Not Without Laughter · Chapter
One by One explained
Annjee decides to leave Sandy with Aunt Hager and move to Detroit to join Jimboy, prompting Hager to reflect on her children leaving her one by one.
What happens
Annjee decides to leave Sandy with Aunt Hager and move to Detroit to join Jimboy, prompting Hager to reflect on her children leaving her one by one. Sandy grapples with questions about race, identity, and the future while playing with Buster and overhearing conversations about racial passing and danger.
Themes in this chapter
Racial Identity and Oppression
Buster's mother warns him about giving flowers to a white girl, reflecting the threat of lynching, and Sandy ponders skin color and what it means to be Black.
Family and Generational Conflict
Annjee's decision to leave Sandy with Hager to follow Jimboy highlights the tension between personal desire and family responsibility.
The Search for Identity and Ambition
Sandy dreams of traveling like Jimboy and wonders about his future, questioning race, religion, and his place in the world.
Characters to notice
- Sandy
Plays with Buster, overhears conversations about race, and dreams about the future while lying in bed.
- Annjee
Receives a letter from Jimboy and announces her decision to move to Detroit, leaving Sandy with Hager.
- Aunt Hager Williams
Expresses sorrow as Annjee leaves, saying 'One by one they leaves you,' and vows to raise Sandy right.
- Jimboy
Sends a letter from Detroit saying he has a job and is doing well, prompting Annjee to join him.
- Buster
Plays with Sandy; his mother discusses his behavior and the dangers of him acting white.
Key passages
“I got to go where it ain't lonesome and where I ain't unhappy—and that's where Jimboy is!”
Annjee insists she must go to Jimboy to escape loneliness and unhappiness.
Annjee's emotional declaration of her need to be with Jimboy.
“One by one they leaves you, Hager said slowly. One by one yo' chillen goes.”
Hager laments that her children are leaving her one after another.
Hager's sorrowful reflection on her children's departures.
“Don't you know they hang colored boys for things like that?”
Buster's mother warns him that giving flowers to a white girl could lead to lynching.
The threat of racial violence is used to discipline Buster.