Exploring Post-colonialism and racism in Eugene O’ Neill’s Thirst

Authors

  • Pintu Karak This paper attempts to redefine and rethink of O’Neill’s play Thirst from the perspectives of Post-colonialism and Racism. In the play Thirst we find a kind of love-hate relationship between the three characters – the Gentleman, the Dancer and the West Indian Mulatto Sailor. The Negro Sailor becomes a victim of social injustice. His skin colour, language, prejudices, ethnicity make him isolated from the two white Europeans. This paper endeavours to show a dichotomy between the ‘Black’ and ‘White’ people; a kind of binary between ‘us’ and ‘other’ and the ‘otherness’ of characterization leads the black skinned people to an unprivileged condition of the society. The inferior black Negro frantically and aimlessly tries to find out his own ‘self’, his own identity, as well as his own root. He suffers from an overwhelming crisis and he tries to recover himself from such pathetic situation.

Keywords:

Post-colonialism, racism, black, white, otherness, identity crisis, subaltern

Abstract

This paper attempts to redefine and rethink of O’Neill’s play Thirst from the perspectives of Post-colonialism and Racism. In the play Thirst we find a kind of love-hate relationship between the three characters – the Gentleman, the Dancer and the West Indian Mulatto Sailor. The Negro Sailor becomes a victim of social injustice. His skin colour, language, prejudices, ethnicity make him isolated from the two white Europeans. This paper endeavours to show a dichotomy between the ‘Black’ and ‘White’ people; a kind of binary between ‘us’ and ‘other’ and the ‘otherness’ of characterization leads the black skinned people to an unprivileged condition of the society. The inferior black Negro frantically and aimlessly tries to find out his own ‘self’, his own identity, as well as his own root. He suffers from an overwhelming crisis and he tries to recover himself from such pathetic situation

References

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Published

2015-07-31

Issue

Vol. 4 No. 8 (2015): JULY 2015

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