View a FREE sample

Chapter I and II

• In Chapter 1, the reader meets Jake.

• Jake is a black sailor on a ship with many Arab sailors, who are resented by the American sailors for not keeping clean.

• Jake was a longshoreman, but enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1917 to serve his country in the war against Germany. However, he discovers that he will be working in the supply depot instead of on the front lines, which upsets him.

• While on leave, Jake meets an English sailor and deserts the Army to go to London on the English sailor's boat.

• He lives with a white woman in London, but after the war is won racial tensions get to be too much, and he decides to return home to Harlem.
• In Chapter 2, Jake arrives in New York City. After storing his suitcase, he hits the streets of Harlem.

• In a cabaret, Jake meets...

(read more Chapter Abstracts)

This section contains 2,775 words (approx. 10 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample