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Part 2, Chapter 4
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
The narrative briefly switches to the perspective of Miss Laura, a sex worker employed by the pimp Cheap Brucie, who lives in the brownstones across from the Big Apple Diner. Carney begins visiting her, and she reflects that they are both “in sales.” She knows what this man is worth. Back in Carney’s perspective, he approaches Miss Laura—the woman Wilfred Duke has been visiting every week—for the first time. Miss Laura seems young but tired. She leads him to her front room, which contains lush furnishings, including a four-poster bed. Carney has prepared a pitch to convince Miss Laura to betray Duke’s confidence, but she needs little convincing.
Miss Laura’s relationship with Cheap Brucie suggests that she is involved with the deal Carney proposed to Munson, though the plan’s details are not yet clear. Miss Laura perceives that she and Carney are alike in their professions, supporting the idea that many crimes—like sex work—are just jobs. Duke’s visits to Miss Laura are both discreet and scandalous, and Carney views them as an opportunity to enact his revenge. To do so, he plans to use his sales expertise to convince Miss Laura to betray her client—that she is ready and willing to do so suggests that she also dislikes Duke.
Themes
Miss Laura remarks that Carney laid out his plan like he was “selling [her] a couch.” He offers her $500 to betray Duke. She insists on knowing his name if they’re going to be in business together, then they strike a deal. Some months later, Carney wakes in the middle of the night and leaves home to meet Miss Laura at her request. The two have met a few more times since their first encounter. Miss Laura has purple flowers in her apartment that remind her of Wilmington, where she is from. Carney pays her $20 to continue their conversation, which seems acceptable.
Although Carney keeps his lives intentionally separate, he uses the same sales tactics in both. By revealing the plot to betray Duke gradually and out of order, the novel keeps the reader in suspense. It is worth noting that Carney invests quite a lot of money in his revenge plot—even more than he paid Duke—indicating he has an uncontrollable urge to punish his betrayer. Unlike Carney’s other crooked dealings, this one is not undertaken for the purposes of socioeconomic advancement but for malicious enjoyment.
Themes
Miss Laura tells Carney about leaving Wilmington to live in New York City like her glamorous Aunt Hazel. She stays with Hazel for six months, before starting work for Mam Lacey—the late owner of the bar and brothel Carney used to frequent. (This is the rundown place Pepper visited for information on Miami Joe in Part 1.) Miss Laura used to listen to everyone enjoying themselves downstairs while working upstairs. Carney is still waiting to hear back from Munson about their deal involving Biz Dixon and Cheap Brucie. Irritated, Miss Laura tells Carney how her aunt skipped town, forcing her into the sex trade. She threatens to tell Duke about Carney’s plot to undo him if he doesn’t deliver soon.
In her life story, Miss Laura tries to convey to Carney that she does not take kindly to being used, referencing the aunt who abandoned her and the glamorous city that betrayed her. From Carney’s assurance that the trade involving Dixon and Brucie is underway, the reader can surmise that Miss Laura wants her pimp out of the way for some reason.
Themes
