Funnyhouse of a Negro (Themes)

Themes

Identity

At the core of Funnyhouse of a Negro is Sarah’s internal struggle to understand and accept her identity as an African American woman in the United States. Each of Sarah’s four “selves” — her subconscious’s way of dealing with her identity issues — represents a facet of Sarah.

Two of her four selves are white European women of royal blood: the Duchess of Hapsburg and Queen Victoria. Sarah also has a large statue of Victoria in her room. This emphasizes her desire to identify more with her mother, who was white or a light-skinned African American depending on differing interpretations of the text. The Queen and the Duchess despise Sarah’s dark-skinned father and what she thinks that represents: impurity, beastliness, and evilness.

Two of Sarah’s inner selves are men: Jesus and Patrice Lumumba. The latter is an African revolutionary who was the first Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. After he left office, he was assassinated. He represents Sarah’s father — the dark side of her heritage and her self-hatred. Through the persona of Lumumba, Sarah claims that she killed her father.

Sarah’s fourth self, Jesus, is a dwarf and a hunchback with yellow skin. Jesus represents Sarah’s father as a martyr. Through Jesus, Sarah expresses her desire to kill Lumumba and escape being black.

By the end of Funnyhouse, Sarah realizes that she cannot get escape her racial identity — though she claims she does not have particularly black features — and kills herself.

Alienation and Loneliness

Sarah’s problems with identity in Funnyhouse of a Negro lead to alienation and loneliness. Because she is of mixed heritage — and she has confused ideas about what each heritage represents — she feels alienated from both black and white cultures. This alienation leads to loneliness.

It is implied that Sarah’s father has made numerous attempts to reach his daughter, but she has rejected him repeatedly. Some of her selves claim that he killed himself. So she rejects that side of herself.

Sarah also rejects the white side of herself. She claims her mother is dead or in an asylum. Her landlady does not understand her. Sarah says she does not love her white Jewish boyfriend, a poet named Raymond. She claims, “He is very interested in Negroes,” which implies he is not interested in Sarah for herself, but her racial identity.

Appearances and Reality/ Truth and Falsehood

Both truth and reality are murky in Funnyhouse of a Negro. The truth about Sarah’s parents — their marriage, courtship, the details of Sarah’s conception, if they are alive — is unclear. Each of her four selves, as well as Sarah herself, relates a slightly different story, especially about Sarah’s father.

Furthermore, what Sarah really thinks of herself is also not clear. It is obvious that Sarah has problems with her mixed heritage. Yet she really does not express anything positive about either heritage beyond the idea that white is better than black: the reality of her feelings is essentially indiscernible. Even Sarah’s landlady and boyfriend do not know the real truth about her — Raymond calls her “a funny little liar” after her death.

Because the play takes place primarily in Sarah’s troubled mind, what is true and what is false is not always clear.

Topics for Further Study

• Research the Civil Rights movement of the early 1960s, in particular the effects of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. How do you think this movement impacted the lives of middle-class African Americans like Sarah?
• Review psychological writings on the children of interracial marriages. Discuss Sarah’s identity crisis, self-hatred, and subsequent suicide in light of your findings. Has society changed? Would Sarah feel this way today?
• The character of Sarah feels alienated from both her African-American heritage and white heritage. Write an essay discussing your own heritage and what it means to you. Does it help define who you are? What else defines you as a person?
• Compare and contrast the character of Sarah with Clara from Kennedy’s 1965 play The Owl Answers. Clara undergoes a similar racial identity crisis, which also involves historical figures. Why did Kennedy pick these specific people — what do they represent? What do the historical figures say about Sarah and Clara’s individual crises?