Summary and Analysis

Summary

The narrator remembers his date with the Hambro brothers and heads to Manhattan. Expressing concern that Russ and his men are gaining more control over Harlem, the Hambro brothers decide that the people of the Harlem community must be sacrificed, so there is nothing the Brotherhood can do. I informed him. The narrator protests, pointing out that the Brotherhood has promised to help the people of Harlem. Brother Hambro, however, simply explains that the Brotherhood's plans have changed and that blacks must "delay" and not "disrupt the master plan." Return to Harlem. As he walks down the street, the narrator realizes he was part of the sale. He promised his people support just to betray them. Realizing there was no way out of his predicament, he decided to use the Brotherhood's own methods against himself. Wondering what Reinhardt would do in this situation, he decided to use a woman. The narrator remembers that Emma was once attracted to him and decides to use her to gain information about the Brotherhood's new plans.The following day, watching the Harlem community "going apart at the seams," the narrator initiates his plan, telling Brotherhood members whatever he thinks they want to hear. Following their abortive attempt to have an affair, the narrator puts Sybil in a cab and takes a bus back to Harlem.

Analysis

The narrator`s attempt to have an affair with Sybil, George's sexually frustrated wife, illustrates the uneasy relationships between black men and white women. Sybil, the forbidden fruit, represents the taboo of the white female symbolized by several of the white women in the novel: Hubert's nameless wife; Mr. Norton's nameless daughter; Emma, the sophisticated hostess at the Chthonian; and the naked blonde at the battle royal. Similarly, representing a strict taboo, the narrator is especially appealing to Sybil.

In this instance, Sybil has obviously lied to her husband George, but she does tell the narrator the truth about her rape fantasies involving black men, whom she perceives primarily as sexual animals. And in this chapter, the narrator tells us that his encounter with Sybil takes place on "a hot dry August night. " The heat motif suggests that the black community is "heating up," much like a smoldering fire about to burst into flame. The grotesque scene in which the narrator, walking underneath the bridge, is splattered by bird droppings, recalls an earlier scene in which the narrator watches the mockingbirds on his beloved college campus soil the statue of the Founder, symbolizing the white stain on black history.

Themes

Race and Racism

Identity and Invisibility

Power and Self-Interest

Dreams and the Unconscious

Ambition and Disillusionment