Responses to “Permutations” from the play The Colored Museum By George C. Wolfe

Goldie Barajas

English 1B

4/6/11

Responses to “Permutations” from the play

The Colored Museum

By George C. Wolfe

Ÿ  Themes and Conflicts

            “Permutations” is the 9^th exhibit of the play The Colored Museum by George C. Wolfe. The name “Permutations” for this exhibit is very appropriate since it means, the act of transforming or arranging the order of elements in a different order than its original form. This title in relation to the exhibit means that the author will present us with an exhibit that will talk about some sort of change and arrangement of things having to do with the African American experience, in other words it is rising up the idea of “breaking out” of some “ism” or oppression.  As far as themes within this exhibit, I see the themes of: identity, trashing, and assimilation. All of these themes have indeed been touched on in previous exhibits. For example: trashing and identity in “Symbiosis”  and assimilation in “The Photo Session.”

Ÿ  Symbolism

            Symbolically, Normal Jean, can represent the African American girl that is willing to go against the grain and fight to “break out” of white supremacy. Next, we have the garbage man, the garbage man can symbolically represent the black past that African Americans have “trashed” “discarded and disowned” in order to conform to the white way of living. The garbage man can represent the agricultural man that once was enslaved, forced into free labor or that simply worked hard to earn a living. Now, Norma’s mom serves as a perfect example of the theme of assimilation. She is trying to forget the past and by Norma being involved with someone related to the past is very shameful for the mother. She indeed dares to lock Norma up. As far as the white egg, it symbolizes black people living oppressed by society‘s white people. This is ironic because Norma’s babies are definitely not white but black which means the egg should be black instead of white.

Ÿ  Interpretation

            The quote “it’s not everyday a bunch of babies break outta a white egg and start to live” means that is it not ordinary for black people to break out of racism, or white supremacy to start living upon their own standards not the ones white people have set up for them. It really means revolution or change in the way society has been structured. So what Norma Jean is trying to say here is that her babies will try to break out of the oppression white people have set upon them and that black culture will be honored and no longer “trashed, or disowned.”