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Part 1, Chapter 8
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Harlem Shuffle, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Crime, Class, and Social Mobility
Identity and Duality
Community, Change, and Loyalty
Systemic Racism, Injustice, and Power
Betrayal, Vengeance, and Integrity
Summary
Analysis
Recognizing gunfire, Carney sees Miami Joe and runs for it. He loses himself in the crowds, then heads for the furniture store. Miami Joe is waiting for Carney and leads him into the store at gunpoint. In the office, Carney notes that Rusty sold an entire living-room set that day. Miami Joe asks how Carney found him. Carney mentions Betty, thinking of how he would be asleep with his wife if Alma hadn’t angered him and Freddie hadn’t gotten him involved. Joe explains that he hadn’t wanted to wait, worried one of the accomplices would talk to Montague. Half the jewels they stole are paste anyway. Joe plans to return to Florida, disliking the uppity New Yorkers and the cold.
With Miami Joe waiting for him at the furniture store, Carney’s cover of normalcy seems undeniably blown. Carney resents the way the criminal world has infiltrated the respectable life he so carefully insulated. In noting Rusty’s sale, he longs for the simple joys now lost to him. Still, Carney denies personal responsibility for his predicament, blaming Alma and Freddie instead. Miami Joe’s assertion that New Yorkers are uppity suggests he too has experienced the city’s classism.
Themes
Miami Joe makes Carney call the bar Pepper frequents and lure him to the furniture store. Joe plans to rob him and kill Freddie too, Carney knows. Suddenly, Pepper emerges from the basement and shoots Miami Joe, killing him. He has been watching the store. Pepper leaves, telling Carney to dump the body—he does, surprised at how easy it is. In the days that follow, Carney catches up with Freddie and returns to work. Elizabeth doesn’t mention his fight with Alma. A month later, Carney receives a package from Pepper. It contains Lucinda Cole’s ruby necklace—the one Montague was looking for. Carney waits a year before selling it to Buxbaum, thinking he is a bit crooked after all.
Again, Miami Joe’s plan to double-cross his accomplices implies a lack of morality. In contrast, Pepper saves Carney (and Freddie, by extension) from Miami Joe and even sends Carney the necklace as a cut, demonstrating personal integrity. (Admittedly, Pepper gives him the most dangerous piece of the haul, but for a hardened criminal, this action seems to approach kindness.) Despite all denials of his criminal inclinations, Carney gets rid of Joe’s body and sells the necklace for a profit, signaling that he has finally accepted the crooked part of himself.
Themes
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