Text Analysis of Suzan-Lori Parks "e;Topdog/Underdog"e;

Seminar paper from the year 2017 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 2,0, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, language: English, abstract: In the first scene of the play Booth is seen performing the 3-card monte for an imagined audience, which he is expecting to observe him. After Lincoln enters the stage, the constellation seems to change into a setting usually met in reality, where a person usually is not expecting to be watched doing something. For the audience one performer is added on to the stage, while at the same time said person is observing the first actor performing. It seems to be for irony's sake that Lincoln is dressed up in his very theatrical manner as Abraham Lincoln, while Booth is the one doing the performance. After Booths's performance is stopped abruptly, Parks uses the literary device of foreshadowing for the first time, when she lets Booth turn around in surprise and point his gun at his brother Lincoln. After the first pages of the dialogue between the brothers it is established via letting Lincoln speak more eloquently and using fewer invectives that he is given the superior, topdog position in the play, event though he is standing at gun point (again irony). Another ironical device could be the fact that Lincoln is wearing whiteface and therefore mimicking a white man, who would have been in times of slavery clearly the master in this constellation. One can infer also that Booth, who does not want to be called that way, is unemployed in contrast to Lincoln who works at an arcade. Also it can be inferred by the following power struggle over whom is to take the food out that Lincoln is merely living at Booth's. By violating the deal to bring out the food, when Lincoln is buying it, Booth is obviously trying to show off his assumed topdog position, which at least in the first stage of this fight over food he showcases. In the second part of the food fight the audience encounters Lincoln's mastery in the idea of versatility.