Clybourne Park Themes

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

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.