Themes: Symbolism of the Subway Car and Title

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The subway car setting and the play’s title remind the audience of the packed holds of Dutch slave traders, which brought the first black Africans to Jamestown; the historic underground railroad, which helped slaves escape the South; and the legendary Flying Dutchman, the cursed phantom sailing ship that endlessly sails the seas. Moreover, the grimy, rumbling, underground setting connotes incarceration, damnation, and entombment. The biblical parallels to the story of Adam and Eve are obvious; as Lula gives Clay an apple, she notes that “eating apples together is always the first step.” Lula tempts Clay to come out from behind his assimilationist facade, to lower the disguise that is his only protection against white society’s racist anger.

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Themes: Racial and Sexual Stereotypes

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Themes: Archetypal Figures and Stereotypical Roles

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