Essay Questions

The novel opens with several paragraphs of imagery-laden personification of wind blowing through the streets of Harlem. What kind of all-inclusive thematic metaphor is being created here?

The opening pages are really a textbook example of how to commence a novel with imagery and metaphor. Many books will begin with a description of the setting, especially focusing on how a character is reacting to it, but it is not so much the setting of 116th St. that is essential here as what is occurring there. A “cold November wind” blows in the opening line and from there proceeds to become an unstoppable intrusive force culminating (thematically) in the image of it lifting “Lutie Johnson’s hair away from the back of her neck so that she felt suddenly naked.” This particular passage goes on to implicate Lutie’s interaction with the wind almost as a sexual assault. Ultimately, it is practically impossible to ignore, avoid or misinterpret the imagery as a metaphor for the control and authority exerted over black Americans by white society. It is a chilling—pardon the pun—portrait of oppression in symbolic form.

What does the story have to say about “the American Dream” relative to racial differences?

Working as a maid for an upscale white family exposes Lutie to the idea that money solves problems. Upward mobility becomes instilled into her ideology as she begins to make important life decisions. She gives up her job as a maid and attends night school in order to pass the civil service examination because “she had made up her mind that she wasn’t going to wash dishes or work in a laundry in order to earn a living for herself and Bub.” Lutie’s purpose-driven life is to fulfill the promise of the American Dream which essentially boils down to those who work hard enough will be monetarily rewarded enough to enjoy a better life. But Lutie finds that this route is not quite as applicable to the conditions of life extended to a black woman as they are to the white society which created the idea. In fact, the events of Lutie’s life covered in the narrative strongly suggest that it is the pursuit of the white American Dream which inexorably draws Lutie into a downward spiral of crime, objectification, and victimhood.

Lutie’s thoughts of “Ben Franklin and his loaf of bread” lead to several references of self-comparison to the Founding Father. To what is she alluding?

Franklin is the personification of the American Dream of gaining success through hard work, thriftiness and intelligent handling of personal finances. Even though the little voice in her head keeps reminding her of the obvious differences between a white man in Philadelphia and black woman in Harlem, Franklin nevertheless remains an idealistic figure of motivation for her in the beginning. The memory of Franklin and the bread is an allusion to a story told in Franklin’s autobiography about his first arriving in Philadelphia. Not knowing how much bread three pennies can buy, he winds up with more than he can eat himself. Since he has three loaves but only needs two, he gives one away. It is likely an apocryphal story, but serves useful as instruction in the larger dimension of living within one’s means, using what you don’t need to help out others and enjoying a satisfying life without craving items lacking necessity.