The Story Archive

Man Equals Man

Bertolt Brecht · 1926 CE · Play · German · Modernist

Galy Gay, an Irish porter in colonial India, goes out to buy a fish and is stopped by three soldiers who lost the fourth man of their machine-gun unit while looting a pagoda. They need a body to answer at roll call, and they set about talking this one into another man's name, papers and history. Brecht's first fully epic comedy, and the plainest statement of his claim that a personality can be taken apart and rebuilt like a vehicle.

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Attributes

Genre
SatireComedyWar
Theme
Identity & SelfWar & ViolenceIndividual vs SocietyTransformation
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
EverymanTricksterShapeshifter
Plot structure
Mistaken IdentityIronic ReversalEpisodic
Symbol / motif
The MaskThe MachineThe Garment
Conflict
vs Societyvs Self
Mode / tone
SatiricalComicIronic
Culture / tradition
German

Closest analogues