“Topdog / Underdog”
Power, Socioeconomics, and Greed between Brothers
Dramatic irony is a type of irony where the characters are unaware of the situation but the audience is not. For example, in the play “Topdog/ Underdog”, we know before the characters that the younger brother is going to kill the older brother. In real life, irony can be comical, bitter, or sometimes offensive. Throughout the play the playwright makes ironic moments and statements to help point out the socioeconomic plights, the power struggles and the greed of the two brother’s in this play.
“Topdog/ Underdog” by Suzane-Lori Parks is a two person play with the main characters Lincoln and Booth who are brothers. They were ironically named after Abraham Lincoln and his assassin …show more content…
To express this opinion and to make the desperate situation more obvious she uses irony. Lincoln and Booth are two African American males, one has a job and one does not. Lincoln works as an Abraham Lincoln impersonator, who reenacts the final moments of Lincoln’s life before he was assassinated. He does this by allowing paying customers to shoot him in the back of the head with cap guns. The irony of this, is that the only work he could find is being a black man playing a white man with the same name as his. “I would have to wear a little makeup and accept less than what they would offer a –another guy—(White guy).” (Parks 34) In order for Lincoln to avoid going back to the hustle after he is fired and replaced by a wax dummy, he takes yet another pay cut to get his job back. This is Park’s use of irony, showing that in order to make a clean living, Lincoln must just scrap by when he could be making ten times more money throwing cards than what he makes at a legal nine to five job. Lincoln is basically on an economic treadmill where he will never make any progress with his honest job. Another way Park’s uses the socioeconomic status of the brothers to show irony is with Booth’s love life. Booth is involved with a girl named Grace and they have an on again off again relationship. Grace has a tendency to show up
Power, Socioeconomics, and Greed between Brothers
Dramatic irony is a type of irony where the characters are unaware of the situation but the audience is not. For example, in the play “Topdog/ Underdog”, we know before the characters that the younger brother is going to kill the older brother. In real life, irony can be comical, bitter, or sometimes offensive. Throughout the play the playwright makes ironic moments and statements to help point out the socioeconomic plights, the power struggles and the greed of the two brother’s in this play.
“Topdog/ Underdog” by Suzane-Lori Parks is a two person play with the main characters Lincoln and Booth who are brothers. They were ironically named after Abraham Lincoln and his assassin …show more content…
To express this opinion and to make the desperate situation more obvious she uses irony. Lincoln and Booth are two African American males, one has a job and one does not. Lincoln works as an Abraham Lincoln impersonator, who reenacts the final moments of Lincoln’s life before he was assassinated. He does this by allowing paying customers to shoot him in the back of the head with cap guns. The irony of this, is that the only work he could find is being a black man playing a white man with the same name as his. “I would have to wear a little makeup and accept less than what they would offer a –another guy—(White guy).” (Parks 34) In order for Lincoln to avoid going back to the hustle after he is fired and replaced by a wax dummy, he takes yet another pay cut to get his job back. This is Park’s use of irony, showing that in order to make a clean living, Lincoln must just scrap by when he could be making ten times more money throwing cards than what he makes at a legal nine to five job. Lincoln is basically on an economic treadmill where he will never make any progress with his honest job. Another way Park’s uses the socioeconomic status of the brothers to show irony is with Booth’s love life. Booth is involved with a girl named Grace and they have an on again off again relationship. Grace has a tendency to show up