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When I Finally Got My Vision/Nightclothes
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Police Brutality, Corruption, and Systemic Racism
Healing, Progress, and Collective Consciousness
Justice, Perspective, and Ambiguity
Individuals vs. Institutions
Action vs. Symbolic Gesture
Summary
Analysis
It’s a rainy Saturday afternoon in February. Jason Sanford, an actor, and Smith sit in an office at Mark Taper Forum. Sanford is a handsome white man in his late 20s. Sanford answers Smith’s question of who “they” are in Santa Barbara, which is somewhat different than who “they” are in LA The main difference is that LA has a higher Black population, whereas Santa Barbara has a higher Mexican population.
As a white, economically privileged man, Sanford offers a different perspective from the accounts the play has presented thus far. The us vs them dynamic is relevant to his experiences, but he’s on the opposite side of the power struggle: he is part of “us,” the privileged class that society accepts, rather than the “them” (they) who society pushes to the side and denies equal treatment.
Themes
Sanford speculates that he’s never been beaten by police because of how he looks. In fact, even when police have arrested him, they’ve made comments about how he looks like an “all-American white boy” and “responsible.” They ask him why he has “so many warrants.” He recalls having a discussion with a police officer about tennis as they drove together in the police car. Sanford concludes that he’s had a completely different experience with the police than Black men have had.
Unlike Zinzun, for instance, Sanford has pleasant experiences with law enforcement. Not only do they refrain from beating him, but they also chat with him about shared interests, relating to him as a fellow human. Sanford’s account helps illustrate how differently altercations with law enforcement go when one has the fortune of being an “all-American boy” rather than a member of a marginalized community.
Themes
