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Summary
IV. Skyscraper
Jimmy quits his job and walks around the city happy with his new-found freedom. He thinks about how the years of his life have slipped away in different places. His boyhood disappeared in Yonkers the day his mother was buried, his young adult years were dumped in the harbor in Marseilles, and he wonders where he will bury his twenties in New York City. He imagines the decades of his life being deported and placed on trial. The trial features many people he knows and is a farce as most participants are drunk.
Dutch and Francie are getting desperate. They have to get rid of a gun and Francie is becoming increasingly anxious. She’s pregnant and worried that people will start to notice. Dutch promises to fix everything. They’ll go south and get married.
Anna is being berated by her mother for picketing at her seamstress job. She’s told it would have been better if she were born dead. Indignant, Anna points out that she has always paid her mother rent, even while on strike, so she doesn’t know why she’s being scolded. She storms out of the house and finds some friends at a soda shop. They talk about Goldstein’s cigar shop being held up. Elmer comes by and he and Anna sit in the park. Elmer tells Anna she should take advantage of the strike by going to the library to read and learn. Elmer says that after the revolution, they will be able to have nice things and the workers will enjoy their lives.
Alice asks Jimmy to talk to Roy about finding a job, since he respects Jimmy. Jimmy has decided that he will finally leave New York and starts talking about it with Martin, Roy, and Alice. Martin is drunk and talks about how they are all bored. The others try to settle him down, but he becomes increasingly agitated. He finally leaves saying that he will commit suicide, but Roy and Jimmy know that he will not.
Dutch tells Francie that he held up a cigar store and that’s how he paid for all his fancy new clothes.
Densch sits waiting for his wife to emerge from her dressing room. He’s trying to explain to his wife how bad things are for his firm, Blackhead and Densch. He tells her they should go away to Marienbad. Serena Densch is in denial and refuses to be told to economize.
Jimmy is walking through the city listening to his own thoughts. He has lost faith in words, and he wants to leave the city of destruction, as he now views New York.
A reporter is getting the story of Mr. Goldstein, who’s cigar store was held up by Dutch. He’s willing to tell his story once the reporter tells him that it could bring him business.
Jimmy is drunk, having an early breakfast. He reads that Dutch and Francie have been caught. He doesn’t want to go home since there is nothing there for him.
Analysis
In this chapter, the stories focus on freedom. Some characters actively pursue it, some through dishonest means which will eventually catch up to them. Others can only dream of future freedom for now because they are steeped in the hard everyday reality of the city. The city still bears down on its inhabitants, continuing to challenge and provoke them, but there is a return of hope for some characters that reflects the collective relief now that World War I is in the past. Everyone can safely think about the future again, a type of freedom that even the most downtrodden city dwellers can enjoy. A basic security has now returned to everyday life. The novel does not follow the characters through the Roaring Twenties, but at the beginning of the decade filled with exuberance and excess, it can be presumed that there are better days ahead for some of them.
Dutch and Francie are nearing a dangerous crossroads in their pursuit of freedom. They have made a series of bad decisions and now find themselves at the city’s mercy in a whole new way than dealing with mere financial struggles. As a returning war hero, Dutch had lofty idealistic notions about making an honest living and settling down, but those ideas have been abandoned. Trying to make an honest living is no longer an option for Dutch. Even though he is hardened by living in poverty, he has become one of the many crushed by the life in the city. But it is not just Dutch who is taking risks, since he has pulled Francie into his plans as well. In their addled state, they lose patience with each other as they know that they have crossed a line and there is no going back. Dutch has fallen prey to the worst that the city has to offer. He has convinced himself, and then Francie, that there is no way to get by in an honest way. His only choice is to turn to crime.
With his plans to leave New York solidifying, Jimmy thinks everyone would be better off if they leave the city. Although he didn’t know them, and their crimes notwithstanding, Jimmy wishes that Dutch and Francie had been able to get out of New York. While he has dinner with friends for one of the last times, there is a palpable despondency hanging over each of them. For the first time, Jimmy does not share this feeling. Whether it is unemployment or lack of direction, they, like Jimmy has been, are stagnant. They have squandered opportunities, failed in their personal lives, and then they drink to numb their feelings. Jimmy can at least take comfort in knowing that even though he has no idea where he is going, he now knows what he does not want. Even while his decision to leave is made, Jimmy will not allow himself to talk about it. He has talked about leaving New York since he became an adult, and he has finally learned his patterns. This time, he is determined to leave and does not want anything, even himself, to threaten his freedom.
