Symbolism In Mistaken Identity

In 1776 fifty six men gathered together to sign a document that would change the world as they knew it. The Declaration of Independence was signed in Independence Hall in Philadelphia, solidifying the idea that the thirteen colonies were to be seen as a nation independent of England. Even though the colonists had a hard fight to win before anything was official, the symbolism of this document will live down in history as the start of the country of the United States of America. Years later the U.S. has transformed from a mass of colonies to one of the worlds largest super powers. The U.S has also been perceived as haughty and self center in the past couple centuries. This is demonstrated in the play “Mistaken Identity” by Sharon Cooper.

Both Kali and Steve want to get their points across to one another. They do this by trying to be the one who has the controlling power of the conversation. Kali is the one who starts to talk by saying “You don’t know anything about my people. What are you” (page 1327). She starts to attack Steve and when he hears the start of the attack he jumps in with “Ooohhh, yes, I do. I saw Monsoon Wedding. And the directors cut! And I saw Slumdog Millionaire like three times” (page 1327). If we first look at the way that the dialogue is said we see underling jabs at America. Steve sees the attack that Kali is using and before she can even finish her statement she is cut off. Steve is trying to assert his dominance by deeming her points invalid. When he tries to do this he only makes himself look stupid by only referring to movies which barley depict the accuracy of Indian culture. This is typical of what the world experiences with Americans. The world see loud, obnoxious and ignorant people that think they know what they are talking about but they do not. Many countries in the world require their students to know a multitude of languages, most often one being English. The U.S however, has most of its’ residents only know English and therefore being viewed as uncultured. Only fifteen to twenty percent of Americans consider

Steve as we already know is a very demanding and dominating character and seems to have control of the situation. This however is compromised when he ideas of the night are questioned. When he finds out that Kali is lesbian he becomes quite confused as to why he was invited on this date; he thinks that he is on a hidden camera show. “Is there a camera under this table (He looks) Lets talk about this. (He sits back down) I’m a good listener. Go ahead (Pause) I’m listening. (Pause).” (page 1328). After Steve loses the dominance on the date he is a little taken aback and wants to regain control. Steve has the paranoia of the the U.S. government after September 11th when he think that he is being watched. He even goes to the length of looking under the table. Cooper was not going for a critical take on the U.S. here and disguises the jab through the comedy of the situation. The U.S. after September 11th however, was very jumpy and wanted to make sure that they were not attacked like that again. Steve did not like being made of a fool of or bing seen as weak, so he used the excuse of he was being set up and he wanted to make sure that he was not seen in that light again. Steve then gain the control of the date once again and asserts the attention back onto Kali, thus putting her on the spot. The U.S. does do this to assert their dominance and to make other