74 pages • 2 hours read
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
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Themes
Cultural and Social Change
At the beginning of the play, Sturdyvant tells Irvin, “Times are changing. This is a tricky business now. We’ve got to jazz it up…put in something different” (11). In 1927, the real Ma Rainey was on the verge of being dropped from the label as passé. Her music career ended a few years later. Levee’s music represents the sound that newer audiences want to hear. Sturdyvant’s interest leads Levee to believe that he is the next wave of famous musical talent. However, Levee discovers that part of this change in the music business is the outright ousting and exploitation of black musicians that will continue throughout the 20th century. Instead of raising up black singers and songwriters to meet the growing demand for a sound that originated with black musicians, the industry appropriates the style. Sturdyvant takes advantage of Levee by claiming that his songs aren’t what listeners want, despite the fact that earlier in the play, he tells Irvin that it is. While Levee imagines the increasing desire for the music of black artists as progress, Sturdyvant only wants to buy his songs, presumably to be performed by white artists.
Toledo advocates for social change, professing that African Americans should both be aware and fight for civil rights. The 1920s, amid the era of segregation in the United States, was a hotbed of racism and racial discrimination. The civil rights movement had begun, and Cutler and Slow Drag prefer to ride the changes rather than battling for them. They see their lives from a day-to-day perspective, preferring to focus on keeping their heads down and earning their day’s pay. Toledo, however, has educated himself. Although he lives his life similarly to Cutler and Slow Drag, he sees the need for African Americans to fight oppression. As the older generation in the play, Cutler, Slow Drag, and Toledo have accepted their places in society. Levee, as the younger generation, is fed by anger. Born to a family that managed to raise itself up in society and purchase land, Levee saw how white men punished his father. Just as his father focused on his own rage and revenge, Levee channels his anger into his own potential advancement. It is only Toledo’s suggestion, turned into action, that will effect social change.
Race and Hierarchy
As a famous singer, Ma Rainey seems to have achieved social power. However, as Cutler, Slow Drag, and Toledo emphasize, her power does not extend past the music business. Irvin and Sturdyvant’s willingness to appease Ma Rainey creates the illusion of influence and dominance. In actuality, she takes what she can while she can, before her career ends. As long as Ma Rainey can sell albums and bring in money, she is worth the trouble. Ma Rainey can ruin the careers of promising artists who displease her. She can make her agent and producer meet her demands by threatening to drop them. Outside of the studio, however, Ma Rainey is just another black woman. The policeman who tries to arrest her refuses to believe anything she says, including the fact that she, a wealthy singer, owns her own car. He only takes her to the studio out of respect and deference to the white men who capitalize off of her talent and for the opportunity to capitalize himself when Irvin bribes him to let Ma go. Ma Rainey may sell records, but she does not have agency in white society.
Levee believes that he can supersede the social structure of racial hierarchy because his music, as Ma’s was once, is in demand. Toledo criticizes him for trying to rise through the ranks of a white-dominated society, claiming that he, as well as the band members who support the white-owned recording industry, are just trying to be “imitation white men” (76). This suggests that Levee should seek to be an artist within the black community rather than the white one. This reflects a conundrum that continues to enter racial discourse. In a white-dominated society, the success of a person of color occurs by virtue of white permission. Levee, as Toledo appraises, is more interested in having a “good time” (30). Levee argues that he is willing to smile for the white man in order to get what he wants, but this debasement doesn’t pay off. Not only does he miss out on stardom as Sturdyvant essentially forces him to take money for his songs, but the resulting rage leads him to kill Toledo, turning racial tension inward instead of outward at the perpetrators of racial violence.
Religion
When Toledo calls Levee the devil, Slow Drag tells a story about a man who sold his soul to the devil. According to Slow Drag, the man received “a pocketful of money” and “the life of a rich man” (33) in exchange. Levee chimes in that he would gladly sell his soul to the devil if he met the man, who supposedly travels around exchanging 100-dollar bills for souls. Slow Drag’s story doubles as an allegory, reflecting Levee’s desire to sell himself and his talent for money and success in white society. Levee demonstrates that he will do anything, scrupulous or unscrupulous, to achieve his goals. Cutler takes particular offense to Levee’s readiness to sell his soul because he is religious and believes that talking about selling one’s soul is blasphemous. Throughout history, religion and the promise of an afterlife have served as what Karl Marx called the “opiate of the people.” Those who believe that there is an eternal reward for good behavior are more likely to accept the realities of a brutal life that they view as temporary. Like Toledo’s ex-wife, who abandoned him for religion, spirituality fills a need in those who are otherwise desperate. Cutler insists that the man in Slow Drag’s story undoubtedly came to a bad end, but Toledo says, “Oh, I don’t know about that. The devil’s strong. The devil ain’t no pushover” (34). Recognizing that evil people don’t always receive the punishment they deserve questions Cutler’s entire belief system, causing him to dismiss the story as “fool talk” (34).
Cutler becomes particularly irate when Levee asserts that God and religion are for white people. In an effort to illustrate that Ma Rainey is only powerful in the music business, he tells the story of Reverend Gates, a well-known black minister, who found himself stranded in a small southern town and was assaulted by white men. Not only did the white men fail to respect him as a figure of religious authority, they attacked the symbols of Christianity that he carried. They ripped the cross off of his neck and tore his Bible to pieces, as if these symbols were unconsecrated by the hands of a black man. The gang of white men then humiliated the reverend by forcing him to dance. Levee responds by arguing that God doesn’t answer the prayers of black people. Having seen injustice and violence against his parents go unpunished, he claims that if God cared about a black preacher, he would “strike some of them crackers down” (80). Cutler, who has been the voice of reason throughout the play, physically attacks Levee for challenging his core beliefs. Ironically, when Levee pulls out a knife, claiming, “I’m gonna give your God a chance. I’m gonna give him a chance to save your black ass” (81), Cutler is in fact saved, whether by God or by Levee’s anger at God.
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