strongly when Henry and members of his team in the 38th Street Gang are arrested and charged with a murder caused by members of a different gang. The playwright indicates that the presented evidence showed that the 38th street gang was not responsible for the murder, yet the jury was strongly prejudiced against the gang members because of their race. Henry and his gang members experienced some form of emotional homelesness when, because of their race, they are perceived as unwanted and subjected to an unfair judicial process that takes them away from their homely environment for a murder they did not commit.

During incarceration, Henry suffers further racial alienation when he is placed in solitary confinement and denied access to a social life. In his conversations with El-Pachuko while in prison, Henry paints a picture of how he has been a victim of biased court systems and racially-inclined police investigations, all of which have disadvantaged him and unfairly moved him from his physical home. Both plays point to a series of emotional and physical homelessness brought about by racial injustice and a government that fails to protect its own minority citizens.

IN WHAT WAYS DO SELF HATE AND CALIBANIZATION APPEAR?

Self hate is the feeling of hating oneself and having consistent feelings of low self-esteem, inadequacy, and guilt. On the other hand, calibanization occurs when hatred spreads from self to the community such that members of a minority group are systematically dissuaded and discouraged from pursuing creative pursuits, with majorities attempting to thwart any attempt to move towards positive expression (Jones et al. 209).

In After the War Blues, self-hate appears when individual members of the society punish and alienate community members. For instance, Chet is labelled a loser and outcast by other Japanese Americans for refusing to take a loyalty oath like his brother. By comparing Chet to his deceased courageous brother, society portrays an image of what it regards as the ideal soldier, pushing him to develop self-hate when he feels inadequate or is unable to meet these ideals.

Self-hate also appears as a result of continued calibanization by existing systems, including the media, court processes, and police investigations. The calibanized individual repeatedly suffers oppression that leads to feelings of inadequacy and prevents them from acquiring justice. For instance, the media plays a huge role in calibanizing the 38th Street Gang during their trial to destroy their public image. In one of the scenes, Alice, a reporter, notifies Henry that newspapers have played a significant role in spreading rumors about the group and that it is important for him to tell his side of the story. In jail, Henry and his gang are victims of calibanization when they are denied access to fresh haircuts and clean clothes, to which all prisoners awaiting court are entitled. Further calibanization is demonstrated when the public prosecutor pushes for a motion to have Henry and his gang members stand in court whenever their names are mentioned, terming them as murderers and criminals. In all of these cases, the system uses laws and unjust policies to systemically dissuade the calibanized group from rising higher.