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Part 3, Chapter 1
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 next day, Carney plans to travel to Union Square to check out Bella Fontaine’s new furniture line. He first encountered Bella Fontaine at a 1956 convention, though the racist salesman wouldn’t give him a catalog. Carney finds the company’s tagline inspiring: “furniture for a whole new way of life.” Now, he has plans to meet with Bella Fontaine’s regional sales rep, Mr. Gibbs. Carney is walking when a man grabs his arm and twists it behind his back. Assuming he is being robbed, Carney wonders if he has failed to maintain a low profile. But the man leads him into a Cadillac, driven by Delroy—one of Chink Montague’s men. Delroy tells Carney “the boss” wants to see him.
While Bella Fontaine is becoming more progressive in that they are now willing to meet with Carney, his willingness to deal with people who once looked down on him shows that he still prioritizes business and social mobility over pride, forcing him to forgive such slights. While he is less naïve than in prior sections, Carney is still somewhat idealistic, as evidenced by his admiration for the company slogan and its reference to a better life. The reappearance of Chink Montague and his gangsters suggests that Carney, despite his increasingly respectable appearance, still has at least one foot in the crooked world.
Themes
Carney has done business with Chink Montague for five years, ever since the Theresa heist put him on the mobster’s radar. In some sense, Delroy is Carney’s colleague, visiting weekly for Montague’s protection fee. Delroy even purchases furniture from Carney, who gives him a discount. Now, the car pulls up to a laundromat. Delroy and the other man—Chet the Vet—lead Carney into a backroom where Montague is waiting. He has softened somewhat, though he is still fearsome. Montague reminds Carney of their initial meeting, when he was looking for Lucinda Cole’s necklace, which he never found. Still, he is grateful the theft led to his association with Carney and their mutually beneficial arrangement.
Carney’s longstanding partnership with Chink Montague is like any other business relationship, such as the one he hopes to establish with Mr. Gibbs. That Delroy patronizes Carney’s furniture store adds nuance and mundanity to the gangster’s character. In mentioning Lucinda Cole’s lost necklace, Chink Montague unintentionally foreshadows Carney’s coming trouble and reminds the reader that Carney has been deceiving the boss for many years.
Themes
Montague’s patronage paid for Carney’s store expansion and the new apartment, but he has only met the man once before. Their business relationship is the reason Carney has been treated so politely. Montague is looking for Freddie. Carney claims he hasn’t seen his cousin in months but checked in with Aunt Millie after the riots. Montague states that the protesters should have kept going and torched all of downtown. When Carney says this would be bad for his business, Montague makes a vague comment about “playing the wrong thing this whole time.” On the way out, Delroy pulls Carney aside and tells him that Montague’s apparent calm is bad news, and advises him to find Freddie.
That Carney owes so much of his wealth to Montague is an example of how crime can be a means of social mobility. Montague’s take on the riots suggests he is sympathetic to the anger than spawned them. His remark about playing the wrong thing suggests that he, like White supremacist society, knows how to pacify and profit off of enraged people while failing to give into their demands for justice. This confrontation makes it likely that Montague is once again after something that Freddie stole.
Themes
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Carney waits for Delroy to drive away before heading toward Broadway to Freddie’s most recent address. On the way, he passes an old movie theater where he and his cousin used to watch films all day. Now, Carney feels he has fulfilled his family obligation and wants Freddie’s briefcase (which he hasn’t opened) gone. Though Freddie is technically the reason Carney went into business with Montague, now he is the reason Carney is in trouble with the mobster. A man bumps into Carney on the way into Freddie’s building, the Eagleton. The door to Freddie’s apartment is open and detritus litters the bed and floor. In the bathroom, Carney finds Linus dead of an overdose in the bathtub.
Carney continues to feel conflicted about helping Freddie—he appreciates the bond they’ve shared since childhood, but resents how Freddie tends to dump trouble on his doorstep. His struggle exhibits a challenge all communities face: whether people can remain loyal to one another during difficult times as well as good. Finding a White man’s body immediately puts Carney in danger as a Black man, as systemic racism will cause him to be viewed as a suspect rather than a witness.
Themes
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