Clay is an African American man who needs acceptance from White American society for his existence as an African American man. He has to work
hard to escape from the chains that linger on his black wrists to have a normal life equal to White Americans. His position is like a joke in front of all the white
passengers inside the train. He tries to preserve his identity in order to keep being sane, a sane black man living in America. The way he faces several racial
stereotypes that he gets and accepts from Lula is something impossible for most African Americans to do.
The writer concludes that Clay really experiences racial stereotyping through happenings in the play. Lula seems to have knowledge about African
American men in general and tends to apply such knowledge on Clay. By showing her capability in “identifying” African American man’s perspective
towards Clay, she indirectly drives the statements of her knowledge as the portrayal of racial stereotypings. Beside
“identifying” her perspective and knowledge of African American men
, Lula’s racial stereotyping refers to Clay’s suit and his grandfather’s job. She states the suit worn by Clay is the suit that
belongs to white people. She also tells Clay that his grandfather was just a slave and did not go to Harvard, meaning that she humiliates Clay
’s ancestry of uneducated African American slave. Lula also mentions racial comments about
plantation, which most likely relates to the history of United State’ slavery era, as
well as when she sings about rub bellies in blues-y tune. Blues music was widely popular in the plantations. African slaves sang blues music while working there.
Story of Uncle Tom is also taken as reference, showing evidence that Lula tries to
humiliate and mock Clay as an African American man who would do anything to rele
ase the chain over his “owner”, the white people.
C. Clay’s Struggle for Identity against Racial Stereotyping
In this sub-chapter, the writer will explain about the identity struggle that Clay experiences towards racial stereotyping, which comes from Lula. Identity
and struggle in this subchapter will be the important elements to support the analysis. As the writer quotes a statement about identity from Harry H. L. Kitano,
he states that i dentity is “how an individual perceives and feels about self remains
that serves as the end result of a process of socialization that includes the family, the community,
the ethnic group, and the society” Kitano, 1985: 82. That is, instead, taking identity as an important element.
Another important element that also needs to be explained is struggle. Struggle means to be strenuously engaged with a problem, a task, or an
undertaking. In other words, struggle is a comprehensive process of surviving a difficult situation or achieving certain goals. This might take a long time and be a
tiring process that could require serious thinking and action Mifflin, 1996: 1782. By taking identity and struggle, the writer will explain the identity struggle that
happened in Clay. Kern states that “put another way, Blacks who choose to assimilate within
the dominant white American culture deliberately eradicate their true Black identity and consciousness. ... . In essence, early on, Clay has symbolically
murdered his sense of self a s a Black man by conforming to white society” Kern,
2014: 38-39. Throughout the whole play, Clay’s interaction with Lula is really a
struggle over his racial identity. But since Lula has a preconceived notion of him, the reader knows Clay will not make it out of the train alive, and many of her
statements foreshadow the violence that awaits him. By entering Scene Two, everything comes clear and it appears that Clay
attempts to reclaim his African American identity. It is in the pivotal second scene during his extended conversation at the climatic end of the play, that Clay begins
to assert black-selfhood. He speaks about Black Nationalist beliefs. Lula astonishes Clay with her knowledge of his life and identity without
ever having met him before. The writer already explained in the second problem analysis
about Lula’s knowledge of African American men, which tends to be racial stereotypes.
The identity issues can be seen from the question of Clay’s identity which
is addressed when Lula asks him what he was like in college “And who did you
think you were? Who do you think you are now? ” Baraka, p. 5. The writer sees
that Lula’s question is pointless, because Lula has already decided who he is going to be from the start
by luring him to join her “game”. Lula manipulates Clay as a character that she wanted to be. On the other hand, at the beginning, Clay just
follows where the conversation goes to without taking it very seriously.
1. Clay’s Responses toward Uncle Thomas and Belly Rub Stereotyping
The heat rises between those two characters as the story advances to the last scene. The writer only focuses on the part in which Clay seems to have had
enough of all the fuss caused by Lula. CLAY. . . . Uncle Tom. Thomas.
Whoever. It’s none of your business.
