After discussing whether or not “Uptight” and “The Informer” are trying to equate the two narratives of the black struggle in America and the Irish struggle, I do not believe that to be the case. The two stories are not trying to equate the Irish quest for independence and resulting internal strife with the black struggle for equality. However the reason Dassin would create his adaptation of “The Informer” is to show how despite the differences of the two movements, both faced the same breaking point and sense of crisis as they looked to turn to violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The striking similarity of both movements that built up to their respective breaking points that we witnessed in both works was the duration of tolerance of mistreatment and injustice by the oppressed. Obviously the problems faced by both groups are very different; the Irish lived under British rule for 800 years while black people faced four centuries of discrimination and oppression in America. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However as Martin Luther King Jr. talked about in “Our Struggle,” in America \u2013 the South, specifically \u2013 the black community almost accepted white people’s rationalization of their actions and some started to believe it. And then at the start of “Uptight” we see King’s funeral procession and the committee’s decision to take up arms. After centuries of discrimination, they turn to violence because they’re too frustrated. Not only have they been mistreated, but once progress starts to actually occur, one of their most prominent leaders is killed in an act of violence. This is the breaking point we witness in “Uptight.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the Irish, their breaking point comes after the Easter Rising. Following their first significant uprising in over 100 years, the British execute the leaders at Kilmainham. This sparks outrage and increases support for Irish independence causing a period of violence in which the War of Independence and Civil War occur \u2013 the settings of O’Flaherty’s and Ford’s versions, respectively. The brutal acts of violence by the British, mainly the executions, are the breaking point for the Irish revolutionaries causing the sense of crisis and paranoia that we witness in “the Informer” as they get tangled into violence and begin to question how to proceed with their movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the problems faced by both groups are obviously different, Dassin turns to the Irish struggle because the period of crisis and internal strife among revolutionaries captured in “the Informer” is what the Civil Rights Movement experienced as it grew increasingly violent following the death of leaders such Malcolm X and King. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After discussing whether or not “Uptight” and “The Informer” are trying to equate the two narratives of the black struggle in America and the Irish struggle, I do not believe that to be the case. The two stories are not trying to equate the Irish quest for independence and resulting internal strife with the black … <\/p>\n