SOURCE: "The Use of the Doppelganger or Double in Chester Himes' Lonely Crusade," in CLA Journal, Vol. XX, No. 4, June, 1977, pp. 448-58.

In the following essay, Reckley analyzes Himes's use of doubles in his Lonely Crusade by looking at three of his black male characters, Lee Gordon, Lester McKinley, and Luther McGregor.

Chester Himes' second novel Lonely Crusade has not received the critical attention it merits. Critics have praised it for its protest and its naturalistic tendencies, or damned it for its Communistic implications, but so far no one has bothered to study the novel to ascertain how skillfully Himes uses doubles throughout the novel to propound his philosophy of the emasculation of the Black male. This paper, therefore, will be concerned with analyzing three of Himes' Black male characters: Lee Gordon, Lester McKinley and Luther McGregor, so that we can better understand Himes' use of doubles.

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