Criminality

As might be guessed from its title, Crook Manifesto is deeply interested not only in the psychology behind criminality but also in its potential consequences on the individual and the community. On the one hand, Carney's decision to reenter the criminal underworld of Harlem offers him a degree of power and maneuverability that would likely be unavailable to him if he were to walk the straight and narrow path. That being said, Whitehead also slowly unravels the world that Carney builds for himself on the back of his criminal enterprise so as to examine the ways in which the short-term uplift offered by crime in underprivileged spaces comes at a long-term price.

The degree to which crime is something of a saving grace in the lives of the residents of Harlem is made clear enough in the opening chapters, as Carney is able to get the...