Throughout In the Blood, various characters exhibit vulnerability and emotional hunger, and these needs have dangerous consequences for each character. Hester, the protagonist, exists in a state of permanent vulnerability. She is physically vulnerable as a single homeless mother, and she is emotionally vulnerable due to the patterns of abuse and exploitation she has endured throughout her life. Hester complains that even at the homeless shelter, a place that is supposed to promise safety, she and her children are vulnerable to the trespasses of others. There, their belongings are stolen and the children are touched in unwelcome ways, demonstrating to Hester that they are safest out on the streets.

Hester’s five children are vulnerable in that they are incapable of looking after themselves. They are young, and they all crave her attention and affection. Their emotional hunger is symbolized by their physical hunger for food, which is never sated. Jabber is the eldest of Hester’s children, and his need for attention and his inability to comprehend his mother’s rage lead directly to his death at her hands. In a sense, his death foreshadows Hester’s own grim end. Though Hester is not unintelligent, she is illiterate, and her lack of education renders her vulnerable to a system she does not completely understand.

Hester herself also experiences emotional hunger, as evidenced by her interactions with Reverend D. and Chilli. She wants both emotional and financial support from both men, and she feels she has some power over the men thanks to her own desirability as a sexual being; in both situations, however, Hester is wrong. When she asserts her needs to both men, they humiliate her and remind her of her vulnerable status as a homeless and illiterate single mother.

Hester’s character is called “La Negrita,” which is Spanish for “little Black woman.” The playwright’s decision to use the diminutive form is the first communication to the audience that society deems Hester a lesser being for being Black and female.

Throughout the play, Hester’s race and her sex are exploited by both the men and women with whom she comes into contact. Both the Doctor and the Reverend D. are in a position to assist Hester, but instead both men take advantage of her sexually because of her disempowered state. Chilli’s offer of marriage is sexist in its terms and conditions; if they are to marry, Hester must submit to his dominance and he must be free to explore other sexual relationships. Even Hester’s own son Jabber unknowingly humiliates his mother by calling her the misogynistic term “slut.” Though Jabber does not intend to insult his mother with this sexist slur, he is arguably punished with death for the insults and degradations she has suffered at the hands of other male characters in the play.

The female characters of Amiga Gringa and Welfare also exploit Hester sexually, and their oppression of Hester is all the more cruel for their shared female experience. Amiga Gringa fetishizes Hester’s Blackness, hoping to monetize their sexual relationship, while Welfare brings Hester into her home so that she and her husband can use Hester sexually. Their names themselves are ironic. Amiga Gringa means “white female friend” in Spanish, but her behaviour towards Hester is selfish and exploitative. Welfare, a social worker who is responsible for Hester’s security, is motivated by her own selfish base impulses and subjects Hester to damaging experiences.

The details of Hester’s impoverished state and the consequences of her disempowerment illuminate the challenges that face the homeless all over the United States. Perpetually...