“A Party Down at the Square”
The opening story tells of a lynching of a black man by the white residents of a small town through the eyes of its young white narrator. It is his first real glimpse into the psychotic side of racism even though he has been raised in atmosphere steeped in historical dehumanizing of blacks. It is not just a hanging form of lynching, however: the victim is to be burned alive. The metaphors available to such an inexperienced observer are limited and it shows, but so does the impact made upon his psyche by this outpouring organized malevolence:
“Every time I eat barbecue I’ll remember…His back was just like a barbecued hog.”
“Hymie’s Bull”
The bull in the title of this story is actually a metaphorical term rather literal. It applies to those sociopathic individuals charged with keeping transients from getting a free ride on a railroad that actually costs the railroad absolutely nothing.
“The know all the places to hit a guy to change a bone into jelly, and they seem to feel just the place to kick you to make your backbone feel like it’s going to fold up like the old cellophane drinking cups we used when we were kids. Once a bull hit me across the bridge of my nose and I felt like I was coming apart like a cigarette floating in a urinal.”
“A Coupla Scalped Indians”
In this story, the author opts for metaphor as a tool for setting the stage. The opening lines use figurative imagery to create a certain emotional resonance and create a tone against which the events which unfold will juxtaposed:
“They had a small, loud-playing band as as we moved through the trees, I could the notes of the horns bursting like bright metallic bubbles against the sky. It was a faraway and sparklike sound, shooting through the late afternoon quiet of the hill; very clear now and definitely music, band music.”
“Flying Home”
The story of “Flying Home” is all about hope for future generations of African-Americans. It is really a two-character story: a Tuskegee Airman and a sharecropper, representing the hopelessness of the past and the hope that one no matter how slowly it creeps, the future will be better. This sets up the central bird metaphor of the story:
“Maybe we are a bunch of buzzards feeding on a dead horse, but we can hope to be eagles, can’t we?”
“Mister Toussan”
This “plot” of this description is very simple: one young black boy tells the story of the Haitian Revolution to another black boy who at first rejects it as a lie. Beneath that, of course, is a portrait of an extended definition of white supremacy really encompasses. This is one of four stories featuring the recurring characters of Buster and Riley. When Buster begins to relate a story his teacher taught him about how an African guy whipped Napoleon, Riley’s first response is to accuse him of lying. As Buster proceeds to relate the story in detail, however, Riley gets caught up in the excitement. The whole short narrative leads inexorably to its point when Buster inform Riley that his teacher tells all sorts of great stories, before adding: “She’s a good old teacher—but you know thing?...Ain’t none of them stories in the books. Wonder why?”
And thus does the story of Toussaint leading the Haitian Revolution become a metaphor for a more insidious aspect of white supremacy: the control the educational systems gives the dominant class over the minority cultures.
