Behold the Dreamers: Chapter 49 Summary & Analysis

When Jende walks out of the doctor’s office, he decides that it’s time to go back home. That night, after work, he tells Neni that he doesn’t want to remain in the United States. Neni stares at him, wanting to feel sympathy but only feeling irritation. He talks about how tired he is of working all the time for so little money. He says that, even if he were to get documents, they wouldn’t be enough. Citizens are struggling, too, and he doesn’t expect that he’ll get a better job with no education.

Neni suggests that they can move to Phoenix, but Jende says that the department store where Arkamo was working closed down, and he found out two days later that he lost his house. He’s now living in his sister’s basement. Neni suggests that they stay in New York. Maybe he can find another chauffeuring job, but Jende insists that it isn’t easy to find a job like that, and he only got lucky with Clark Edwards because Frank Dawson likes Winston and trusted him to recommend a good driver for his friend.

Jende tells Neni that much of what happened to get them to America happened because of Winston, who’s offered to pay the rest of Bubakar’s fees, allowing them to keep the money that they saved. However, they can no longer rely on Winston, who will soon have a child. His sisters will finish at Buea University next year; then, he’ll then bring them over. He tells her about another driver he knows, a white man, who looks as though he hasn’t had a proper meal in a long time and can’t find another job as a chauffeur. Everyone is losing their jobs everywhere and taking anything to pay the bills. Jende refuses to suffer like this just to live in America.