Home to Harlem

1. Home to Harlem Part II of IV

2. ArrivalDifference and Homecoming, Transient Primitivism Talking Points Why do you think the narrator (and Jake for that matter) make such a big to-do about Jake’s suit? What is the rhetorical effect of Jake’s (almost ridiculous) repetition of the word “Harlem” in this passage? Does the term’s valence seem to shift each time it’s invoked or does it remain static? What do you make of the fact that, for Jake, returning home, in many senses, equates to returning to cabaret life? What is the rhetorical effect of the narrator’s use of the term “contagious fever”? Does it complicate or re-inforce notions of atavistic primitivism? What is the rhetorical effect of the narrator’s use of the A little brown girl aimed her arrow eye at him when he entered. Jake was wearing a steel gray suit. It fitted him loosely and well, perfectly suited his presence. She knew at once that Jake had just landed[…] She was brown, but she had tinted her leaf like face to ravaging chestnut. “Harlem! Harlem! Thought Jake. “Where else could I have all this life but Harlem? Good old Harlem! Chocolate Harlem! Sweet Harlem! Harlem I’ve got your number down [….] Oh to be in Harlem after two years away. The deep-dyed color, the thickness, the color, the thickness, the closeness of it. The noises of Harlem. The sugared laughter. The honey talk streets. And all night long, ragtime and “blue” playing somewhere,….singing somewhere! Oh the contagious fever of Harlem. Running every-where in dark eyed Harlem… Burning now in Jakes Blood.

3. Zeddy:Exploring the Mythic Origins of Black Internationalism in France Talking Points What is the rhetorical effect of juxtaposing Jake’s wisdom about scotch and the “other side” with his relative ignorance of French? What do you make of the irony that part of “coming home” for Jake is, at the same time, a reunion with a friend that he made abroad? What is the rhetorical effect of the narrator emphasizing that these two buddies could only look at the YMCA? What do you make of the fact that “cat-fights” broke out along black-white color lines in this house of prostitution? How does the out-of-left field mention of Apaches disrupt, complicate or enhance, the rhetorical impact of the final sentence? Given their own rampant racism, what exactly--in your opinion--do the French sailors not get? What are the multiple ironies in this final line? “Hits the belly better this way. I l’arned it over the other side.” A slap on the shoulder brought him sharply round. Zeddy Plummer! What grave is you risen from?” he cried. “Buddy, you looks so good to me, I could kish you,” Zeddy said. “Where?” “Everywhere….French style” “One on one cheek and one on the other.” “Savee-vous? “Parlee-vous?” The buddies talked about the days of Brest. Zeddy recalled the everlasting unloading and loading of ships and toting of lumber. The house of the Young Men Christian Association, overlooking the harbor, where colored soldiers were not wanted….The central Rue de Siam near the Prefecture of Marine, from which you could look down on the red lights of the Quartier Réservé. The cat fights between black men and white in maison closes. The encounters between Apaches and Americans. The French sailors that couldn’t get the Yankee idea of amour and men.

4. Congo Rose:Artistic Production as Fount for Nationalism and Primitivism Talking Points What do you make of the fact that the Congo admits no whites? Does the fact that there is and was a significant white presence in Africa complicate this claim to authenticity? How does the narrator’s mention of foreign exploitation (Given the Belgian colonization of the Congo) fit into all of this? What do you make of the fact that the proprietor of the Congo keeps his club segregated in the interest of “his market”? What is the rhetorical effect of the narrator’s quizzical use of the term “indigenous” here? Especially given the fact that he has just emphasized that the Congo is a transplant or “little Africa in New York”? How do the above details complicate or iterate atavistic primitivism? What do you make of the repeated objectification (the “tease”) of Congo Rose? Is this a simple case of misogyny? Can we read Harlem gender politics in the very lyrics of this song? But the Congo remained in spite of formidable opposition and foreign exploitation. The Congo was a real throbbing little Africa in New York […] The Congo was African in spirit and color. No white persons were admitted there. The proprietor knew his market […] you would go to the Congo and turn rioting loose in all the tenacious odors of service and the warm indigenous smell of Harlem. The girl went humming back to her seat. She had poured every drop of feeling into the song. “Crazy, plumb crazy about a man, mah, mah man…” Dandies and pansies, chocolate, chesnutt, yellow, everybody was teased up to the point of excitement….

5. On the Job AgainCommunism, Nationalism, Internationalism and Unionizing Talking Points The very term “blackamoor” is both out-of-place here and in-line with the tropes of primitivism. What do you think the narrator is trying to suggest with this juxtaposition? What do you make out of McKay’s decision to juxtapose a primitivist (and inaccurate) description of Jake against the characterization of Jake a someone with “perfect contempt for place”? What do you make of the contradiction of Jake’s yearning for Harlem and the fact that he “nourishes” this contempt? McKay was highly critical of the CPUSA and racist trade union practices. What do you make of the fact that Jake’s racial solidarity leads him to decline the offer to join in light of the fact that his actions are in-line with the union’s desires? How do we reconcile this solidarity (especially in light of his rescue of the Negro scab) with the fact that Jake claims he is not a “joiner”? How would you explicate the irony of the use of the term red-blooded here? Why would pineapples cost so much? Jake was working longshore. Hooking barrels and boxes, wrestling with chains and cranes. He didn’t have a little boss job this time. But that didn’t worry him. He was one blackamooor nourished a perfect contempt for place. “Fine, fellow worker; that’s a real man’s talk,” said the white man. He took a little red book out of his pocket and asked Jake to let him sign him up in his union. “It’s the only one in the country for a red-blooded worker, no matter what race or nation he belongs to.” “Nope, I won’t scab, but I ain’t a joiner kind of fellah, said Jake. “I ain’t no white folks’ nigger and I ain’t no poah white’s fool. When I longshored in Philadelphia I was a good union man. But when I made it to New York I done finds out that they gived the colored mens the worser piers and holds the bes’n’a them for the Irishmen.

6. Myrtle Avenue:Civilization , Hybridity, and Essentialism Susy Strawberry Lips Talking Points What is the rhetorical and polemical impact of the narrator’s lengthy list of shades of skin color and intimations of miscegenation? Why highlight this variety only then to then juxtapose it with the claim that all were “sucked back down into the current of black by the terribly sweet rhythm of black blood”? What is the rhetorical and polemical impact of referring to the “rhythm” of blood? What is the resonance of the term civilization in this passage? Susy and Lavinia have opinions of the ideal man that lead them to seek partners who are, by their definition, quite different from them. What do you make of this? What purpose does the inclusion of Strawberry Lips (especially given his description) in McKays panorama of characters serve? Is McKay simply trotting out the cliché that there is “truth in stereotypes.” The burning passion of Susy’s life was the yellow youth of her race [….] She had lived with yellow complex at the core of her heart. Civilization had brought strikingly exotic types into Susy’s race. And like many, many, Negroes, she was victim to that… Ancient black life rooted upon its base with all its fascinating new layers of brown, low brown, high brown, nut-brown, lemon, maroon, olive, mauve, gold. Yellow balancing between black and white. Black reaching out beyond yellow. Almost-white on the brink of a change. Sucked back down into the current of black by the terribly sweet rhythm of black blood…” Strawberry Lips was typically the stage Negro. He was proof that a generalization has some foundation in truth… You might live your life in many black belts and arrive at the conclusion that there is no such thing as a typical Negro—no minstrel coon off the stage […] Then one day your theory may be upset through meeting with a type by far more perfect than any created counterpart.