Six Degrees of Separation

“It doesn’t seem right sitting on the East Side talking about revolution.”

By the end of the play, Ouisa has undergone a dramatic transformation in her attitudes and values. However, in the early stages, she is somewhat shallow and sheltered. Despite this, there are brief flashes of self-awareness that foreshadow her later development, such as her recognition that it is a hypocritical luxury to discuss workers’ revolts in an expensive New York apartment.

“Neglected by his family, my father would sit on the shore, and, as he told me many times, ‘conjure up the kind of worlds that were on the other side and what I’d do in them.’”

Paul’s discussion of Poitier’s invention of new worlds and new roles provides a reflection of his own use of the imagination and acting to create a new life for himself. Like Poitier, he imagines a world on the other side of the social and economic barrier between rich and poor and invents a role for himself there.

“But I never knew I was black in that racist way till I was sixteen and came back here […] I don’t even feel black.”

Paul’s relationship with race is complex. Throughout much of the play, he presents himself as someone whose privileged background has sheltered him from the harsh realities of growing up in a racist society. This appears to be part of his performance and a way to suggest that he identifies more with wealthy white people like Ouisa and Paul than with other Black people, something he employs to help gain their acceptance.

“My father, being an actor, has no real identity.”

Paul tells Ouisa and Flan that Poitier does not have an actual identity of his own but rather only inhabits a variety of roles, imagining himself as those characters but lacking a solid “self.” This mirrors Paul’s own position in the play: the audience sees him playing different roles and it is never clear exactly who he really is.

“It’s exactly as I remember. Everybody’s a phoney.”

Paul’s comment on re-reading The Catcher in the Rye highlights the fact that the protagonist, Holden Caulfield is obsessed with the idea that he is surrounded by phony people. This comment reflects the fact that many of the other characters are “phonies,” too; their outwardly liberal appearances rarely stand up to scrutiny, as well as the fact that Paul himself is lying to Ouisa and Flan even in the exact moment that he talks about the novel.

“I believe that the imagination is the passport we create to take us into the real world.”

Paul’s views on the imagination are one of the play’s key themes. He resents the fact that people view the imagination as something external, used to describe ideas and fictions. He believes that the imagination is actually something that people use to engage with the world and, like Poitier, to “conjure up” new roles for themselves.

“He has this wild quality—yet a real elegance and a real concern and a real consideration—”

In one of the first indications that she prefers Paul’s company to that of her own children, Ouisa gushingly tells her kids how remarkable Paul is, much to their irritation. The comment recalls the “wild and vivid” (3) side of the Kandinsky and the wildness that Paul will bring to Ouisa’s own life.

“Our imagination teaches us our limits and then how to grow beyond those limits.”

As part of his ongoing discussion on the importance of the imagination, Paul highlights the way the imagination can be used to develop, grow, and create new opportunities. In doing so, he effectively explains the reasoning behind his own behavior and the way he has used imagination to recognize the social and economic limitations placed upon him and imagine ways to “grow beyond” them by pretending to be someone else.

“This fucking black kid crack addict came into my office lying—”

Moments before Dr. Fine delivers this line, he talks about how much he respects Sidney Poitier and the way his pioneering work opened up new opportunities for black actors. However, the insincerity of this liberal performance is quickly revealed by this angry outburst of racist stereotyping.

“Tess: This is so racist.

 Ouisa: This is not so racist!”

Highlighting the element of racial profiling in the way the parents are discussing their encounters with Paul, Tess is quick to accuse them of racism. Ouisa’s kneejerk reaction is to instantly dismiss this without considering whether there is any validity to the comment. The exchange can also be read as a knowing comment on the play and its one black character, as well as an allusion to white liberal defensiveness and denial.

“This is the way you must speak. Hear my accent. Hear my voice.”

Trent’s attempt to teach Paul upper-class elocution and phrasing is framed in a demanding, controlling way. Additionally, in asking Paul to mimic him, he appears to assume that his own way of speaking is the ideal to which Paul should aspire. Paul later recreates this arrogance and copies Trent’s lines word-for-word when he instructs Rick and Elizabeth on how to speak, using it to reinforce his identity as a rich, sophisticated young man.

“You’ll never not fit in again. We’ll give you a new identity.”

Throughout his instruction, Trent frames his efforts as something he is doing for Paul’s benefit but, in reality, he simply wants to have Paul as his lover but avoid being ridiculed or judged by his friends and family. However, it does give Paul the idea of developing a new identity, something he does his own gain, rather than to benefit Trent.

“Six degrees of separation between me and everyone else on this planet. But to find the right six people.”

Ouisa’s speech on the idea that there are only six degrees of separation between all humanity gives the play its title. In some respects, it presents a unifying vision of human connectivity but, with the suggestion that one must “find the right six people,” it also highlights both Ouisa’s shallowness and the recurring idea that connections with socially and economically powerful people can be used for personal gain, and are therefore more important.

“Paul: Do they have any black people in Utah?

 Rick: Maybe two. Yes, the Mormons brought in two.”

Paul and Rick’s exchange on the presence of black people in Utah serves several purposes. It highlights Rick’s isolated, rural naivety and reinforces the racial divide between him and Paul. It also serves as a knowing comment on the play itself and its single black character.

“I was a child of Flan’s hippie days. His radical days.”

Paul’s suggestion that Flan had a radical past in which he worked for racial justice and later abandoned both the movement and his “son” presents Flan in a negative light, garnering sympathy from Rick and Elizabeth and setting up the foundations of the scam he later pulls on them. It also mirrors Flan’s actual decline from a passionate art lover to a money-fixated art dealer.

“I didn’t like the first people so much. They went out and just left me alone […] But you. You and your husband. We all stayed together.”

As Paul and Ouisa’s phone conversation continues, Paul becomes more outspoken about the connection he felt, and feels, with Ouisa and Flan. One of the early indications of this is the way he appreciates the fact that they stayed together as a unit or a “family” when he was in their home, something that did not happen when he talked his way into the homes of both Dr. Fine and Kitty and Larkin.

“I’m going to ruin my life and get married and throw away everything you want me to be because it’s the only way to hurt you!”

Part of the reason Ouisa is drawn to Paul in a maternal manner is because she gains little joy from her actual children. Tess’s promise of petty teenage rebellion and her explicit acknowledgement that she wishes to hurt her parents goes some way towards explaining this.

“You let me use all the parts of myself that night—”

Paul states that the imagination allows people to recognize and move beyond their limitations. One of Paul’s limitations is the ways his social class prevents him from exploring aspects of his personality, such as his intellectualism and love of cooking. One of the things he values most about his night with Ouisa and Flan is the fact that he got the opportunity to use these aspects of himself.

“Ouisa: I don’t think they kill you

Paul: Mrs. Louisa Kittredge, I am black.”

When Ouisa suggests that the police do not actually kill the people they arrest, Paul counters by simply pointing out that he is black, implying that as a young black man, he is at risk of violence or even murder at the hands of the police. This is the first time that Paul acknowledges the reality of being black in America, something from which he has previously distanced himself. It is also the first time that the play explicitly addresses and critiques racism

“The girl in the box office said the police were there, had arrested a young man [and] [d]ragged him kicking and screaming into a squad car. He was a kid waiting for his family.”

When Flan reports how he and Ouisa found out that Paul had been arrested, it becomes clear that Paul’s fears about police violence were valid. Importantly, it also highlights the fact that Paul had begun thinking of Ouisa and Flan as his family, something that Flan does not question or correct as he reports the incident to the audience.

“We weren’t family.”

After Paul’s arrest, Ouisa and Flan attempt to find out what happened to him, phoning the police station, the court, and other institutions. However, in an ironic return to the theme of family, no one is prepared to give them information on Paul’s location or condition because Ouisa and Flan are not technically his family.

“He did more for us in a few hours than our children ever did.”

Throughout the play, Ouisa becomes more and more accepting of the idea that she gains more from her relationship with Paul than she does from her relationships with her own children. This statement, delivered as she tries to convince Flan of Paul’s significance, is the moment where she makes this most explicit.

“God, Flan, how much of your life can you account for?”

By the end of the play, Ouisa has been transformed by her encounter with Paul. She begins to question her life and her values and acknowledge that she does not want a shallow existence but a “wild and vivid” (3) life. She attempts to explain this to Flan and to get him to question his life, too, but he simply dismisses her questions by asking, “Are you drunk?” (118).