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Summary
Part One: troubled about my soul
Section 4: From “Mrs. Victoria Rogers, née Victoria Maria San Felipe Sanchez, declares that on the evening of March 5…” through “…But watch out for the cops. They’re murder.”
Tish recounts Victoria’s story, beginning with her testimony that she was raped in the vestibule of her building on Orchard Street by a man she believes to be Fonny. Victoria was brought to mainland U.S. by a man who married and then abandoned her after she had three children. Officer Bell testifies that Fonny ran from Victoria’s building to his pad, but the two buildings are too far apart to run between.
Ernestine takes Tish to a bar and tells her she believes that Victoria probably was raped and finds it easier to agree with the police that Fonny was the rapist than to mentally relive the experience so as to identify her attacker more clearly. Ernestine stresses that although they know Victoria’s testimony is not true, she is not consciously lying and therefore is unlikely to change her testimony. Ernestine argues that instead, Fonny will have to disprove the state’s case. Ernestine sees Bell as the weak point in the case because his credibility is vulnerable, since he murdered a Black boy in Brooklyn and his wife hates him. Ernestine says that the only person it makes sense to send to Puerto Rico after Victoria is Sharon. The baby kicks for the first time.
Joseph and Frank meet at a bar to talk. Frank is worried about money, but Joseph tells him they will figure it out, even if that means stealing. Frank loves Fonny and feels ashamed that Fonny did not get what he needed as a child because Mrs. Hunt did not love him. He worries that failing to get him out of jail reflects poorly on him as a man. Joseph reassures him that Fonny loves and respects him. Frank resolves to help.
With the trial date in constant flux, Tish reflects on how the case has changed Hayward. She distrusted him at first, but they have come to depend on each other. Hayward had never previously had a client like Fonny, whose case puts him at odds with the system and forces him to recognize its injustice. Tish sees how Hayward reacts to the disapproval of his colleagues by becoming more invested in Fonny’s case. Having met with Daniel, Hayward confirms that he has been beaten, but he cannot get Daniel released or visit him again. Daniel is frightened, and Hayward believes he may have been drugged.
Tish’s job is to drive perfume sales at a department store by letting customers smell the scents she sprays on the back of her hand. She observes that the Black and white men who visit the perfume counter treat her differently. As her pregnancy progresses, she realizes she can’t keep working much longer because she needs to be able to visit Fonny as much as possible. Joseph and Frank are working overtime, and Ernestine has taken a second job she hopes will give her useful connections. Joseph and Frank are also stealing from work and selling the stolen goods for extra money.
Hayward tells Sharon where Victoria is living in Puerto Rico. It is not clear what name she is using, but he has a recent picture of her from the nightclub where Pietro works. Hayward asks if they have a picture of Fonny, and Tish offers Sharon the two in her wallet. Sharon takes the one with Fonny and Tish laughing together. Hayward reveals that the district attorney’s office is talking to Mrs. Hunt and Fonny’s sisters, who are attesting that Fonny is worthless. Hayward is worried they will make a deposition and that it will be hard to counter their statements, since they are respectable women. Hayward plans to call Sharon and Joseph as character witnesses.
In the earlier timeline, after they decide to marry, Tish and Fonny arrange to rent a loft from a landlord named Levy, who likes them because they are in love. He encourages them to have babies and later takes them out for milkshakes. He says that the neighbors are all sweatshops and nothing to worry about, but he warns them to look out for the cops. After Fonny is arrested, Levy returns the deposit Tish put on the apartment and promises not to rent the loft to anyone else until Fonny is out of jail.
Analysis
The book’s description of how men who come up to Tish in the department store when she is working as a perfume girl demonstrates the sense of mutual connection and support that Black men give to her, while white men seek only to remind her of their power over her. While most of her customers are older white women, Black men also approach. However, their goals in approaching her have more to do with her than with the perfume, as the text describes Black men as approaching her out of concern and solidarity. They see her as vulnerable, a younger sister in an environment that may take advantage of her. While the white men who come to the counter lift her hand up to smell the perfume on it and hold it there, demonstrating their power over her body, the Black men have her spray the perfume on their own wrists to smell, preserving her control over herself. The text describes the fist that some of them make afterward as both a prayer and a greeting, a quiet show of Black Power solidarity in the white space of the department store.
Hayward’s experience working on Fonny’s case causes him to recognize the corruption at the heart of America, an important theme throughout the text. Hayward represents the possibility of white people being radicalized against a racist justice system. Hayward starts out by going through the motions of preparing Fonny’s defense, but he later becomes aware of the injustice of Fonny’s arrest. Seeing the absolute determination of the justice system, from the police to the district attorney’s office and judges, to keep Fonny in jail despite the impossibility of his committing the rape puts Hayward in opposition to the system he has always belonged to. The text describes the stages of confusion, fear, and anger that Hayward moves through as he realizes that his concern for his client being treated unfairly under the law has put him at odds with the power behind the law, a world he has previously always belonged to. His pride in his work leaves him unable to reconcile his sense of justice with the prejudiced and immoral actions of the governmental systems charged with ensuring justice.
This section of the book contains examples of mercy, which is a frequent theme throughout. While the story has many examples of bad luck and cruelty, Tish and her family avoid falling into despair in part thanks to moments of mercy. When Tish has the nightmare of Fonny in the truck not seeing her, a terrifying dream heavy with the symbolism of losing him to prison, she wakes to Sharon already standing over her with a cold compress and a kiss, a merciful waking. In the earlier timeline, Levy gives Tish and Fonny two gifts of mercy after they meet while touring apartments. The first gift is his happiness at the prospect of their renting his loft even as other landlords will not rent to a Black couple—an example of the book’s focus on the systemic racism of American life. Levy’s second gift comes after Fonny is arrested, when he promises Tish he will not rent the apartment until Fonny is free. Not only does this offer mean they will have a place to live, but more importantly, it expresses faith that Fonny will get out of jail, a mercy that gives Tish hope.
The character of Levy, the landlord who agrees to rent a loft to Tish and Fonny after their long search, is presented as a Christlike figure in the book, which is an example of the motif of Biblical allusion. Like Jesus at the time of his death, Levy is 33. His physical appearance aligns with popular ideas about what Jesus might have looked like, with the olive skin and black, curly hair common in the Middle East. While the novel does not overtly state that he is Jewish like Jesus, Levy is commonly a Jewish last name. Also, the Bronx, where Levy lives, is a Jewish area (although in its waning days at the time of the novel’s setting) . Levy overflows with love and a desire to celebrate the love between other people, as demonstrated by his joy in Fonny and Tish’s love and his hope that they will make beautiful babies together. This quality and his generosity align him with the concept of the loving God that runs through the novel, in contrast to Mrs. Hunt’s judgmental religious views.
