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.
Themes
Racial Tension in 1965 Harlem
Himes’s depiction of 1965 Harlem brims with racial tension, and he populates his story with a diverse cast of characters. The most prominent racial tension exists between black and white Americans, highlighted by Colonel Calhoun and his Back-to-Southland movement that tries to convince African Americans to return to the South and pick cotton. Himes also describes Puerto Rican communities, gives a Jewish perspective by including Abraham Goodman, and shows how discrimination occurs even within the black community through colorism, like the references to Iris’s “yellow” skin.
As detectives, Grave Digger and Coffin Ed straddle the black and white worlds. In becoming policemen, Grave Digger and Coffin Ed have stepped into an inherently white world, as most of the other cops around them (and all of their superiors) are white. Many in the black community might view the detectives as traitors. However, Grave Digger and Coffin Ed remain loyal to innocent, hardworking black families, stay tough on criminals, and break enough rules that they keep from becoming too much like their white colleagues.
The Oppression of Religious Hypocrisy
Various characters throughout the novel profess to be good Christians, but most are innately hypocritical, saying one thing and doing another. The most prominent example is Reverend Deke O’Hara, who cons people by using the Lord’s name. Deke admonishes people to put their trust and hope in him, all the while knowing he intends to swindle them. Deke often references Bible verses and stories to add to his ethos, relying on his followers’ faith to ensure he gets away with terrible crimes.
Minor characters also display a phony religious conviction. One of Deke’s most ardent followers, Mabel Hill professes to be a good Christian woman but begins a charged sexual relationship with Deke the night her husband is killed, all in the name of the Lord. The church lady in Chapter 3 prides herself on looking like a good Christian lady but snatches her purse out of a dead man’s hands without giving him a second glance.
With all of these examples, Himes expresses wariness toward the religious community, particularly individuals like Deke who make a living off the hopes of the poor and desperate. In doing so, Himes reflects black activists’ cautious regard of organized religion. African American slaves were often taught Bible stories to make them more pacified and controllable, and Himes shows through characters like Deke that these methods are still used to oppress black communities.
The Link Between Poverty and Crime
The novel’s depiction of Harlem presents a bleak society filled with petty crime and a lack of regard for the value of human life. The novel begins with a hijacking where $87,000 is stolen and three people are killed. Through their investigation, Grave Digger and Coffin Ed encounter drug addicts, prostitutes, rioters, thieves, hired gunmen, and more. Because of what they witness on the job, Grave Digger and Coffin Ed have become enormously cynical and tend to believe the worst in people.
Though Himes shows Harlem in its worst light, he also ties the area’s rampant crime to the oppressive poverty of the people living there. When people can’t afford to pay bills and put food on the table, Himes argues, it makes them desperate, and desperate people make bad decisions. None of Himes’s characters are saints, but he shows that most do what they do to survive. This includes Grave Digger and Coffin Ed, who have a reputation for being tough, violent, and morally questionable but must operate this way to maintain law and order.
The Cycle of Violence
Violence occurs so frequently throughout the novel that it might seem like it is being glorified. In particular, the violence enacted by Grave Digger and Coffin Ed against criminals sometimes comes across as being valorized by the text, since Grave Digger and Coffin Ed always eventually get their way and stop the criminals.
However, considered within the novel’s wider context, Grave Digger and Coffin Ed become part of Himes’s portrayal of a violent and lawless neighborhood. Though Grave Digger and Coffin Ed both beat witnesses and come close to killing people (e.g., Grave Digger shooting the hat off Calhoun’s head and Coffin Ed nearly choking Iris to death), both detectives are also victims of violence. In the beginning of the novel Himes establishes that Grave Digger was shot in the line of duty, and Coffin Ed developed his short temper because he had acid thrown in his face. This does not excuse their questionable actions, but it does contextualize that violence inextricably shapes this world and the characters in it. Like poverty begets crime, violence begets violence, and Grave Digger and Coffin Ed contribute to the cycle as both victims and perpetrators.
