Summary Of Lynn Nottage's Play 'Ruined'

Lynn Nottage’s play Ruined takes place in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The play opens in a bar that is run by a woman named Mama. A man named Christian arrives, offering Mama several goods he has acquired. He also leaves Mama with two girls, Sophie and Salima. At first Mama refuses to take in Sophie because she has been sexually assaulted so many times that she is “ruined” (Nottage, 12). However, Christian pleads with her because Sophie is his niece. Sophie and Salima work at the bar, along with another woman named Josephine. The three women work to entertain the male customers, however Sophie is kept a safe distance from the men because of her condition. The Congo is in the middle of a war between the rebels, led by Kisembe, and the military …show more content…
I did not feel an urge to take any sort of political action against the issues in the Congo. However, I did feel a strong urge to take the time to research the political issues that were represented in Ruined. Personally what I took away from this play was that I needed to look past my immediate surroundings. Most Americans are only aware of the issues that are happening in the United States and to some extent other Western countries. I rarely ever hear news about other countries unless it affects the United States in some way. The fact that I had absolutely no knowledge of the conflict in this play made me realize that there are probably several other political issues that I am ignorant of. This play opened my eyes and made me realize that I rarely ever consider the serious issues that could be transpiring outside of my own country. Even though my response to Ruined may not have been what the playwright intended, I still feel like I got a significant experience with this play. It made me realize that my knowledge of the world is much more limited than I initially thought and that I should make more attempts to learn about international