Reflection on A Rage in Harlem by Chester Himes - Research Paper Example

KieannaJolaei Brigstocke English 2, Section 1137 28 January Book Reflection: A Rage in Harlem by Chester Himes A Rage in Harlem is a fictional crime comedy that offers a realistic depiction of Harlem, during an age when violence and social deprivation went hand in hand. The story centers on Jackson, who is smitten with his beautiful yet disloyal girlfriend, Imabelle. Imabelle introduces Jackson to Hank and Jodie who purportedly “raises” $10 bills to $100 dollar bills. Jackson, convinced by the scheme, accumulates every dollar he has to his name in effort to “raise” his money. As expected, his plan goes utterly wrong causing him to lose all of his money, lose his precious Imabelle (and her mysterious trunk), steal from his boss to bribe a crooked U.S. Marshall out of arresting him, and then gambles his last hopes away. Jackson then seeks help from his brother Goldy to help find Imabelle. Goldy makes a living by disguising himself as a Christian-religious female impersonator of Sister Gabriel. He is also a snitch for two colored deceitful detectives, Grave Digger and Coffin Ed. Upon some investigation, Goldy finds out that Jackson’s beloved Imabelle has a common law husband named Slim. Slim, a gang leader forms a scam where he steals money from rich colored people who invest in a purported lost-gold-mine. Together, Slim, Hank and Jodie devise a plan where a “contact man” (Gus Parsons) will linger at bars, conferences and churches in effort to reel in potential investors and take them blindfolded to the “corporation headquarters” to view the gold. Goldy connects the dots, finds that Imabelle’s mysterious trunk is full of gold ore samples used for convincing the potential investors, and confirms this with Jackson. With this new information, Goldy devises a strategy to help his brother find Imabelle through Gus Parsons. Together, Goldy, the detectives, and Jackson try to track down the hoodlums and help Jackson. Throughout the story, one series of unfortunate events lead to another, combined with chaos, vivid images of violence, death, blood, sex and crime, all told in a humorous fashion that kept me laughing all the way through. The first critique work for Chester Himes’ novel features from Keishton’s review of the novel where the general feeling is that there is life and reality in it. The remarks agree to Himes’ ability to represent the actual scene of life as it was back in the fifties and sixties, marred by urbanity and repetitive crime. Keishton further concurs with the novel’s connection to real life by proposing to the events that move the thesis as being part and parcel of daily life, as it appears in the review, counterfeiting and the art of conning are some of the many pitfalls people fall into as they crave to make easy money (Keishton 2012). I lack a juicy enough reason to disagree with that, but in my perspective as well think that it is a perfect setting to the novel, reason being the ease it provides the reader with in connecting it to real life. Concisely, he wonderfully succeeds in creating a vivid image of the rough streets of Harlem. Further, Keishton’s review takes to Himes’ way of writing as being amusing. There is an excerpt derived from the novel in the scene where Imabelle and gang ground the marshal as he interrupts their conning session. Amusing is just the word I would use to term the publication myself, and to it adds fun and engaging. I find a lot of humor and comic included, a much interesting twist in that the novel is bloody and scary at some instances. One of the humorous quotes from the novel includes this one by Reverend Gaines to Jackson “Bless all these poor sinners in Harlem who find themselves having these many difficulties with women and money” (Himes 19). The humor is that the reverend is not aware of Jackson’s hidden sins, but just states a line that pierces him to the core, unknowingly! Another critique, Pierce points at Himes’ novel as rather explicit and unsuitable for anyone who exhibits prudish qualities though he does not specify the content he terms as explicit. He however moves to justify the dark perception painted by the author of the New York police’s rogue manner of executing their mandates by explaining that their manner of conduct is not the same one in application today. On the violence dotting the many scenes in A Rage in Harlem, Pierce describes it as of varying magnitude, switching in between horror and comedy simultaneously. He cites some examples such as Coffin Ed’s face being corroded with acid, in addition to other characters meeting grotesque deaths (Pierce 2013). On matters of content being out of range for the prissy, I tend to cross paths with Pierce because what Himes’ work is based are just normal occurrences in life, in which case I find no omission or exaggeration in expression on paper. Furthermore, Pierce does not provide supportive evidence to his claims. In my opinion, the violence, crime, deaths, and sex are all active components that define typical urban scenery. Aping Keishton’s remarks over Himes’ writing, and seconding my own, pierce praises his skill in successfully creating vivid illusions of a realistic era in Harlem when it was socially depraved and rearing extremes of violence within it. In addition, he utters his disappointment at Himes’ not-so-popular status in the top circles of American literary. According to him, the highs and lows that mark the novel should not be used to judge Himes’ proficiency because he only acts as an intermediary between the controversial times in Harlem and the reader. Despite my height in Himes’ other series being below knee-length, my encounter with A Rage in Harlem overly pushes my imagination. This prompts me to assume that all his books are made of the same fiber, translating to my whispered seconding on Pierce’s thoughts that Himes works are indeed masterpieces, and if what he says about the literary not recognizing him is true, then it is an absolute ungratefulness to the icon author. His way with words is icing on the cake. Our third commentator, Tim Lawlor introduces his understanding of the novel by acknowledging Himes’ outstanding tactic of creating a mental scenario of Harlem. He reveals some symbolism that is employed in tainting the town as a hell full of despair and decay, which the author does by describing the alleyways as full excreta varieties and piles of garbage extending past the eye’s horizon. These two definitions represent the decay in morality found within Harlem. The other symbolism that Lawlor reveals is the location of the town as being in a sunken valley. The sunken valley symbolizes the despair that leads to the moral decay. On a different twig, Lawlor argues that Himes does not create the aspect of community in the wrecked town, adding that the residents do not seem to relate in any means. He even goes on to discredit Jackson’s conversation with a marshal that appears too brotherly claiming it is an insult to the black people. The conversation goes like, “I just happened to give in to temptation. You are a colored man as I am; it should be easy for you to understand me” (Himes 8). According to Lawlor, the comment of being alike might mean that all black men are criminals like him (Lawlor 2007).These statements in my opinion are half-true and false. How is that? First in support of this, it is evident from the numerous inhumane butchers and violence that there exist abysses between the dwellers. On contrary views, quite a significant segment in the novel shows the cohesiveness amongst between characters such as Goldy sacrificing his all, including life, to ensure the return of his brother’s lover and money. One might argue that the sacrifice offered by Goldy is because of the brotherly love, but it makes some sense that Himes intentionally employs this to balance between the adverse repulsion appearing in the townsfolk. The same case applies for the Jackson-marshal conversation. Warmington opens his evaluation of this work by praising its alluring paragraphs that constitute the first chapter of A Rage in Harlem, terming them as irresistibly enticing to the reader, and make the reader want to flip page after page only stopping when they hit the back cover of the novel. It is not a surprise that the description of characters and setting excite him as well, arousing an illusion of being “inside” the setting himself. On matters themes, he does not go astray but hits the nail on the head. Gullible love, as per him, forms the basis of the novel, after which event precedes event and ultimately ends in irreversible tragedies. Warmington is the first critique I assume my shoes could perfectly fit. I did not mention this but it is an obvious tag that from the fun and enticement I was receiving from Himes’ literature, I would not mind reading it into eternity; just like Warmington feels. Imabelle is the ignition to the two-hundred and seventeen pages of pure drama and twists. She feigns her love for Jackson who falls on his belly that he is too blind to see the danger of putting all his eggs in a single basket. However, it is what anyone would do in today’s world when misery comes wrapped in a miracle’s disguise. Blind love, though, is not the only highlight of the novel, as chaos, immorality; violence, death, blood; sex and crime pop up within the read. Onto the final critic, O’Mahoney Abbey who after digging into the novel discovered even more symbolism. Indeed, it is better and weightier in that it forecasts the occurrence of a major turning point in the novel: Goldy’s death. We are talking about the train here. In the vivid description of its passing through Harlem, the train shakes the building, the street, the town, and even made the night sky quake. Goldy was screaming, adding to the train’s deafening rumble as it flew by, and shaking even the sleeping people. Then there is blood spurting from his throat, staining the entire street (Himes 105). The symbolism in this excerpt lies with the size of the train’s force, Abbey states, and that Goldy’s murder that is to come soon. The extreme force of its passing represents Goldy’s life forcefully exiting his body in death, and the blood staining the streets represents the penetration of the vice into the Harlem community (O’Mahoney 2010). True to my word, I was not aware of this symbolism but I felt a turn of events after Goldy’s departure from the stage. Jodie’s mechanism of disabling Goldy is rather cruel; he pushes him to the ground and holds both hands behind his back, adding his right knee to this, which renders Goldy helpless, then all of a sudden without warning lashes out his knife and slits his throat from one side across to the other. This for me was a disappointing turn of events point in A Rage in Harlem. I mean Goldy was my favorite character! His comical occupation was of extreme fascination to me, and his continuous struggles to help his brother, even though he had interests of his own, touched me deep. He was in charge of all the investigating and constructing the plans. I was not okay with him just dying at this point of the story; at least he should have lived to see the conclusion. Further, this passage from the book is a good example of the imagery Himes uses, and the vivid violence that the reader is exposed to. To sum up, a cross-section of the three critics’ feelings about A Rage in Harlem; an average four out of the five featured herein felt the writing style was a cut above the best, and played its role of enticing the reader to keep reading on. On the part of the thesis, it stands out too obvious that Chester Himes’ concerns lay in exposing the dark era in Harlem’s history that was made not of blocks but crimes, social decadence, sex, violence, murder and irresponsible substance consumption. The use of imagery, foreshadowing, suspense, symbolism, and vivid description of scenes and characters enlightens the reading experience, making the book an enjoyable read, as is seen in the critics’ remarks. If I were to ever hint a thing or two to Himes, it would be that his description abilities are excessively realistic that he should not employ them in full scale when letting readers in on extreme scenes such as Goldy’s murder. Yes, the story is fictitious but the emotions that his abilities can generate are real! It is an overly commendable read for anyone who has not done it yet. Works cited Himes, Chester B.A Rage in Harlem. New York: Vintage Books, 1991. Print. Keishton.“A rage in Harlem, By Chester Himes”, 2012.Web. 11 Feb. 2014. Lawlor, Tim. “An Exploration of the Relationship between Community and Capitalism in Black Crime Fiction”, 2007.CrimeCulture.Web. 11 Feb. 2014. O’Mahoney, Abbie.“Funny as hell.’ The Interplay of Laughter and Violence in Chester Himes’ Rage in Harlem and Jim Thompson’s Hell of A Woman. Crime Culture”, 2010.Web. 11 Feb. 2014. Pierce, Kingston.“The Book You Have to Read: A rage in Harlem by Chester Himes”, 2013.The Rapsheet.Web. 11 Feb. 2014. Warmington, M. A Rage in Harlem.Mawwrites, 2011.Web. 11 Feb. 2014. Read More