What is “Us” and Who is “Them”?
Within my own lifeline, I have come across the notion of us/them quite often. If I wanted anything that changed myself in any way, as a response by my family members, I would be met with something along the lines of “We aren’t like the people who do that. We’re simple people.” I don’t know if I’m easily enraged, but those words have the capacity to send me into a fit of anger.
In “Sweat,” I noticed that this was a revolving theme around the entire play. The us/them lines are very thin in actuality, and that’s represented through Tracey, Cynthia, and Jessie’s relationship. When Jessie is talking about Tracey and Cynthia’s relationship in regards to Cynthia’s new promotion to Stan, she says “Two months ago she couldn’t give a shit” (51). Prior to those two months, Tracey had seen Cynthia as one of her closest friends, but ever since Cynthia’s promotion, Tracey had been spreading malicious rumors to deal with her own jealousy. The us/them thinking spills into Tracey’s characterization, as she ultimately ends the long-running friendship between herself, Cynthia, and Jessie.
Not only is Cynthia isolated, but Oscar is seen as an outsider because of his race. Oscar is Colombian-American, and he is as American as the rest of the ensemble of characters—but he is not treated as he is. When smoking outside with Tracey, Oscar shows her a flier he found at Centro Hispano that talks about hiring opportunities. Rather than understanding that, Tracey responds with “All I can read is ‘Olstead’s.’ The rest is gibberish” (47). The rest of the flier is, in fact, not in gibberish, but Spanish. This shows that Tracey is ignorant to the world that she considers “them.” This ignorance is mostly replaced with hostility towards “them,” especially when her job is gone, and she is drinking at Stan’s bar. Oscar is leaving, and Tracey says “He’s eating your dinner, your steak and potatoes, your fucking dessert” (101). By this, Tracey means that the job that she lost is going to “them,” such as Oscar.
The aftermath of Tracey’s notion of them/us results in Stan’s worsening of injury. Tracey manages to provoke both Chris and Jason to hurt Oscar, but they miss and hit Stan in the head instead. Not only does Stan end up nearly dead, but both Jason and Chris go to jail for eight years. This shows that the us/them thinking destroys the “us” in the attempt to destroy “them.”
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| A Meme on Us/Them |
I like how revealed a unique theme out of the play at the end. Honestly, I did not think about that theme, but your blog revealed me another important theme of the play too. Your personal connection in the first paragraph of the blog was also very interesting as you connected the play to a real life. Your analysis shows your deep understanding of the play too because it was very well developed.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you started off your blog with a personal anecdote, I think it was a good way to ease readers into your topic. I also liked how you further discussed the negative outcome of Tracey’s racism towards Oscar.
ReplyDeleteI liked how to tie everything together in the end and agree with your claim that attempts to destroy the 'them' end up destroying 'us'. I also think the meme you tied at the end went well with what you discussed and shows how perspective can really impact things.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you tied your response to the prompt back to your own life. You also used quotes that specifically had the word 'them' in it which helped illustrate your argument, and was another thing that stood out to me.
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