Racially Motivated Anger and Violence

The central theme of Fires in the Mirror is the racially motivated anger and violence in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in the early 1990s. From the many perspectives in Smith's play, the reader is able to piece together a representative variety of emotions that blacks and Lubavitcher Jews felt toward each other. The play also provides many contradictory descriptions of the violence that resulted from these emotions, which helps flesh out the truth of the historical events.

Smith explores the historical background behind what happened in Crown Heights by highlighting possible explanations and theories behind the relations between blacks and Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn. She includes perspectives on black history and Jewish history, particularly slavery and the Holocaust, and she explores different perceptions of black and Jewish relations with the police, the government, and the white majority in the United States. Acknowledging the diverse and...