Harlem
The book opens with a metaphorical map of Fifth Avenue as it spreads across the distance of New York from Central Park into Harlem. Harlem is exposed as two cities in one with imagery that submits to the reality that proud streets do exist there, but that, likewise, elements exist there that take its society far outside the city. It sounds almost like the voiceover of an old movie:
“Fifth Avenue’s shame lies in having poked it head out into the dark kingdom’s backwoods. A city jungle this, if ever there was one, peopled largely by untamed creatures that live and die for the moment only. According, here strides melodrama, naked and unashamed.”
Show, Don’t Tell
Imagery is essential to successfully carrying out the time-honored advice given to writers of fiction: show, don’t tell. This means showing the effects of how a character is feeling or behaving rather than simply telling the reader what emotion is taking place within them. An excellent example is that which is given an extra layer of “showing” by having the behavior seen through the perspective of another character:
“Linda saw the change come over his face; saw the brows contract, the eyes gleam, the jaws tighten, the lips set, saw his body go taut like a rope under tension and the bronze skin lose its life and turn dirty copper.”
That right here is a textbook demonstration of what “show, don’t tell” means. Of course, budding writers should also learn that there are plenty of occasions when the simple, stripped-down terseness of telling is more effective than the longer process required for showing.
The Walls
The title is explained through imagery as well. The walls are highly metaphorical and more than a little complex. Nevertheless, the imagery is fairly straightforward and succeeds in conveying the general idea of what the metaphorical title is going for:
“Do you know what that blank wall is? It is the self-illusion which circumstance has thrown around a man’s own self. And so he thinks himself a giant when in reality he is a child, or considers himself a weakling when truly he is strong, or more often judges himself the one or the other when he is actually both…A man may think he is black when he is white; boast that he is evil and merciless and hard when all this is but a crust, shielding and hiding a spirit that is kindly, compassionate, and gentle.”
Miss Agatha Cramp
Miss Agatha Cramp is the portrait of prejudice and racism, but it is not the kind of prejudice and racism that is born from sheer hatred or willed desire to misunderstand. In the common vernacular, her form of racial basis is what it is: an expression simply of a manner of living:
“Though she had never known Armenian or Japanese, she had thought somewhat about them.; though they had never approached her person, they had penetrated her intellect a little. But Negroes she had always accepted with horses, mules and motors, and though they had brushed her shoulder, they had never actually entered her head.”
