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
Back in the courtroom, the prosecutor cross-examines Della. Addressing her, he says, “You say Henry Reyna hit the man with his fist.” Turning to Henry, who is standing, he asks Della if this is, indeed, Henry. At first, Della says yes, but then corrects herself, getting confused and trying to clarify that she’s only confirming that Henry is standing before them, not that he hit José Williams. However, the prosecutor cuts her off and continues to ask leading, confusing questions, manipulating Della in order to suggest that Henry pulled out a knife. George objects to this line of questioning, but the judge condescendingly tells him that he clearly doesn’t know the definition of a leading question. In response, George declares that the judge’s comment is a form of misconduct.
Like George anticipated, the prosecutor abuses his power by asking leading questions that make it difficult for Della to avoid saying things she doesn’t mean about Henry. The fact that the judge doesn’t see this as problematic is further evidence that he’s set against Henry and his friends, as he goes out of his way to give them an unfair trial. Once again, then, viewers can observe the extent to which white authorities are biased against the Chicano community.
Themes
The prosecutor continues his questioning, underhandedly suggesting that Smiley beat an innocent woman at the ranch. As he says this, he asks Della to confirm whether or not Smiley is standing up (which he is), once more confusing her and making it impossible for her to distinguish whether or not she’s saying that Smiley is standing or that Smiley beat a woman at the ranch. Moving on, the prosecutor upholds that one of the members of the 38th Street Gang was holding a club, but George objects, saying that nobody found a club at crime scene. However, the judge ignores this, and the prosecutor once again asks Della a confusing question that makes it seem as if she’s confirming that somebody violently used a club during the altercation on the Williams’ ranch. In this same manner, the prosecutor suggests that Henry purposefully killed José Williams.
By this point, it’s obvious that it will be virtually impossible for George to stop the prosecutor from manipulating Henry and his friends into incriminating themselves. After all, the judge is clearly just as eager to condemn them as the crafty prosecutor, meaning that they have almost no chance of presenting their own innocence in a convincing, levelheaded way that would resonate with the jury.
Themes
Throughout the prosecutor’s cross-examination, he mentions multiple weapons that were never found at the scene of the crime or entered into the case as evidence. George tries to point this out, but the judge doesn’t care, so George once more cites him for misconduct. At one point, Della refuses to answer the prosecutor’s question because she fears he’ll manipulate her words, and this lack of cooperation leads the judge to send her to the Ventura State School for Girls (a correctional facility) for one year. During a short recess, George tells Henry that it’s clear they’re going to lose but that they’ll have to set their sights on winning an appeal—something he says will be easier because his citations of misconduct have been noted in the official transcript, which will help them in the long run.
The judge’s decision to send Della to a correctional facility for a full year simply for refusing to answer an unfair question is further evidence of the fact that he is eager to persecute the Chicano community. Maintaining his optimism, George claims that this will make it easy for them to appeal the eventual guilty verdict, though this attitude is something that will obviously be difficult for Henry and his friends to embrace, since they will have to wait in jail in the meantime.
Themes
When the trial resumes, the prosecutor delivers his closing statement, telling the jury members that they simply must convict the members of the 38th Street Gang. If they don’t, he claims, they will be contributing to the worst influx of crime in the city’s history. The prosecutor also upholds that Henry and his friends pose an imminent threat to American families, saying that they represent “the forces of anarchy and destruction” in American society. Furthermore, he asserts that to set Henry and his friends free would send a message to the Chicano community that they can break the law and get away with it. For these reasons, the prosecutor says, the jury must condemn these “zoot-suited gangsters” to death.
The prosecutor’s closing statement is made up of biased rhetoric that plays upon the public’s worst fears—namely, that the nation’s safety depends upon whether or not people like Henry and his friends are put in jail. Needless to say, this is blatantly untrue, since it’s not actually the case that Chicanos are “forces of anarchy and destruction.” Rather, this is just the prosecutor’s way of manipulating the public’s preexisting insecurities, since most Americans are worried about the spread of chaos and “destruction” in Europe as a result of World War II. And though the Chicano community has nothing to do with what’s happening abroad, the prosecutor shrewdly makes it seem as if Henry and his friends are directly related to the country’s wartime problems.
Themes
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When George delivers his closing statement, he reminds the jury that the United States is at war in Europe because of the same kind of racism and authoritarianism that people like the prosecutor are perpetuating on American soil by discriminating against the Chicano community. He points out that there are no witnesses who actually saw who killed José Williams—the only thing the prosecution can prove is that the 38th Street Gang members wear zoot suits and certain hairstyles. To convict them as guilty of murder without sufficient evidence, George tells the jury, would be to negate the very same kind of justice and equality that the country claims to champion.
Because the public prosecutor went out of his way to frame the 38th Street Gang as a threat to America’s core values, George makes a point of emphasizing the fact that Henry and his friends are American citizens who deserve the same justice as anyone else. If the jury is going to concern itself with protecting the nation’s values, then, it would be hypocritical to deprive the Chicano community of their rights. Rather than representing a threat to the country, George argues, Henry and his friends represent the country itself.
Themes
After a short break, the jury returns and delivers its verdict: the members of the 38th Street Gang have been found guilty of murdering José Williams. Because they’re all so young, though, they will not be sentenced to death. Instead, they will spend the rest of their lives in prison. As Henry and his friends are led out of the courtroom, El Pachuco turns to the audience and says that there will now be a short break so that the viewers can smoke or visit the restroom.
When El Pachuco tells the audience to take a short break, he creates a stark contrast between the viewers and the 38th Street Gang. After all, the audience members are free to leave the theater and do whatever they want, whereas Henry and his friends have just been sentenced to life in prison. In turn, viewers are invited to consider just how demoralizing it would feel to be denied freedom without just cause.
Themes
