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The study and dramatization of the slave narratives helped the inner life, known as Iwa, illuminate within the oppressed slaves. Those who could not escape the harsh realities of their time were left with the legacy of those who did. This legacy left behind ignites the inner essence or Iwa in order to remain sane or give the courage to escape for slaves. These "people who could not fly" is a saying that dates back to an old myth where an African man with wings flew alongside slave ships. He then granted the Africans freedom with the gift of wings but only if they could activate the secret code. For those who didn't know the secret code, therefore not being able to escape was known as the "people who could not fly". This is a myth but does have literal meaning. In reality the only means of escape were to physically run away. True African slaves didn't have the luxury of lifting away from cotton fields to fly to a more promising Land such as Canada. “The people who could not fly were not only forbidden to speak their own languages, but forbidden to learn to read and write the language of their captors” thus no education no freedom (Bost, 1984,95) “The slave owners believed that reading and writing makes a person unfit to be a slave forever” (Bost, 1984,95).

Minstrelsy was a major art form in the late 1800's up until the 1900's. Minstrels are a false depiction of the life is a slave who is portrayed as docile and happily submissive to white slave masters. This false depiction was created in order to brainwash blacks and whites that blacks conduct themselves foolishly and sub-humanly. Malapropism is what the producers of these shows placed in the scripts of the blacks so they would portray ignorant and uneducated. Formed by these shows were terms such as zip coon and Mammy to describe nigger slaves. For instance an Uncle Tom coon is someone who is devoted to their white master even at the Edie se of his fellow black brethren. An Uncle Tom will alarm the space master in any instance he deems less than that of the standards of his owner. In other words a Uncle Tom coon is suck up or traitor of his own people. In modern day times the term Uncle Tom isn't used so loosely, not even for theatrical purposes. In modern times the embodiment of an Uncle Tom is greatly visible in many artist and actors today. For instance Kevin Hart can be considered an Uncle Tom. On countless occasions Mr. Hart has made stereotypical comments within his films. In the movie “Ride Along” Kevin tells a white student who he protects as the campus security guard to stop fighting because he white, he continues by saying white people don't fight. Clearly this is an inaccurate assumption, for whites including every race has a deep history of violence. 

The main purpose of the play Mulatto is to. Bring about discussion and change on the racial issues addressed in the writing. Therefore the theme is correlated to shedding light on the antebellum south and the slave like institutions still in place despite the abolishment of slavery. This play takes place during the reign of President Roosevelt, yet blacks were still viewed as property. Jim Crow laws were created and constantly enforced to ensure niggers stayed in the place of ignorance and submission to any and all white beings. There are many events that occur in Langston Hughes "Mulatto" though three which best provide evidence of the main theme. The first event occurs when Colonel Tom is scorning Cora for the out of place nigger attitude their son Robert acquired. He had been away from Georgia in school for six years and gained mental freedom and liberty through his education. Although this enlightening wasn't warmly welcomed by his racist father Colonel atom, for he denied their lineage and claimed he was a bastard for black women don't know the fathers. A second event happens when Mr. Higgins, Colonel Toms neighbor, visits to hastily inform him that his nigger son requested decent customer service from a white women. How absurd they foolishly agreed. Thereafter Toms rage for his own son grew and he was going to do something about his out of place behavior. The third event occurs when an angry white town mob chases Robert to his suicide. The young black man had just strangled his father to death in self-defense. The whites of the town found out only after the Uncle Tom coon sharecropper Sam informed them so. Immediately the hunt for nigger blood began but before the mutilation of Roberts’s body could begin, he freed himself from the agony by shooting himself in the head, ending it before they could. 

The characters of “The Escape” include races of black and white that both portray stock characters. The theme was to shed light on slavery and abolitionist, therefore the stock characters in Browns play help to do so. The protagonists of the play are Glen because he represents good and justice, as for the antagonist, Dr. Gaines and is wife fulfilling this title. They both are against the marriage of Glen and his wife proving them both to be hypocritical. The white couple claims to be devoted Christians yet interfere with relationships and abuse their slaves. The style of this play therefore is Agit-Prop. This style has a purpose of agitating debate, discussion, and in tur change. In the timeline of the play Mrs. Gaines harasses Glen’s wife due to the self-insecurities. Her husband Dr.Gaines is attracted to Glen’s wife and opposes their marriage leading her to jealously relive her frustration of the young women.

It is no secret that the white overseers and masters of blacks in the south had interracial relations. Mulatto children were then born and the lines of race became blurred. Many times Mulatto women grew to be very attractive and white men lusted viscously over them. For instance in the play, Colonel Tom shows sexual attraction to his own daughter when he sexually glides his hand over her arm. He even states that he sent his two mulatto daughters away to school so that his overseer Talbot doesn't look at them sexually and attempt anything relational. Therefore the minor theme is that white men of the time were very attracted to Mulatto women and many times their fair skin and it beauty gained them more opportunities than the field Negroes. Many black men in heirs by positions of the time were also mulatto; raising the question of did they only get to their success by the whitening of their blackness.