The Liquid Plain Play Summary

The Transatlantic Slave Trade

The transatlantic slave trade influenced all the aspects of the white Americans and African Americans’ life in the 18th century because it became the significant social and economic phenomenon in the history of the country (Dramaturgy Packet 2015, 17-18). In her play The Liquid Plain, Naomi Wallace discussed the idea of the transatlantic slave trade from the personal perspective of several characters in a vivid metaphorical language (Wallace 2013, 54). Thus, the concept of “vastness” of the transatlantic slave trade is accentuated in each detail of the characters’ life, and it is metaphorically emphasized in the image of a Guinea worm that usually actively parasitizes and aims to occupy more flesh as slavery aimed to occupy more territories and people.
On the one hand, the Guinea worm symbolizes the slavery that captured all the aspects of the peoples’ life with the focus on the personal feelings of slaves and ambitious desires and intentions of slave owners and traders. In her play, Wallace tells the story of several characters that were injured by slavery. Thus, the inner pain of the black slaves come from different places is associated with the pain of a man who has a Guinea worm in his leg (Wallace 2013, 54). The problem is in the fact that slavery seems to have no ends and boundaries, and it is extremely painful for all persons involved in the process (Williams presentation, January 22, 2015). Slavery is based on the idea of capturing and gaining more: black people, resources, and lands (Dramaturgy Packet 2015, 34-35). In this context, it is possible to speak about the “vastness” of the transatlantic slave trade as a result of traders’ parasitizing