ipl-logo

Clybourne Park Themes

1509 Words7 Pages

Dialogue is a literary technique in which writers employ two or more characters to be engaged in conversation with each other, usually in an equal way. However, Bruce Norris breaks this norm in his play, Clybourne Park. Among the number of themes in the play, the context of race serves as the main thematic subject especially in dialogue amongst characters. Norris’ unconventionally uses dialogue between the white and black characters in the play to display not only the social issues that existed from the 1950s to present day, but the different reactions of white and black people to the topic of race and their minds. Ultimately, Norris is delivering a message on how people are too focused on themselves, and that people must speak up in order …show more content…

The two most outspoken characters are Karl and Steve, who let their views of black people be heard by everyone, including the audience. Their perspectives are abhorred and criticized by the other characters, and they do their best to distance themselves from Karl and Steve in the two acts of the play. There is this quote from Karl in Act I: “And let’s imagine if the tables were turned. Suppose a number of white families started marching into their commun-? Well, actually that might be to their advantage, but-...-you do see my point” (81). And in Act II, Steve says, “No. I’m sick of- No. Every single word we say is-is-is scrutinized for some kind of latent-Meanwhile you guys run around saying n-word this and n-word that and whatever. We all know why there’s a double standard but I can’t even so much as repeat a fucking joke that the one black guy I know told me–” (186). These quotes are inherently racist and propagate negative ideas of black people through the lips of white people. Compared to the short and interrupted dialogue of the black characters in the play, both Karl and Steve express their feelings in long, wordy sentences. Not only is the presence of these white character greater, but so is the amount of words said. Norris uses this technique in order to represent how white people seem to have the dominance not only in conversations, but ultimately in society. Two other white characters that dominate the dialogue are Kathy and Lindsey from Act II, who fill up the dialogue with a lot of insignificant conversations. Like mentioned before, while Lena tries to bring up the history of Clybourne Park, Kathy and Lindsey are busy discussing capitals of countries. In addition, Kathy has to ask Lena if her name is “Short for Leonora?” (126) because Kathy doesn’t think that Lena can be the whole name of someone who is black.

Show More
Related
671 Words | 3 Pages

The attitudes of prejudice, pride, and hostility were at an all-time high between the black and white players leaving their practices in vain because of their failure to act like a team. This leads Coach Boone to teach his team a lesson. After running for a while, the players were given a break. In this time, they realized that they were at Gettysburg, a famous Civil War battleground. Coach Boone seizes the opportunity to deliver an empowering, inspirational speech.

Read More
234 Words | 1 Pages

In Brent Staples essay "Just Walk On By: Black Men and Public Space" Staples uses a lot of diction to puts emphasis on the tensions between the black and white races. It was very clear to point out and say that his target audience are the scared white women and people that get frightened when they see a person of color. Staples knows that there are good and bad black people but regardless of what he thinks of himself others will always look at him different. So to change their ideals he uses strong diction to get them to feel different.

Read More
1199 Words | 5 Pages

The audience also becomes more engaged due to the funny dialog and actions between Sarah and Ross. An example of the noteworthy dialog is when the older man is discussing “useless” classes, and he mentions one of Ross’ classes while Ross is in the room. Furthermore, it is hilarious when Sarah is passive aggressive towards Ross, but he is confused to why she would be angry with

Read More
369 Words | 2 Pages

60% of teens face discrimination each year. Inequality can lead to unequal treatment and mental issues. Speak was written by Laurie Halse Anderson. In Speak Melinda the main character called the cops on this party someone threw of the summer and now everyone hates her and thinks she is a snitch. Laurie Halse Anderson demonstrates how inequality can lead to mental illnesses through Melinda’s self image, how students treat her and how the teachers treat her.

Read More
341 Words | 2 Pages

The essay by James Baldwin recounts his stay in a small Swiss town where no black man had ever visited. The people in the town were captivated by his skin color because they have never seen a black person before. Baldwin visited this town few times and the town’s people even though they knew his name they were still fascinated by the color of his skin. The people didn’t see him as a real person and the children in town run after him shouting names and even though their cries were innocent the words effected Baldwin. In the essay he shows the different ways we effect and reflect each other’s identity.

Read More
956 Words | 4 Pages

For instance, Coates writes that one of his friends was told she was “pretty for a black girl” or “was not really black, meaning it as a compliment.” These quotes highlight that “black,” in the minds of these people, is synonymous with “ugly,” “rude,” or “wrong.” They were not trying to be harmful and had full intent of using these phrases as compliments; however, by subtly putting down black people, it shows an ignorance rooted in the unconscious bias of white supremacy. Coates states that this ignorance is hypocritical, as many white people claim to care about the well-being of black people, yet fail to acknowledge the impact of their actions on the black community. For instance, white people claim to practice “compassionate conservatism,” as Coates puts it, yet “voted for a regime that is nakedly contemptuous of black people and revels in its ignorance.”

Read More
265 Words | 2 Pages

1) The rhetorical questions that Graham uses include: "why did black kids segregate themselves?", “What was I thinking?”,and “Is it a rejection of white people?”. They are not distracting because it makes the reader think about them and then Graham gives his opinion.

Read More
185 Words | 1 Pages

Nonetheless, there were several instances throughout the play where I enjoyed being an audience member. The audience impacted my experienced because it was filled with a diverse group of people who not only laughed at different jokes throughout the play, but they were also accepting of scenes that touched personally for African-Americans, which showcased how that night people were respectful of hearing dialogue, culture, and heritage from another group of people’s perspective. The central part of the play I was able to engage with was the discussions of what it meant to be an African-American in a white society. The cultural connections of being from the ancestral history of an African but being of African-American descent were very obvious

Read More
635 Words | 3 Pages

The principal ask if he believes that blacks are inferior and he says he does not. Then Wernicke says “it comes out under pressure I suppose” and Dadier responds “I suppose so”. In this scene, two white men are confessing the reality of race in America on the outside they are “colorblind” but deep inside the feelings of black inferiority is ingrained in their psyche and this alters the way they interact with

Read More
1559 Words | 7 Pages

One character accuses the other of something, to which he or she must immediately respond and defend himself or herself. The statements of each character are dependent on what the other characters have said before them; that is to say, most conversations between the African-American characters throughout the course of the play only occur due to some sort of accusation or inflammatory remark from another African-American

Read More
756 Words | 4 Pages

The message that Brent Staples is trying to convey to the audience in his essay Just Walk On By, is that as a society we have positive and negative preconceived thoughts of other people who are of either the same or different race and gender. For Staples, this means that as a tall black man he has to deal with being seen as deadly and threatening to people who don’t know him. These people let their fear of biased opinions of black men think that all tall, black, and athletic men are going to attack them. Brent uses his stories of people’s fear and judgement of him, to allow the reader to both understand what the people were feeling and how he felt being judged. Brent Staples’ persona helps the message through the use of strong diction.

Read More
759 Words | 4 Pages

The profound novel, The Help, can be interpreted as having many themes and subliminal messages about life, but to truly understand the meaning of them, the conflicting points must be recognized. Due to the fact that the setting of the novel is during segregation, the friction between blacks and whites is what creates the novel. Although it is easily recognizable that one of the main conflicts is segregation, there is a major conflict between two prominent characters, Hilly and Skeeter, wealthy white women. Some of the issues within this novel lye in location and the social aspects of living in a small southern town in that time. There are several underlying conflicts in The Help, but the main one that sets up all the themes are the conflicts

Read More
816 Words | 4 Pages

The author, Lorraine Hansberry, was the first playwright of the century to express real social issues. There are three female characters in the play, each one is faced with a different struggle for their freedom. All three of these women, Lena, Ruth, and Beneatha all dreamed of something more in their future. They did not want the life that every female was supposed to have, they wanted to be different. Beneatha has high aspirations in life and is the character that most expresses her struggles with feminism.

Read More
654 Words | 3 Pages

In the article, “In Defense of a Loaded Word”, the author Ta-Nehisi Coates claims the use of the n-word should be exercised exclusively among African-Americans. Although Coates claims the word should be used, it shouldn’t be for several reasons. Firstly, the origins of the word came from a very dark time period in America when slavery was yet to be abolished. Second, because of the fact that Coates believes only African-Americans should only use this word and no other race can is a double standard. If, for example, a black person addresses another black person with the n-word, the context of the word is taken as a friendly greeting, but if a white person were to say the n-word to a black person, then the context of the word would change and be perceived as an insult to the black person just because a white person said it.

Read More
483 Words | 2 Pages

Written in the production notes Ward informs us that the play is to be presented by black actors in white face, this presentational direction obviously takes its cues from the history of American minstrelsy, its birth, and multifaceted role minstrelsy played in the evolution of the social construct of whiteness in this country. Because, in Day of Absence the plot set up, with the mysterious absence of the Negroes, demands that the town’s people and the viewing audience recognize how the division of labor. In this play is the stereotypes are of whites playing their roles against the backdrop of the racialized hot bead of the civil right movement. This is revealed at the onset upon simply reading the character’s name and descriptions. Names like: Clem & Luke two country crackers, Mrs. Aide the overseer of the towns social welfare programs, Mr. Clan whose name speaks for itself, and the mayor appropriately lampooned by naming him Henry R. E. Lee.

Read More

More about Clybourne Park Themes

Related Topics

Open Document