Driving Miss Daisy, Alfred Uhry’s signature play, pits two people against each other who are from distinctly different ethnic and social backgrounds. Miss Daisy is an elderly, white woman of Jewish decent. Due to her ailing health, she is forced to hire a driver when she backs her car into a neighbor’s garage.

Her son, Boolie, hires Hoke, an African American who is initially dismissed by his elderly boss as an unnecessary nuisance. Daisy insists she is still able to drive herself and resents Hoke for having to constantly depend on his services. She soon discovers that she has more in common with Hoke than she first thought.

Hoke tells her at the outset that their relationship should never cross the boundary of what the two do for each other: she needs a driver and Hoke needs a job. Hoke’s statement resonates with Miss Daisy, since that is how she prefers all her relationships with the help to be.