When Greek Meets Greek Analysis

Crossroads: A Sad Vaudeville by Carlos Solórzano and When Greek Meets Greek by Samuel Selvon have very similar characters. A woman named Woman, who is the antagonist, in Crossroads: A Sad Vaudeville pretends to be a young, beautiful woman to impress a young handsome man. In the story When Greek Meets Greek a man named Ram, who is the protagonist, pretends to be an Indian to live in a building. Similarly, both of the characters manipulate someone to hide their true selves, in the end fail, and have an ironic twist. Woman uses manipulation to trick the young man. For example, Woman uses photo manipulation to trick Man into thinking she was a young, beautiful woman, but instead she is an old woman. She had insecurities about her appearance

He, at one point, thinks the old woman is the woman he was talking to but then decides no. Woman fails at getting to love her as she is. Ram learns that there is another Indian living in the building and the Indian keeps wanting to talk with him. Ram is scared if he talks to the Indian his cover would be blown and he would have to leave. He tries to get the other Indian kicked out, but instead the landlord sees that Ram is not Indian and kicks him out instead. Similarly, Ram failed at tricking the landlord just as Woman failed at manipulating the man. Woman asks the man if he would be able to recognize the woman with the sound of her voice. The ironic part is he said yes, but he does not recognize Woman while they talk. Ram tries to get the other Indian kicked out because he is scared the Indian might see that Ram is not an Indian. The other Indian is in-fact not an Indian. Ram tried to get someone who, unknowingly, was in his same situation kicked out but instead Ram got kicked out. In conclusion Ram and Woman are in different stories with different plots but they do share character similarities. Ram tricks the landlord into thinking he is an Indian and Woman tricks Man into thinking she is young and beautiful. All in all, Ram and Woman both manipulate people in order to get what they want, fail at the end, and each have an ironic