In the Heat of the Night

The final two chapters resolve the murder investigation, complete the main characters’ story arcs, and finalize the novel’s themes. Multiple situations test Sam’s resolve to stand against racism. At the café, Sam not only stands up for Virgil, but he also repeats his earlier point that Virgil is smarter than a lot of white men he’s met. Sam was skeptical of Virgil before, but at the story’s conclusion, he’s come to see the man’s excellence, and he proudly defends his colleague. Sam has expanded his worldview, humanizing people of different races. Sam finishes the story as a hero, with a strong chance of being promoted to sergeant, showing that Sam’s character arc—from racism to tolerance—is admirable and rewarding. Bill changes drastically as well. He shakes Virgil’s hand, credits his professional excellence, and carries Virgil’s bags. Most significantly, he encourages Virgil to sit at the bench reserved for white people. As one of the leading authority figures of Wells, Bill has the power to start breaking down the segregated structure of the city, showing that individuals can transform systemic racist structures. Bill also becomes more team-oriented, crediting Sam and Virgil for Ralph’s arrest. Earlier, Bill saw Virgil as a useful scapegoat and Sam as an incompetent subordinate, but now Bill changes how he treats others. Though Bill ends the story with his job safe and his professional relationships improved, he isn’t an entirely different person. He doesn’t shake Virgil’s hand a second time, and he doesn’t wait with Virgil for the train. His hesitation shows that erasing one’s prejudices is a long and difficult task.

Themes of class and institutional racism recur in the final chapters. Economic standing serves as an important motivator. Ralph kills Enrico because he is driven by a desperate need for money: “All he thought he needed to escape from his predicament was money, but he had no savings and his salary was totally inadequate. He was cornered, or thought he was” (154). Ralph’s job doesn’t provide him with the resources to pay for an abortion, so he resorts to violence. His story is a cautionary example that people in low-paying jobs with no social services might resort to violence out of desperation. Virgil suffers from other flaws in the town’s structure. Because racists run Wells, Virgil can’t get justice after two white men attack him. Instead, he’s told not to press charges: “Watkins, a councilman, got them off. He told me if I knew what was good for me I’d shut up about it, otherwise I would be booked for breaking the man’s arm” while defending himself (139).

Established symbols and motifs enhance the drama of the story’s final chapters. The climax takes place at night. The night comes to represent a time of mystery, but also a time of revelation and the darkness makes the officers’ search cinematic: “In a little while the daylight would come and when it did the mystery of the night would evaporate. Somehow it seemed to Sam that it would be too late then. The murder had struck by night; it would have to be at night, or so it seemed, that he would be captured” (143). A murky gloom heightens the darkness even more, giving the mystery of the night another physical manifestation, hovering over the characters, and giving the case more weight: “‘There’s an odd feeling to this time of night,’ Gillespie said. Sam nodded his agreement. ‘I always notice it,’ he answered. ‘It’s a miasma in the air’” (141). Heat continues to be relentless, bleaching life out of the town as Ralph’s capture has not yet dispelled the tension around Virgil: “It was a dirty, hot dawn which streaked the sky. What colors there were were smoky and the beauty that often comes with the first light of day was not there” (145). The lingering heat indicates that although the case has been solved, there are still more problems to address in Wells. Only at the very end, when Bill tells Virgil to sit on the whites-only bench, does Virgil remark that it’s a pleasant evening. Once the racist barriers in the South break down, the heat wanes.