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Act 1, Scene 2: The Mass Arrests
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Zoot Suit, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Racism, Nationalism, and Scapegoating
Self-Presentation and Cultural Identity
Public Perception and the Press
Advocates vs. Saviors
Summary
Analysis
Sergeant Smith places Henry in jail and tells him to wait for him to return. While waiting, Henry paces and calls out for El Pachuco, who appears and asks what he wants. When Henry wonders where he’s been, El Pachuco says he’s been surveying the barrio (neighborhood) explaining that the police are arresting as many pachucos as possible. Henry, for his part, insists that he’s innocent and therefore untouchable by the law, but El Pachuco disagrees, pointing out that he’s the leader of the 38th Street Gang. Plus, the police see him as a “zootsuiter,” which they think is reason enough to persecute him. Hearing this, Henry loses his sense of calm, complaining that the police are going to charge him with false crimes—just like they’ve done many times before.
When Henry gets frustrated, he reveals that he has experienced discrimination and racial profiling in the past. The fact that the police have charged him with crimes he never committed shows viewers that he—as a young Chicano man—is all too familiar with being targeted by white authorities because of his race and cultural identity. What’s more, El Pachuco’s assertion that the police are rounding up pachucos suggests that this is a large-scale instance of racial profiling, as authorities vilify the Chicano community without just cause. On another note, audience members will notice that El Pachuco is capable of coming and going, addressing the audience, and even interacting with Henry as if he’s part of Henry’s conscience. There is, it seems, nothing El Pachuco can’t do, a fact that contrasts greatly with Henry’s current situation as he sits trapped in a cell.
Themes
What makes this specific run-in with the police worse than usual, Henry explains, is that he’s supposed to report to the Navy the following day. After saying this, he looks up and guesses that El Pachuco doesn’t want him to do this. El Pachuco confirms that this is true, but Henry insists that he wants to do something for his country—an idea El Pachuco finds absurd, pointing out that the United States has done nothing for Henry. In fact, he urges Henry not to focus on World War II, but on the struggle that is more relevant to his own life, which is the fight between the racist government and the Chicano community. Henry’s fellow pachucos need him, El Pachuco says, encouraging him to help them stand up to injustice.
This conversation highlights one of the central tensions driving Zoot Suit—namely, the tension between the government’s racism toward Henry and the fact that Henry is an American who wants to serve his country. Throughout the play, the press and various white authorities try to portray Henry and his friends as threats to the American way of life, but it’s overwhelmingly clear—even at this early stage—that this is unfounded, since Henry and the others are Americans themselves and even want to honor the country by fighting in World War II. Unable to see this, though, Henry’s racist society persecutes him because of his skin color and his cultural identity.
Themes
