Blood of a Stranger – THEMES, DRAMATIC TECHNIQUES USED IN THE PLAY

Blood of a Stranger – THEMES, DRAMATIC TECHNIQUES USED IN THE PLAY

THEMES

1. Religious evil – This is evident in Soko’s character of lying to the whole village that the gods spoke to him about the coming of a stranger. Likewise, the use of humans for sacrifice.

2. Substance of abuse – The drama also exhibits how excessive intake of alcohol and drugs can bring about confusion and negative attitude like in the case of the villagers who were singing and dancing under the influence of gin and tobacco. Likewise the king who continues to demand for tobacco.

3. Colonial influence – whitehead introduced gin and tobacco to Mando people. It exemplifies how the whites in the colonial era taught Africans bad things either directly or indirectly.

4. Deceit – Soko and Maligu are the ones deceiving the people about the coming of a stranger. Whitehead and Maligu also deceived the people that the goal is to farm tobacco, it’s actually to take diamonds. Whitehead plans to tell the people that the diamond is an evil stone. Soko in the drama was also deceiving the people that he sleeps inside the cave.

5. Greed – Maligu’s greed to get rich spurred him to join Whitehead in his evil plans.

6. Exploitation – White head came to exploit the people and go away with their diamonds without proper reward.

7. Tradition – Kindo, strives to maintain the tradition of respect when he forced whitehead to present himself to the king properly. Banishing Kindo is also the king trying uphold the tradition that anyone who kills someone during peace time must be banished.

DRAMATIC TECHNIQUES USED IN THE PLAY

1. Dramatic Irony – It is dramatically ironical that Soko and the king think that Wara is a virgin while she is not. It is also a dramatic irony for the people to think that the person lying on the stone of sacrifice is Wara while it’s actually Parker.