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Act 2, Scene 2
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Blues for an Alabama Sky, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Migration
Women’s Autonomy
Gender and Sexuality
Dreams, Enjoyment, and Escapism
Community Support
Summary
Analysis
The next day, Delia is fretting in her apartment with Sam. Someone burned down the clinic before it could open, and now Delia worries Margaret Sanger will abandon Harlem, deeming it too dangerous a place to establish a clinic. Sam suggests they relocate to the ground floor of his parents’ brownstone, where he used to run his medical practice.
The arsonists’ attack on the family-planning clinic makes clear how contentious the issue of birth control is in Harlem. Sam helps Delia recover from the attack, in a gesture that demonstrates both his love for Delia and his belief in her cause.
Active
Themes
Guy arrives with a letter from Josephine Baker praising his designs and promising to use all of them in her next show. The three of them plan to go out on the town to celebrate, and Guy is excited to find Angel and tell her they are going to Paris. Angel enters, wearing minimal makeup and the dress Leland got her. Guy tells her about Josephine Baker. Angel reveals that she is pregnant and that Leland wants to marry her, but now she wants to abort the pregnancy and call off the wedding. Guy is uncertain about this plan, but Angel has her mind made up about going to Paris.
Guy achieves his dreams just as Angel completely gives up on hers. She accepts the version of womanhood that Leland wants her to embody, leaving behind the fashions that she enjoys in favor of a more conservative style of dress. When she realizes that Guy will actually get to work for Josephine Baker, though, that reignites Angel’s belief in dreams and persuades her that she can make a better life than the one Leland wants to box her into. Just like Angel and Guy ran away to Harlem together for a better life, now they hope to leave Harlem for Paris.
Active
Themes
In private, Angel asks Sam to perform the abortion, which he has done for her once before. Sam is reluctant, and Angel accuses him of only performing abortions for poor women of Harlem whom Sam can feel like he is “saving.” She argues that these women are so traumatized by the experience of abortion that they keep their next pregnancy and let Sam deliver “the newest citizens of Harlem.” Sam gives in and agrees to perform an abortion for Angel.
