In the following essay, Berg and Taylor examine what they consider to be the most challenging aspect of The Purple Flower: "Its paradoxical suggestion that race is both an illusion and a primary determinant of social identities. "

Setting The stage is divided horizontally into two sections, upper and lower, by a thin board The main action takes place on the upper stage The light is never quite clear on the lower stage, but it is bright enough for you to perceive that sometimes the action that takes place on the upper stage is duplicated on the lower. Sometimes the actors on the upper stage get too vociferous-too violent-and they crack through the boards and they he twisted and curled in mounds. There are any number of mounds there, all twisted and broken You look at them and you are not quite sure whether you see something or...