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Fire is best fought with fire. That is to say, ill innate thoughts and attitudes are best fought with other thoughts and attitudes, and such is the ultimate purpose of literature. Thus, it was impressive to deal with the theme of racial discrimination in Mamet's 'American Buffalo. ' Most probably, Mamet made Bob an African-American so as to tackle the problem of racial discrimination. A high percentage of African-Americans are, indeed, regarded as a lower class that does not get proper education. Even the American media usually associates them with incompetence, obscenity, especially that of language, or crime. Similarly, Mamet introduces the character of Bob as 'Don's gopher. ' The reader soon learns that Bob is exploited by Don to both do all the dirty work and be at Don's service whenever he likes.
He watches the people that they are planning to rob. He delivers the messages that Don wants to deliver to other people. He brings Don breakfast, coffee, or any other thing that he wants. However, there is something very confusing about Don's relation with Bob. Sometimes he seems very rough with him but most of the times he seems willing to teach him.
For instance, when he scolds Bob for not watching the man well and Bob apologizes, he says that he is not angry with him. He insists on feeding him well and orders him to buy himself something to eat for breakfast, saying that he will not turn him into a dead-like person working for him: "I just can't use you in here like a zombie. " He, at first, refuses to let Teach replace Bob's place in the robbery plan. He gets angry with Teach when he hits Bob with a junk piece and asks him to bring his car so as to take Bob to the hospital. There is a delicate exchange of words between Don and Bob at the end of the play, where Bob apologizes for lying to Don, and Don, in turn, comforts him: - I am sorry, Donny -That's all right.
Unlike Don, Teach treats Bob very badly. He tries as hard as possible to hide his contempt for him, so as not to irritate Don, but he usually fails. He is always having a cynical superior attitude towards Bob. Such is revealed through his words to Don where he says: "There is not one loyal bone in that bitch's body. " He urges Don to let him carry out the theft in stead of Bob, where he doubts his competence saying: " some job needs more than the kid's gonna skin-pop go in there with a crowbar. " Teach suspects that Bob has carried out the theft on his own. He hits him brutally with a junk piece on his head. Moreover, he refuses to drive him to the hospital and replies roughly to Don when he asks him to do that: "I am not your nigger; I am not your wife. " Teach's use of the word nigger is completely offending but, at the same time, revealing that he is a racist.
In brief, Mamet deals with the problem of racial discrimination smoothly and efficiently in the play. He renders racial discrimination as one of the bad aspects of the contemporary American society, whereas a lot of Americans assume that America is now free of racial discrimination.
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Research essay sample on Racial Discrimination In Mamet
