45 pages • 1 hour read
Chester HimesCotton Comes To Harlem
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1964A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 21-22Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 21 Summary
At the Cotton Club, Billie does an erotic dance around the bale of cotton, trying to stir up excitement: “Women stared at her greedily, enviously, with glittering eyes. Men stared lustfully, lids lowered to hide their thoughts” (109). Afterward Billie puts the cotton up for auction, as Grave Digger and Coffin Ed watch on. Calhoun bids $1,000 for the cotton. Billie tries to goad others into raising the bet, even offering to sell herself with it: “Cheapskates [...] You’re going to close your eyes and imagine it’s me, but it ain’t going to be the same. Last chance. Going, going, gone” (110). No other bidders speak up, and Calhoun wins. Grave Digger and Coffin Ed watch from behind the scenes as Calhoun and his blond companion take the bale, and the detectives follow them to the Back-to-the-Southland office.
Grave Digger and Coffin Ed pretend to be workers at a repair garage across the street. They watch until Calhoun and his companion leave, then break into the Back-to-the-Southland headquarters, hiding in a broom closet to wait for Calhoun to return: “They had to let the Colonel get the money from the bale of cotton himself” (111). Calhoun and his companion come back and cut into the cotton but soon realize the money is gone and go “berserk” (112). Grave Digger and Coffin Ed emerge from the closet and arrest them. Calhoun tries to bluff his way out of it, but Grave Digger explains they have evidence Calhoun was involved in the murder of Joshua. This isn’t the South, and in Harlem a white man can’t murder a black man with evidence and get away with it: “We have the evidence. We’ll give it to the Negro press and all the Negro political groups...Get the picture, Colonel?” (113). Calhoun asks Grave Digger and Coffin Ed their price, and they say $87,000, to give back to the families who lost all their money. Calhoun agrees and tries to write a check for it, but Grave Digger and Coffin Ed send his assistant to get the cash, holding him hostage until they have the money in hand.
Chapter 22 Summary
Grave Digger and Coffin Ed get the money from Calhoun and spend a day sleeping in a hotel. The next day they go into the station with the recovered money. The commissioner and captain berate Grave Digger and Coffin Ed for letting Calhoun get away. The detectives lie and say Calhoun escaped before they could catch him. The commissioner tries to keep questioning them, but Coffin Ed snaps, reminding him they recovered the money, returned Iris, and solved the crime: “That’s what we’re paid for, isn’t it?” (115). Eventually, the commissioner agrees all’s well that ends well. Grave Digger and Coffin Ed bring in Billie to question her about the bale of cotton. Billie claims she paid Uncle Bud $50 for it and had him deliver it to the stage; she has not seen him since. Iris must have found out where the cotton would be when she overheard Billie on the phone, telling Calhoun he could get the cotton for $1,000 at the auction. When the police tell Billie the cotton had $87,000 in it, she faints. Grave Digger and Coffin Ed are lauded for solving the crime but don’t get a raise. Iris and Deke go to prison. Calhoun and his assistant aren’t extradited to be tried for Joshua’s murder because “killing a Negro did not constitute murder under Alabama law” (117). Coffin Ed and Grave Digger hear that Uncle Bud escaped to Africa and is buying up a storm with the stolen money, including cattle to trade for wives.
Chapters 21-22 Analysis
Going into Chapters 21 and 22, Grave Digger and Coffin Ed have finally caught up with the readers, piecing together that the money is stashed in the cotton. The final mystery is figuring out where the cotton is and if the $87,000 can be recovered. However, as the novel reaches its climax, the readers—along with Grave Digger, Coffin Ed, Calhoun, and his assistant—realize the money is not with the bale of cotton after all. Himes used this narrative sleight of hand to convince the readers they knew more than the detectives through most of the novel, only to pull out the rug and reveal they are just as in the dark, increasing the suspense of how and if the money will be recovered.
Calhoun ultimately paying the $87,000 out of his own pocket offers narrative as well as symbolic justice. Calhoun is the reason the money initially went missing, since he tried to thwart the Back-to-Africa movement to convince black families to move down South instead. As Anderson points out, “I suppose he thought it was the American thing to do to rob those colored people out of their money” (117). Though sarcastic, this line points to the symbolic meaning of Calhoun having to repay the money. Calhoun represents the South and its long history of oppressing African Americans. He believes he can con and cheat the people of Harlem but learns he can’t get away with the same tricks he uses back in Alabama. For all its lawlessness and problems, Harlem represents a better alternative for people of color: a place where press, coalition groups, and even members of the police force fight for their best interests.
Since the stolen money is ultimately returned to the families, the denouement’s revelation that Uncle Bud has the original $87,000 can be read as comic relief. No one except for Calhoun loses their personal fortunes, and Uncle Bud manages to gain from everybody: the $25 from Mr. Goodman the junkyard owner, the $50 from Billie the dancer, and the $87,000 from the Back-to-Africa movement. Uncle Bud returns to Africa, bringing the novel full circle; Deke planned to con people out of their money by a false promise of returning to Africa, but Uncle Bud uses that same money to actually return to Africa. Likewise, Bud’s spending spree indicates he will enjoy the leisure and ease that Deke promised his followers, living life away from the oppression of people like Calhoun.
