Previous
Lyle Britten
Parnell James is an independently wealthy white man who runs a left-leaning newspaper in an unnamed town in the U.S. South. He is longtime friends both with Black minister Meridian Henry and with virulently racist white storeowner Lyle Britten. At age 18, Parnell fell deeply in love with a 17-year-old Black girl named Pearl, but when Pearl’s mother caught them kissing, Pearl was sent away, and Parnell never saw her again. Afterward, longing to escape the whiteness that made him guilty and ashamed, he became sexually fixated on Black women and men. (Parnell may be bisexual, but it is never explicitly stated.) Parnell has romantic feelings for Black college student Juanita Harmon, but he never acts on them because he worries she would think he was trying to “exploit” her. After Parnell’s friend Lyle murders Meridian’s son Richard Henry, Parnell pressures the police to arrest Lyle—yet he feels an uneasy loyalty to Lyle, to whom he may also be attracted. After Lyle’s wife Jo lies that Richard sexually assaulted her, Parnell—giving testimony at Lyle’s trial—clearly disbelieves Jo but fails to come out and accuse her of lying, thus betraying Meridian’s trust. Afterward, he castigates himself for failing Meridian—and, in a sense, Lyle—by not telling the whole truth and asks Juanita whether he can march with the Black community in protest of Lyle’s acquittal. Though Juanita at first responds ironically, she then tells him to come with her—and he follows her.
Parnell James Quotes in Blues for Mister Charlie
The Blues for Mister Charlie quotes below are all either spoken by Parnell James or refer to Parnell James. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Act 1
Quotes
Parnell: You may think that a colored boy who gets ruined in the North and then comes home to try to pull himself together deserves to die—I don’t.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Meridian: Of course, if you go back far enough, you get to a point before Christ, if you see what I mean, B.C.—and at that point, I’ve been thinking, black people weren’t raised to turn the other cheek, and in the hope of heaven. No, then they didn’t have to take low. Before Christ. They walked around just as good as anybody else, and when they died, they didn’t go to heaven, they went to join their ancestors.
Parnell: He’s a poor white man. The poor whites have been just as victimized in this part of the world as the blacks have ever been!
Parnell: Meridian—what you ask—I don’t know if I can do it for you.
Meridian: I don’t want you to do it for me. I want you to do it for you.
Act 2
Quotes
Lillian: I wouldn’t filthy my hands with that Communist sheet!
Parnell: Ah? But the father of your faith, the cornerstone of that church of which you are so precious an adornment, was a communist, possibly the first.
Parnell: It means that if I have a hundred dollars, and I’m black, and you have a hundred dollars, and you’re white, I should be able to get as much value for my hundred dollars—my black hundred dollars—as you get for your white hundred dollars. It also means that I should have an equal opportunity to earn that hundred dollars—
Jo: It’s not different—how can you say that? White men ain’t got no more business fooling around with black women than—
Lyle: Girl, will you stop getting yourself into an uproar? Men is different from women—they ain’t as delicate.
Parnell: Nobody in the world knew about her inside, what she was like, and how she dreamed, but me. And nobody in the world knew about me inside, what I wanted, and how I dreamed, but her.
Juanita: I used to watch you roaring through this town like a St. George thirsty for dragons. And I wanted to let you know you haven’t got to do all that; dragons aren’t hard to find, they’re everywhere. And nobody wants you to be St. George. We just want you to be Parnell.
Act 3
Quotes
Lyle: You ain’t no better than me!
Parnell: I am aware of that. God knows I have been made aware of that—for the first time in my life.
Get the entire Blues for Mister Charlie LitChart as a printable PDF.
Parnell James Quotes in Blues for Mister Charlie
The Blues for Mister Charlie quotes below are all either spoken by Parnell James or refer to Parnell James. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Act 1
Quotes
Parnell: You may think that a colored boy who gets ruined in the North and then comes home to try to pull himself together deserves to die—I don’t.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Meridian: Of course, if you go back far enough, you get to a point before Christ, if you see what I mean, B.C.—and at that point, I’ve been thinking, black people weren’t raised to turn the other cheek, and in the hope of heaven. No, then they didn’t have to take low. Before Christ. They walked around just as good as anybody else, and when they died, they didn’t go to heaven, they went to join their ancestors.
Parnell: He’s a poor white man. The poor whites have been just as victimized in this part of the world as the blacks have ever been!
Parnell: Meridian—what you ask—I don’t know if I can do it for you.
Meridian: I don’t want you to do it for me. I want you to do it for you.
Act 2
Quotes
Lillian: I wouldn’t filthy my hands with that Communist sheet!
Parnell: Ah? But the father of your faith, the cornerstone of that church of which you are so precious an adornment, was a communist, possibly the first.
Parnell: It means that if I have a hundred dollars, and I’m black, and you have a hundred dollars, and you’re white, I should be able to get as much value for my hundred dollars—my black hundred dollars—as you get for your white hundred dollars. It also means that I should have an equal opportunity to earn that hundred dollars—
Jo: It’s not different—how can you say that? White men ain’t got no more business fooling around with black women than—
Lyle: Girl, will you stop getting yourself into an uproar? Men is different from women—they ain’t as delicate.
Parnell: Nobody in the world knew about her inside, what she was like, and how she dreamed, but me. And nobody in the world knew about me inside, what I wanted, and how I dreamed, but her.
Juanita: I used to watch you roaring through this town like a St. George thirsty for dragons. And I wanted to let you know you haven’t got to do all that; dragons aren’t hard to find, they’re everywhere. And nobody wants you to be St. George. We just want you to be Parnell.
Act 3
Quotes
Lyle: You ain’t no better than me!
Parnell: I am aware of that. God knows I have been made aware of that—for the first time in my life.
