THEMES
- Hitler/Nazi Germany
- This is one of the more obvious themes of the play, something we have been discussing about since we started to read through this play. Arturo Ui represents Hitler in a 1930's gangster setting, but also how the Nazi party rose to become in charge of Germany.
- Break Down Of Society
- This is a very interesting theme. The break down of society was basically the reason why Hitler could have rose to power. At the end of WW1, Germany was in a very bad economical state and people were desperate for change. Once a huge and glorious country was now crumbling and the people of Germany were going with the losses of their leaders. Hitler and the Nazi party took this opportunity to inflict extreme views and blame Jews and other countries for their economical problems. They created an image of a perfect world full of perfect people that would bring Germany back to its former glory. But, the rise could have been stopped, just like the title The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui tells us. During our lesson Siou used the word complacency which means "a feeling of quiet pleasure or security, often while unaware of some potential danger" or "satisfaction or smug satisfaction with an existing situation,condition". Basically Brecht is trying to say with this play that it was the society's fault why this all happened, since the people and society could have stopped it and were able to resist. This is shown in the play with the cauliflower business crumbling and the vegetable dealers desperately trying to survive, while taking on Ui's empty words and trusting him with their money and businesses.
- Outsiders
- Outsiders as a theme is a bit more difficult to explain, but it is a theme in the play. Arturo Ui keeps talking about how he comes from the Bronx, so he isn't actually a native Chicagoan, yet he talks about joining in together and how people need to stick together as Chicago is all of their home. Also, during the rise of the Nazi party, they blamed the Jewish community for the problems of Germany, talking about them as people who came from another country to take away the riches of the German people. In RRAU, Ui talks about how man is naturally prone to crime, pinning people against their neighbors. As Ui's long monologue says in scene seven "I have to face the facts: this is what men are - they ain't no little lambs." Later on he and the other gangsters also pin the blame of the warehouse fire on Fish, a man who has just the day before arrived to Chicago. He is is the outsider that is blamed for a crime he didn't do, but people eat it up because they do not know him.
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