Chapter 12 Summary

After leaving the jail, Grant thinks of how he can lie convincingly to Miss Emma. He goes to the Rainbow Club to think. At the club, Grant notices two men discussing baseball and Jackie Robinson with Joe Claiborne. He sees the pride they take in the accomplishments of athletes like Robinson and Joe Louis, and remembers how the African American community was depressed when Louis lost a fight to a German fighter named Schmeling.

Grant remembers an Irishman, who visited his university to lecture on Yeats, Joyce and O'Casey - authors Grant had never heard of until then. The Irish lecturer told the students how the Irish took great pride in the accomplishments of such authors as Parnell and Joyce. He also discusses Joyce's book, Dubliners, and a story in the book called "Ivy Day in the Committee Room," as universal tales. A...