Race was never the main theme in, Sweat by Lynn Nottage, but it helped move the story along and added greatly to some of the characters development. The play takes place in a small town in Pennsylvania where there is one main line of work everyone goes into. Many of the citizens have been in Reading, Pennsylvania for multiple generations and feel connected to the city. The play focuses on six characters who lives focus around where they work and the bar the are always at. Nottage intentionally used multiple races in this story so she could portray how America is a melting pot of all races and to show how everyone deals with a changing atmosphere they are living in. In the play times are changing and everyone deals with it in their own ways.
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The way she would talk to Oscar as if he was not on the same level as her just because her family has lived in the same town for the past three generations. Tracey tells Oscar, (pg.49), “ you wasn’t born here, Berks.”, right after he tells her he was born here shows how she is lashing out at him to make him feel unwelcome in Reading. Her racism towards others was most likely taught to her at a young age and is her first defense mechanism when she feels threatened or oppressed. Nottage created the character of Tracey because there are many people who, like Tracey, are not ready for change and have an “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” mentality. People like Tracey have a narrow minded view of the world around them and they only see and care about what affects them and their small …show more content…
Whenever someone tries to move on up and better their lives they get made fun of, lose their friends, or in Oscar's case get beat up. Early in the play Chris talks about how he wants to go college and do something other than work at the factory his whole life. However, Jason makes fun of him and tries to keep him from rising up and being the best person he can be. In Cynthia’s case she gets promoted to a management position within the company and proceeds to lose all of her friends because they believe she betrayed them. Everyone would rather see their peers fail than succeed because misery loves company. They will not view themselves as huge failures because no one around them is going anywhere either, so when one does move up they feel threatened and lash out to keep the person at their
The way she would talk to Oscar as if he was not on the same level as her just because her family has lived in the same town for the past three generations. Tracey tells Oscar, (pg.49), “ you wasn’t born here, Berks.”, right after he tells her he was born here shows how she is lashing out at him to make him feel unwelcome in Reading. Her racism towards others was most likely taught to her at a young age and is her first defense mechanism when she feels threatened or oppressed. Nottage created the character of Tracey because there are many people who, like Tracey, are not ready for change and have an “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” mentality. People like Tracey have a narrow minded view of the world around them and they only see and care about what affects them and their small …show more content…
Whenever someone tries to move on up and better their lives they get made fun of, lose their friends, or in Oscar's case get beat up. Early in the play Chris talks about how he wants to go college and do something other than work at the factory his whole life. However, Jason makes fun of him and tries to keep him from rising up and being the best person he can be. In Cynthia’s case she gets promoted to a management position within the company and proceeds to lose all of her friends because they believe she betrayed them. Everyone would rather see their peers fail than succeed because misery loves company. They will not view themselves as huge failures because no one around them is going anywhere either, so when one does move up they feel threatened and lash out to keep the person at their