Lucy and Brazil are, respectively, the wife and son of The Foundling Father. As they excavate his literal and metaphorical grave, they discover and debate how his life was, in fact, simply an empty, fading echo of the life of another. Their realization and debate are enactments or manifestations of the playwright's central thematic intention, as stated in her Essays, to encourage African Americans to be aware of how empty so much of their self-perceptions are, and to encourage them to fill that emptiness with an increased, realistic sense of self-worth.