56 pages • 1 hour read
Claude BrownManchild in the Promised Land
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1965A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 11-14Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary
Claude learns that Pimp is becoming increasingly rebellious, and in an attempt to exert a positive influence, lets Pimp spend time at his Greenwich Village apartment. However, Pimp starts visiting him too often and wants to become part of Claude’s hip jazz circle, which Claude knows his brother is not ready for. At one point, he tricks Pimp into going home by pretending he only has one blanket on a very cold night.
Claude visits his mother to talk about Pimp and emphasizes to her that Pimp is struggling with city problems, which she does not understand because she is from the country. He notices that the lining on the windows needs to be replaced and helps his mother, who is afraid of causing a problem with the landlord or with any white people, fill out a complaint form at the housing commission office.
Claude realizes that Pimp’s problems are rooted in their parents’ traditional Southern culture, particularly their mother’s belief in curses. Moreover, their grandfather is now living with their parents and, telling them stories about his terrible experiences as a Black man in the Deep South. Claude is increasingly disgusted with his parents’ old-fashioned approach to skin color—what he calls being “color struck” (264)—and their obsession with playing the numbers.
His parents, Claude believes, have never truly adjusted to city life; additionally, they demand that their children be good but cannot explain exactly what that means or what their expectations are. They both actively discourage their children from aspiring to anything beyond a minimum-wage job; for example, when Pimp declares that he wants to be an Air Force pilot, their mother tells him not to want something that isn’t good for him. Ultimately, Claude knows that the generational and experiential divide is so big that his parents will never be able to understand him and Pimp. He even tries to explain that street crime and drug use are ways of rebelling against the “down-home nonsense” his mother has brought from the South, but she dismisses this (270).
Knowing that Pimp will be old enough to get a job soon, Claude wonders if Pimp has heard other boys talk about “Mr. Goldberg,” an antisemitic reference to Jewish bosses who employ Black workers and allegedly control a great deal of wealth (272). When he hears this term for the first time from Reno, Claude tells him not to use it in front of children, but Reno says there are no children in Harlem. Other boys and young men in the neighborhood feel the same way and prefer to make a living through criminal activity rather than work for a Jewish boss. He describes a conversation with a coworker in the garment district, George Baxter, whose Jewish boss employed an elderly Black woman as a cleaner and referred to her as a “girl” (274).
Claude believes his parents’ generation—and bosses of all ethnicities and religions—are not ready for his generation’s ambition. He feels like a social misfit, wanting more than he is supposed to want, and compares his generation to the first generation of Africans who arrived in America. Becoming increasingly aware of relationships between marginalized groups, he feels ashamed about some things he has said to Jewish people and hopes that one day, Black communities and Jewish communities will be able to understand and support each other.
One day, Claude runs into an acquaintance named Jake Snipes, who works as a “pimp.” Jake offers him brown cocaine and invites him over to meet up with a sex worker. Claude decides to go, but they soon encounter a little boy walking a dog. The boy asks Claude what does now and says he wants to be just like Claude. Moved by this, Claude tells the boy not to be like him and to just keep walking his dog. He decides not to go with Jake, telling him that he has to go do something before another little boy with a dog asks him what he does.
Claude spends time with Turk, who is doing very well as a professional fighter. He sees Turk as proof that people can escape Harlem and build good lives for themselves. The two run into a Wiltwyck friend, Rickets, who recently served a three-year sentence in Sing Sing. Rickets tells Claude that all the inmates were asking about him and reveals that K.B. is one of them. Turk and Claude agree they are doing well only because of luck.
Chapter 12 Summary
A few nights later, Claude has a drink with Danny, who tells him that he saw Pimp at the home of a drug dealer. Claude becomes upset and initially denies his brother might be using, but he starts looking around the neighborhood for his brother. Claude finally finds Pimp in a bar and can immediately tell he is high on heroin. He approaches his brother angrily, but stops before he reaches him, caught in a different emotion that he cannot identify. Frozen, he stares at Pimp, the phrase “Absalom, Absalom,” running through his mind (288).
Chapter 13 Summary
Claude explains that Saturday nights are very important in most Black communities: Bars, hospitals, and police precincts are all busy then. He calls Saturday night “the night for daring deeds” (291). In Harlem, most of the people who participate in Saturday night shenanigans are older people who have brought these practices up from the South, but eventually the younger generations follow this pattern. On Saturday nights, all the hardworking people let loose—enabled by alcohol consumption—leading to a high number of arrests, injuries, and even deaths. Claude imagines that some people even hope they will die on a Saturday night, especially in marginalized communities where living standards are low and people feel little hope for the future. He offers as an example a local man named Big Bill, who, during Claude’s childhood, was always getting in fights and getting injured; Claude and his fellow Harlemites assumed Bill was trying to get killed, but Claude notes that he was never successful.
One Saturday night, Claude runs into his father at a bar. After an awkward interaction, he realizes that his father is there with a woman who is not his mother. His father introduces her as Ruth, and Claude can tell that Ruth and his father have been seeing each other for a long time and that they genuinely love each other. He asks Ruth if he has ever seen her around 145th Street, implying that he has seen her buying or using drugs, even though he knows he has not. When he returns to the bar after using the pay phone, Ruth and his father have left. Claude feels ashamed that he asked Ruth that and wishes he could apologize to both of them but knows he can never bring it up again.
On a Saturday night soon after that, Pimp falls asleep on the toilet with a needle in his arm, and although their mother thinks he is dead, their father will not let her call an ambulance. Instead, he kicks Pimp out of the house. Claude flashes back to the day he saw Pimp in the bar and realized he was using heroin. He bought Pimp a drink and confronted him. Pimp admitted to having used heroin for about four months but insisted it was not a problem. Claude warned him about all the things he could potentially lose to his addiction and offered to connect him to a local treatment organization. Pimp seemed receptive, but Claude could tell he was just trying to end the conversation. Back in the present, he decides he still wants to help Pimp if he can.
Claude’s mother calls him, scared that Pimp will take an intentional overdose, and asks Claude to find his brother. Claude searches for Pimp in all the places where people who use heroin hang out, but no one has seen him. Claude feels increasingly worried and frustrated, knowing that helping Pimp might involve giving him money to get high and feeling manipulated by his brother’s addictive behaviors. He goes back to his parents’ house, where his mother continues expressing fear that Pimp is dead. Claude knows she is trying to prepare herself for the worst possible outcome.
Chapter 14 Summary
Claude introduces the Black Muslims into the narrative, noting that as of 1955, this group has become more dominant in Harlem than the Coptic practitioners. He explains their use of the phrase “Buy Black,” a motto that encourages Black consumers to shop only at Black-owned stores (303). Claude finds his friends’ fixation with it childish and assumes it is the next iteration of Black Nationalism, destined to die out soon. One day, he sees Floyd Saks, a friend from Wiltwyck, at one of the large Muslim street-corner prayer meetings. Floyd, a talented painter, takes Claude to his studio and shows him his work, which features biblical characters depicted as Black. In a long dialogue, Claude doubles down on his skepticism about the Black Muslim movement, and Floyd explains that it is the only religion that recognizes the natural “superiority” of Black people. He tells Claude that Christianity is the worst thing to have ever happened to Black people and emphasizes the importance of the “Buy Black” policy. Ultimately, for Floyd and other Black Muslims, “freedom of the mind” (312)—which mirrors freedom from white oppression—is the most important goal.
Six months later, Claude runs into Bulldog, who became a Black Muslim in prison and has changed his name to Pashif. Bulldog tells him that Alley Bush, another friend, has also converted. Claude attends one of Alley Bush’s street-corner speeches and then the two go to a bar. Alley Bush, who has changed his name to Bashi, explains that the goal of the Black Muslim movement is to raise a Black army and start a revolution, part of which involves taking Harlem stores from Jewish business owners. Claude remains skeptical about all of this, and Bashi tells him that he is complacent about his own oppression. He insists that Claude, like all Black men, is full of anger, even if he does not realize it. Claude argues that his self-destructive childhood behavior was his version of a revolution, and it did not work; now, he wants to let go of his anger. Bashi is surprised at how much Claude has changed, but he predicts that Claude’s anger will eventually come out.
Claude notes the high number of Black people who have become Muslims after getting released from prison between 1955 and 1959. He also sees that they all share a feeling of insecurity and are uncertain about their place in the world. Despite his own skepticism, Claude believes the Muslim faith is often beneficial for people with addiction and sex workers, as they are marginalized groups who need support and community.
Claude hears about a riot at the United Nations around the time that Patrice Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo, is assassinated. His father tells him that Bashi, dressed in “royal Arabic attire,” had been leading a peaceful demonstration that eventually became the riot in question (319). Bashi returns to Harlem a local hero.
Black Muslims become increasingly powerful in Harlem, buying shops, starting newspapers, and gaining more converts. The police clearly fear and resent them, but because the Muslims are not committing any crimes, the police cannot do anything about them. Claude notes that part of their influence comes from the fact that they are actually in the streets with regular people, who can identify with them, but he believes that they could never become a dominant force in electoral politics because they could not get enough votes. Claude’s ultimate conclusion is that Black Muslims are a positive force because they indicate to white people that Black people are hurt, oppressed, and angry.
Chapters 11-14 Analysis
Pimp becomes a major character in this section, taking center stage as his life continues to fall apart. Claude connects many of his brother’s struggles to their parents’ mistakes, one of which is that they have never successfully adjusted to their urban life in the North. When he sees Pimp using heroin in the bar and thinks “Absalom, Absalom,” he is thinking of the biblical story of Absalom, a son of King David who was killed while rebelling against his father. This reference suggests that Pimp has been careless in his method of rebelling and might have already caused himself irrecoverable harm.
Claude’s encounter with the little boy and his dog has a significant impact on him; indeed, he mentions it toward the end of the novel, as he reflects on all the changes he has made. By saying to the boy, “I’m just lookin’ for a dog to walk. All my life I’ve been lookin’ for a dog to walk,” Claude is voicing his own deep sense of dissatisfaction with his life and admitting that, whether he realizes it or not, he is seeking out simple, everyday pleasures (278). His awareness that he does not want the little boy to be like him suggests that he is still not the person he wants to be and might even be embarrassed about the person he is.
Chapter 14 is focused almost solely on the arrival of Black Muslims in Harlem, a phenomenon about which Claude has complicated feelings. Although he concludes that the Black Muslims are a net good for the community, he also acknowledges their antisemitism and political inefficacy. He also does not find them personally inspiring. His personal feelings aside, he is clearly invested in embracing and fighting for the Black community in Harlem.
