Miguel Pinero Identity

In the play Short Eyes by Miguel Pinero the characters deal with their individual identities and what it means for the relationships they form within the prison system they are confined in. The different dynamics of each of the prisoners’ lives and their crimes that put them all together tells the story of how one man is murdered. Short Eyes deals with the ways in which identity, be it ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion or the type of criminal a person is, determines how others categorize each of the characters. The play takes place in the day room of an unnamed detention center located somewhere in New York, with a few moments in the bathroom as well. The characters of the play are both inmates and prison guards. The inmates include

Nett his job for allowing such mistreatment to go on. The inmates decide that the only way to ensure that never happens is to kill Clark, and besides, he’s the lowest form of criminal so they feel justified in their decision. Juan is the only one to speak out against his murder, but doesn’t do much to stop it either. Longshoe is the one that eventually does the killing and they all (including Mr. Nett) go the length to make it look as though it was a suicide.
When Clark Davis’ parents show up to the prison wanting answers, it is revealed that Clark Davis was innocent in the case of the raping of the young girl, and thus should not have been in that prison at that time. The information starts a bit of controversy between the inmates, and they are forced to question whether his murder was justified in their

With so much tension—both anger and sexual—the inmates are on high alert at all times. They take advantage of the fact that everyone dislikes Clark Davis and are quick to take their frustrations out on him because they are aware that he has no one to back him up. In act one, Longshoe is harassing Clark over a gold chain and says, “You wanna give that chain, don’t you… After all, we’re both white and we got to look out for one another. Ain’t that true, Clarky baby… You gonna be real white about the whole thing… “ (49). This backhanded way of obtaining the chain served another purpose: for the other inmates to see that Longshoe was not going to be associated with him whatsoever. Longshoe really takes advantage of the fact that if anyone is supposed to have Clark’s back (in accordance to his own breakdown of the system) it’s him; however, he turns it around in a way that instead allows him to bully him. By associating himself to Clark through race in a way that forces Clark to seem like he is rejecting him as an ally is exactly what Longshoe wanted to happen; he is able to disassociate himself from Clark without betraying the way the race system is meant to