4. Clay’s Struggle to Keep Being “Sane”
In a weary speech, Clay states that he would rather be a fool, insane, and safe. He chooses to be clean on purpose to keep everything good, no more deaths
of his people. CLAY. All of them. Crazy niggers turning their backs on sanity. When all
it needs is that simple act. Murder. Just murder Would make us all sane. Baraka, p. 9
Regarding Clay’s statement, sanity is actually the black man’s “pumping black heart”. It is a life in absolute contradiction with stereotypes, the cynical attempt of
integration to a society which he abhors. Rather than murder, being aware of his power and capacity to kill but still succeeding in canalizing this energy to serve a
higher purpose than counter is satisfying enough. Clay is also aware of his mental and physical power. He loses control of
the second one for a while. He reflexively slaps Lula as hard as he can when he realizes that she will not understand anything but violence. Clay’s daily dilemma
originates from his power to kill. He really contemplates murder as a key to relief. CLAY. I mean if I murdered you, then other white people would begin to
understand me. You understand? No. I guess not. If Bessie Smith had killed some white people she wouldn’t have needed that music. She
could have talked very straight and plain about the world. No metaphors. No grunts. No wiggles in the dark of her soul. Just straight
two and two are four. Money. Power. Luxury. Like that. All of them. Crazy niggers turning their backs on sanity. When all it needs is that
simple act. Murder. Just murder Would make us all sane. Baraka, p. 9
What Clay tries to explain above is something that he holds and covers behind his nice-looking and naive depiction. He tries to show that if murder would be so
pleasing, he would not hesitate to commit it. However, he tries to resist the urge,
as he carries the struggle of his people as an African American man. He consciously understands that murder will not solve the problem.
Just like the saying “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”, the situation
would theoretically ease all the grudges, but in reality it is, not the case. History and everyday life have taught us that the murder of a person can never pay for the
murder of another one. The African Americans ’ blood would wash away the pains
endured during slavery, pay for the lost identity, the beatings, the humiliations, the discriminations would replace the blues. The thrill to kill would provide the
African American man an indiscribable joy, by suppressing the enemy. His anti- thesis would affirm his own existence. For Clay, sanity equals murder, and he
chooses insanity because it is safer.
5. Clay’s Struggle for Being Himself
Through his journal, Diyaiy states his comment about the play that “There
is cultural-racial injustice. The play stresses the conflict between two hostile visions. The white culture is guilty of oppressing and exploiting the black
minority. This challenges the possibility of w hites and blacks to be equal”
Diyaiy, 2009: 16. Yet for Clay, the suit he is wearing that belongs to the oppressor of African American
– the White American, is none of Lula’s business. And he wants to be he wanted to be.
Lula’s racial comments about Clay is “You middle-class black bastard. Forget your social-
working mother for a few seconds and let’s knock stomachs.
Kategori