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1.1 Summary
The play "Blues for Mister Charlie" written by James Baldwin tells about a murder of
a black boy in a little town.
The black boy Richard Henry gets killed by Lyle Britten, a white store owner. After
some time Lyle gets arrested, because according to the testimony of Papa D. he was
the last person to see Richard alive. Lyle is not afraid of the court procedure and
cannot understand the "fuss about a nigger" (p. 13).
In retrospection you can see Richard talking to his grandmother, telling her about
his life in the north of America, where Blacks have all the rights Whites have, too.
In this dialogue you can also recognize Richard's very negative attitude towards
white people, which is caused by the death of his mother. He is certain about the
fact that his mother has been murdered by white men. When he first meets Lyle he is
very disrespectful and sassy, so that Lyle directly does not like him.
Between the two fronts of Whitetown and Blacktown stands the editor of the local
newspaper Parnell James. He seems to like black men and also seems to be the only
white that tries to better the black's situation. Meridian Henry, Richard's father,
wants Parnell to ask Lyle, if he murdered his son. He is sure that Lyle will be
acquitted and just wants to hear the truth, whereby he creates problems for Parnell,
who is a friend of Lyle and do not want to betray him. (End of Act I)
The evening before Lyle has to go to the court all his white friends visit him to
show him that they believe in his innocence. When Parnell joins them, he tries to
describe the situation of blacks in northern states of America. All white people of
the town cannot understand that blacks could have same rights like whites. After a
while they are all going home. As Lyle leaves the room to have a bath Jo tries to
find out, if Parnell knows what happened between Lyle and Old Bill, whom Lyle killed
in "self-defence", how he himself says. But instead of telling her, she first gets to
know that Parnell once loved a black girl. In the end of conversation he tells her
that Lyle negated the question, if he killed Richard. And because she remains of the
conviction that Lyle would not lie to Parnell, she believes it.
In retrospection Richard's behaviour towards Lyle is shown. He is very disrespectful
again and is insulting Lyle and Jo several times until Lyle raises his hammer and
wants to beat him. They struggle a while, Richard wins and mocks Lyle for it.
Coming back to Lyle and Parnell's talk Lyle betrays himself, when he says the dead
boy lay face down in the weeds, which is not written by the newspapers. Parnell is
not going into detail with this. Second act ends with Parnell, who is telling Juanita
about his feelings to her, but she is not able to feel more for him, because she
still mourns about Richard's dead. (End of Act II)
The whole third act describes the court procedure for Lyle. Many persons have to
appear as witnesses and many of them are lying at some time. Jo lies most by telling
Richard tried to rape her. In the end of the court procedure Lyle is acquitted.
When Meridian Henry asks him what really happened he tells the truth about the
murder. The story ends with Meridians intention to kill Lyle with the gun Richard
gave him.
1.2 Annotation of the topic
The play "Blues for Mister Charlie" describes the situation in America after civil
war, which ended 1864. Northern states of the USA wanted to stop slavery in the
southern states, but for the South slaves had become an important economic factor.
All of the white characters of the story with the exception of Parnell are stamped
extremely racist and have no problems to agree that they hate blacks. The blacks are
not living in slavery anymore but segregation always appears on the agenda. Even
church is segregated by an aisle, and there are two reverends - one white, one black.
The play shows the problems of blacks, especially in reference to civil rights. If
the murderer of the story would have been black, he never had come out of prison -
that is a fact. And this was normal for USA in this time. The land that always stood
for freedom did not give this freedom to its black citizens.
1.3 Comment
The way in that James Baldwin invents this story is very realistic. All of the
characters could really have lived in that time. The few people in the south, who
wanted same rights for blacks and whites, are symbolized by Parnell James. He is the
person who stands betweens the fronts and tries to be a good friend with white folks
but also to be good friend with black folks. Interesting information to be extracted
of the play is the way in that American men in the 18th century treated women. It
seems to be absolutely normal that men let off steam when they are young, but the men
emphasized that the woman to be married with has to be a virgin. In my opinion
Baldwin reflects very well how blacks were treated in the time of the play. For every
American it has to be a real eye opener to see how unbelievable gross American people
acted towards blacks. |
