Home to Harlem · Chapter
Myrtle Avenue explained
Zeddy, envious of Jake's success with women, attends a party at Gin-head Susy's apartment in Brooklyn.
What happens
Zeddy, envious of Jake's success with women, attends a party at Gin-head Susy's apartment in Brooklyn. The party is filled with drinking, gambling, and tense interactions. Jake is disgusted by the coarseness of the women, particularly Miss Curdy, and reflects on his past experiences. A fight breaks out over a card game, and Jake decides to leave, thinking of the finer world revealed to him by the brown girl from the Baltimore.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Exploitation
Zeddy's desire for love is contrasted with the transactional nature of relationships at Susy's party, where women seek men who can provide for them.
Masculinity and Violence
The chapter depicts a violent fight over a card game, highlighting the aggressive and volatile expressions of masculinity in this social setting.
Race and Identity
The chapter explores the complex color hierarchy within the Black community, with characters like Susy preferring 'yellow' men and the narrator describing the various shades of Blackness.
Characters to notice
- Zeddy Plummer
Envies Jake's success with women and attends Susy's party hoping to find a lover.
- Jake Brown
Attends the party with Zeddy, is disgusted by the women and the atmosphere, and reflects on his past and the brown girl.
- Gin-head Susy
Hosts the party, is attracted to a yellow youth, and becomes angry when he leaves.
- Miss Curdy
A guest at the party who is attracted to Jake and tries to get his attention.
- Strawberry Lips
Accompanies Jake and Zeddy to the party and shares stories about Myrtle Avenue's past.
Key passages
“Zeddy was excited over Jake’s success in love. He thought how often he had tried to make up to Rose, without succeeding. He was crazy about finding a woman to love him for himself.”
Zeddy was thrilled by Jake's romantic success, reflecting on his own failures with Rose and his deep desire to find a woman who would love him for who he was.
This sets up Zeddy's motivation for attending the party.
“Susy’s life of yellow complexity was surcharged with gin. There were whisky and beer also at her sociable evenings, but gin was the drink of drinks.”
Susy's life, filled with a complex attraction to yellow-skinned men, was fueled by gin, which was the preferred drink at her parties.
This highlights Susy's character and the atmosphere of her gatherings.
“A jungle atmosphere pervaded the room, and, like shameless wild animals hungry for raw meat, the females savagely searched the eyes of the males.”
The room felt primal and intense, with the women aggressively seeking out male attention, like wild animals hunting for prey.
This describes the raw, predatory dynamic between the sexes at the party.
“From experience in seaport towns in America, in France, in England, he had concluded that a woman could always go farther than a man in coarseness, depravity, and sheer cupidity.”
Based on his experiences in various ports, Jake believed that women were capable of greater coarseness, depravity, and greed than men.
This reveals Jake's cynical view of women, shaped by his past.