Clybourne Park: Act 2 Summary & Analysis

Here, communication breaks down for one of many times during this act. Kathy’s phone call distracts from the central conversation and the purpose of the meeting. The small talk echoes conversations from Act 1 about reduced commute times. It is unclear why Steve brings Kyle up, but the implication is that it is because Kyle and Kevin are both black men. The suggestion is that Steve, as a white man, feels that he has next to nothing in common with Kevin.

This is the first of many strangely racialized comments made during the second act. Steve, who is white and believes the world to be too politically correct, likely feels he is just speaking the truth, and Kevin, trying to get along, agrees. Tom pushes back, but doesn’t actually challenge Steve’s racially charged statement.

The discussion of geography mirrors conversations in Act 1 about the capitals of various nations. Everyone is speaking but nothing important is being said, and when Lena, who does have an on-topic comment, tries to say her piece, she is made to wait while the small talk continues. Unlike in Act 1, where both race and class separated the black and white characters, here Kevin and Lena are of the same socio-economic bracket as the white characters, as evidenced by their extensive travels. This suggests that some social progress has been made since Act 1, but—as the play will go on to show—the characters still find themselves unable to communicate about sensitive issues.

Steve is offended by Lindsey’s geographic confusion, claiming that Bali and Mali are “distinct countries.” However, his indignation at Lindsey’s ignorance is ironic because Bali, while distinct from Mali, is in fact not its own country, but a province of Indonesia. It’s one of many moments in which his character is portrayed in an unsympathetic light.

Once again, the conversation is derailed before it can truly begin. Although Kathy is trying to be polite, it would in fact be more polite to allow Lena to speak. Dan, who is played by the same actor who plays Russ, is more explicitly (and literally) an outsider in this Act. Although the characters who are played by the same actors in different acts do not perfectly map onto each other, Dan spends the act focused on excavating Kenneth’s trunk, just as Russ spent Act 1 mentally immersed in the past.

Tom tries to explain that the regulations have been put in place to maintain the integrity of the original neighborhood. Kathy, and by extension her clients, are unwilling to compromise. Although they’ve come to this meeting, Kathy makes it clear that they have no real intention of changing their house or taking any recommendations unless they are legally mandated to do so. As in Act 1, what matters here is the appearance of civility and politeness, not the character’s actual willingness to change or their beliefs.

Although the group has gathered under the pretense of examining Lindsey and Steve’s proposed renovations, it becomes clear they have no real intention of changing their architectural plans, which means all of this has been wasted, ineffective communication.

Lindsey likes the neighborhood superficially, but she and Steve are not interested in the same aspects of Clybourne Park as Lena and Kevin. Lena and Kevin, along with Tom, feel as though they are the stewards of the neighborhood, and want to preserve its historical significance, partially by preserving the physical houses themselves. The play suggests that it is natural for people to be attached to the history of a place regardless of their race, but that the impulse to preserve history repeatedly comes into conflict with the nature of the world, which is to change.

Once again, the conversation is interrupted by a phone call. Lena’s suggestion is an attempt to streamline communication and to actually accomplish something, but it doesn’t help get Tom back or restart the conversation the group gathered to have. It’s worth noting that Lena, like Francince (who is played by the same actor), has three children with Kevin.

Lindsey is much more sensitive than Steve. She understands that jokes have the potential to be offensive, whereas Steve seems unable to understand how anyone could be offended by something that made him laugh. Lena has finally become fed up with the cross-talking and chit chat of the past half hour. Like Francine before her, who is played by the same actor, she’s very aware of the amount of time that has passed and grows impatient with the idle and often offensive back and forth. However, she remains respectful—likely, in part, because she understands how quickly the dynamic could sour if she showed any resentment toward the white characters (another parallel between her character and Francine’s).

Lena, a lifelong resident of Clybourne Park, feels an obligation to protect her neighborhood from harmful change. Lena’s love of her neighborhood is more nuanced than Karl’s in Act 1. Whereas Karl just wanted to keep his neighborhood white, Lena is concerned about preserving the history of the marginalized black families who lived in Clybourne Park. She wants to make sure their memory is respected. Nevertheless, both characters are motivated by a desire to conserve their neighborhood as it is.

Even after Lena has explained herself, Steve can only think about the neighborhood in terms of its monetary value. Historical value isn’t important to him. Tom suggests that Steve is uninformed about the politics and the history of the neighborhood he’s moving into.

Lindsey, attempting to act as peacemaker, accidentally implies that the way the neighborhood used to be was undesirable because it was mostly African American. As in Act 1, however, the characters in Act 2 are equally as incapable of addressing uncomfortable subjects like racism directly or productively.

Steve clarifies on Lindsey’s behalf, but it’s a poor cover-up. Steve is interested in general facts and trivia about the neighborhood, but not the emotional value the neighborhood itself has to its current residents. Lindsey is uncomfortable with the conversation, and although Kevin’s joke doesn’t actually have anything to do with Lindsey, she acts offended perhaps because she feels she should.

Lindsey attempts to be sensitive and politically correct. Like she criticized Steve for wanting to tell an off-color joke earlier, now she feels that his language and his use of the word ghetto is offensive as well. Although the conversation began seriously, once again it veers off into geographical trivia. The brief discussion of skiing calls back to a conversation in Act 1, where Karl argues that an essential difference between black and white people is that black people don’t ski. Here, the inverse is true: only the black couple skis. Again, the play suggests that some progress has been made, but that important gaps remain to be bridged between white and black people in terms of mutual respect and understanding.

Lena reveals that she is related to the Younger family who purchased the house from the Stollers in 1959. Not only is she connected to the neighborhood generally because she grew up there and therefore recognizes its historical value, but she is invested in this house specifically because of the memories it holds for her. Steve and Lindsey’s shock shows how little they understand about the community they are about to enter into as new residents.

Lena’s revelation calls readers back to Act 1, when Karl revealed that the Younger family did not know why the house had been so affordable, and threatened to tell them about Kenneth’s suicide. For Lindsey, this is the first piece of Clybourne Park history that seems to affect her viscerally and emotionally—because it has to do with the house she just bought, and she therefore feels that it affects her directly.

Just as the actors on stage begin to excavate the past, Dan literally excavates Kenneth’s trunk, which contains many historical artifacts, including Kenneth’s suicide note. It’s symbolic of the ways in which, even as residents change and racial dynamics evolve, the past is inescapable and returns to the scene in ways that nobody could have anticipated.

Although the assembled characters have spent the past fifteen minutes discussing the importance of Clybourne Park’s history, and Lena’s personal connection to the neighborhood, when they get back to considering the renovation plans it seems that the conversation has had no effect whatsoever on Steve or Kathy.

This is one of the few moments where the party interested in preserving the neighborhood is an actual legal entity, as opposed to a single person who has taken it upon themselves to conserve and protect the neighborhood.

Lindsey’s ignorance here seems willful. She has been so careful to consider her and Steve’s impact on the feelings of everyone in the room, it seems absurd—but perhaps not surprising—that she would not be able to practice similar empathy when considering how her home could affect the entire neighborhood.

Although their discussion of the neighborhood’s history presumably includes its racial makeup, all characters are hesitant to explicitly acknowledge they are discussing race. Lena is upset that Steve has insinuated she is a racist, feeling that it distracts from the subtle and complex ways in which race actually does play into the issue they are discussing. The exchange speaks to a more general tendency of privileged people to see their daily realities as personal rather than political, and to be upset when others remind them that the personal often is political.

Lindsey’s “secret conspiracy” may sound extreme to some, but history supports her claim that the government, both directly through zoning and indirectly through legislation that affected different race’s economic and geographic mobility, often decided the racial makeup of neighborhoods. The play is, in many ways, about the struggle of various characters to take personal responsibility for unfortunate realities for which they do not see themselves as being responsible.

Steve does not understand how the African American experience is different from the Caucasian American experience. He thinks Lena and Kevin are being too sensitive, even though they have spent a long time explaining to him why they feel the way they do about the Clybourne Park neighborhood.

Steve has very little empathy for people of other races. Although statistically white men have faced the least amount of oppression of any group in America’s history, Steve nonetheless feels his free speech is being impeded because he cannot say every word he wants to say, or tell every off-color joke he wants to tell. Fed up with his whining, Kevin and Lena goad Steve into telling a joke they suspect will be offensive. They understand that there is no hope the conversation will get back on track, and likely understand that by encouraging Steve to tell an inappropriate joke they are only helping him humiliate himself.

Steve dismisses Lindsey’s claims that she is offended by the joke because she is not personally targeted by it. Still, even when Tom and Kathy point out that they are offended Steve remains unrepentant, and continues to defend his freedom of speech, demonstrating yet again his inability to see that the issue at hand may involve a history and scope that is larger than his personal viewpoint.

Steve is not offended by Kevin’s joke because, as Lindsey points out, the joke is not about him. Offensive jokes can be actively damaging to minority groups who already have to deal with violence, both verbal and physical, because of their minority status. For a white man, however, a joke about his race or gender cannot traffic in the same kind of harmful stereotypes as a similar joke about a black man or a gay man.

Lena’s joke is the final straw for the group. Although previously they had been able to unite against Steve’s insensitivity, her joke demonstrates that she feels no solidarity with Lindsey and Kathy. Like Francine in Act 1, Lena is more concerned with alliances based on her racial identity than her gender identity.

While the other characters are offended by jokes or comments that degrade groups of which they are a part, Steve, who does not face the same kind of discrimination is “offended” by much more innocuous behavior that does not personally affect him. It shows that Steve is much more willing to dole out potentially offensive jokes than he is to be the brunt of one, consistent with his generally inability to exhibit empathy for others. 

Although Lindsey means for her comment to show how progressive she is, it instead underscores that she is out of touch. Just because she once dated a black person does not mean she isn’t still racist, or at the very least still clueless about racial issues.

Although Lena and Kevin are concerned with larger issues of gentrification, and preserving the history of the neighborhood, the conversation has devolved into petty insults. Lena’s line about questioning Lindsey’s taste, not her ethics, is funny and cutting, but at its core it is not true: the conversation has not just been about questions of taste, it has also been about the ethics of white people moving into and altering historically black spaces.

Through to the very end, characters are unable to communicate in the ways they intend to. Although Steve means to whisper, Lena hears anyway—one unfortunate moment in which information is transmitted with crystal clarity after hours of conversational confusion. Although Lena told a rude joke, her behavior was ultimately no ruder than Kathy’s, and certainly no worse than that of Steve himself—suggesting that she is being held to a double standard because of her race.

In a moment that echoes Russ’s dismissal of Albert in the first Act, Kevin is upset that Dan has touched him. It is unclear if Kevin just doesn’t like being controlled, if he is angry that a white man is trying to intervene, or if he is upset that someone like Dan, a day laborer of a presumably lower class, is trying to exert some control over him, but the moment complicates the play’s portrayal of race relations and shows that no hierarchy is rigid or stable.

Although Steve has just spent the entire act arguing on behalf of himself and Lindsey, it becomes clear in the final moments that Steve is actually not on Lindsey’s side. He doesn’t want to divorce her, and so has compromised to make her happy. Unlike the more stereotypical husband-wife relationships of the first act, where the man was more domineering, this relationship flips the expected power dynamic. Again the play suggests that while the dynamics between men and women or black and whites may shift, the general dysfunctionality of dynamics across race and gender will remain tense as long as people remain unable to address important issues directly.

The full suicide note is never read aloud, but it is addressed to Kenneth’s parents, and presumably goes on to tell them not to blame themselves, as it was not their fault that he felt the way he did. Ironically, although the play never shows his parents truly internalizing the contents of Kenneth’s note (it’s unclear if Bev has even read it), it is a complete stranger fifty years later who takes the time to sit calmly and read what Kenneth had to say. The suggestion here is that anyone can facilitate healing and catharsis through the simple act of listening attentively.

Because the final lines of the play chronologically take place before any of the other events, Bev’s premonition can be immediately seen as inaccurate. She is likely referring specifically to her family and to Kenneth, who will not get better, but rather will soon kill himself. Her statement can also be abstracted from the context in which it was spoken to refer to the play’s subject of race relations more generally. However, given the fact that characters fail to communicate across racial divides in the first act as well as the second, the play seems to suggest that Bev’s prediction is just as naïve in the 1950s as it would have been if she had spoken it in the 2000s.