Scene 6 Summary

This scene is set in prison, where the steel bars of the metaphorical prison in the first and fourth scenes become a more realistic prison. Yank is alone onstage, again in the attitude of the Thinker.

The chorus of voices – prisoners this time – set up a mocking commentary on the prison as a zoo, and Yank as an ape in that zoo. Yank responds to the voices' teasing with anger, and tells them that he got thirty days in prison just because he was trying to get even with someone. The voices jump to the conclusion that it was a woman. Yank tells them it was a woman, but not in the way they think. He goes on to talk about Mildred as he remembers her: all in white, unreal, as though she did not belong. When he remembers her eyes his anger...