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Act 1
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Blues for Mister Charlie, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Racism and Individuality
Masculinity
Christianity and Oppression
Sexuality and Love
Money and Opportunity
Summary
Analysis
On Sunday morning in Lyle and Jo’s kitchen, several white women are helping Jo cook for a wedding anniversary celebration later that night and comforting her about Lyle’s likely arrest the following day. Some of the men propose a toast to Jo. After Jo fetches them some bourbon, one man toasts Lyle, saying that Lyle has “done a lot for us […] you all know what I’m talking about.” They drink and sing.
The white women and men in this scene seem to be rallying around Lyle and Jo exactly because they think Lyle killed Richard, as evidenced by one white man’s claim that Lyle has “done a lot” for them—i.e., Lyle has violently defended white supremacy in the town. This shocking scene shows how common white-supremacy and the embrace of anti-Black violence are in the play’s setting.
Themes
After the white people finish their song, they hear singing from the Black part of town. One woman praises the song and asks why race relations have gotten so bad. Using racial slurs, various white people talk about how much better things used to be, how Black people have gotten ungrateful, and so on. A white preacher, Reverend Phelps, blames “degenerate Communist race-mixers.” One woman complains about integrated schools, comparing it to atheist indoctrination in Communist countries. Another man says that a Black man’s genitalia is like that of a male horse or orangutan, and that after he rapes a white woman, she isn’t “no more good for nobody”—which is why white men have to be “vigilant.”
The play is set during the Cold War (1947–1991), a geopolitical conflict between the capitalist U.S. and the communist USSR. Here, white Americans casually and incorrectly conflate communism (which is atheistic) with racial integration and equality, thus implying that racial justice is somehow irreligious or anti-Christian. This dialogue shows how white people in the U.S. used Christianity to justify anti-Black racism. Meanwhile, the white man spreading racist myths about Black male genitalia and claiming that white men have to be “vigilant” as a result suggests that racist sexual myths about Black people derive, in large part, from white masculine insecurity. This insecurity, to cloak itself, claims that Black men are sexually dangerous and must be controlled by white men.
Themes
Parnell walks in and greets the assembled, all of whom—except Jo—receive him with hostility. One man, using a racial slur, asks whether he was at the Black people’s funeral. Parnell says that the funeral is in the evening. One man demands to know where Parnell “stand[s]” and another woman accuses the newspaper he runs of being “Communist.” When Parnell says that Jesus was a Communist, Reverend Phelps chastises him and says they all want to know whether Parnell stands with white people or not—because they won’t “tolerate” his “irresponsibility” anymore. Parnell asks what exactly they won’t tolerate and how they’ll punish him.
Jesus preached against the accumulation of wealth, and his early followers shared property communally rather than owning individually. While Jesus was not literally a Communist in the modern sense, Parnell is still pointing out that Jesus’ actual teachings do not align with the capitalist fervor of the white Christians in the scene. In so doing, Parnell is also indirectly suggesting that these white Christians’ racist insistence that Parnell show loyalty to white supremacy are also unchristian.
Themes
One woman, using a racial slur, says that Parnell is worse than a Black person. Parnell retorts that he “take[s] that as a compliment.” Reverend Phelps, with support from the others, holds forth on how they put up with Parnell’s airs and progressive ideas because they thought he’d mature out of them. When Parnell asks what ideas they’re referencing, one woman cries out, “Race-mixing!” Parnell, scoffing, says he doesn’t care at all who they choose to have sex with—but he believes in “social justice.”
When Parnell scoffs that he isn’t talking about sex when he talks about social justice, it suggests that he interprets the woman’s cry of “race-mixing” to be a reference to interracial sex specifically—yet another indication that the possibility of interracial attraction makes white supremacists extremely nervous and thus makes sexuality a flashpoint for extreme prejudice and even violence.
Themes
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When one woman says social justice sounds like Communism, Parnell objects that it’s not: it’s the idea that people should have the same economic opportunities and get the same amount for their dollar. One man, using racial slurs, says that some Black people make more than he does. Parnell, also using racial slurs, retorts that some Black people are “smarter”—and they all know some employers won’t employ Black people. The man, bested in argument, then simply insists that white people must be privileged over Black people. Parnell asks why.
The belligerent white man’s insistence that white people ought to be economically privileged over Black people hints that fear of economic competition—fear of being viewed as just another individual under capitalism, not a privileged white person—motivates some of the white characters’ violent racism.
Themes
Lyle—who up to this point has been sleeping—now enters the kitchen. When he apologizes to Reverend Phelps for not getting up sooner, Reverend Phelps tells him that all the white people in town are supporting him. Lyle thanks and greets the people in his kitchen. One man asks when Lyle will be arrested, and Lyle says the following morning. The man, using a racial slur, says that he heard Northerners wants them to put Black people on the jury. When Lyle asks where they’ll find the Black people, the man says he’s sure Parnell will find them. Parnell retorts that he might “recommend a couple.” The other men ask him who would defend them and whether Parnell really thinks Black people should serve on a jury. Parnell insists that, precisely because Lyle is his friend, he wants Lyle to have a fair trial.
Reverend Phelps is nominally a Christian religious leader, and Christianity is nominally a universal religion—one that applies equally to all humanity. Yet Reverend Phelps clearly sees himself as speaking for the white townspeople and not the Black townspeople, showing how, in the play’s view, white American Christian leaders can use their religious authority to propagate racist views, which don’t line up with their nominal religious beliefs. Meanwhile, Parnell’s claim that he wants Lyle to have a fair trial—and therefore wants Black as well as white people on Lyle’s jury—suggests that Parnell believes racial equality would ultimately be good for all people, as it would give everyone access to a fairer society.
Themes
Jo and Lyle’s guests begin to leave. As they go, they give Lyle words of comfort and support. Soon Lyle, Jo, and Parnell are alone in the kitchen. When Parnell comments on the esteem in which the guests seem to hold Lyle, Lyle says it’s because he and the other white people have known hard work and economic hardship in a way rich Parnell hasn’t—but he swears that his son is going to be rich and even better-educated than Parnell.
While the white townspeople seemed to be expressing hostility toward Parnell because Parnell is anti-racist, Lyle’s words here suggest that the white townspeople resent Parnell because he’s rich. This suggestion may in turn imply that the white townspeople’s racism is driven in part by their class status and economic anxiety. In other words, they fear a more egalitarian society because they fear having to compete economically with Black people on equal footing, something that independently wealthy Parnell doesn’t worry about.
Themes
When Parnell asks whether Lyle will send his son to school in Switzerland, Jo comments that Parnell got his “wild ideas” in Switzerland. Parnell agrees and says he attended school there with some “African princes” who had never been taught they weren’t men and whom lots of European and American white girls liked to go out with. Lyle swears he’ll never send a daughter of his to Switzerland. When Parnell asks what if Lyle’s son falls in love with an African princess, Lyle says that would be fine—if he “leaves her over there.”
Parnell’s comment that the “African princes” with whom he went to school had never learned they weren’t men implies that a major part of anti-Black racism in the U.S. involves attacking Black men’s masculinity. Lyle’s belief that he must protect his hypothetical white daughter from interracial dating, but his white son may do what he likes, reveals a double standard. White men like Lyle want exclusive sexual access to women of their own race as well as sexual access to women of other races. That is, they don’t actually care about white men having sex with non-white women—they only fear romantic and sexual competition for white women from non-white men.
Themes
When Jo protests that white men shouldn’t have sex with Black women any more than white women should have sex with Black men, Lyle essentially tells her to be quiet because men are different. For a moment, Lyle and Parnell banter about “sowing wild oats.” When Jo asks whether good women just have to wait until men get tired of loose women and want to settle down, Parnell says it does sound unfair—though who knows how good women spend their time in the meantime? Lyle insists that no really good woman would go wrong, no matter how long she had to wait. Then he talks about how wonderful and light he felt when he realized Jo loved him despite his “wild” past.
Here Lyle doubles down on white-supremacist sexual hypocrisy, wherein white men can have sex with non-white women but white women must be sexually and racially “pure.” In this context, his praise of Jo for loving him despite his “wild” past seems more like a racialized—and racist—gladness that Jo is a “pure” white woman who waited until marriage to a (white) man to have sex.
Themes
After Lyle leaves to go bathe and dress, Jo asks Parnell whether it’s true that Lyle was having sex with Old Bill’s wife and killed Old Bill because of it. When Parnell dodges the question, Jo insists on knowing whether Lyle has had affairs with Old Bill’s wife and other Black women. Parnell refuses to tell her on the grounds that what men tell their male friends shouldn’t be shared with women. Then Jo asks whether Parnell ever loved a Black woman—not just for sex, but the way he would love a white woman. Parnell says that, at age 18, he had a 17-year-old Black girlfriend, but he knew some white boys went to the Black part of town to harass and rape Black girls, and it made him “ashamed to be white” in his relationship.
Parnell’s story about having—or trying to have—a genuinely loving relationship with a Black girlfriend nuances the novel’s portrayal of how white supremacy polices sexuality. White-supremacist figures like Lyle are fine with white men having predatory sex with non-white women—but probably not with white men loving and respecting non-white sexual partners. When Parnell says he was “ashamed to be white” in his relationship with a Black girl, it suggests that his knowledge that people would expect him to be sexually predatory toward her negatively influenced how he saw himself and their relationship.
Themes
Jo asks how Parnell met his Black girlfriend. Parnell says that his girlfriend’s mother worked for his family; one day, he saw the girl, whose name was Pearl, reading Stendhal’s The Red and The Black, and he started talking to her about it. Parnell found her intelligent and proud—too proud to admit she was scared of Parnell, though she was. Jo asks what happened. Parnell says that it used to make him sick wondering whether other white boys were harassing Pearl when she walked home. They talked about how she wanted to be a painter and he wanted to be a writer. They got to know each other really deeply as individuals, but they couldn’t be seen in public together. Then, one day, Pearl’s mother caught them kissing in the library—and she sent Pearl away.
Stendhal’s The Red and the Black (1830) is a classic French psychological novel. That Parnell and Pearl had both read it as teenagers characterizes them as similarly bookish and intellectual, as do their shared artistic ambitions. Yet despite their similarities, their relationship is stymied by their white-supremacist cultural context: they can’t be seen together, and when Pearl’s mother discovers them, she sends Pearl away—presumably to protect her from sexual “ruin” by a potentially predatory white boy. Thus, the play suggests that interracial love is very difficult under conditions of white supremacy even while (predatory) interracial sex may be commonplace.
Themes
Jo anxiously states that Parnell must have forgotten about Pearl, though. Parnell says that he never did. When Jo asks what Parnell would do if he reunited with Pearl, Parnell says he’d want to marry her and have children with her. Jo, panicked, says that if Parnell could feel that way about Pearl, maybe Lyle could have felt that way about Old Bill’s wife Willa Mae. And if he killed Old Bill over Willa Mae, not in self-defense, then he could have killed Richard—and it would be murder. Parnell cautions Jo to be quiet. Lyle calls from another room to ask what that “racket” is, and Parnell dodges the question.
Jo’s panicked response to Parnell’s revelations about Pearl may be interpreted in two ways. One, she may be worried about having to compete sexually and romantically with Black women in the same way that white-supremacist men like Lyle are anxious about competing with Black men. That is, she is realizing that she might have to be jealous of Lyle’s Black sexual partners. Two—and more overtly—she is consciously realizing what she may already have suspected: her husband is a murderer.
Themes
Parnell tells Jo that Lyle told him he didn’t kill Richard—and Parnell believes that Lyle wouldn’t lie to him. Lyle reenters the kitchen with his son in his arms and invites Parnell to walk down the road with him for a drink. Jo takes the baby, while Parnell and Lyle exit. Later, Parnell and Lyle are tipsy at Lyle’s store. When Lyle admits to feeling weirdly “restless” despite all the good in his life, Parnell asks whether he’s worried about the trial. Lyle says no—and he isn’t angry with Parnell either. He believes that since he and Parnell are both white hometown boys who’ve been friends all their lives, Parnell won’t actually allow anything bad to happen to Lyle.
In this scene, Parnell expresses a belief that Lyle wouldn’t lie to him while Lyle expresses a belief that Parnell wouldn’t let anything happen to him. As the play opened with Lyle murdering Richard, the audience already knows that Lyle has lied to Parnell. As such, this scene implicitly asks the audience to consider whether Parnell will realize that Lyle is lying to him and let his “white hometown” friend suffer the consequences of his homicidal racism—or remain unable to fully turn his back on the white-supremacist culture in which he grew up.
Themes
Lyle admits that something about Richard coming to town made him think about Willa Mae. Lyle believes that Old Bill was far too old for her—but Lyle still “had to fight her” the first time he “took” her. After that, Lyle claims, Willa Mae was as enthusiastic as he was. Parnell expresses doubt but encourages Lyle to keep talking, asking when Old Bill found out. Lyle says Old Bill only thought of it due to gossip that arose because Willa Mae was at Lyle’s house so much working as a nurse for Lyle’s ailing father. When Parnell asks whether Old Bill ever talked to Lyle about the affair, Lyle says no.
When Lyle says that he “had to fight” Willa Mae the first time he “took” her, he is casually admitting to having raped her, showing his failure to consider how his own violent and racist actions will sound to others. Parnell’s expression of doubt about Willa Mae’s subsequent consent and his questions about Old Bill (whom Lyle murdered) suggests that Parnell may not believe that the affair between Lyle and Willa Mae was consensual at any point—and is trying to determine whether Lyle is lying about having killed Old Bill in self-defense.
Themes
Parnell asks why Lyle and Old Bill fought, then. Lyle says Old Bill suspected Lyle of “cheating” him in business—possibly because Papa D poisoned Old Bill against him. When Parnell asks why Papa D would do that, Lyle suggests that Papa D was jealous over Willa Mae. Then Lyle pauses and says he still recalls how “he” looked entering the store. Parnell asks who he’s talking about, and Lyle says Old Bill, of course. Parnell says he thought Lyle might have been talking about Richard. Lyle admits that Richard did come into the store at one point and says he doesn’t know what Richard’s problem was—when they ran into each other the first time, Lyle claims, Lyle was perfectly reasonable. Then, in the store, Richard looked at Lyle murderously and “insulted” Lyle’s wife.
When Parnell changes the subject from Old Bill to Richard, it furthers the implication that Parnell is angling for information. Meanwhile, the audience knows that Lyle is lying about having been reasonable the first time he met Richard: he intentionally bumped Juanita in an arguably sexual way and then implicitly threatened Richard for standing up to him. Meanwhile, Lyle’s claim that Richard “insulted” Jo emphasizes how, under white supremacy, racist white men falsely claim that they have a masculine obligation to protect white women from non-white men. They then use that “obligation” as an excuse to demonize and commit acts of violence against non-white men.
Themes
In a flashback, Lyle and Parnell help Jo bring a baby carriage into the store. Lyle goes into the back of the store, while Parnell leaves. While Lyle hammers in the back room, Richard and Lorenzo walk past the store. Richard wants to buy a Coke. When Lorenzo tells him they don’t shop at that store, Richard asks whether it’s Lyle’s store of and says he’s willing to spend a little money to take another look at Lyle. He enters the store, greets Jo as “Mrs. Ofay,” and asks for a Coke. Jo calls Richard “boy” and asks what he wants. When he says Coke, she indicates the cooler and says it’ll be 20 cents. Richard asks whether she has change for 20 dollars. When Jo asks whether he has smaller tender, he says no.
“Ofay” is a pejorative term for a white person. This scene thereby reveals that Richard was mildly rude to Jo. Jo responds by calling adult Richard “boy,” a common racist way of demeaning adult Black men. Twenty dollars was a fairly large amount of money in the 1960s when the play was written; as such, it’s unclear whether that’s genuinely the only bill Richard has or whether he is trying to get back at Richard by calling attention to the Brittens’ status as poor, small-time businesspeople who don’t have change for large bills.
Themes
Jo calls to Lyle, asking whether he has change for 20 dollars. Lyle walks in, carrying a hammer, and says he doesn’t. Richard sarcastically expresses disbelief and says he thought “white folks was rich at every hour.” Lyle asks whether “that boy outside” has 20 cents. Richard says that Lorenzo is 24—and no, he doesn’t. When Richard suggests that Jo could go home and get change, Lyle threateningly tells Richard not to talk about his wife. Richard says he just asked whether Jo could find any money for change at home. When Lyle says he’s seen Richard somewhere before, Richard says Lyle remembers where. Lyle tells Richard to “get [his] black ass out of here.” Richard, calling Lyle a “white mother-fucker,” tells him he doesn’t own the town—or 20 dollars, for that matter—and threatens to crush his head if Lyle raises the hammer to him.
Richard sarcastically calls attention to the Brittens’ relative poverty by saying the thought “white folks was rich at every hour.” This suggests that Richard is indeed attempting to humiliate the Brittens to pay Lyle back for his rude treatment of Juanita. When Lyle calls Lorenzo a “boy,” Richard clarifies that Lorenzo is 24 and an adult. The clarification shows that Richard notes and resents the “emasculating” anti-Black racism of talking about Black men as if they were children. Notably, when Richard again mocks the Brittens’ economic status by asking whether Jo could find $20 at home, Lyle tells Richard not to talk about his wife—thus implicitly changing the subject from his own poverty to Richard’s “threatening” Black male sexuality. The conflict escalates from there, becoming more explicitly racialized and containing threats of actual violence.
Themes
Jo, panicked, tells Lyle not to fight Richard—whom she calls a “crazy” “boy”—with the baby in the store. Then she announces that she’s going to call the sheriff. Richard, calling Lyle “ball-less,” asks how many times he had to try for the baby. Lyle menaces Richard with the hammer, Richard grabs his arm, and they fight. Lorenzo rushes into the store, and Jo begs Lorenzo to get Richard out of there: “he’s going to get himself killed.” Then Richard hits the hammer out of Lyle’s hand and knocks Lyle down. Lorenzo picks it up and tells Jo that Lyle won’t be killing any Black men today. Then he tells Richard to leave with him.
When Jo calls Richard “crazy” and “boy,” it shows her inability to understand his legitimate grievances about the way she and Lyle have treated him. Rather than understanding that he’s been insulted for his race, she typecasts him as “crazy” and once again calls him “boy,” an insulting way to refer to an adult Black man. Her pleading with Lorenzo, on the other hand, hints that she’s not actually afraid of Richard: she’s afraid of Lyle and what Lyle might do to Richard. Meanwhile, when Richard insults Lyle as “ball-less” and knocks Lyle down, it shows Richard asserting his masculinity in the face of racist emasculation through name-calling and violence, which may ultimately not help Richard achieve the self-respect he is seeking.
Themes
When Lyle tells Richard and Lorenzo to remember it was two on one, Lorenzo points out that he never touched Lyle—Lyle’s no good without his gun. Lyle threatens them with jail. Lorenzo claims they’ve been in jail already and says he’ll leave the hammer at Papa D’s for Lyle. Richard laughs at Lyle on the floor, mocks the concept of a white master race, and says, “You let me in that tired white chick’s drawers, she’ll know who’s the master!” He and Lorenzo leave.
Previously in the play, guns have represented how white people monopolize the right to violent self-defense, denying that right to Black people. Here, when Lorenzo says that Lyle is no good without his gun, Lorenzo implies that Lyle derives all his power from whiteness—without white privilege, including the racially exclusive right to bear arms without penalty, Lyle is “emasculated.” Meanwhile, Richard’s mocking comment about showing Jo “who’s the master” sexually hints that, under white supremacy, white women are considered the exclusive sexual property of white men. In this context, a non-white man having sex with a white woman becomes a threat to white men’s white-supremacist “master” status.
Themes
In the present, Lyle tells Parnell, using a racial slur, that after the incident in the store, Black people were laughing at him “for days.” Parnell notes that Lyle never actually called the sheriff—and that it’s almost time for Richard’s funeral. Again using racial slurs, Lyle wishes aloud that every Black person dies like Richard, “face down in the weeds.” After hesitating, Parnell asks whether Richard was lying face down. Lyle claims the newspapers said so.
Lyle seems to feel that his masculinity was humiliated because Richard, a Black man, bested him in a physical altercation—hence his (perhaps paranoid) claim that Black people were laughing at him “for days.” His wish that all Black people die like Richard shows that he doesn’t consider Richard to be anything more than a representative of Black people in general—a racist generalization. As a consequence of Lyle’s clear humiliation and resentment, Parnell comes to suspect more strongly that Lyle did kill Richard. This explains his comment that Lyle never called the sheriff and his question probing how Lyle knew that Richard was “face down in the weeds.”
Themes
Parnell asks whether he and Lyle are friends. When Lyle says yes enthusiastically, Parnell admits that he wondered why Lyle wanted to befriend him when poor men often hate rich men. Lyle says he isn’t like that; he wanted to befriend Parnell to figure out what made Parnell smarter than him, because otherwise, they seemed so similar: obsessed with women and alcohol. Parnell asks whether Lyle ever discovered what made Parnell smarter. Lyle says it was money. Parnell asks whether Lyle has said all he means to say about Richard. Lyle says that Parnell can hear the rest at the trial. When Parnell says he needs to get to the funeral, Lyle begs Parnell to stay.
Lyle’s claim that Parnell is smarter because Parnell is richer suggests that Lyle thinks racially progressive attitudes are a luxury for rich white people—in Lyle’s view, poor white people must support white supremacy because they must want to maintain what economic advantages they have over Black people.
Themes
In church in the Black part of town, Meridian is preaching at Richard’s funeral. He preaches that while he and his people have undergone terrible suffering in the past, it’s the present rather than the past that weighs on them now. He asks God where their hope is. He feels himself faltering when his congregation asks him for advice—how can he advise them to put up with the horrors inflicted on them by those who are, “in very truth, their kinfolk,” in the name of Jesus himself? He prays to God for a sign.
Meridian’s claim that Black people suffer horrors inflicted on them by “their kinfolk” has two meanings. First, in Christian theology, every person is a child of God and so all human beings are “siblings” in theological terms. Thus, when white people commit racist violence against Black people, they are hurting and killing their brothers and sisters. Meridian is thus particularly horrified that nominally Christian white people would claim that Christianity upholds racism and segregation. Second, many Black people in the U.S. South in the 1960s may have had some white ancestors due to white slaveowners’ sexual violence against enslaved Black women or due to socially unsanctioned interracial relationships under segregation. In this second case, white people who commit racist violence are attacking their literal biological relatives when they attack Black people—even if these racist white people would not acknowledge the relationship.
Themes
After the sermon, Mother Henry lines up the mourners to say their farewells to Richard. Parnell enters looking worse for wear. As Juanita files past him, she stops and asks what’s wrong—he looks “sick.” Parnell says he wanted to arrive earlier but Lyle wouldn’t let him leave. Juanita asks whether he was trying to “beat a confession out of” Lyle. Parnell laments that “poor Lyle” will “never confess.” Juanita, realizing that Parnell is crying, says he’s fortunate: she can’t cry or mourn in front of others who don’t know what she’s lost. Parnell realizes aloud that Juanita loved Richard and says he didn’t know. Juanita asks how Parnell can possibly not know so many things.
That Parnell, looking “sick,” begins crying as he laments that Lyle will “never confess” indicates that Parnell has just realized Lyle really did kill Richard. That Parnell nevertheless refers to Lyle as “poor Lyle” indicates that Parnell sees Lyle’s racism and murderousness as poisonous to Lyle himself, as they prevent Lyle from telling the truth and thus keep him from real friendship or self-knowledge.
Themes
Parnell asks why Juanita is being sharp with him and admits there are many things he’s never been able to say to her. When Juanita counters there are many things he hasn’t heard either, Parnell asks whether she’s been trying to tell him. Juanita tells Parnell that no one needed him to be a hero—they just wanted him to be himself, which is harder. When Parnell begs Juanita to say they’re friends, Juanita orders him to be more honest. Parnell admits that he had romantic feelings for Juanita but didn’t want to act on them lest she think he was just trying to “exploit” her. Juanita tells him he ought to have had more faith in himself. Parnell brings up his age, but Juanita says that was never the issue. When Parnell asks if they ever could have had something, Juanita says there was once a possibility—but no longer. Nevertheless, Richard taught her how to love, and she plans to recover.
When Juanita tells Parnell that no one needed him to be a hero, she is implying that Parnell has a “white savior complex,” relating to the Black people he knows only as an oppressed social category toward whom he feels guilty and whom he wants to “save.” Juanita is essentially telling Parnell that his white savior complex means that he engages with her like he is a white man interacting with a Black woman, not like they’re genuine friends or real people. Parnell essentially admits the truth of Juanita’s criticism when he admits that he was afraid to say he had feelings for her because he didn’t want to be perceived as “exploit[ing]” her the way that other white men—such as Lyle—exploit and assault Black women sexually.
Themes
