Home to Harlem · Chapter
The Treeing of the Chef explained
This chapter focuses on the intense conflict between the dining-car's tyrannical chef and the waiters, particularly the pantryman.
What happens
This chapter focuses on the intense conflict between the dining-car's tyrannical chef and the waiters, particularly the pantryman. The chef, a model of efficiency but a hateful and repulsive man, rules through fear and abuse. A feud erupts when the fourth waiter, encouraged by Ray, stands up to the chef's bullying. The conflict escalates, with the chef using his power to humiliate the pantryman, who bides his time for revenge. The chapter also highlights the growing friendship between Jake and Ray, and Jake's silent indignation at the chef's treatment of his friend.
Themes in this chapter
Labor and Class
The dining-car is a microcosm of labor exploitation, with the chef abusing his authority over the waiters, creating a hostile work environment.
Race and Identity
The chef's self-hatred and disdain for 'regular darky' stereotypes, alongside his 'cracker' hatred for yellow men, reveal complex and painful racial dynamics.
Masculinity and Violence
The chef's bullying and threats of physical violence, and the waiters' covert resistance, highlight a struggle for dominance and respect among men.
Characters to notice
- Jake Brown
Works as a waiter in the dining-car, silently resenting the chef's abuse and forming a strong friendship with Ray.
- Ray
A waiter on the dining-car, called 'Professor' by others. He reads Dostoevsky and encourages the fourth waiter to stand up to the chef.
- Zeddy Plummer
Mentioned as someone Jake would call 'buddy', contrasting with his more respectful relationship with Ray.
Key passages
“Perhaps the chef of Jake’s dining-car was the most hated chef in the service. He was repulsive in every aspect”
The chef on Jake's dining car was likely the most disliked in the entire service, being thoroughly repulsive.
Introduces the chef as a universally hated figure.
“The chef was a great black bundle of consciously suppressed desires. That was doubtless why he was so ornery.”
The chef was a large, angry man whose meanness likely stemmed from his repressed desires.
Explains the chef's ornery nature as a result of his suppressed feelings.
“Jake found himself on the side of the waiters. He did not hate the chef (Jake could not hate anybody). But he could not be obscenely sycophantic to him as the second cook, who was just waiting for the chance to get the chef’s job.”
Jake sided with the waiters, not out of hatred for the chef, but because he couldn't be as falsely flattering as the second cook, who was angling for the chef's position.
Shows Jake's moral stance and his discomfort with the sycophancy in the kitchen.
“Ray, perhaps, was the chief cause of Jake’s silent indignation.”
Jake's silent anger was mainly due to how the chef treated Ray.
Highlights Ray as the primary reason for Jake's resentment.
“Jake’s life had never before touched any of the educated of the ten dark millions.”
Jake had never before had any personal contact with educated Black people.
Emphasizes the novelty of Jake's friendship with Ray, an educated man.