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Los Angeles During WWII Summary of If He Hollers Let Him Go
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If
He Hollers Let Him Go Summary If
He Hollers Let Him Go, written
by Chester Himes, is a novel that takes place in Los Angeles, during the
1940’s. The main character,
Bob Jones, lives in constant panic every single day of his life just
because he’s a black man. When
Jones first came to California race was not an issue for him.
He didn’t really think of it because he was just thinking of
himself and of the things that he had to get done.
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor is when tensions began to arise.
This did not only affect Japanese-Americans but it also impacted
all minority groups. Race
became the main focus for every American.
Since Jones is black, his position, as a leader man supervisor, in
the Atlas shipyard is always under the view of a microscope.
The white workers do no respect his authority and his supervisors
are just waiting for one mistake to take him out of the position.
One way that we see that he is not respected is when, Johnny
Stoddart, a white co-worker, calls Jones a “nigger.”
After this incident Jones resolves to thoughts of murdering him
cold bloodily. Even though he
never takes action on these impulses toward white men, he does act on his
anger toward Madge Perkins, a white woman who refuses to work with him by
exclaiming, “I ain’t gonna work with no nigger.”
His replies to her are insulting by saying, “Screw you, then, you
cracker bitch.” This not
only causes Jones to lose his position as leader man but also puts himself
in danger of being fired.
Despite the fact that Jones endures
many hardships he is able to sustain a good relationship with his upper
class girlfriend Alice. Alice
is not only his companion but she is a person who is there for him
physically as well as emotionally. Although
Alice is a good person to Jones, she has problems dealing with the fact
that she is black. Alice is
not used to being treated different because of her color, the night in
which Jones treats her to a romantic dinner Alice undergoes internal as
well as external conflict. Alice
and Jones are faced with the refusal of service because of the color of
their skin and later on during the course of the evening an encounter with
the police. This encounter
made Alice realize the fact that she is no different than any other black
person. This is when she
comes to the realization that just because she is around white people all
the time and feels like she is “part” of them, she is still going to
be treated just like every other black person.
At the end of the novel just as Jones
is putting his life together by considering settling down and marrying
Alice a turn of events takes place. Jones’
crew wants him to check out a job that they are going to be doing so that
he can give them insight on it (since he isn’t their leader man
anymore). Jones accidentally
walks into a room where Madge is asleep because he thinks that that is
where the job is going to be done. At
first he doesn’t know that she is in there but soon realizes it.
Madge tells him to stay with her and she locks the door.
She tells him not to be scared and she just wants to talk to him.
What Madge wants is to have sex with Jones but since this is the
second time that he turns her down she is really upset about that.
Suddenly someone comes and rattles the doorknob and demands that
the door be opened. Madge
then jumps on Jones, scratching him and screaming for help.
He is shocked by all of this and doesn’t know what to do.
The white people on the other side of the door become aware of what
is supposedly happening and are desperately trying to get in.
As soon as they are able to get in everyone rushes towards Jones
and they beat him up badly. He is taken to the hospital where he escapes and tries to
hide. He calls Alice so that
she can let him borrow money, but she refuses.
She tells Jones that it would be better if he gave in to the police
and she will do all she can to help him in the court case.
Jones knows better than to listen to Alice because he knows that
the police would never believe him because he is a black man.
Jones is eventually caught and taken to jail.
Madge falsely accuses Jones of rape and this leads to Jones’
hopes and dreams to disappear. Just
when he thinks he is going to get things right and actually has hope for
the future, everything crumbles right in front of his face.
After he is in jail the president of
the company that he works for comes to see him and drops the charges. The president of the company makes it seem as if it is a
privilege that he is dropping the charges and that Jones should just be
locked up in jail. In
reality, we see that the charges are dropped because more than likely they
found out that Madge was lying and they were embarrassed by her actions. What they do is give Jones a "choice" which is to
stay in jail or be enlisted in the army.
His choice is to be an American soldier and he is sent to war.
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